LogFAQs > #971627540

adjl posted...

Generally speaking, though, digital versions will remain available for purchase long, long after physical versions have been pulled from store shelves for not being popular enough. There's always the possibility of hunting down a physical copy somehow, whether getting lucky with an in-store used sale or by finding a seller online, but that's going to require effort, luck, and probably some extra money (especially as more time passes). If the game's available digitally, it's going to be available for exactly the same price (or less), for exactly the same amount of effort, and with zero luck involved for as long as the storefront survives, unless the publisher makes a decision to pull it (which happens and is bad, but it's pretty uncommon), and that's generally much longer than physical games remain on shelves.

Maybe its the games I buy, but I never have trouble finding them online Someone is almost always selling the ones Im looking for. They may be expensive, but theyre available And it usually doesnt take that much effort of luck on my part, normally But again, it could just be the type of games I look for

As for the storefront, thats not always true For example, Nintendo seems to shut down their stores. I think its only been the Wii store, and now the 3DS store But the systems before didnt have them. For Sony, the store update and remove stuff sometimes. Some games I was able to get for PS3 werent available digitally for PS4. And its will probably be the same with each system going forward Thats a guess, though for now Dont know about Mrcrosoft, though Even with Steam, they remove games often enough Its not a large percentage since they have an obscene amount of games there. But games do get removed frequently, I believe They have people that make topics and stuff on this site and others about it

adjl posted...

Physical distribution isn't cheap. It's not at all uncommon for a publisher to do a digital-only release if they expect that a physical release will cost more than they stand to make from the game, which can make for regional differences when localization comes into play (or even just simple population density). It'd be nice if the savings publishers enjoy from digital distribution ever got passed on to the consumers, but that's just not how corporations like to operate, so here we are.

It's worth noting that "X sold well enough that they could have done a physical release" is often an assessment that can only be made retrospectively. The physical releases of Stardew Valley and Hades, for example, only happened after the games had already been successful and it was well-established that there was enough demand to make the release worthwhile. When games are initially being released, that's quite a gamble to take, especially for indie studios that often don't have the capital lying around to be able to build up an inventory of physical copies.

Tbh, the savings were never going to go to us Thatbwould defeat the purpose of making it digital They want to make more money. So, that was always the plan That said, even popularity doesnt always help I think Phoenix Wright was the top selling games in the eShop for like a month. Part of that was because it was ONLY available there But even then, it sold a lot Yet, even then, 6 was still digital only