It's quite different from my perspective

Other benefits of physical is the extras. The witcher 3 came with a useful map and some other goodies.
As I already said, easier to keep the M-rated games out of reach of my kids.
It feels a lot nicer to put a new game in the machine than to wait for a download. With a digital library I just keep looking at what else is there, hence my Steam library is mostly unplayed. Having to get up to change games has its benefits! (I have the same problem with Netflix. Stick in a blu-ray and I watch it all the way, watch of Netflix and I'll be browsing for something better 20 minutes in)

The biggest reason is still trust. Having a physical copy of the game guarantees ownership. Digital I'm not so sure. It's also easier to keep a physcial library. Steam is nice, yet I also have games on Origin, GoG and a bunch direct from developers, leaving me with a bunch of accounts and passwords to keep track of. I'm kinda over digital, it got too messy for my liking.

I never buy digital unless it is the only option and no argument is going to change that

Physical all the way, even if digital is cheaper. Coming from a mostly pirated ps2 games era, having these original physical copies of my games make me feel empowered for some reason and I get to brag about my collection now. Also my friends and I usually borrow each other games or buy some of them together.

They can't. They can make it so that you cannot download the game, but if it's on your harddrive, it's not going anywhere.

I was HUGE on only buying a physical copy of the game for the same reasons that people posted in this thread. However, I prefer getting a digital copy of the game if my friend wants to play the game as well. Here's why:

I have since liked buying digital games because playstation offers you to share your digital game library with one other user. Example: My friend and I both wanted to play Payday 2 right when it came out, so we bought the game digitally. That means that I do not own Payday 2, but rather own the rights to download a copy of the game. I cannot resell it, but I can loan it to another friend. How? I just simply go online and type in that I no longer want to share games with my friend...and just put in the user ID of my other friend.

But then you say that I cannot sell my game. Well I feel that the money that I saved by splitting the cost with my friend more than justifies the resale value that I would get at my local Gamestop.

Physical any day, gaming is also about collecting, games have sentimental value and memories attached to them. Digital doesn't count as a collection, it has to be something concrete, something I can hold in my hands.

On a sidenote: I don't really get those guys that speed through games and resell them as quickly as possible, this is not about money this is about passion!

Replies bolded. Trust i see your points but I still believe physical should always be an option :D

It depends on the game. I wanted to experience The order 1886, enjoyed it, but was not passionate enough about it to keep it on the shelf. Thus it was a nice detuctable towards Bloodborne, which can stay on the shelf. I also bought the Journey collection although I already had all the digital versions. Physical gives you the choice to end up with a collection of awesome games, a digital library quickly becomes a mess :/

Ironically the digital version of Journey gives me access to a free upgrade to the remaster, while the physcial version does not. The physical version has the soundtracks though. Can't have too many versions of the best, I've got 2 DVD versions of Monoke and 2 blu-ray versions lol.

When my ps3 broke I had to redownload all the psn games, it sucked. Apart from having to split it over 2 months thanks to my isp I also could not find everything. That was just the digital only titles. Now with games getting to 50GB I would have to split it over a year after a hdd failure... It's already the case with Steam, check internet usage, pick and choose what game to download on Steam. So even if I wanted to go all digital it would be a severly limiting move.

I'll keep collecting physical versions of the stuff I love, however I'll admit one disadvantage of physical is my kids getting the cases all sticky...

- There will probably never be a direct solution to reselling games, but much like downloaded music, digital gaming will get to a point where everyone just holds a collection of all the games they own. The culture will remove the percieved desire to need to sell games. Again, Steam has already achieved this. As for lending, that already exists. You can already share digital games with friends on XBO with family sharing. 

- I'm all digital now. Things get price reductions and sales all the time. I'm 100% talking about consoles and handhelds. Though to be fair, I'm specifically talking about the Wii U and 3DS.

- ...Yes. That's the whole purpose behind that. That's like saying "do you really expect the your emails to be saved once you get a replacement laptop?" And again, you'd be saving the files to a harddrive, not just the cloud. And in a digital future, your digital purchases would just transfer over to the newer hardware. There would be no need to keep your XBO/PS4.

- No, there really aren't. Only a small minority buy collectors editions. I didn't even know about the Halo thing. Which game. Was it resolved?

- HDD space is already massive as it is while being affordable now. By the time there are 50GB games, 2TB HDDs will be dirt cheap and the norm.

- But we do know now that it's not an issue. Not a fair point to make.

Lastly, I'm sure there will be niche platforms for physical media once digital is in full swing, but by that I mean like the NX and PS Now will be all digital while maybe the NextBox will still have a disk drive as an option. But don't expect an ecosystem where every console gives the option. More realistically, you'll have to chose the console brand based off if it's all digital or only mostly digital.

It bothers me that people want a clog of video games boxes that haven't been touched in years. Sure there's a certain charm in seeing a collection of game, but fact is that I doubt most people actively use it and stuff. Personally I have a huge collection of physical games, spanning across several generations and I know I won't touch them for the most part. I really don't need any more boxes laying around. I'm fine with them being pre-installed or having to download them. It's way more convenient, especially for consoles like Vita where I could from a long RPG at one go to a quick shoot-em-up on the subway.