Physical copies or digital copies?

[Artina89]

For music I prefer digital media as I find it far more convenient, but for books and video games I overwhelmingly prefer physical media as there is nothing better than holding the book or the disc in your hands, and also there is no reason for me to have more than one book at any one time as I tend to read through them quickly enough anyway. I also really like DVD's, especially when I get special editions or boxed sets, same applies to video games as well.

 

[Zontar]

Although I prefer physical copies, because of Steam sales and GOG well over 95% of my games are digital due to years of slow but steady collection and impulse buys. I'll still nab a 5$ or less copy of a game at my local electronic store or indie game shop on occasion though.

 

[Guffe]

BOOKS: Dead-tree editions rule!

Hehe, hadn't even heard about that rule before ;P

I'm a bit surprised how many here are for the physical object and the collectors view of it. I thought that was an old way of thinking or something. Especially when this is a community with a lot of ties to the internet, a big part of us apparently still like the safe feeling of "seeing" what we own.

I love that feeling of going to a store, finding something I like, holding it for half a minute thinking 'Yes, I got it', taking it to the check-out, walking out of the store, and going home.

Also this, I love going into a store finding shelves with big signs saying "Special price" or "sale" o "bundles" or whatever
Only games/music/movies/books though, I'm no shopper

 

[mindfaQ]

Games: digital
Movies: either is fine
Music: physical (and digitalize later myself)
Books: digital

Digital is more convenient for games and books for me + I don't need any space in my room + quality is the same.
Movies I'd normally watch from a BD-player, but I won't really mind watching over PC either.
Getting music on a physical medium, since better quality, able to use it on the high-quality audio setup I have access to and I'll get the digital portion out of it anyway.

 

[L. Declis]

Video games:

For my PC, I get digital (Steam or GoG) unless Amazon is cheaper, then always physical. But few things are cheaper than Steam during it's sales.
For my PS3/PS4, physical all the way but I also get some PS+ stuff from the digital, so that's nice.

Movies: Physical, everytime.
Music: Digital, all the time. I mostly buy from iTunes nowadays. If it's one of the four bands who I have always liked (Maroon 5, Fallout Boy, Metallica, Aerosmith) then I buy physical because I do like to feel it in my hands.
Books: Physical. I just can't get over having a copy in my hands, and they look nice on my shelf.

 

[Fijiman]

For games, books, and movies I highly prefer to have the physical copy in my hands if at all possible. I don't really ever buy music so I don't really care.

 

[Worgen]

I always prefer physical, digital media is not worth as much as its often marketed for, to me. I have only paid full price for digital media like twice.

 

[sextus the crazy]

I love that feeling of going to a store, finding something I like, holding it for half a minute thinking 'Yes, I got it', taking it to the check-out, walking out of the store, and going home.

It's like a little adventure with loot and everything.

So yeah, physical. I like having my treasures displayed in my domicile.

Agreed. Although I do love internet shopping, there's nothing quite like going to a good book/game/music/whatever store, just on a whim, and finding something unexpected that you want.

OT: I buy physical for books and music (but I put all of it on iTunes anyway), but I mostly get digital for PC games, seeing how cheap steam/humble bundle/GoG/GMG etc. are. I generally like the feeling of owning something tangible though.

 

[Poetic Nova]

I prefer physical copy's even when a game is rare as hell (Killer 7 took me 5 freakin' years to find for the Gamecube, Ikaruga even longer I believe). However, if I can gett a digital copy for dirt cheap I can't say no to it and besides, some games won't be seeing a physical release but really are worth playing.

 

[MysticSlayer]

It's next to impossible to find physical copies of the music I listen to here in the America (or maybe it's just that I'm in the wrong cities), so I almost always go digital now. I used to use iTunes, but I've been switching over to Google Play since it supports a couple extra file types that I sometimes download music in and many times is even slightly cheaper.

As far as movies go, I don't really buy them. Normally I just watch whatever my family has and they always get physic copies.

And with games, I go with both methods. Both Steam and my 3DS have trouble connecting to my university's Internet, so going digital is really not possible most of the year unless I'm using GOG. With that said, if I can go digital, I generally do.

 

[Jessabi]

I much prefer physical copies! Like others have already said, I like to see my collection all stacked together in my bookcase or in the display unit next to my consoles. I have a few digital copies of games like Telltale's The Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us, and some PS1 games I can't get hold of now, but physical copies just feel...safer? I like being able to hold what I've bought in my hand. The only exception would be music, Spotify all the way for that.

 

[Rattler5150]

I do have a worry about digital copies of games,, I own several games through Steam, my concern is that Microsoft/google/some future company will buy steam, decide to kill the service then ill have no access to Skyrim, Saints row 3 ,4, and everything else I spent hard earned money on

 

[kasperbbs]

I went fully digital after i sold my console which had a shelf full of games. I kinda prefer it this way, no more broken CD covers or scratched CDs, if i was to store all of my PC games and movies in CD format then i would have to buy some extra furniture or rent another room..

 

[FPLOON]

Yeah... I'm still going physical for basically everything entertainment-related, unless it only comes in digital...

I don't know... There hasn't been anything that would ultimately convince me to go straight to digital for everything entertainment-related...

Let me know when the digital versions gives me the same amount of illusion of owning my copies as the physical versions...

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

Generally I prefer to have physical copies of things but I don't mind digital copies. With games, I like to have the discs and boxes but I have a nice collection of digital games, usually because of sales on Steam, GoG or PSN. With music I mostly only collect physical copies unless there's no other option open to me. I have a rather large CD collection and I like to make it bigger as often as possible. And books... well, I have a Kindle Fire but I mostly just use it as a tablet PC rather than a Kindle. I do have some digital books on it but mostly it was for books I needed for university that would otherwise be horrendously expensive to buy physical copies and in that case I was happy to save money and go digital.

 

[William Fleming]

I just prefer physical copies of everything I won just in case the service which I got a digital copy were to suddenly go down without the files on my hard drive (as paranoid as that may sound). The only digital copies where physical copies are available I really get are PC games on Steam just for the benefits of having my PC game library in one place.

I often outright refuse buy digital copies of music albums. Call me a pirate but entire albums can be found on Youtube as single songs or one long single video and with the power of Youtube Downloader (which has a built in converter to multiple file types including MP3), I just don't want to pay the same price of a digital album (or sometimes cheaper) for a physical CD). If I like what I hear, I will buy a physical copy of the album (which honestly I often find for roughly the same price). That's how I actually got into bands like Sonata Artica, Fit for Rivals and Tonight Alive etc.

/rant starts here

The one thing I hate most about digital prices is that the cost the same price (or more) which pisses me off (especially when companies refuse to sell physical copies in certain regions). WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO PAY MORE WHEN THE PRODUCTION COST HAS BEEN REDUCED BY NOT HAVING TO MANUFACTURE AND SHIP THE PHYSICAL COPIES OUT TO STORES AND ONLINE SHOP WAREHOUSES.

/rant over

 

[Guffe]

my concern is that Microsoft/google/some future company will buy steam, decide to kill the service then ill have no access to Skyrim, Saints row 3 ,4, and everything else I spent hard earned money on

I hadn't thought about this.
Even if it is highly unlikely, could this actually happen?
I mean someone buying up steam and just... close it? Without people having any access to it, isn't the library of games somehow still downloaded to your PC?

I have steam, but haven't used it in like 2 years and only have 2 games on it, so I'm not too into how the whole thing works.

 

[Madame_Lawliet]

With console I always go physical (ability to buy pre-owned, security of having it onhand if my console crashes... again).
With PC I always go digital (Deep discount Steam Sales, ability to just install the game on my hardrive and play whenever I want, and uninstall or re-download it whenever need be).
Also I too like the look of having all my games nicely arranged on my shelf, it just has a certain aesthetic quality that I just kinda... like.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

I like physical copies of pretty much everything I enjoy with the exception of porn. I guess it's just an old school mentality, but the idea of having a "collection" of digital media doesn't sit well with me. It's good for convenience, but I find it's not very satisfying to actually spend money on. I much prefer having something physical to show for it. Books are actually a necessity for me. Reading a story on a computer is lame as fuck to me. Nothing beats lying in bead and reading a book, 'ya know?