The future of gaming is undeniably heading towards a digital-focused one, with most video-game sales coming from the digital side of the market. If you've been following the gaming scene for a while, then you might occasionally hear about the whole digital vs. physical games debate that's been going on for years, but I won't bore you with the subject. Yeah, each has its pros and cons. As you've guessed from the title, I'm more of a physical buyer though I occasionally buy games digital, but lately I've been noticing an issue in my collecting... I'm running out of room! Note that I'm going just going to give off my personal opinion on the matter, so I'm not trrying to persuade you to pick one over the other, but I'm just ranting on the big issue with continually buying physcial games.
Right off the bat, the great thing about physical games is that you actually own them. Unlike digital games, where you're buying a license to play a game from the publisher, your physical game is yours to keep forever-- we all know that. Back in the old days, you can admire the cover, read the manual, and touch the disc itself. Today, most games just come with the disc and that's it, often lacking a manual and some goodies to read (likely reserved for the pricey special editions). So why buy physical? I don't know, I always preferred having a physical copy of a game, especially one that I like so that I can easily pop it in years later when I miss it and just play it.
I have this fear of companies shutting down their online retail stores in the future and you can't download your digital games anymore, meaning that all the money you've spent went down the drain. For example, take the soon to be closed Wii U and 3DS eShop in most regions of the world, where you only have a small time frame to buy and download your games before they're gone for good. That and I like the feeling of having a game I like in my collection. My other fear for buying physical is the eventual clutter of games around the house. It's pretty badass having a huge game collection, but I can see it becoming a pain in the future when I'm moving, as my games could get damaged or even lost.
There's a partial solution to this, in which I split my purchases between physical and digital. For example, I buy indie or games that are on a deep discount digital while nabbing a physical copy for the games that I really want to have in my collection. It's an approach that's been working for me and I mitigated the issue for a while. In short, I just wanted to offer my two cents on an issue of physical games and space that most would over look in the form of a short rant. I'll continue buying physical, mainly games that I really like or lisecened ones that will be delisted from online stores, but man having a huge collection can be a pain sometimes, especially when youre moving...
But anyway thanks for reading this rant piece (which looking back was me just complaining) but I hope you've gained something from all this. Thanks!
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