Ok, I keep on seeing a lot of people going WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! agains the XBox One reversal in policies and saying how much they regret that an all digital era is not yet upon us.

Why?

I'm trying to see the advantage of having all my purchases on a company's server and I really can't see it. I'm sure a lot of people think differently and I'd be curious to see their point of view.

And if someone tells me it's a hassle to get up and change the disc then sorry, I can't take you seriously as it sounds to me like you're either too lazy to move two feet to the gaming console, or have such a short attention span that you need to constalty change the game you're playing.

I want digital content on my terms, if a retail game is good enough i will buy the DLC. I downloaded Luigi U last night, but there is an option to buy a physical copy instead. Also its nice to have physical copies of games if you are an avid game collector.

The convenience of having all of your games accessible at the click of a button anywhere you go, opportunities for lower prices (although MS has a LOT to prove here; XBLA/Games on Demand has a long way to go to rival even PSN, let alone Steam), the ability for niche games to be localized or even get released on consoles at all... there's a not inconsiderable upside to digital.

It's just arguably outweighed by the downside, at least for now.

1. Its annoying to change, store, keep track of disks especially when your library grows and you live in a small condo
2. Your entire library saved digitally meaning you have no worries of loss, theft, damage for your games
3. Loading/wait times are drastically reduced
4. No hassle background game updates for digital
many more reasons dealing with convenience

I have 100s of games for sega genesis, sega cd, saturn and dreamcast in storage rotting away. Going through the hassle of getting that shit out and setting it up is not going to happen. But I boot up my Steam Sega Genesis collection at least once per month.

Your desire to play games when everything is there at your fingertips increases 10X... I see buying physical as a complete waste at this point as I probably won't use it ever again after I finish the initial playthrough.

I can't agree with that last part as I just get generally bored faster when I play emulators where I have hundreds of games to chose from. But that's me.

Is there a particular reason why digital media and physical media can't coexist? Because every time I read comments, it sounds as if people believe they'll be forced to buy discs to play their games, whereas I haven't seen anything in particular from MS saying they would not offer every game as a digital download.

I for one can't stand the idea of not actually owning the game I play. I'm a selective collectioner and keep only the best games that come my way - hence why I have some rather rare games in my collection from years back...it's impossible right now to find a copy of Command and Conquer Renegade for example hehe-. I particularly enjoy owning a set of games / books rather than a list of them.

Would like to see more opinions.

3. full instal required for all x1 and ps4 games so null and void.

4. i already get no hassle background game updates on my ps3 disc based games so i don't know what you are talking about there

1 and 2 are the main benefits and worth it for me.  however i'll add:

3. not having to go to the store to purchase a game.  especially for smaller games where the download is only a couple minutes i love the immediacy of that.

Xbox 360 has full installs too and loading time is slowed down by the disk verification. The DVD drive on Xbox 360 spins quite frequently so I'm guessing the disk verification is performed quite frequently. There is no reason to believe next gen consoles won't work the same way. I doubt the verification will be done once and then you play the game off the hard drive 100%

In terms of background updates, you still have to play your game to get the update even if it installs in the background. Your digital library would be updated if you're watching football or playing a different game. Its something you really wouldn't even see or think about with digital where on Xbox 360 you get warnings from time to time "you must install this update before connecting to Xbox live". Dunno where PS3 is at in terms of updates but last time I checked it had them just like Xbox 360.

To me, it's the same as the difference between a box of CDs and iTunes.

I want all my music to be at the tip of my fingers and easily accessible wherever I go (and also without having to worry about carrying each CD with me!).

Simple.

When buying a game you can choose among every game every published on the platform instead of the limited section available at your local game store.