I never sell my games! I keep on collecting them even though I have run out of places to put them! I am also saving all of my games for the future to share with my family (when I have one.)
I only buy video games if they come with the box. I prefer them to come with the box and instructions because I like to stare at the boxes of my favorite video games (every so often) and I like to read/look at the instruction booklets that come with the games. Also, I would never get around to reading the instructions for games if I am required to download them onto my system. I know that this may sound wierd to some of you but I also like to smell the instruction booklets of games that I buy (mainly new ones) because they smell good!
I will be extremely dissappointed if they decide to make all games downloadable in the future, because I don’t want to have to wait hours to download a game onto my system before I can play it! I love the awesome box art that you see on the front of boxes, it sometimes makes me want to buy that game (if the box art looks cool enough.) And besides, what is the point in collecting something that you love if you can’t physically see it sitting on your shelf begging you to play it?

I had a story typed but the damn edit feature caused me to lose 20 minutes worth of iPhone typing.

I’m a sad Panda.

I am a GAMER. through and through till the death of me. If I can only play a game I want through online then I better clear up some space cause its coming after a few paychecks. Ill never say goodbye to gaming no matter what happens. Games have shaped my being since as long as I can remember and Im young so that was only PS1 but Ive played games all the way back to the NES days like I just bought them. Nothing will ever beat that new game smell or the day one buys or ripping that plastic off the case like Im a 5 year old with a new toy. I understand where everyones coming from but Ive had to endure stupid insults, dumbasses, recession problems, fucking high school jocks, who tried to attack me even though Im a member of their same damn team and was good at the sport I played to the point where I started and got 9th grade D-MVP but Ive still held onto my love of gaming not the disk but the game itself. I get more exited for that new game starting screen than when the friday night lights come on. Im proud to say I’m a gamer and Ill be damned if loss of a little plastic box and metal disk stop me from doing what I love.

Strongly against Download-only.

I have a collection of over 100 games but I had about twice as much, however someone stole them from me.

Im not going to explain why, you can’t explain in words the joy of something you grew up with as a both collector and huge game fan.

But I can say that a huge collection on a hard drive looks soulless compared to a physical copy,

You are comparing a list of names with one picture as an artwork to a physical form of something you can look at, hold, something that has artworks all over it, looks good on a shelf and such.

It’s hard to put my thoughts into words as English isn’t actually my first language but the bottom line is that I very much enjoy getting actual physical copies (Man, nothing beats the smell of a new game <3) so, personally, I'm not too fond of DD.

I have a few games digital games on my PC but the thing is that somehow I'm not excited to play them for some reason, even though they are very solid games but somehow I just love getting physical copies as it gets me pumped up to play the game.

I wouldn't consider myself a collector but I never sell my games as I'll do my best to support the gaming industry and Japanese games are always a priority on my to-buy -list as I want to support the developers and of course I love the quality Japanese games and want them localized (just bought Catherine and it seriously kicks ass ^_^ just on my second playthrough as I'm writing this!).

So yeah, I love getting physical copies due to various reasons and do prefer them to digital ones.

I got tears in me eyes! Seriously! Most of these comments are exactly what I think! So much so, that I’m not sure what else I can add.

I also love to collect, I’d have one hell of a collection if it wasn’t for my years working at gamestop. I had all these employee bonuses and traded in way to many games. Something that I will always regret…

Moving on, I agree, for all the convince digital only can bring, it feels like something is missing. My copy of Batman Arkham City for PS3, feels more important than the digital version I have on steam.

Why? I think you all did a great job of explaining the why. Having the item physically in your hands means something, and yes, I love that new game smell.

For those of us that grew up on console games, this is what we know. As we slowly take steps into this digital age, not just the people posting here, but tons of people across the world are trying to hold on to that dearly.

This is my question when it comes to digital only games. I discuss this with my friends and colleagues often in real life.

Is the world ready for digital only games? And if so, is this the correct road to travel down?

Remember the PSP go? That more or less proved it, the majority of gamers are not ready to go digital only yet. I think Sony hypothesized that it would be fine, because of the popularity that games seem to have on mobile devices.

Obviously, games on those devices are digital only, but I’ve always been one to question just how serious people are about video games on mobile devices. The PSP go did a great job of answering a few of those questions, it was a total bust.

Not only were gamers not ready to jump into a digital only future, but it showed that most “gaming” that goes on via mobile devices is still very casual.

Which leads into another problem. How does AAA gaming fit into the digital market? Well, currently, it’s like trying to smash a full size frozen pizza into a mini toaster. The idea sounds good, but it doesn’t quite work as constructed.

The first problem is simple, size of the game. Some of these games now days can be 20 GB or more. Next problem, how many people have great internet? Ask that question to a large group of people, and I bet that maybe, 2 or 3 people raise their hands. And out of those 3, 2 of them probably just think they have great internet.

(In one of the more recent studies, the united states was #13 on the list of fastest internet.)

http://i.imgur.com/ijcHC.jpg – (Picture of pando networks findings.)

(A recent study by pando networks, who deals in lots of MMO/Free-To-Play games, showed that the world’s average download speed was around 580KBps.)

This really rings in a truth when it comes to internet in the USA. It really, really, sucks here. And, to top it off, all these money grubbing companies feel the need to enforce bandwidth caps and other limitations.

I thought we were going digital people? Did someone not get the frigging memo? Hello?

And just look at some of the findings from the pando network. Much of the world is not ready for digital only anything!

So, where the hell am I going with this? It’s all to prove a point. The world is not ready to move to digital only games. And, we don’t need to make this move! At least, not yet.

Some would argue with me… Look at Steam, look at these other digital only gaming experiences. Those work great! Sure, they do work. They work for a select group of people. You don’t hear about the negative to much, and it all works because consumers have those other choices.

Take the other choices away, and force everyone to use steam and digital websites. Then, people who normally don’t have problems, well guess what? They start having them. It really isn’t rocket science, and it’s more complicated than just upgrading the servers. (Which most can’t afford by the way.)

Imagine, you come home and a great new game is out that day. Tales of Xillia 2 for example. You got it on pre-order months ago, you decided to pre download and install the game. You are ready to go! You get home and guess what, the game has a 100mb patch that is mandatory to install. The problem is, like 8 other games also launched that day, so the network hosting all these patches and stuff is getting slammed. Some people, they will get to play that night, others will have to wait until next time.

Considering we have problems like this now, I hate to think of how bad it could get, once you start forcing everyone to do the same thing. Consumer choices are not only convenient, but in many ways a necessity!

Not sure why some of these game companies are trying to ignore some of these obvious problems. I didn’t even touch on some of the other problems. Like how going digital only will probably make piracy even worse.

Consumers getting annoyed and pirating a game is already happening now! I hate to repeat myself but, imagine if digital is the only choice. If they are currently fighting a war against piracy in the world of video games, going digital only is like choosing to fight the war on the pirates terms!

The pirates would love to see you make everything online, make it all digital. They thrive in the digital playground. it’s kinda like their natural habitat. The big companies would be at a great disadvantage.

These companies, EA for example, they see all these positives in the digital market, and without really thinking it through, are trying to go all digital. Sure, it reduces cost in some ways, it allows you to bring in the majority of the profit, you can more or less cut out the middle man.

I think that is kinda fools gold, just like I said above, it works so well now because consumers have other choices. They will find out rather quickly, digital only comes with its share of problems too.

I’ve only touched on a few part of the digital only discussion, and I’ve already typed up way tooooo longgg offf a possssttt. (Sorry!)

Thanks for reading! And feel free to reply. This is a topic that is very easy to discuss.