Most Console Gamers Still Prefer Physical Media

arcticstoat writes "Despite the advent of online game stores on all three major consoles, most console gamers apparently still prefer hoarding collections of gaming discs to downloading games. A recent survey conducted by Ipsos in the UK revealed that 64 per cent of the 1,000 users polled would rather have games on physical discs, while only 25 per cent would prefer digital copies. In the survey, 55 per cent of those polled said price was the key factor in determining their interest in downloading games, while 27 per cent said they wanted games available online before they were in the shops. Ipsos' director Ian Bramley explained, 'Interest absolutely drops away when you get to the types of pricing that you might charge for a new physical disc. People's perceptions are that they're not prepared to pay as much for digital content — they make the connection that it's not a physical disc and therefore it should be cheaper.'"

Comments

Why I prefer physical media

[Rik Sweeney]

Because I can trade it in when I'm done.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[Anonymous Coward]

Which is exactly as bad as piracy and you shall burn in hell for harming the gaming industry, you monster.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[krovisser]

I don't care what format it is as long as I don't have to be connected to license servers--which may or may not be running--every time I want to play.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[hedwards]

Well that and things like ubisoft changing stores. I got an email from them earlier today that they'll be changing stores the beginning of August. Subsequently I won't be able to download those games again because they're not going to carry over those purchases. Now, fortunately I already have a copy, and am downloading again just to make sure that it's fully functioning, but this is why I don't generally buy download only games.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[sznupi]

Or buy used. Both the core of "they make the connection that it's not a physical disc and therefore it should be cheaper" - people have control over what happens to physical media.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[ndnspongebob]

I second that, also, i can let my friends borrow a game and try out some of their games. gaming is very social, its something we do for fun. too bad soul-sucking gaming corporations cant understand that. a game that is downloaded cant be shared, everyone has to download their own copy. so a digital game provides less value than a physical game.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[Flowstone]

That alone is the strongest point of it all. you can't trade in a downloaded game, you can't lend a downloaded game to a friend, blockbuster can't rent it to people (although im sure gaming companies would love to do that first hand.) and ultimately it's condition and working nature is upto the user's level of care.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[fermion]

Exactly, physical games have a resale value. Imagine how hard it would be charge $30,000 for a car that had no resale value. Sure it loses 50% when you drive it off the lot, but that means there is 50% that can be recouped at any time.

This is also why I don't think a book an ebook is worth more than $10, as long as it is released on the day of the hardback, and on $4 if it is more than a year old. With a physical book there is some inherent value. It can be sold, lent, given away. Many people can read it, and the cost of the book has to include that a certain number of sales are lost due to this. But an e-book kils the secondary market, so it does not have the value. This may mean that some people make less. So be it. There is no inherent right to profit.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[Mr. Freeman]

Also, if your hard drive becomes corrupted, or whoever you bought it from loses the records of your purchase you can still play your game.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[Darinbob]

I can also archive it for a few years, without having to make my own physical copy or keep it lying around clogging up the hard drive. (not on consoles myself, but it applies to PCs)

Digital downloads of software automatically get categorized as "ephemeral" or "rental" in my head. Great for the yearly purchase of Turbo Tax. Seriously, I have 15 year old games I occasionally play from companies that have been out of business for ages. Annoying enough to try and track down some fan site that may have some patches, it'd just be that much worse to try and track down someone with hacks to make it work without a license server, trying to find who is still hosting the official downloadable content, etc. (yeah, I have the patches archived too, now to see about finding a Zip disk reader...)

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[nomorecwrd]

I have one shiny, as good as new, parallel Zip Drive for sell ;-)

It even comes with a piggyback Ni-Cd Battery adapter, so that you can carry it around with your laptop.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[Inda]

I get a lot of value out of the five quid Xbox360 Arcade games. I only bought Risk a few days ago and it already say 18 hours of gameplay!

Sure, I can't sell them but they're only a fiver. I loss far more money selling a brand new game after a couple of months.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[dangitman]

Also, if your hard drive becomes corrupted, or whoever you bought it from loses the records of your purchase you can still play your game.

Actually, this is the main advantage of the downloaded game over the disc. If your hard drive dies, you can always re-download the game you purchased via download. If you scratch or otherwise break your disc copy, you're fucked.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[RobVB]

You can lend and sell Steam games as long as you create a different account per game - at least that's what people tell me.

That's not what the Steam Subscriber Agreement says:

You are entitled to use the Steam Software for your own use, but you are not entitled to: (i) sell, grant a security interest in or transfer reproductions of the Steam Software to other parties in any way, nor to rent, lease or license the Steam Software to others without the prior written consent of Valve

and also:

When you complete Steam's registration process, you create a Steam account ("Account"). Your Account may also include billing information you provide to us for the purchase of Subscriptions. You are solely responsible for all activity on your Account and for the security of your computer system. You may not reveal, share or otherwise allow others to use your password or Account. You agree that you are personally responsible for the use of your password and Account and for all of the communication and activity on Steam that results from use of your login name and password. You may not sell or charge others for the right to use your Account, or otherwise transfer your Account.

(emphasis added by me)

I know illegal doesn't mean impossible, but that's another discussion.

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[hairyfeet]

That is why I buy from Good Old Games, and suggest that those here that still play games on a PC do as well. NO DRM, NO activation, NO game over $10, NO limits to how many times you download your purchases, NO limits on how many of your PCs you're allowed to install to, NO problem backing up installers (just a single .exe, even for those games with expansion packs), NO waiting thanks to their high speed connection, NO problems if you are using X64.

So if you want to do business with a company that treats you like a valuable customer and not a dirty thief, shop GOG. It has to be the easiest and most pleasant game shopping experience I've ever had.As for TFA? Duh, who wants to pay nearly full price and not get a disc?

Re:Why I prefer physical media

[Ihmhi]

Yeah, except Steam doesn't sell games. They get around that nasty doctrine called "first sale" by selling subscriptions to game. Subscriptions that basically last forever, but regardless.

As the brother post says, its all in the licensing agreement - although if someone did sue and a court forced Valve to allow first sale of that nature things would be pretty topsy turvey in the digital gaming world.

DRM

[Anonymous Coward]

We're so used to getting dicked around with the inability to format shift digital media that the only thing that seems safe is physical media.

Re:DRM

[binarylarry]

Yeah because they don't put DRM on the physical media....

Re:DRM

[CordableTuna]

On my shelf is the boxed copy of Empire: Total War. Every time I want to play it I have to ask Gabe Nevell for a permission. In some ways the non-DRMed downloadable games are more real than that box.

Re:DRM

[countSudoku()]

Don't forget backwards game companies, Nintendo the main culprit, who fail at letting legitimate owners of their stupid products migrate our games to the next device. I call shenanigans!!1! I buy a Wii, would love to buy a black one, but can't because of special MarioDRM which makes me purchase the downloaded content all over again. I buy a DSi, would love to buy a DSxl, but can't because of MarioDRM. Nice work, Nintendo! You are teh suck! You just made me walk away from two new system purchases. That's just dumb. Dumb, dumb, Nintendo.

Re:DRM

[somersault]

Just download a No CD crack. There's no reason to have the CD in for most games (well there may be music on there but for stuff like GTA you can copy it to the game directory).

Re:DRM

[sznupi]

It's fairly transperent in comparison to some of the DRM the world has seen; carried over (say, to new owner) directly by the physical media itself.

Re:DRM

[commodore64_love]

They do but it's easily cracked and once that happens there's nothing the company can do to put the genie back in the bottle.

Re:DRM

[Darinbob]

Except those sites that host No CD cracks are scary places. Pirates and crackers hang out there, malware hidden beneath the surface, etc. No thank you. That's like saying saying you can go to the adult book and novelty store to get past region encoding on a DVD.

Re:DRM

[Merls the Sneaky]

True, but that's what virus scanners are for (and Firefox/noscript etc).

And virtual machine sandboxes.

Can't trade a download

[GreatDrok]

The only download game I bought was GTAIV-TLAD and almost as soon as I bought it they brought out the physical copy Episodes from Liberty City with that and the Ballad of Gay Tony on it. It was twice the price of the download but didn't require a large chunk of the disc space on my Xbox (20GB launch system) so I waited until one came up pre-owned cheap and picked that up. So, I've bought TLAD twice now. If I had bought a real disc I could sell it and get some money back but I can't. Great from the game publishers but crap for buyers. I won't do it again and in fact the vast majority of games I buy are preowned or discounted substantially such as Bioshock 2 bought brand new for half price. In 6 months or so I'll pick up Red Dead Redemption once all the fuss has died down and pre-owned copies hit the market at a decent price.

For me, if I had to buy games at full price I think I would stop buying them pretty much all together so none of my money would go into the industry - download games are just bad news.

Re:Can't trade a download

[somersault]

Your main issue here seems to be lack of hard drive space.. though the Xbox does have a really weird system there so I maybe can't advise you to upgrade it. I bought a 40GB PS3 and shoved a 320GB HDD in there, I'm very happy to buy stuff online if it's cheaper. No having to wait days for delivery or go shopping, just download the game in a few minutes and go.

We're in it for the long haul

[Improv]

Generally, if I have a physical copy of the game, I can expect to still run it 20 years later, long after their authentication servers have bit the dust. I still play Alpha Centauri and Civ3 fairly often, and occasionally dig out the old N16 games.

Re:We're in it for the long haul

[quanticle]

Generally, if I have a physical copy of the game, I can expect to still run it 20 years later, long after their authentication servers have bit the dust.

That may have been true in the past, but these days, games purchased on physical media are just as DRM encumbered as their digital download brethren. It doesn't matter if you purchase Assassin's Creed 2 on a physical disk or as a digital download. It'll still communicate with its DRM servers as you play. These days, all you're paying for is a license key. The physical copy of the game is just a convenience, as you can generally install more quickly from a physical disk rather than a network connection.

Re:We're in it for the long haul

[Hatta]

You have a lot of faith in the emulator scene. Todays consoles are much more complicated, and much harder to emulate. If that weren't enough, they're encumbered by all sorts of DRM emulator authors will have to crack. I don't think we'll be seeing PS3/360 emulators for a long, long time.

Of course they have to be cheaper digitally

[KarlIsNotMyName]

No resources are wasted on materials, packaging, shipping or handling. Just electricity.

Re:Of course they have to be cheaper digitally

[sixsixtysix]

for physical, you'd also have to include all the retail stores and their internal logistics, and for download, the end user's bandwidth. digital distribution is generally much cheaper, but the products rarely seem to reflect that. i'd be for 100% downloadable for almost anything, if they priced it accordingly to the things people give up, like being able to resell, trade, etc, or make them have to have the system in place to allow for those things, which would be a logistical nightmare. if they can have it both ways, so should end-users.

Umm.....it SHOULD be cheaper!

[the_macman]

Gee...imagine that. Introduce a method that eliminates the need of ALL packaging costs, ware house storage, shipping costs, duplicating hardware, the initial cost of the physical media, the cost of printed manuals, and customers expect the price to go DOWN? Plus we have get the added benefit of DRM lock in! Who do they think they are? Don't they understand we need to profit at all costs?! The audacity.

Re:Umm.....it SHOULD be cheaper!

[Warhawke]

This is a major consumer misconception. While I'm the first person on the "give me reliable physical media that you can't revise post-purchase a la 1984" bandwagon, I've spent a long time dealing with smaller publishers in switching to digital distribution models (and all the while explaining why DRM is evil), and I was surprised as anyone to learn that packaging costs, storage, shipping, hardware, printing, and media costs are an infintesimal part of the production cost. More than that, digital distribution comes with its own set of incredibly high costs that actually outpaces traditional distribution: data servers, drive platters, support staff, server storage location... not to mention all of the costs that remain the same - graphic design, advertising, product placement, and even physical-copy game-cards so people without/uncomfortable with using credit cards online can purchase too -- which all has to incur traditional packaging costs, warehouse storage, shipping costs, duplicating hardware, physical media, package printing, etc.

Not to mention online advertising is a total b*tch to do right. With a physical product, it has the added benefit of advertising itself (forgetting for a moment retailer practice of charging for shelf-space placement). With digital, no one knows it's there unless you're paying someone to advertise it for you, or giving them a substantial chunk of the pie. So yes, digital distribution is not only going to NOT cost less, it's probably going to cost a whole lot more. Just look at e-book pricing arguments, because the same amount of work is going into them, and that work usually costs a lot more. Web developers get paid $75-$125 / hr. industry rate; truckers get a touch over minimum wage. Why bother with digital downloads, then, if it's going to cost more? Perishability and tracking. Not only can you ensure a 1-1 purchase / use rate by destroying the secondary market, you can also research market variables by looking at the profiles of who is downloading your media and what other kinds of media they are purchasing. Hence, this is why DRM has become so attractive to publishers, because in everyone's cry for digital distribution, what everyone REALLY wanted was cheaper IP, and publishers as for-profit organizations were compelled to recoup on profits lost by the shift to digital distribution.

wtf?

[kuzb]

Despite the advent of online game stores on all three major consoles, most console gamers apparently still prefer hoarding collections of gaming discs to downloading games

You know, that might have a lot to do with the fact that most titles are never available for download until they're 5 years of age or older. It's like saying "more people prefer chocolate to vanilla" in a store that only sells chocolate.

Re:yes, downloads should be cheaper...

[sqlrob]

The mark up of the store combined with all the intermediaries is not negligible.

Duh, a no brainer

[Rurik]

Physical media will always be far superior to digital.

1) Can buy the game used. Instead of paying $60 for a game, you can wait a few weeks and get it for $35-40. Within a few months, it's available for $20-30 while Steam still sells it for $60.

2) It can be resold. After you spend 10 hours finishing that game, you can turn it around and resell it for 80% of its buying price. You can then apply that money towards #1 and buy another game for cheap.

3) You're not stuck with it. How many games, honestly, do you still play after a year? Maybe one or two. Why be permanently stuck with a game that you'll never play again? And why be stuck with a game that sucks? How about those poor saps that paid $60 for Terminator Salvation, discovered the game could be beaten in 5 hours, and had absolutely no replay value?

4) You can trade games. The ultimate barter. Tired of a game and need a break? Trade with a friend for a month. Want to see if a game is really fun? Borrow it from a friend. Downloadable demos do not compare.

5) A visual reminder. Having a physical boxed item is a visual reminder that you have a game that you can play. I compare this to the Humble Games bundle I bought a few weeks back. I honestly keep forgetting that I have these games to play, since they're just icons on my desktop along with dozens of others. It's different than being bored and walking to a bookcase to view through a physical collection.

Re:Duh, a no brainer

[drinkypoo]

Physical media will always be far superior to digital.

Single-user registration keys are gradually eroding all the benefits save not having to download.

The visual reminder thing is silly. That's why we have icons. Make sure your games have 'em.

Uhm, disk space also a factor.

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

I've got somewhere around 20 or so PS3 games and only a 40GB HDD.

Even if you assumed I had upgraded to a 500 gig disk, at about ~10 to upwards of ~40gigs per game, usually 10, my drive starts to fill up. Fast. And I still need to store saves, music, video and everything else.

Screw that.

Just give me discs.

Re:Why I prefer downloads

[Local ID10T]

Steam.

I have re-purchased games after losing the disc, scratching the disc, loaning it to a friend (who lost it/forgot to return it/damaged it), losing the installation code, etc.

So far Valve has done a good job in my opinion. I will continue to buy my games via Steam and play them on my desktop at home, my media center PC, my laptop, and occasionally even my desktop at work -all with a single purchase.

it's the licensing that kills ya

[jollyreaper]

I hate physical media. It's a pain in the ass. I'll tolerate getting DVD's from netflix but I'd prefer if everything streamed. I'm damn well never buying another DVD again. Of course, life is made easier by being able to torrent what I can't get through netflix. I'm also very happy reading my books electronically. Sometimes reference hardcopy is nice but for novels and the like, electronic is the way to go. But they dick you too hard through the online stores. And that's the weakness with the games.

As far as games go, they're screwing you six ways from Sunday. You have to buy from the official store. I know on itunes for iphone apps you have to back it up yourself since they won't let you download it again if you lose it. I don't know how Xbox handles that sort of thing. I know people are complaining about trying to migrate downloads from console to console so I guess they're handling it poorly. And then there's the issue on getting discounted used games, trade-ins, borrowing a game from a friend, etc. Can't do any of that with downloads. And the hard drives on the consoles are so limited. 20gb for an Xbox? please. Oh, they came out with a 250gb. Whooptie fucking doo. You run out of space real quick and they sure as hell won't let you hook up an external drive via usb.

So given the current state of the industry, I'm stuck preferring physical game media to downloads, but that's only due to the legal constraints. If not for that, downloads would be the way to go, same as it is with PC.

Wii games don't move...

[Moof123]

Downloaded Wii games live on the console, and can't get moved off to a new one. So while the Wii will play old Game Cube games, all your downloaded content will not be forward compatible to the Wii 2 (or whatever they come out with next). Physical media likely will have some sort of path forward if history is any lesson.

So yeah, disc please!

EA is why I'm soured on digital media

[socz]

So, when Spore came out, there was this big thing and I was like that sucks, but probably won't affect/effect me because I don't really go for those games or most games from EA right...

So a friend made (convinced) me to get BattleField 2142 right... So after a format or 3 (hardware issue) I wasn't able to play because I've hit the max install limits. I was very upset ;D

So I hit the EA forums, and literally, a "mod" said to send him PM's with info and they'd help out. Although people were helped at first, that was the end of it. The "mod" said that EA people weren't going to "fix" those problems. That's when the outrage started!

So after hearing NOTHING back from EA directly, the "mod" was actually more helpful even though they didn't work for EA, I did what everyone else was doing (and suggested everyone else to do) which was reporting EA to the BBB. Big whoop right?

EA actually answered, once, and never again lol. So I said f this and forgot about it. Months later I tried it and sure enough it installed, with no surprise. I had found out that after a certain amount of time (I think weeks) the installs "get cleared" from their system and allow it to be installed once again on a "different" PC. What was different was the install, as the hardware (except one stick of RAM!), case, software and programs were all exactly the same! So since then I go out of my way to keep people from buying their games.

So yeah, whenever possible, I try to stick to physical media. Sure, it could have the same exact thing built into it, but I am not forced to install a downloader which downloads a game several GB's fat each and every time you want to reinstall. I backed up all my files and installers and it just didn't like that. It thought I was trying to trick it! So yeah, I played by their rules once, and they lost a customer and hopefully countless others as well.

Re:Why shouldn't it be cheaper?

[Darinbob]

Oddly though, despite cutting out the middle men, the prices don't get lowered. With a boxed game, you can expect the price to drop rapidly after the first few months, and eventually you can find it in the bargain bin. Digital prices drop extremely slowly though. The cost of inventory is high for stores, but it's also the reason that prices drop over time, so that they can get rid of the inventory and free up shelf space. No such pressure for digital downloads.

Even the initial day one prices are similar between stores and digital downloads. Maybe there's a tiny discount for digital downloads, but not nearly as much as cutting out the middle men would imply. Basically boxed games are expensive with tiny margins, and digital downloads are expensive but with huge margins.

Re:Why I prefer downloads

[aiwarrior]

I totally agree with you. In slashdot there is this stigma about trading a physical good for a digital one. Don't get me wrong i love buying music CD's but when i do it i get a personal satisfaction feeling and nostalgia that is not really connected to the end product which is music. The music is equal to the flac or high quality mp3 counterpart.
But i also find that steam is a good platform for a games library that is both versatile and convenient.

Some users replied that they can't sell their games or that they have to log in to play the downloaded content, but not with steam and steam is basically DRM. With steam you can play in offline mode and can play as you mentioned in any computer you own just by logging in and downloading. It's true you can't resell but steam constantly has such good deals that not even in your dream store you will get so much discounted titles. In my opinion they may even be cheaper than second hand games bought of ebay or any online store.

There is just one thing i am afraid regarding the fact that in some jurisdictions the digitally transactioned goods may not be regulated by the same solid physical goods laws.

PS: Steam's recent promotions are completely brilliant

http://pneves.net/

Re:Why I prefer downloads

[ZaMoose]

Steamworks is coming to the PS3, as per VALVe themselves, so there's hope. And Portal 2 will be playable across platforms, meaning you can play on your PS3 and then fire it up on your PC or Mac and start right where you left off.