What's your view on digital downloads?

I'm generally ok with them for stuff like PSN titles that are small games, keeps down production costs etc.

The whole downloading full games kinda annoys me as the pricing is terrible and if games went DD only there'd be no shopping around or potentially decent sales. It works considerably better on PC then console seeing as a number of companies can actually sell the game in that form.

It's a good, convenient, option when it comes to buying games when companies don't have exclusive distribution rights and as a result charge way too much.

The only problem is that it's more anti-consumer than physical mediums in that through the use of DRM your access to the content could be cut off at any time.
This could, of course, still happen with any game that has online components but at least with a disc you have the option to just install it and use a crack, with DD you'd have to pirate the entire game.

I'm going strictly digital for the Vita. The prices are more or less in line with retail prices at launch,, and there's simultaneous retail/digital launches for every game. The Sony games are usually a bit cheaper too. Digital makes more sense for a handheld.

I'm not against it, i have a couple of PC games i bought via digital download... problem is, there's so many providers to buy from, if you lose your download somehow, you'd have to think: where'd I get it? how do I download it again?

sure, you could keep track of where you bought what, or buy everything at the same place (which isn't always an option) but that a bit of a drag..


I'd still rather have something on a disc, you can lose a disc too, but that hasn't happened to me in ages, cause the disc is either in my PS3, or on my shelve in its box. no one else touches them anyways..

DD let me in on a ton of awesome games.

If gaming were to go all DD I hope they run it all like Steam. If not, then no thanks.

There's a time and place for digital downloading, just like hard copies. They might completely erase hard copies eventually though as we progress to a more and more digital world.

I'll generally DL games like Hard Corps: Uprising, Castlevania HoD, & Sonic 4 while avoiding games that generally take up Gigs worth of space. If I can get it on disc, I'll generally get it that way if it's something like WWE 12 or Saints 3.

I like boxes and getting things in the mail, but downloads are practical, although too expensive, at least on the PSN.

Bag of Oranges wrote:

The only problem is that it's more anti-consumer than physical mediums in that through the use of DRM your access to the content could be cut off at any time.

does this happen often? i'm thinking of selling my hard copy of SR3 and buy it off psn

No, at the moment it's only really going to happen if you get banned or something.

But all it takes is one shutdown and DD as a whole is tainted forever.

My main concern is that steam games feel like something i can use forever.

PSN games i'm worried about if there essentially an expiry date on the products that i'll only find out about at the last second.