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how do you feel about an all digital console?

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if you haven't heard, there's going to be an all-digital edition of the PS5, and Microsoft responded in kind by planning on releasing their own all-digital next generation console: the Xbox Series S.

how do you feel about the idea/concept of an all-digital console? hypothetically, if you were going for either console, would you go for the disk version or the digital version?
 
I'd go for whichever would save me more money in the long run.
Sure not having a disc drive could shave $100 off the price tag, but when games are $80 each when they release, it matters little.
Especially when it comes to Microsoft and Sony who have their own digital store, which means they're you're only option without discs, they fully control what price you pay and that price will usually be Recommended Retail, aka the release price and it'll almost never go down. Sure they sometimes have sales but you can't rely on the game you want going on sale much.
Compared to buying a disc from a retail store who can charge what price they want, big department stores often go as far as $20 below recommended retail, even on release, just to beat out competition and because they can afford to do that. Plus once the game has been around for ages the price drops, sometimes even without needing to be on sale. I picked up a bunch of PS4 games when I got my console last year for like $20 each, while the PS4 store still charges $50 or more for each.
Ultimately, if I do decide to get a next gen console, I'd want a disc drive since retail store sales are far more reliable than the official price of Sony & Microsoft. And at the end of the day, I buy whatever is cheapest, which is almost always going to be PC short of any ports (which are always cheaper on the original system) or exclusives (for obvious reasons)
 
I would probably be buying a PS5 in the future and have been thinking about this. I’m probably gonna disk version with the PS5.
Hmm while Digital would save space in the house I mostly prefer to have Physical copies especially if I end up not liking the game and can then just resell it or send to Cex.Also I find physical games are normally cheaper.
Plus I just love having the physical copy on my shelf.
 
All-digital consoles are great for saving physical space so long as they don't become the only version. I'm more interested in the regular PS5 despite the higher price since I like the ability to return or sell a game. You can't refund or return a digital game you disliked, let alone resell it to regain some of the money spent. Not to mention physical copies tend to be cheaper most of the time.
 
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It would be a big problem, unless there was something to alleviate the crazy-large download sizes. Not everywhere can internet speeds handle downloading modern games with a 50+ GB size - let alone a 5th of that.

With physical copies, people don't need to worry about such that - And you actually 'own' a game copy to resell if you dislike it.
 
It didn’t work for the psp go because it was too early tech wise

It didn’t work for stadia because it was tied to streaming

It didn’t work for the xbox one s all digital because of poor marketing

Maybe PS5 is the one?
 
A digital-only console would be a blessing and a curse for me: On one hand, digital copies are way cheaper here than physical ones (even used copies are more expensive!), but on the other hand, my internet is crappy to the point I don't think I will be able to download anything big anytime soon... at least not without my father screaming in my ear.
 
It's a pretty decent idea from a business perspective, but from a consumer perspective it really doesn't seem like a great idea, especially in the long-term. Mainly because it makes you 100% reliant on the company for your game access. From a business perspective this is great, because it means that you have a stranglehold on your customers where you are getting all of the money from every sale without anything going to a retailer, and most importantly there is no such thing as a pre-owned digital game. As a consumer, pre-owned games are great. With some patience and a little luck you can spend 25 dollars to score a game the company was trying to sell you for 80. The company, naturally, hates this because they don't even see any of those 25 dollars because pre-owned games are a store thing, so any environment where you're physically incapable of doing this is a plus for their bottom line.
The other reason is the long-term availability of these games. If you got into stores you can still easily find a reasonable number of PS3 games banging around, and with a bit of effort online you can find PS2 and even PS1 games people are selling. This situation cannot exist in the long-term for an all-digital console. Sure, you can still buy digital games on the PS3 for now, but how long do you really expect this to last with the PS5 rapidly approaching? Every time an older, digital-only console has its servers go down, that's who knows how many games lost to the aether, unable to be obtained by a new person until the almighty corporation deigns to remake or rerelease it.

So yeah, a good idea for the corporation, but not beneficial at all for the consumer.
 
I like having physical games for the same reason as I like having physical DVDs. If it's physical, it's mine, I own it. With a digital game, it's only a matter of time before the company decides that actually, I didn't buy the game at all, I merely rented it. Thus from there it's only a matter of time before companies start using this as a method of trying to get me to play they games they want me to play, along with forced nostalgia and manufactured hype.
 
@Lone_Garurumon

You can really get used games for $25? Man, the people in my country are really cutthroat... Unless it's something nobody actually wants, it's pretty hard to find a game at that price here.
Absolutely. I got my copy of Dragonball FighterZ for around that price. I was actually super surprised when I read the fact that you could buy digital in your country for cheaper than a pre-owned physical, which just seems crazy to me.
 
Absolutely. I got my copy of Dragonball FighterZ for around that price. I was actually super surprised when I read the fact that you could buy digital in your country for cheaper than a pre-owned physical, which just seems crazy to me.
Believe me, it's that bad. Ultra Street Fighter IV with all the DLC for PC is cheaper than a copy of that game for PS3 without the DLC.
 
I used to be really against digital copies without physical copies, but I now buy almost every game digitally. The reason being I can't drive, so having an on-demand version I can download is really best for my circumstances. "You don't own it". Yes, that used to be my view, but after physical copies getting damaged through various means I learned that digital copies are just better. When I get a new PC, there's no need to locate a bunch of discs and hope they still work, instead I just open up Steam or another service I have a game from and download. To me, that's the most important aspect of ownership - having it available to download when something goes wrong with your old computer or disc.

I wouldn't want a console without the option for physical, though. Sometimes a physical copy will go on sale for cheaper than the digital copies and I want to pick it up for that reduced price. Usually it's digital copies that go on sale, though.
 
All digital? As in, every game will be available for download?

That would be so amazing. If there's no region lock on what you can purchase and download, it would save a lot of time and money, especially if where you live doesn't import/localize the games you want.
 
Considering my PC already acts as a digital only console (it's been nearly ten years since I last bought a PC game physically, and I only did that as a collector's item (launch edition of the Star Wars MMO), I'm not exactly against it. And if it wasn't for my habit of buying collectors editions of certain franchise launches, I'd probably be totally good with owning an all digital console.

For me, the lack of needing to carry physical games around (as well as needing storage space for them) has been a huge blessing.
 
That would be so amazing. If there's no region lock on what you can purchase and download, it would save a lot of time and money, especially if where you live doesn't import/localize the games you want.
The company (Sony/Microsoft) can still limit what games it can show you though, they control everything digital. You might be able to trick your console into thinking it's in Japan to get Japanese games but it could even be hardlocked to only accept it from a Japanese console.
 
The company (Sony/Microsoft) can still limit what games it can show you though, they control everything digital. You might be able to trick your console into thinking it's in Japan to get Japanese games but it could even be hardlocked to only accept it from a Japanese console.
If region lock is a thing then it is up to the player to decide whether to buy a Japanese console or not.
 
I think both digital and physical items have their own advantages and disadvantages.

The biggest advantage for digital in my opinion is they don't take up a lot of space. I have about 200 physical games, and even that is a lot to manage, not to mention the consoles, controllers, and other equipment that goes along with them. Digital items are also far more consistently priced and easy to obtain. I'm not ashamed of buying some pricey games like Suikoden II and Rondo of Blood digitally.

But as others have mentioned, digital games are easier to lose if you lose your console, PC or the license. Especially for console digital games. Just this month Sony's license servers crapped out and a lot of people lost digital games, dlc, and transaction history.

The other thing with physical games if half of them require patches to even run properly these days. So you're still reliant on some form of digital service to even play a physical game.
 
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