I do think they fear that. You may not need them for games, but your console will pass for the retail. And it's pretty easy for Walmart or Gamestop to screw one specific company: just send your console sto the back, give less space, tell the guys on the store to make people buy Y instead of X and so on.

If I had it my way, Physical all the way since I take good care of my discs so they don't scratch and shit and last a very long time but when Steam offers sales where a new game that came out a month ago goes 50%+ off or offers a shit ton of games for <$5, I really can't resist. Also, a lot of physical releases these days from various publishers seem to require a day 1 patch for them to work properly cause the lame developers always seem to ship an unfinished game so the physical releases are a bit eh for me if I can get a great deal on the digital version

I prefer digital these days since HDD's are pretty much cheap and with bigger space and faster internet I'm able to obtain as many games as I'd want, my only issue is DRM, for that I;d wish to be elss restricting at times but for now it;s not as bad as it used to be for me.

Retail only. I like collecting them! Also it's cheaper than buying them digital, atleast where I live.

Anything using Steam as DRM is worth around 10 euros at most, anything using almost any other form of DRM is worth around 5 euros at most. Typically the sums are about half the maximum, meaning Steam is around 5 euros at most, and others are around 2.50 euros at most. So far I haven't bought a single game that uses any other DRM besides Steam but I'm still waiting for some games' prices to come down (Far Cry 3, I'm looking at you). I would've bought quite a few games more if it weren't for DRM but alas, DRM reduces the value tremendously for me. It's almost impossible to completely avoid DRM these days but patience helps a lot.

As for consoles, I've bought some digital games on PS3 too. Not many, mind you, but in some rare occassions where it was cheap enough. I prefer physical on consoles, though, because there's pretty much nothing I can do if the download service goes down any time in the future. On PC I at least have (questionable) options to help me if need be.

To sum it up, I strongly prefer physical even with all its downsides and I'm very strongly opposed to all DRM (because it simply doesn't work), but I can buy games with DRM. DRM just reduces value tremendously and I wait a lot longer before buying. In my opinion, GOG.com is quite possibly the only download service worth using without a question, and that's counting ALL kinds of download services (that I know of). That's including games, music, movies, etc. I'd love to buy music digitally but I'm not happy with watermarking and I don't know of any watermark-free music download services that would have the artists I like in their selection.

Also, the poll is too black and white unless that was intentional.

These parts I do always wonder about, online-only is a type of restrictive DRM to make sure we are not thieves. That's all, especially in the case of Destiny, an online game that can be played without Live or PS+ unless you want PVP. Story and narrative is yours to play as you please, yet you have to be online?

Then the last question is worrying, what if they suddenly say 'We are turning off the servers', where does the game go? Is my purchase just a blu-ray disc I can use for anything but as a coaster? These aspects make me worry or annoyed at the industry as we, I, do not steal games. I feel insulted that they don't trust me.

This said, I have no issue with current DRM on consoles or PC, although I was unaware of issues with a title being on the shop then being removed. I'm sure if you complain enough you'll get the game anyway.  You've paid for a lifetime licence, the ts and cs need to be checked but I'm sure you have reason to ask for either your money back or for them to give you a copy.

That's what it looks like. We are treated like thiefs by default! And the ones that suffer with crazy DRMs are guys who bought their games legally. Let's see:

- Sim City: always online DRM crap that never worked.

- Lords of the Fallen: active DRM that encrypts the game. Uses a lot of CPU and you need to up the specs of your CPU to play it.

They punish the paying consumer! And in a lot of cases, the cracked version wil work better because they removed the DRM (Sim City is better cracked). How can we accept that the guy with the pirate copy will have a better experience? That's crazy.

Always online games are a problem. I don't care with the online mode being shutdown, as long as the game has a campaign or if it only has online modes (like Titanfall). But not being able to play Destiny or The Crew when they are clearly completely playable without other people just seems like a "pull the plug off when we want" type of decision.