Analyst: 66% of Console Players Still Prefer Physical Games over Digital

Megalith

Megalith

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The latest edition of Nielsen’s annual Games 360 report shows that 66 percent of console users still prefer physical games. This contrasts greatly to PC gamers, of which only 29 percent still bother with discs. The report also found that players who prefer digital spend more time gaming.

One of the more divisive topics in this year’s report involved digital and physical game releases. Nielsen asked players over the age of 13 how much time they spent playing games per week and how much money they would typically spend a month on games, then split those answers according to primary platform and if they preferred digital or physical games.
 
I prefer digital drm free.

And this is another reason I gave up consoles decades ago.

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VS
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I was buying physical last gen, but 100% digital on my PS4 currently. Its WAY more convenient.
 
Megalith said:
This contrasts greatly to PC gamers, of which only 29 percent still bother with discs.
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This is laughable. For the games that even come out on disc on PC anymore, most of the time all they are is an installer for Steam + a code.

IMO both digital or physical or fine, what's important is you have some way to back up the game so you can play it in the future. That's disappearing for BOTH mediums.
 
I assume console gamers prefer disc so they can share them with friends.

That being said, disc is done. That also applies to movies on disc too. My almost four year old asking me to start FROZEN in the blu-ray and waiting for load is a hassle compared to just casting a movie via Netflix or VUDU using my phone. So yeah, no mo' discs.
 
I'll buy whatever's cheapest, be it digital of physical. I've been a PC gamer for the past 15 years because it gave me more bang for my buck, but with inflated PC component prices as of late and getting a proper HDR TV for the living room, in the past 12 months I've transitioned to being a 75% console 25% PC gamer. I'd rather spend less money on the console experience - despite games not being as detailed as on PC - and have a proper HDR experience, than spending more on the PC only to have atrocious HDR support (or none).
 
tetris42 said:
This is laughable. For the games that even come out on disc on PC anymore, most of the time all they are is an installer for Steam + a code.

IMO both digital or physical or fine, what's important is you have some way to back up the game so you can play it in the future. That's disappearing for BOTH mediums.
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What game was just a card in a box with steams website and a CD key?

I can't for the life of me remember

Funny shit though
 
Can't sell my digital games. No giant manual to read on the toilet.

I was just messing with some of my old DOS games and couldn't believe the level of effort that went into the boxes, manuals, and posters.

Digital games are convenient but i can never bring myself to pay more than a few bucks for them.

To each their own, i like physical property.
 
really prefer digital on consoles, no discs to keep track of, no having to switch discs when i change games, besides when you buy the discs, you still have to download the whole damn game anyways. Only time i buy discs for games is used games on the cheap.
 
DRM and online services aside, new games seem to need a constant stream of updates and fixes after release. Unless they start selling games on rewritable sd cards, physical media isn't very practical anyway, IMO.

But maybe we aren't far from that? 32GB/64GB SD cards are pretty darn cheap, and getting cheaper.

EDIT: Flash may lose data in cold storage though. I forget what the shelf life is, but it's alot shorter than HDDs or discs.
 
tetris42 said:
This is laughable. For the games that even come out on disc on PC anymore, most of the time all they are is an installer for Steam + a code.

IMO both digital or physical or fine, what's important is you have some way to back up the game so you can play it in the future. That's disappearing for BOTH mediums.
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Exactly. Discs are becoming irrelevant becuase they have been made irrelevant via DRM.
 
Steam just makes it easy for me to buy a game I want and have it as soon as it installs. Add in that I can literally wait a week or two (a month, tops) after release day that a game I want goes on sale, whereas I'll be lucky if I can get $4 off a retail copy six months later, and I really have almost no reason to get a physical copy of a PC game anymore.

My only real gripe about gaming today is day-one patches, especially for console. Like seriously? You couldn't fit the entire thing onto the disc or what?
 
If console games can be purchased at the same low price as pc games then digital will be the preference. Until then, having physical copies lets you recoup part of the cost you paid in the form of resale and trade-ins.
 
Last PC game I bought was The third chapter of SC2. Other than that though if it’s on steam I buy it there.

I only buy console games on disc, except games like Braid (Indy games).

I never resell my games, for me it’s just about protecting myself and my property.
 
Master_shake_ said:
What game was just a card in a box with steams website and a CD key?

I can't for the life of me remember

Funny shit though
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Metal Gear Solid Phantom Pain is one I remember, but I know there's been a lot of them. The point is on the PC almost ALL physical copies still require Steam. So for everyone saying "I prefer physical so I can resell", sure, you can resell a coaster that's worthless because it's tied to an account. Physical v. digital no longer matters, it's all about the type of DRM.
 
SamuraiInBlack said:
Steam just makes it easy for me to buy a game I want and have it as soon as it installs. Add in that I can literally wait a week or two (a month, tops) after release day that a game I want goes on sale, whereas I'll be lucky if I can get $4 off a retail copy six months later, and I really have almost no reason to get a physical copy of a PC game anymore.

My only real gripe about gaming today is day-one patches, especially for console. Like seriously? You couldn't fit the entire thing onto the disc or what?
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problem is that they in such a hurry to push a game to market, they start printing and working on physical games before the game is finished. they will finish the game while production of physical copies is already being done, you get the unfinished game on your physical copy and have to download the rest in a patch, or the whole finished game entirely .
 
Of course I prefer physical when the ps store is ridiculously overpriced. Even at equal price I'd choose physical. Digital would need to be at least 15-20% cheaper for me to even consider it.

Oh and you can't even resell digital games since they're permanently attached to your psn account.
 
last 2 physical games i bought where Witcher 3 and Skyrim both for the collectors Edition extras almost always buy off steam or other online service MIGHT by a physical copy of Cyberpunk if it has some good extras
 
Few have said it already but it comes down to with physical disc's for console you can go to a gamestop or what ever and trade in the game or loan it to a friend to play hence physical still has more value on console. On PC we have been stuck with the you buy it you own it for life no matter if its a physical copy as the code it locked to online platform like steam.
 
I prefer physical (like my blu-ray movies collection). I spent hours on the phone with EA tech support, finally got a rep who removed three of my games (Mass Effect 1-3) and will be installing the Mass Effect Trilogy free of charge because they now can see the problem is not on my end.

Had the games and DLC been physical there would haver been no isssues.

Azphira said:
And this is another reason I gave up consoles decades ago.View attachment 83924 VS View attachment 83925
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have you admitted yet that you had a serious issue there or did you just laugh it off ? ;)
 
_l_ said:
I prefer physical (like my blu-ray movies collection). I spent hours on the phone with EA tech support, finally got a rep who removed three of my games (Mass Effect 1-3) and will be installing the Mass Effect Trilogy free of charge because they now can see the problem is not on my end.

Had the games and DLC been physical there would haver been no isssues.
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Yes there would have. The physical copy would install the game, which you would then have to authenticate on Origin. The physical copy would be worthless without your account. Again, on PC, physical is meaningless now.
 
Destiny 2 is a code in a box on PC. I buy all games my son and i play on console digital since game sharing is a thing.
 
TangledThornz said:
I assume console gamers prefer disc so they can share them with friends.

That being said, disc is done. That also applies to movies on disc too. My almost four year old asking me to start FROZEN in the blu-ray and waiting for load is a hassle compared to just casting a movie via Netflix or VUDU using my phone. So yeah, no mo' discs.
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bildad said:
One word: resale
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Resale is a big reason for many, sharing is another. Another thing to consider is that in many cases you can find the game cheaper as a physical copy. Last generation you could sometimes save 10 or 20 bucks on a new game preordering the physical copy. You also have the physical games going on sale more. I remember buying my brother a physical copy of the division after it had been out a while as it was like 15 bucks vs the 30 or 40 the digital one was onsale for.

Now on my xbox one I bought one or two physical games for myself and they were when the console launched. The only system I want physical games on now is the nintendo switch. One is we know the online aspect would suck hard based on how bad it was on the wii and wii u. Second is the lack of storage on the system. Even with a mico sd card in the system storage is pretty slim. I'd rather have the cart to not deal with swapping sd cards to find where I have a game installed and even with a 128 gig ssd card(which is what I think I have in the system) I think it would be near full with what I already have.
 
brucethemoose said:
DRM and online services aside, new games seem to need a constant stream of updates and fixes after release. Unless they start selling games on rewritable sd cards, physical media isn't very practical anyway, IMO.
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Well, the other solution would be to stop selling Beta products.........then disks would be just fine.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
Well, the other solution would be to stop selling Beta products.........then disks would be just fine.
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Right?! Remember the days when you bought a game and that was it?! You get what you get, bugs and all. Now days you buy a game and years later its not the game you originally bought. Diablo 2 & 3 come to mind.
 
I buy whatever is cheaper and doesn't matter the format. However the results...

Console Games: 99% Physical.

PC Games: 100% digital.

How did it end up like this?

Digital games for console hardly ever goes on sale. Even if it does, I seen far better deals from physical copy deals from places such as Bestbuy and Target promotion sales.

PSN+ sales can be a trap. Yea you get a slightly bigger discount if your are a PSN+ member however you trade off from buying the game to having a subscription to the game. What sucks is you can't even "buy" the game at the regular PSN discount if you have an active PSN+ subscription.

New game releases? A lot of retail stores and online (amazon) have some kind of exclusive DLC or whatever if you buy a physical copy through them. Half the time the digital version doesn't have any exclusive DLC for a new release. The other half are just meh DLCs or water-down DLCs from the retail stores, or whatever.

Do I prefer physical copies over digital? I don't really care. I prefer better deals.

Though I do appreciate that physical copies add resale value.

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For PC games, you hardly ever see a good sale on a physical copy. Even if you did, a digital version sale has already came around 2 or 3x times already and is bound to come around again. Plus usually it is just a key in a box anyway to register to some form of an account. I could be wrong but I don't recall any PC games lately that you can just plug in a CD key and play the game and then pass it off to a friend when you are done with it.
 
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DTN107 said:
Plus usually it it just a key in a box anyway to register to some form of an account. I could be wrong but I don't recall any PC games lately that you can just plug in a CD key and play the game and then pass it off to a friend when you are done with it.
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No, you're not wrong. I'd be hard pressed to name any physical PC games in the past 5+ years that didn't ALSO require you to authenticate online and give your disc the resale value of a coaster. Physical has become meaningless on PC (aside from reducing download times). I imagine it's just a matter of time before it's a similar story on consoles.
 
tetris42 said:
No, you're not wrong. I'd be hard pressed to name any physical PC games in the past 5+ years that didn't ALSO require you to authenticate online and give your disc the resale value of a coaster. Physical has become meaningless on PC (aside from reducing download times). I imagine it's just a matter of time before it's a similar story on consoles.
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Yeah but online authentication doesn't have to be a thing. They could always go Leisure Suite Larry style again.
 
I buy whichever is cheaper at the moment, physical or digital. For PC it is digital 90% of the time (Steam sales FTW) but sometimes I do find good deals on physical. For consoles it is often the opposite, mostly because their digital sales usually suck so it is often easier to find a used physical copy for cheap.
 
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Paul_Johnson said:
Yeah but online authentication doesn't have to be a thing. They could always go Leisure Suite Larry style again.
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Some of the old school copy protection was amazing in how goofy it was. The thing I remember most about Leisure Suite Larry though was the age verification thing on it.

tetris42 said:
No, you're not wrong. I'd be hard pressed to name any physical PC games in the past 5+ years that didn't ALSO require you to authenticate online and give your disc the resale value of a coaster. Physical has become meaningless on PC (aside from reducing download times). I imagine it's just a matter of time before it's a similar story on consoles.
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Consoles in a way have kinda backed away from it. Towards the end of last gen it was very common for the games to have digital codes for something in the box(usually multiplayer) so if you bought it used you'd have to pay the publisher for a new code to play online. I believe that has mostly gone away with the push to digital distribution.
 
tetris42 said:
No, you're not wrong. I'd be hard pressed to name any physical PC games in the past 5+ years that didn't ALSO require you to authenticate online and give your disc the resale value of a coaster. Physical has become meaningless on PC (aside from reducing download times). I imagine it's just a matter of time before it's a similar story on consoles.
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Reducing download times? DVD access speed is 4-5MB/s. My download speed has been more than that for almost a decade.
 
Mode13 said:
Can't sell my digital games. No giant manual to read on the toilet.

I was just messing with some of my old DOS games and couldn't believe the level of effort that went into the boxes, manuals, and posters.

Digital games are convenient but i can never bring myself to pay more than a few bucks for them.

To each their own, i like physical property.
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You mean you like to own their physical property? I mean, I guess you own the disc itself and the box and such, but not anything on said disc.
 
It's because you can resell the physical games you can't with digital. The difference with PC games though is even when physical copies were common they were much more commonly discarded as opposed to resold. The convenience of digital where storage isn't much of a issue and hasn't ever really been a major one is another aspect for PC games.
 
jnemesh said:
I was buying physical last gen, but 100% digital on my PS4 currently. Its WAY more convenient.
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I still buy them and sell on ebay when i'm done playing. Yes, i'm the guy they are desperately trying to get rid of.
 
Verge said:
I still buy them and sell on ebay when i'm done playing. Yes, i'm the guy they are desperately trying to get rid of.
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I don't find anything wrong with that...to each their own. Personally, it's worth a bit more money (which is what this issue boils down to...the inability to share or resell games = money) for me to avoid retail stores, to be able to download and play instantly, and to not have to rummage through drawers to find a physical disk. Having everything on the HDD is perfect for me. But I can understand why others prefer owning discs.
 
Megalith said:
The latest edition of Nielsen’s annual Games 360 report shows that 66 percent of console users still prefer physical games. This contrasts greatly to PC gamers, of which only 29 percent still bother with discs. The report also found that players who prefer digital spend more time gaming.

One of the more divisive topics in this year’s report involved digital and physical game releases. Nielsen asked players over the age of 13 how much time they spent playing games per week and how much money they would typically spend a month on games, then split those answers according to primary platform and if they preferred digital or physical games.
Click to expand...
I’m going to say that’s because of Steam.

Microsoft and Sony and console publishers all turn old games off.

Steam does not.

Steam, FTW!
 
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