Which is better, to buy Physical Games CDs, or to buy it Digitally?

There are many options in front of games consoles owner both PlayStation 4 owners and Xbox One owners or even those who have the old versions of those two names when they start to think about buying a game.

They have the option to download the game directly via the digital store or buy it as CD, each one of these options has its Pros. and Cons. and they beat each other in different points.

I’m going to put everything about these options in your hands, to make it easier to choose the way you are going to buy the game with whether downloading it via the online digital stores like PlayStation®Store and Xbox Games Store or buying it from the retailers like Amazon and the other near stores.

Which games to buy – Cost and Price

Prices of high quality games which is known as AAA Games that it’s considered the game of the year in their developers and publishers like Pro Evolution Soccer, FIFA, Assassin’s Creed, Battlefield and Call of duty ..etc. are usually very high, and that makes a lot of argument due to the fixed price of every new game which equals 60 dollars after the release other than the DLCs and Season Pass which if you have an intention to buy you will have to save more than 100 bucks to afford that, but it’s acceptable specially for me cause the high cost of the game industry lately, for example, The Witcher III game costed the company more than 40 million dollars to be in your hands with 60 dollars.

Away from discussing that for now let’s get back to our essential topic which is the difference between the cost of buying a digital game and physical game.

You will always find that the cost of buying a physical game is higher than buying it digitally special in the Arab world, and that happens due to:

• The price of the game itself after changing the currencies.
• The cost of charging the game to the retailer.
• The cost of charging the game to you.
• The earning of the retailer.

And that’s little much more than the price of buying it through online authorized retailer like Amazon which will cost you the price of the game+ the charging cost.

As you notice, when we talk about the physical copies of games we always add the charging cost, which means the game will always cost you more than 60 dollars or whichever it’s real cost.

But it’s not the same when we talk about buying games digitally via the online stores like PlayStation®Store and Xbox Games Store, the last thing you think about when you buy games digitally and may not think of it at all is the charging cost which make the game price only 60 dollars.

The second thing is the deals you will find over the stores which is sometimes become weekly deals that make the price of the game goes to become 50% of the original price.

Personally, I remember buying Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 via PlayStation®Store with only 18 dollars instead of 60 and that after not too long period of the release.

Read Also: 15 months of PlayStation Plus membership for the price of 12.

The third thing is that the digital games prices become nearly 30 dollars after the few months of releasing the game when the company reaches its target which is:

• Covering the cost of making the game.
• Making specific percentage of revenues.

That’s mean that buying games digitally wins in the Price and Cost battle, cause this method saves the charging cost beside the ability of buying games with saves up to 70%.

Which games to buy – The time required to have the game

When talking about the time you need to have the game and start playing it, we have to say that it depends on two factors:

• The internet speed you have.
• The time required for charging the CD when buying it online or from local stores.

Games sizes vary from 10 to 50 Gigabytes and sometimes more, so if you live in an Arab country you may buy a game in July and start playing it in the last of August due to the low internet speed in our countries, beside the download limits or what’s known as Fair Use Policy in Egypt which force you to use your internet with the speed of 256 kbps after downloading a game in case its size is bigger than the internet package you are subscribed in.

But in case you have a high internet speed would make you play a game of 40 GB after 10-15 hours of buying it, then it’s the best choice to download and not to buy it cause buying it from a retailer like Amazon would take 10-15 days and the digital copy of the game will win this battle too.

Which games to buy – System storage

One of the most important obstacles that would stop you from downloading a game is not having enough free space for it, that’s obviously because no games console is available until now with more than 1 Terabyte of storage -although the fact that you can upgrade its storage- but in the default situation, you have your console with 500 or 1000 GB of storage, filled with games with big sizes so that’s make it impossible to download more games without losing the old ones, and make the choice of buying physical copies of games the best cause it will not take the same size that digital games take even after installing updates, which means that the Physical games win this battle.

Which games to buy – The ability of selling and renting

At past, it was hard to rent and sell digital games, but lately it became so easy to buy or rent digital games by giving your account information to those who want to buy or rent, and that’s much easier than giving the CD specially to someone who is far away from you.

Besides that, digital games let you share your account with your friends and share the cost together while having the game, which means you and your friend will be able to play the game in the same time.

Which games to buy – Losing a game

one of the most dangerous things about having a physical copy of a game is losing it, simply cause it’s physical which means it could be cracked or scratched or even lost.

Unlike digital games which you download to the device storage, and in addition, it’s in your account.

So in the worst cases like damaging your hard disk, you will still have the game and be able to download or sell it so your money is saved with no need to buy it one more time.

Digital games win the battle too.

Which games to buy – Recovering lost or stolen games

Digital games is the best choice with no competitor in this point, as i said before the physical CD would be lost, stolen or scratched etc. with no ability to recover it again, but when using digital games, even if the account is stolen -which is possible- you can recover it easily by contacting the support and provide the required information like date of birth and the secret question or information about the purchase process like the date of purchase and the code of the coupon you charged your account with to buy the game.

All of that makes it better when we talk about not losing your game to have it digitally than having it physically cause the only way to recover a stolen CD would be little violent.

---

Now we have reached the end of the article today that it’s not always good to have a game physically and not always good to have it digitally but it depends on a lot of factors that may differ from a gamer to another, I have showed everything in my opinion which means i may be wrong cause I’m a human for sure -at least that’s what CAPTCHA says-.

You have the full freedom to buy whichever you want but don’t forget to share knowledge with us to know which choice you prefer and why in the comments section.