Digital vs. Physical: Gaming

This is Part 1 of my “Digital vs. Physical” series. For those just joining, that have not read the prologue post, this series is about digital and physical media, such as games and TV shows. I’ll leave the “other” types of digital and physical comparisons up to other sources.

When thinking about purchasing a game, the average consumer may think it comes down to personal preference. After all, why would there be a difference in what the product offers, just because the mediums are different? They both run on my PC/Handled device/Console. I have to install both on my PC/Xbox One/PS4. Neither appears to run differently. It is easy to draw the conclusion that the two are “essentially” the same, based on those assertions. But are they really that similar? What most people may not consider, is just how different the long-term experiences can be.

Let’s start by looking at the purchasing experiences. Preordering games is a fairly common practice among gamers of all types. Many of my friends and family members enjoy lining up for midnight releases, especially for major titles like Halo, Dark Souls, Gears of War, and Skyrim. What not to love? You’re standing outside, waiting for the big release, talking to others that are just as excited. This experience is not available if you preorder a digital copy. But no matter how you purchased the game, you probably even scheduled the next day (or next few days) off at work, so that you can stay home and game non-stop. In college I knew more than a few people that would skip a day or two of class to play the latest game… or catch up on sleep after waiting till midnight to acquire said game. The difference of course, is that purchasing a digital copy means staying at home and getting the game the very second it’s made available. Rather than waiting in line, and having to drive home, you only need to wait for the game to download. But what if you have a slower internet connection? Let’s take a look at how long it would take to download a newer game at 1mb/ps and the speed I have, which is 50mb/ps.

Internet is advertised in megabits, not megabytes. 1MB (megabyte) = 8mb (megabits)

Newer “big title” games often have 10GB (gigabytes) or more of content.

10GB = 10240MB = 81920mb

81920mb / 1mbps = 81920 seconds = 1365 minutes = 22 hours

10GB = 10240MB = 81920mb

81920mb / 50mbps = 1638 seconds = 27 minutes

Once you calculate the time it would actually take on your internet speed, the appeal could quickly subside. Especially since we rarely see the speeds we are actually paying for. For example, my parents pay for 2mb/ps download speed, but typically only receive 1mb. I am paying for 50mb, but often see speeds of up to 53mb/ps. But it can dip as low as 20 or 30mb/ps.

If you want to play the game as soon as possible, it may be more reasonable to drive to the store and pick up your preordered copy. But what if you don’t want to wait till midnight? You could always order it online from retailers such as Amazon, who would “guarantee” that you’ll receive it the same day it comes out. Of course, it may not arrive till the evening or if you’re not home when it’s supposed to be delivered you may have to wait a little longer for that physical copy. The other issue would be the case of limited physical copies. It’s less likely that a major retailer like Amazon will run out, than a smaller retailer like GameStop. If retailers run out of physical copies during the preorder phase, you may have to wait till after it’s released. However, I’ve never personally heard of a retailer running out of digital copies. In fact, GreenMan Gaming and Steam will often times offer sales during the preorder phase, where you can get bonus content, and possibly shave a few dollars off the final price tag.

One of the best parts of preordering a game, is the exclusives. Each retailer often times will have something different. Let’s use the upcoming title “Watch Dogs” as an example.

GameStop is offering an exclusive mission and some in game bonuses.

Amazon is offering its own exclusive mission, and an exclusive weapon and outfit.

BestBuy is offering another exclusive mission and a vehicle perk.

Walmart is offering a theme pack reward.

Making the decision between which exclusives to get can be tough enough on its own. But, unless you are gaming on a PC and preorder through Amazon, none of these exclusives are available for digital copies of the game. Granted, Steam has you covered with two offerings:

For $60 you get an exclusive outfit and weapon perk in the standard game addition.

For $70 you get a nice batch of exclusives not available from the other retailers, with the deluxe version of the game.

But what if you want to get the limited addition, with nice goodies like the bandanna, art book and statue?

Unfortunately, if you want this version, it’s only available with a physical version of the game. It sure would be nice if you could get the items in the collector’s editions of games with a digital copy of the game itself. But unfortunately that isn’t something offered by companies at this time. For average and hobbyist gamers, this really isn’t an issue. They really just want the game. But for others, collector’s editions are an important part of the experience.  

But what if you’re not into preorders, or wait to buy games? Many people prefer to wait before buying new games. After all, $60 per-game is a lot to spend, especially since not all games offer a sand-box experience, which may limit the replay-ability. If you’re more into lending/barrowing games from friends and family, renting from services like GameFly, or buying them used from retailers like GameStop or eBay or a garage sale, than digital copies probably aren’t for you. Unfortunately used games aren’t available in the digital marketplace. Granted, the Xbox One and Steam allow friends/family to stream each other’s games, but that doesn’t help you buy your own copy at a lower price. Additionally, marketplaces on consoles, and services like EA’s Origin take their time at decreasing prices and having sales for new releases, especially if it’s selling well. Additionally, if you no longer play a game or purchased the Game of the Year (GOTY) edition or maybe switched to another version of the game (collectors, limited addition, alternate system), you can’t sell a digital copy at this time. This leads into what could be considered as the biggest issue consumers have with switching to digital mediums.

Ownership is one of the biggest issues consumers have with digital content. When you purchase a digital copy of a game, who really owns it? There are plenty of people that will say “if I purchased it, than I own it”. However, the reality is quite the opposite. Typically when you purchase a digital copy of a game, you don’t get a stand-alone installer. Instead, the game is downloaded and installed through a service you have a membership with. A few of the most common being Steam, Origin, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Plus. What if you are banned from the service, for whatever reason, or (less likely) the service shuts down completely. If you have to login to the service in order to play the game, you most likely won’t be able to play the game anymore. This would be especially unpleasant if over several years you spent hundreds of dollars on games, but no longer have access to them. But there is a silver lining.

Not having a disk can have a few advantages. With PC games, you’re limited by Keys and Registration Codes. This is meant to make it more difficult to sell a game and still own it, or illegally share a game. However, you rarely have to worry about these with a digital copy, even though Steam still gives you one. This is because your game is tied to your account, and you can only play the game through Steams service. Plus, you can’t sell the game or give it to someone else. Additionally, not owning a disk means not having to put a disk in every time you want to play the game. With computer manufacturers moving away from including optical (CD/DVD/BluRay) drives, this is becoming more of an issue. But even with consoles, it’s nice not having to switch games out whenever you want to play something.

What if a game-changer occurred in the industry? Streaming is a fairly common practice nowadays in the TV, Movie and Music industries. It’s affordable for consumers, and offers nice benefits, such as having access to it on multiple devices/systems. Unfortunately, there’s only two real streaming options at this time, and they primarily work on PC’s and tablets; CloudLift and PlayPack from OnLive. For $10 a month, you can stream ~250 (and growing) games on various devices. And for $7.95 a month, you can stream games you already own, rather than having to install them. These prices are fairly comparable to streaming music and movies. What if the game is only available on PC’s and I want to play it on a MAC or tablet? Not a problem! Both services use OnLives own program/app to stream the game, so you never have to install anything.

While OnLive is the only major offering at this time, both Sony and Microsoft are planning on competing services. Steam is part way there, with the ability to stream friends and family member’s games (as mentioned above). The problem with this setup is that, at this time, quality is based off of your internet connection. If you have a slower connection, the experience may be quite a bit less pleasant. And of course, like with all streaming services, you can only stream something when you’re connected to the internet (logical, but still a downside). For consumers that have limited data, like is common with cellphone plans, streaming probably is the most suitable option as it can quickly consume your monthly allocation.

It’s a give-and-take situation, which breaks down to personal preferences. That’s right, after reading this long post, it still comes down to your own preferences. Some people may choose to mix it up and use both. But at the end of the day, neither is necessarily better. It’s all about which is better for you, the consumer. If you don’t plan on selling games or buying them use, generally buy them after they’ve been out for a while and have no issue waiting for the game to download, than digital is probably right up your alley. But if that’s important to you, or you need to have that sense of ownership that only comes from the physical disk, than digital probably isn’t for you.