• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Do you have audio editing experience and want to help out with the Famiboards Discussion Club Podcast? If so, we're looking for help and would love to have you on the team! Just let us know in the Podcast Thread if you are interested!

Discussion Anyone else making the move to digital on the next generation?

Wockio

Wockio

Kikwi Enthusiast
Pronouns
He
I've always been a physical guy but my Switch collection is growing too big for my liking, not because of the games themselves but the carts. I can still fit all 40 in my case but I'm about to run out of space. I know I could just leave some games in the box but I like having them all in one place.

Another concern is price. Physical games have always been the more affordable option here in Mexico, but recently an "exploit" was found that lets you buy games for over 60% off relative to their Mexican eShop price (which is roughly 30% pricier than the US eShop) thanks to the rapidly depreciating Argentine peso. Every single first party Switch game for 30 bucks each!

Anyone of you in a similar spot?
 
If switch is not BC physically, I will probably will. I don't want to lose my games once all the switches in the world breaks down.
 
0
I’ve been more or less 100% digital since 2019. If anything, I’m going to try to be more physical going forward. Tired or juggling SD cards around.
 
0
Wockio said:
I've always been a physical guy but my Switch collection is growing too big for my liking, not because of the games themselves but the carts. I can still fit all 40 in my case but I'm about to run out of space. I know I could just leave some games in the box but I like having them all in one place.
Click to expand...
I recommend these hard cases with foam inside that hold 60 Switch carts each. I've picked up a number of them and they've made it so much easier to organize and access my collection.

 
Last edited:
Wockio said:
Another concern is price. Physical games have always been the more affordable option here in Mexico, but recently an "exploit" was found that lets you buy games for over 60% off relative to their Mexican eShop price (which is roughly 30% pricier than the US eShop) thanks to the rapidly depreciating Argentine peso. Every single first party Switch game for 30 bucks each!
Click to expand...

That's not an exploit, that's abusing the idea of regional pricing and for anyone coming from Mexico, a region which will also face the consequences of making publishers drop those and make all publisher's take to making everything price parity (or worse) to the USD because of international customers doing this, like Nintendo already has as you say, if they've not already, it's a prime example of people digging their own metaphorical grave. All the end result of this will be is fucking it up for the Argentineans.
 
Already have a while ago. While I'm not a fan of redownloading/downloading games compared to having the game on the cart, so far this is more pleasant for me. Plus, I don't need to worry about partial downloads when buying physical games.
 
0
batmanbegins-michael.gif
 
I've been digital only since Wii U/PS4.
Losing pile of tiny 3DS carts pushed me.
Definitely don't miss filling my place with plastic and having far less convenience.
 
0
I'm sticking with physical.

Unless it's some smaller title where the only physical option would be some limited release which you'd have to preorder or have to go through major hassles to purchase later, then I'm going with digital.
 
Nope. Will continue to remain physical as long as possible, including on Xbox and PlayStation. Call me old school, but I just really like to see my collection of games on display.
 
Not on my end with the bad experiences I had with a regular Switch. I use my Switch Lite for small downloaded games, playing 'em in Airplane Mode.
 
0
I think I actually wanna play more physical games. I just like the experience of having the cards.

And its great that Nintendo games are on the things. Not just a liscence outside of AAA third parties.
 
I will always buy physical first if possible. I like actually owning stuff and having all of the flexibility it offers.
 
Armoured_Bear said:
What are the Pros apart from being cheaper and able to sell?

It's not like back in the day when there was nice packing, awesome manuals etc.
Click to expand...

As if that's not more than enough pro's?

If I buy and sell a game after I am done, it could cost me as little as 10 euros a game. Especially great if I didnt enjoy the game, easier to swallow compared to losing out on 60-70euros instead.

That alone massively outweighs the pros of digital games.

I get it, it is very neat with the convenience of digital games, I think that to!

But in the end.. its more expensive and you lose out on all the small things..

borrow games between one another, having multiple switchs in the household so the game isnt attached to a single account, browsing physical games is fun and a topic for discussion with friends and my kids etc..
 
I’m almost fully on the digital board since some time after the Switch launch, but physical from time to time is still cool for some long solo games especially with cool limited editions, like Xenoblade or Zelda.
There’s a possibility I might go 100% digital on next Switch though, but I’ll probably double dip on some physical editions as well like I did for Zelda TotK!
 
0
You'll have to pry my game cartridges from my cold, dead hands!

Even though regular physical releases are such a letdown nowadays, I just like to see the boxes lined up on my shelf so much :)
Also Nintendo's eShop is still doodoo.
 
0
Been digital for Steam and mostly digital for Switch, which has worked out for me so far. Only thing I really like about cartridges is how I can share them with other people.
 
0
I'm still around 90% physical (for consoles) and aim to keep it that way for as long as I can. I almost only buy digital for games that don't have a physical release in the first place.

Not only is there a 20-50% markup on digital games here (you can usually find physical for around 55-60 USD, but digital tends to be 70+ USD), but my friends and sibling and I frequently share games between each other. Plus the option to resell if there's a game I didn't really enjoy and don't feel any need to keep.

And how else am I supposed to be able to lick the cartridges.
 
Been all-digital since 2014. Wow. Almost a decade.

The amount of money I have saved is insane. A Switch game where I live is $120 USD. I pay $50 with the voucher offer digitally instead. Literally less than 50% of the price, lol.

But while I (reluctantly) switched for price reasons, I have become addicted to the convenience. I couldn't go back now.
 
I won’t. What I’ll probably do in a year or two is start sell on much of my physical Switch collection that I don’t intend to replay, and I expect that’ll fund the Switch 2 and a large chunk of the library for that. That’s the main appeal of physical to me. I almost always get my money back when I sell them on here, it makes paying a higher price for a digital copy seem really poor value to me.
 
If physical games are gone, I'm gone from gaming. There's really no way around it.

There's never a point where leaving all of the pricing in the hands of the console holder is good. I don't know why people are so quick to hand over all consumer choice. The second they have absolute control you'll NEVER get price drops on anything. People believing they'll start selling games for cheaper because there's no store copy are lying to themselves.

The amount of money saved just getting sale prices on physical games is vastly better than any amount of vouchers or shop sales in the US. Countless games I can grab for $10 that are still sitting at $40 or even $60 digitally.
 
As a multi-Switch household, no.

Physical games are much easier to share than digital copies.

I still buy plenty of digital games, but when it's a game to share I usually go physical.
 
I've been all-digital since probably 2015-ish, and never really looked back. I'm not really the type to sell games once I'm done even if the game was awful, and having a physical collection on my shelf to look at sparks no joy for me (frankly, it's really nice not having a bunch of plastic cases taking up my limited shelfspace), so the most frequent arguments I've seen against digital don't really apply to me.

Plus I'm fully willing to dump my own games once a system goes end of life, so the whole "but what if all the servers are down because society has collapsed and you didn't have Hades installed to play in the post-apocalyptic wasteland" (actual example I've had someone present to me) scenario doesn't really sway me that much. Like, if it's 2037 and the Switch eshop is down and that was the only way to play some game, I'm more than willing to find alternative methods if I need to.

Ultimately it's a preference thing and I wouldn't want to take options away from people that feel differently, but in 2023 I personally really only see upsides to buying digital.
 
Mbolibombo said:
As if that's not more than enough pro's?

If I buy and sell a game after I am done, it could cost me as little as 10 euros a game. Especially great if I didnt enjoy the game, easier to swallow compared to losing out on 60-70euros instead.

That alone massively outweighs the pros of digital games.

I get it, it is very neat with the convenience of digital games, I think that to!

But in the end.. its more expensive and you lose out on all the small things..

borrow games between one another, having multiple switchs in the household so the game isnt attached to a single account, browsing physical games is fun and a topic for discussion with friends and my kids etc..
Click to expand...
It's very subjective to say that that "massively outweighs the pros of digital:.
For me it's very clearly not the case.
When I want a new game, I don't need to order online and wait, drive to a shop etc.
In a couple of button presses it's downloading and 10 minutes later it's on my machine.
There are no cartridges to be lost, no piles of plastic cluttering up my house.
Whenever I want to play something it's there, always, if I take my Switch somewhere else to play, nothing to think about, no cartridges to pack (and try not to lose). The difference in convenience is enormous.
It's also better for the environment (less plastic, less unnecessary transport etc), I'm aware that data centres have a cost but it's less.

I don't have multiple Switches and the only gamers I know are also all digital.
/shrug
 
BlackthornOrion said:
I've been all-digital since probably 2015-ish, and never really looked back. I'm not really the type to sell games once I'm done even if the game was awful, and having a physical collection on my shelf to look at sparks no joy for me (frankly, it's really nice not having a bunch of plastic cases taking up my limited shelfspace), so the most frequent arguments I've seen against digital don't really apply to me.

Plus I'm fully willing to dump my own games once a system goes end of life, so the whole "but what if all the servers are down because society has collapsed and you didn't have Hades installed to play in the post-apocalyptic wasteland" (actual example I've had someone present to me) scenario doesn't really sway me that much. Like, if it's 2037 and the Switch eshop is down and that was the only way to play some game, I'm more than willing to find alternative methods if I need to.

Ultimately it's a preference thing and I wouldn't want to take options away from people that feel differently, but in 2023 I personally really only see upsides to buying digital.
Click to expand...
You are me.
 
Ive been mostly all digital since about 2014. I have well over 100 digital switch games. I think the only switch cart I bought was breath of the wild at launch, and even then I sold it at some point and bought the digital copy later. I still buy
Physical 3ds games though, i probably have about 60 physical 3ds games, but the other half of my 3ds library is digital. I do own two ps5 discs. The horizon forbidden west steel book collectors editon and the Gran Turismo 7 steel book collectors edition
 
0
Heron said:
Been all-digital since 2014. Wow. Almost a decade.

The amount of money I have saved is insane. A Switch game where I live is $120 USD. I pay $50 with the voucher offer digitally instead. Literally less than 50% of the price, lol.

But while I (reluctantly) switched for price reasons, I have become addicted to the convenience. I couldn't go back now.
Click to expand...
Same! Lol I think buying dragon age inquisition digitally for my xbox one was my turning point
 
0
No. I can only get new “big” games by reselling the old ones, or by borrowing them from the library. once those methods are closed off, then I’m blocked out from full priced releases entirely for the foreseeable future.

hate that gaming is going all digital because it’s one of many things telling me that I’m not welcome in the market. It’s not a matter of “evolve or die,” it’s a matter of being poor as shit and having to prioritize household necessities over entertainment.
 
Probably not.

Even if the next console isn't backwards compatible, I don't foresee me getting rid of my OLED any time soon, and I'll be knee-deep in next gen goodness to be too concerned about my old carts. I'm just not a digital person, Game Pass was great and all but I just love the feel of physical media in my hands.

That said, it's not the same as it was when we had chunky, colourful carts from back in the day.
 
Yeah, I made the decision to go digital only a few years ago. Due to patches (and to a lesser extent, DLC), physical games hold less value to me. In most instances, I’m not playing an unpatched game. And I rarely traded or sold games before digital was as ubiquitous as it is now.

I’m digital only on PS4, and I’ve been digitizing my physical library on past systems for convenience/preservation.

On Switch, it was simply too much of a hassle to get physical copies for these smaller/indie games. However, I have over 30 physical mostly Nintendo published Switch games that I’m not rebuying.

On the Switch successor, third party/indie games frequently going on sale digitally will offset the higher cost of Nintendo published games rarely going on sale. The cost mostly balances itself out.
 
0
I'm always 95% physical for Nintendo consoles, and I intend to keep it that way for the next console. I just love seeing all the games on display on one of my shelves.
 
0
I've more or less transitioned during this generation. From early on when I'd make sure to import things not released physically here (Ace Attorney) or which seemed they'd be in short supply (Katamari) to this year digitally preordering the big first party releases. Much greater convenience, and at my place in life I've almost never had anyone borrow one of my game cards.
 
0
I'll probably stick to like 85% physical, with that last 15% dedicated to specific cases like games that don't/won't have physical copies, quick pick-up-and-play games (like WarioWare or Animal Crossing), and multiplayer games that I want on my Switch at all times (example being Splatoon 3).
 
Armoured_Bear said:
It's very subjective to say that that "massively outweighs the pros of digital:.
For me it's very clearly not the case.
When I want a new game, I don't need to order online and wait, drive to a shop etc.
In a couple of button presses it's downloading and 10 minutes later it's on my machine.
There are no cartridges to be lost, no piles of plastic cluttering up my house.
Whenever I want to play something it's there, always, if I take my Switch somewhere else to play, nothing to think about, no cartridges to pack (and try not to lose). The difference in convenience is enormous.
It's also better for the environment (less plastic, less unnecessary transport etc), I'm aware that data centres have a cost but it's less.

I don't have multiple Switches and the only gamers I know are also all digital.
/shrug
Click to expand...

I mean ofc, this entire topic is subjective. For me the possibility to save a whole bunch of money is worth a lot more than convenience.
 
0
I import physical games from Japan that have an English language option over buying the US only digital release, so never.
 
I'm in a weird spot.

I used to swear by physical media, for movies and games, but I went all digital for Xbox and Playstation. The Digital Only consoles were the only ones I could find/afford and my brother moved out of state, so Digital was the right move so we could both play games instead of having to mail our copies back and forth (Which we have to do for Switch)

For Switch, that's where I'm torn. I really love how the cases for switch games look, and they dont take up a lot of room. More importantly, I always did collect physically for Nintendo before, so having copies of say every Pokemon physically, I dont want to cut that off, even if I do just prefer the digital experience these days.

If the next console is backwards compatible, I'll still have to use my physical library of Switch 1 games anyways, but for new games, I guess I'll have to decide soon if I want to bite the bullet and go all digital. If I dont like how the cases look compared to Switch then that might do it, or if maybe there's a game that feels like the "end of an era" that I'm ok with being my last physical game, then I'm cool with transitioning afterwards. But for now I think I will stick with it. I can always change my mind down the road and also I want to build a game room so I actually need games for that lol
 
0
I love and adore physical, but I think I am gonna be heading more to digital where possible. My physical/digital split is whether it's single or multiplayer, and how often I'd want to boot it up for a few minutes of gameplay at a time.

What I really wish Nintendo (and more companies in general) is sell their special/collector's/deluxe edition games with all the neat collectibles without the games included. If it's on multiple platforms, then you can choose whether you get it on Xbox or PlayStation or Switch or PC (and less waste as a result). If it's an exclusive, then you can choose whether you want it to be physical with the game, or be digital and still have the benefits of something to display on a shelf.

Hearing gamers bitch and moan about the practice a few years back reminds me too well when Burger King tried making a 1/3 lbs Whopper to take on the McD's quarter pounder, and the initiative failed because American's thought 1/3 was less than 1/4
 
This might be unpopular, but I feel with how games these days require patches/DLC/updates throughout its life, it makes the case for physical rather moot I feel. I've been all digital on PC for years, though that is more to do with no one simply does it anymore. And not once have I thought, "I yearn to go back to physical."

I'm also at a point in my life where I don't have oodles of space to hold all my games on shelving, though I have made exceptions over the years with some titles that are either no longer in production, are simply awesome games, and/or never received a proper port/remaster/remake.

So for this upcoming generation with the Switch successor, it's very possible I'd say. The vast majority of my current Switch library is probably 3/4ths digital to begin with.

EDIT: Physical was I believe more of a product of its day when games had to actually be finished and completed before going Gold and into mass production. We don't live in that era of gaming anymore, especially when some publishers decide to go the Hollywood route of, "Let's fix it in post!"

To me, it feels like a gut punch because that physical game you just bought is not even "finished" or complete. And I think it's even worse nowadays with post-launch DLC, and/or MTX, though the latter can go the way of the Dodo Bird for all I care to put it mildly.
 
0
I usually do a mix of both, if there is something I really want I would get it phisically, but I totally understand how comfortable is the fact that you don't have to keep changing game cards/ discs.

Wockio said:
Physical games have always been the more affordable option here in Mexico,
Click to expand...
As a fellow mexican this rarely has been the case. Nintendo first party games literaly have the Ratamel tax and they are always more expensive physical (and digital), to the point I can import them from the US and even with tax it's still going to be cheaper than buying it in retail stores. Third party games , especially more niche one like NISA and Xseed its always cheaper to get the digital version since they actually offer good regional prices in the eshop. There have been way better deals recently in Amazon and online retail shop, but as mentioned this is something recent (1, 2 years)
 
0
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top Bottom