As time goes on, companies are trying to push digital distribution more and more over physical media. What are your thoughts on that? Do you like having physical discs and carts better, or would you rather just download? As convenient as just having all your games on an SD card/hard drive might be, I still prefer having physical copies of games. I like the peace of mind that they'll always be there, they'll never be taken off a server and be un-downloadable, and I have something to display.
I can see it all going to the digital download in the future, because everything will be online, but I would like to keep it to disks as long as possible. I like having something physical that I can hold once I have bought it. For me, it feels like an empty purchase after I buy something for download.
I like digital download for PC, since I really cbf'd buying a disc that I'll install and then never use again, and I love Steam because if I'm on a different computer, I can download my games and use them there, too. I don't have to carry everything around with me. But in pretty much every other case, I don't like downloading my games. :( I like boxart and flipping through the booklet, but it's mostly because my consoles have awful capacity. My 360 is only 20gb, my PS3 is only 40gb. I can only ever have one game installed on my 360 and I can't keep all my DLC--I tend to delete the single-player ones as soon as I'm done with them so that I can still install games (I like the lessened load times and disc reads) and keep all the maps and DLC that I use with people online. :/ For my PS3... I don't even KNOW what's taking up so much space but I have to clear it up whenever I want to download a full game, and I have to delete PSN games to do that. ~_~ Also, I don't have unlimited bandwidth. My cap was originally only 25gb a month... we pay an extra $15 to bump it up to 105gb, but when I'm not at home, it's usually capped anywhere from 25-60gb, depending on the ISP I use. :/ Factor in sharing bandwidth with roommates and I have to really, really watch what I download. I really hope that game devs and the big console owners keep caps in mind before they fully switch over to digital distribution, which I'm sure will happen one day. Otherwise I'd probably have to ask American friends to download stuff for me and send it over on a USB stick or something. It'd be cheaper.
You should be okay with the 40GB on the PS3. I think my 360 is 40GB. I keep some "ever-green" titles on there that I return to and once and a while for a few hours like Burnout or Beatles: Rock Band. Then, in addition to that around three games that I'm working on at the time are installed. Plus DLC and XBLA games. I know the PS3 has a larger disc capacity, but I didn't think they actually made use of that since a lot of games are also on the 360 and on one disc.
No, I'm not okay with 40gb on the PS3. Combining DLC with updates and save files and PSN games (nevermind full PS3 games), it's full. :/ To download just one of the "welcome back" titles the other week, I had to go on a deletion spree.
I like having a copy of the game physically; not only do I have to not worry about losing the ability to download the game because someone's servers went down, but I also have something I can read, and look at, and actually hold. It also makes me very sad that nowadays, companies tend to make a game's manual just a small slip of paper rather than a full-fledged book (Compare the original Assassin's Creed manual to AC: Brotherhood's and just look at how pathetic and lifeless it is now).
I prefer having a physical copy over a digital copy, only because there are still places in the world that only offer caps. :( And it's always good to have a backup if the download server goes offline or it the digital copy can no longer be downloaded.
I've always generally preferred physical media. I'm a collector, I just like seeing stacks of cases and such on my shelf. |D
Oh my god I hated Brotherhood for its in-game manual. :/ It's like including an ebook in your game and I hate ebooks. I don't like reading long things on computer screens, nevermind more-distant TV screens. I understand that it can be a bit more versatile with the inclusion of video or images but when all I'm trying to do is figure out how to use the parachute, it's really annoying to have to find a heading that might be right, scroll past huge paragraphs and pictures only to find out that it isn't in there. Or at least, I never managed to find it--I just went to my computer and googled it out of frustration. If I'm buying a retail copy of the game, I want a retail manual and case that isn't so flimsy you could break it while opening it.
