Overlooked Reasons to Still Buy Physical Media

With Microsoft’s reportedly digital only plans for Xbox’s future now leaked, Xbox boss Phil Spencer had to be quick to dismiss the information as outdated, as physical collectors and preservationists were already starting to panic on social media. Regular readers will undoubtedly know I’m mostly a physical kind of guy as well—see is collecting physical games worth it part III—although no panic attacks were induced here, as I don’t care about Xbox.

The Xbox plan leak wasn’t the first to try and push cloud-based gaming: hello, Stadia—hey, where are you going? Okay, bye, Stadia! Yet it reminded me yet again why buying and playing physical games has, for me, many advantages over a digital purchase. Unconventional advantages that I see rarely mentioned, beyond the obvious preservationist perspective, which, if you factor in DLC, patches, and sometimes even required online connections, is more of an illusion than anything else. Most of these reasons to still buy physical games can also be applied to DVDs so I generalized the title to media. Here’s why I still like buying tangible things.

Physical games are more expensive. I think that’s a feature, not a bug. I finished 18 of the 36 digital Switch games I own (50%), while I finished 22 of the 28 physical games (79%). That ratio rapidly propels itself towards the lower tenths if I inspect my digital-only Steam library. If I have to pay more for a game, I don’t buy it on a whim: I buy it if I want to really, really, really play it. Which digital purchases you made lately were nothing but impulse buys because of Black Whateverday?

Physical games can be more difficult to get. I’m not just talking about the unfortunate limited supply of publishers like Limited Run Games (LRG) that confuse preservation with commercialism, but about the added hassle of biking to a brick & mortar store, hoping it’ll be in stock (and in sale, which it never is). Most of you probably buy through online resellers or hunt for a discount on eBay—which is fine as well—but I prefer first sweating and then clenching something in hand to return home. That also means, to a lesser extend, that buying physical media can still be considered a somewhat social event.

Physical games require motor actions to boot up. That’s a fancy word for saying you need to pull out the previous disc or cartridge and insert the one you want to play now, possibly followed by a curse and searching for the correct box to put that other thing in. I love the physical action of a cart insert, whether it’s a spring-loaded click like the Switch or a good old whack for older consoles. It helps makes my mind ready for the play session. I sometimes put the cart back in the case after the session just to repeat this ritual the next time.

Physical games retain their value. Sometimes, a game disappoints. In that case, I’d like to have the option to sell it. I’m not a collector in the sense that my collection can only grow and never shrink—but even then, genuine cartridge-based physical games only go up in price. Not that I’d recommend viewing the hobby as an investment: you’re better off buying and storing sealed Magic the Gathering booster boxes.

Physical games are mine once I bought them. I generally dislike subscription-based media where one week your favorite thing is available and the next, poof, it’s gone. This doesn’t apply to digitally bought games, but if I sell my Wii/Switch/whatever, what to do with my account that’s linked with these purchases? It’s a bit more complicated than just having them, you know, in your hand.

Physical games make lending possible, precisely because of the above point: they’re tangible, and they’re mine. I like lending games, as it helps either enthusing others or making my mind up whether or not I want to play it. I wish the Nintendo DS’s Download Play was still a thing.

Physical games are usually released later than their digital counterpart. Yet again, I think that’s a feature, not a bug. By then, the consensus of the critics is known, the initial bugs have been patched, and perhaps, my initial enthusiasm for the game has waned. Besides, nowadays, I find it impossible to keep up with releases and play stuff as it gets released.

Physical games are usually not bundled. While I applaud Humble Bumble and the like for their charity work, I actually don’t like having three crappy or less interesting games come with that one game I actually want. Can you permanently remove games from your Steam library?

Physical games help provide an overview on the shelf. Yes, accumulating stuff can get both tiresome and result in clutter, but if you just buy what you want to play instead of collect, for me, it’s easier to keep track of what I have. Probably also because I buy less often (see the more expensive argument).

Physical games help reduce required disk space. This is only true for cartridge-based media that don’t need an install and instantly load, like the Nintendo Switch. I know microSD cards are dirt cheap nowadays, but it’s not fun to regularly move data around. I made the mistake of buying Animal Crossing: New Horizons digitally because we couldn’t wait. Now it’s eating up 6 GB+ of my smallish HDD space, and that’s only base game data.

Reasons I’ve seen overused that I think have evolved from something genuine to something hollow:

• preservation—companies like Strictly Limited and LRG might claim they’re doing it to preserve games, but we know they just like the heaps of money that’s flowing in. Remember the DOOM fiasco, that required an online account, or the Scott Pilgrim fiasco, that had important DLC left out intentionally, or the Shredder’s Revenge DLC physical re-release to screw over faithful buyers of the original cart? Right. In addition, I don’t think building a private collection is contributing towards public preservation.
• Instruction manuals—new physical media usually comes without, and while LRG initially put in a lot of effort to publish high-quality booklets like in Axiom Verge 1+2, my DUSK manual is a flimsy piece of paper folded in half. Right.

That said, I of course still buy digital games. Many indie games never make it to physical media, old and forgotten DOS games are only available through GOG.com’s digital-only store, and sometimes, I break my own rules and cannot wait. Don’t worry though, if it’s a truly remarkable game, I buy both versions to support the developers!

collecting

from Hacker News https://ift.tt/C9OAv7c