[DJSigma]

Pick the option that best applies to you.

If you pick either the love or hate option, post to say why you feel the way you do. For example, you may love the idea of being able to purchase and download a game from the comfort of your couch and never having to swap discs, or you may hate the idea of never being able to sell/trade in/rent games and want all of your games on disc.

I went for the middle option. I buy XBLA and indie games as downloads cos they range from a few pence up to about 8 or 9 quid and there's no disc option anyway. I would not want to buy all of my games as digital downloads, because I don't want to lose the right to sell them, trade them in, lend them to friends or rent them, so for the bigger games, gimme it on disc!

[dwhite]

Can't vote, as my preferred option is day and date digital release as the disc, then you have the option of what you want.

I like digital downloads but don't necessarily want 'the death of discs'

[DJSigma]

Originally Posted by dwhite

Can't vote, as my preferred option is day and date digital release as the disc, then you have the option of what you want.

If you had that though, which would you buy? Or would it depend on the game?

I did write out longer and clearer options for the poll, but the forum refused to accept them due to the length, so I had to cut them down.

[kscottsafc]

Went for the middle option but would certainly ditch discs if the prices were reasonably enough for games I always buy and are pointless to trade in like Fifa (not like the current Games on Demand prices)

[dwhite]

I would probably get the digital download, provided price was same but don't want to deny anybody else the option of the disc.

[David Mackenzie]

If the game is only available via download and I want it, I'll get that.

If it's available on disc, I'll get that instead.

[majnu]

Whatever is cheapest. I keep my games and hardly trade them in anyway. I make wise purchases.

[Sniper Ash6]

I picked the first option. It's what I do on the PC, it's quicker and more convenient so why not?

But I won't pay extra to do so, if it's cheaper to get the physical media and I get the same experience (e.g. it's a Steamworks title on the PC) then I'm ok with that.

[jason g]

disc for me.

[musicmate]

it's disc for me to, Personally if games went download only I think I would stop gaming tbh, I cant see the ISP's being to happy about 20 odd gig downloads for a game like Rage, Also for some it would take an age for to actually get the game, don't forget not everyone has superfast Broadband.

[bearman3784]

Digital all day long for me, as long as the games come down in price a bit

[Osirian08]

Download is convenient for XBLA titles but I don't want to face the prospect of 8GB+ downloads for all my future games....

Sorry, but I'll keep my physical discs (which I own!!) any day of the week

[SparkShot]

For it to be enbraced on the console market though though prices will need to drop a fair bit i would imagine.

Isn't ME3 something like £50 on the PSN store which is a complete rip-off?

Services like steam show DD does work though when done properly.

I can see the next consoles having diskless games but boxed activation codes for retail shop purchases instead.

As a pc gamer i must say i much prefer using services like steam and origin and try to avoid disk based games as much as possible.

Weather we like it or not Digital Distribution is the future (and present in pc gaming).

[Von Smittle]

Option B.

[l Dowson l]

Physical media for me. Still love having a CD as well!

[Jamezinho]

I'd love to go fully downloadable for all the obvious reasons, but my broadband speed really isn't up to it at the moment.

The loss of the physical package would be a shame from a sentimental standpoint, as I remember all the great game manuals, maps and extras that used to get boxed in with games.

[Lostsoul 301281]

I prefer to have something physical rather than something that's in a menu somewhere.
It makes it easier to find something to play when you don't know what to play.
It's better, IMO, to glance over at my shelf at the games sitting there than to go looking through menus and still being undecided.

It would be nice to have certain games as a digital download.
Like Mass Effect 2 and 3, as you wouldn't need to swap discs if the whole game was instantly playable from the HDD without a disc.
But it's still preferable to have something you can have in your hand and know that you actually own it rather than something you download or stream.

[DR Kronenbourg]

Physical media for me also, if it's in my hand I feel as I own it, I can cart it around the world with me without needing to be online!

[Sniper Ash6]

Originally Posted by DR Kronenbourg

Physical media for me also, if it's in my hand I feel as I own it, I can cart it around the world with me without needing to be online!

This is an interesting point, online digital distribution services do normally state in their terms and conditions that you do not own the games you have purchased as well as that your account being terminated for any reason means you lose said games/content.

[DJSigma]

Yeah, if your gamertag is banned, you forfeit all of the licenses for all of the content you've purchased. You don't own anything when you buy a game digitally other than a license to play it, which may only be temporary and may depend on you not breaking the rules of the service you used to purchase it.

Originally Posted by Sparkshot

Services like steam show DD does work though when done properly.

Many new games are cheaper on XBLA than they are on Steam. Also, many new games are available for the PC cheaper on disc than they are on Steam. Steam only has 2 advantages - great sales, and the fact that PC gaming is more of a ball ache anyway, so it makes things easier - the latter does not apply to console gaming though, because it already has the advantages of standardised hardware and a delivery system for game patches, so the only advantage of Steam is sales, but the disadvantages are giving up your rights to sell, lend out, trade in etc.

Outside of sales, Steam is ***** in fact. LA Noire on Steam is £19.99 plus £8.99 for the DLC bundle. You can get the complete edition for PC including the DLC for £15.99 on Amazon. So imagine that Amazon was not an option and you would be left with the choice of paying £28.98 or not having the game and DLC. The only reason people like Steam is because 6 months down the line LA Noire will probably be available for £3.99 in a week long sale, but most enthusiast gamers like to buy at least some games on release day.

And I'm not just cherry picking one game there. Look at any new release for a bigger title. Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition is £29.99 on Steam, but £19.98 on Amazon and you'll see that the same sort of thing is true for pretty much every big game. The difference with PC is that if you buy a game on disc, you still have to install it, download a bunch of large patches, it may require you to install Steam anyway, and it may even just be like a key to unlock the game on Steam which you then have to download. These are issues that consoles just do not have (the 360 anyway - the PS3 does have forced installs and large patches).

[Sniper Ash6]

Or, as many people do, buy a few games in the sale for the same price as just getting one of those games. Do it smartly and you can have more than enough to tide yourself over to the next sale and you get some great value for money.

[DJSigma]

Yeah, that's perfectly valid, but the problem with waiting is that you never know if or when a game you want will go on sale with digital distribution. Games on disc are pretty much guaranteed to drop in price on a sliding scale.

But still, there are plenty of gamers that want games on the release day and there has to be, or those sales would be a thing of the past. For people that buy games at release, digital distribution only offers higher prices and fewer rights to do what you want with your purchase.

[Noggleboggleman]

I'd be happy with digital download only once broadband speeds and limits improve massively in our area and it games become priced accordingly.

[Cloysterpeteuk]

I prefer to buy the physical disc, I wait till the game is only a tenna or so then buy it, this way I can play lots of games. I believe buying full retail games would be nothing like iTunes with sales all the time, sure maybe once a year a game may be half price but would I still be able to get games for dirt cheap?, I doubt it.

[tompop]

I carnt believe how much games are on xbox live, its a joke Madden is still £50. Anyway ill always pick physical media just cause I like special editions and a good collection. Looks good in your house to have a huge collection of games or dvds. Plus I have 60+ games, how many 360 hard-drives would I need 5 maybe, bigger headache to remember which hard drive each game is on.

[CAS FAN]

I pretty much download all of my games now and will always do that option if available. If a game is cheaper on disc then I tend to buy the disc, stick the code into Steam and download it as a lot of games are steam works now. The only games I play from disc tend to be console games as the DD routes are pretty poor so far.

I would love the likes of MS and Sony to have a steam works type system where folk can buy the discs and activate via Live or PSN and play from disc if they want to, or stick a code in Live or PSN to download it so that they can use it without the disc. Most of my steam games (which were not bought in the sale) were bought as physical discs and then downloaded. The discs never actually left the box and were thrown away after the download.

I can see this happening in the next gen as its a good half way house and gets people used to DD.

[Indiana Jones]

I only ever buy games digitally if they are on offer or available no other way, will always go for a physical copy if I can as I like the feeling of actually having something for my money plus installing from disc is still far quicker than downloading for me especially since my connection started to randomly cut out.

[hoyteamx]

Personally it`s digital for me. I like having games on the hard drive ready to play and I like being able to purchase a game at the exact moment I want it! I`d still be sad to see everything go digital though. I think we need a gaming presence in the shops, especially for younger players.

[The New Guy]

I chose the second/middle option, but its not as simple as 'buying cheap' XBLA titles, I buy older games from games on demand and some of those can be anything upto 19.99, I won't pay anymore than £20 for a download.

I recently re-purchased Alan Wake, I was going to download it from XBLA but at 24.99 it was over my max limit, so I chose to buy on disc instead.

I'm not opposed to digital media, if its forced upon us then I will accept it, but like everyone else I do think it will need to be reflected in the price or the number of games I buy will be greatly reduced in the future.

I would be happy to pay £24-£30 for a NEW game that is download only, anymore than that is wrong imo.

[Azzin]

I'd like to vote, but the options are too specific.

For example, I'd like the option to download games.

Even then, I'd probably only download a game if the option was financially advantageous in relation to the physical disk version and it was simple to re download in the event of replacing the hard drive on my console (for whatever reason), or even the console itself being replaced in the event of a failure.