LogFAQs > #948614846

Personally, when it comes to Switch games (since physical PC games aren't really a thing anymore), I tend to buy physical copies of larger releases unless it's something I expect to want to play impulsively, such as Smash or Animal Crossing. Those, I buy digitally so I can always access them on demand without needing to carry around extra game carts.

FatalAccident posted...

With streaming movies you dont get the same 4K quality as a blu ray, is it the same with games?

Digital downloads aren't streaming. With streaming, you don't download and store a copy of the product, you download small parts of it at a time and delete them as they're consumed. That means you're limited by your connection speed and the speed of the server, and since higher quality video takes up more bandwidth, it's generally harder to get higher-quality stuff streamed than to watch it from a disc.

With most digitally distributed games, you're not streaming them, you're downloading the full game and storing a copy of it (streaming games is something various companies keep trying, but it generally struggles to get off the ground because most people don't have the necessary internet speed to avoid troublesome lag). That way, you're not limited by your internet connection, you're just limited by the read/write speed of whatever storage medium you're using. Sometimes, that works out to better performance than a physical copy, since optical media is generally pretty slow compared to HDD's (and especially SSD's). Other times, it ends up being worse because being able to read from an optical drive and the HDD at the same time can yield performance boosts (off-hand, I don't actually know how often that kind of parallel processing is used to optimize games). In general, though, you aren't likely to see major performance advantages either way.

EvilMegas posted...

"2K is ending virtual currency sales platinum in Battleborn as of Feb. 24, 2020. The game's servers will remain active and the game will continue to be playable until January 2021, according to 2K, but after that Battleborn will no longer be playable including the game's single-player campaign"

That's not simply delisting it from the storefront, that's shutting down the game's servers, which renders it unplayable for everyone regardless of their purchase format. That's a downside to server-based single-player modes, not a downside to digital.

Exceptions exist, but by and large, people are still able to play copies they've already purchased of games that have been removed from digital storefronts. Most recently, people who bought Cyberpunk digitally on PS4 are still able to play it (as much as they ever could >.>), people just no longer have the option of buying new digital copies. It's quite rare to actually see people's ability to play games they purchased taken away from them.

reason posted...

Physical is ALWAYS better, because you actually own the game. It can never been taken away. "Purchases" digital downloads is only paying for a rental fee.

You're only ever paying for a license regardless of your purchase format. Hypothetically, they have just as much legal right to revoke your license to a physical game as to a digital one. Obviously, it's significantly less practically possible to enforce such a revocation for a physical game than for a digital one, but legally, they're no different. Continuing to play a physical copy after having your license revoked is no less illegal than playing a pirated digital copy, as much as it seems better because all they can really do is say "don't play that anymore."

Of course, that's largely a moot point because that almost never happens. As much as people are paranoid about digital games being taken away, it's far, far more common for people to lose physical games to theft, fire, or any other manner of physical destruction than for digital games to be revoked.

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