I only care for the games themselves, not really the media they come in. The only thing about the media is convenience and how future-proof it is.

Digital (DRM-free) is much more convenient for me because I can fit 2168 GOG games (offline installers) into two 2.5" USB HDDs. I abhor to think how much room storing over 2000 physical CD-ROM games would take, what a nightmare it would be to try to find a certain game in that pile of boxes or CDs, and what a nightmare moving to a new apartment would be, hauling your physical game library with you.

Also digital games don't depend on any certain drive (floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, a cartridge slot) but can be easily moved around to different media or even to the cloud, if needed.

And no I don't really care for that often-mentioned cloth map on some old Ultima game, or getting a 500-page manual with a Microprose simulator that explains all the basics and advanced stuff about avionics. I actually prefer if I can start playing a game without reading a big manual first. The game should teach me how to play it, it shouldn't require me to first study how to play it, before I start playing it.

I absolutely miss those days. One of the many things that attracts me to GOG is that it's about as close as we can get to that era nowadays. Digital distribution sucks, full stop, but GOG makes it as close to the days of physical copies as possible. I just wish there were similar services for visual media (movies/shows), music and books... though, thankfully, printed media is still extremely popular.

Call me old school but I can't stand the idea of buying a massive string of ones and zeroes instead of an actual product that I can own and hold in my hand.
I still have CDs from before I was born (such as ones that belonged to family members) that still work flawlessly so I really do not buy that in the least. SOME physical storage may fail over time but I have yet to have a CD/DVD that has ever done that.

Pretty much EXACTLY this.

It does fade, but there is a HUGE difference between burned (something you make at home) and pressed discs (what you get in retail). While a disc you burn something on might be useless in 5 years, pressed ones can last decades. I already have multiple 20+ year old CDs that still work fine. If you store them properly, they can last a long time.

No, because I'm still purchasing boxed games (old and new) like crazy.

I have no fucking money anymore, but I'm happier like this :-P

Not really. Having a physical manual was always nice, but I prefer these days of rapid data transfer and the quick cycle of see game, want game, buy game, install game, play game. Often in just a few minutes.

It's easy to take this tech for granted, but I remember looking forward to it.

It does seem like too soon for a repeat of this question, yes.

Either way, digital is far more convenient when it comes to the games themselves, and it's not like physical didn't come with DRM, far from it, so definitely don't miss that, and the plain physical releases, just disk in case, maybe with a small instruction guide thrown in, just take up space for no reason. And no to the questions about plopping disk in drive, smell and installers too.
Actual proper manuals though, yeah, those were nice, and clearly prefer reading anything sizable on paper instead of on a screen, and additional physical extras like reference sheets and maps can also be nice touches. But those tended to vanish completely, not just be turned digital, for anything bar collector's/special editions, so it's not a matter of physical vs. digital, but another problem entirely.

So, as long as it's DRM-free, between all the comforts of digital and the possibility of, maybe, a physical proper manual and added extras, I'll take digital anyday.

I don't miss the days of publishing runs and store managers deciding what is successful or available, seems like we wouldn't have lost so many of our great game developers that way.

I think Death Stranding retail would probably have been considered a flop, gamers turned it around and made it a quiet success this time and even encouraged a Director's Cut. How did we lose Ion Storm when Deus Ex Invisible War and Thief 3 were literally in every game store throughout the world.

but hard drives demagnetise over time and can suffer mechanical failures.

And cloud storage, while incredibly convenient is also absolutely terrible for the environment.

I personally find the argument about waste a little bit weird when it comes to physical media.

I own many 10+ old CD's and DVD's. I have a few Blu-Ray movies. I am now starting to purchase 4K Blu-Rays. And yet I think that the waste/pollution produced by a single car over the period of a year will be far greater than of all those discs.


Why am I being downvoted when I am right?

One word: RAID

No.

Nostalgia is a powerful thing but I stopped buying physical games before they disappeared from shelves.

Last physical game i bought for myself was collector edition of witcher 2.

That gathers dust somewhere. Never used the DVDs. Instead got the game on steam and gog and used those versions to play.

Physical copies belong to the past.

If your worried about physical media falining or hard drives demagnetizeing
Use high quality blu rays with an inorganic recording layer or m disc Blu rays
And burn at a slow speed,
Your stuff will be good forever as long as you don't physically damage them.
And also keep a copy on a hard drive for easy access.
And a lot of physical games are worse than digital ones, beacause the safedisc
Or whatever drm the disc uses prevents the games from running on modern windows
Beacause it's Kenal level drm, your best get is to get versions of games you like drm free
Or cracked/with a no CD crack and creating your own physical media on high quality Blu rays
And hard drives.

This gonna be an unpopular take on here but i think only reason people like physical is just nostalgia. There's no logical reason to go back to physical.
Ownership argument is dumb bc DRM takes out physical games too, DRM-free regardless of distribution method is the way to go
Discs are outdated technology, you can't fit modern games on them, they're slow, they scratch easily, it's just really inconvenient
I have my digital games downloaded to big hard drive, easy to play them whenever, make a backup of or move them, etc, much more convenient than having a bunch of small fragile discs that take up a lot of physical space.
I do believe the option should still be there for those that want it but even if it was there i wouldn't go back, but maybe if the option was there i wouldn't have been pushed to ever try digital and wouldn't know of the advantages. As for physical extras they never really went away, many games still have Collectors editions that have all the stuff from old physical games, sucks that you gotta pay up to get them but it's just good business, most people didn't care for them so why waste resources manufacturing them for every copy, so they just sell for higher prices in limited quantities to those who care.