Do Video Gamers Prefer Hard Copies or Digital Copies?
Video gamers use more advanced technology than any other form of entertainment. It would make sense for them to be the first to enter the digital era but video gamers are actually dragging their feet about going to digital video games. It's always possible for a PC to crash or an Xbox 360 to get the red rings of doom. Maybe the hard drive can be salvaged, but maybe it can't.
One music track is 99 cents so a computer crash is only going to be costly if somebody has their entire music collection on their hard drive. In that case music is a lot easier to back up. Video games are a hassle to back up so most people don't. A hard drive crash probably means losing games that cost $60 or $70 each. Some digital video games will have the option of downloading the game again if the user should lose it but most video gamers would rather avoid the hassle and have their own hard copy.
Let's also consider that out of CDs, movies, books and video games the most expensive form of entertainment by far is a video game. An entire season of a television show can be bought for cheaper than a video game. Naturally any video gamers feel sympathy for their video game brethren when it comes to high prices. Most gamers will lend their friends a game once it has been completed. Maybe it's possible to do this with a video game that has been downloaded digitally but once again it is easier to just hand a friend a hard copy of the game.
Video gamers are also interesting creatures. They are definitely the pack rat of the entertainment world. A lot of video games will only have about 10 to 15 hours of story but a video gamer will take closer to 50 hours to complete it (or at least it will seem that long to their mother/girlfriend/wife). Why? Video gamers have to do everything. Every side quest has to be completed, every item has to be found and every achievement or trophy has to be attained. These pack rats also want a hard copy of their game because they even want the items that come inside the video game box. Once upon a time games just came with a simple instruction booklet but as games have gotten more advanced the booklets that come inside the game have an increasing amount content in them. Some video games will often contain other items to reward a gamer for buying the hard copy.
Maybe the number one reason that video gamers are hesitating to go digital is because they like having a hard copy to put on their shelf. This used to be the sort of thing that people did with books and albums but it is more of a movie/video game thing now. A video gamers collection on their shelf is sort of a representation of who that person is. Are they a jock that plays sports games? Do they play almost entirely shooters? Do they prefer RPGs? Many video gamers take pride in their video game collection and want to show them off to everybody that visits.
Sources:
Leigh Alexander, Survey: 64 Percent of Gamers Still Prefer Hard Copies to Digital, Gamasutra
Published by Lee Andrew Henderson
I was born, I wrote, I died. View profile
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10 Comments
Post a CommentI personal prefer digital copies. As a predominantly PC gamer, Steam is a savior.
It has an expansive library of games, More so then the nearest game stop, or best buy. I've lost more games over the years due to lost cd keys/installation disks and the only thing i have to keep with me for steam is a log in id and password.
NTM the environmental burden of printing/boxing/shipping hard copies.
Hard copies, all the way. Digital copies come with all sorts of pesky DRM restrictions. Plus, I'm not too keen on paying $50-$60 for a game and having no physical copy. Should the download server go offline and I no longer have a copy saved, then what?
the video game industry has pretty mush already swapped to download only installs.
Because if you buy most game store boxes the DVD only does a steam install or you have to verify it via a online download service so you never really get to install a game without having to download something these days.
It's a shame as you can't just buy then install then play, I hate it myself.
As generally if the game is very new or in some cases game store will release a game but the devs want to hold off because they have a game patch on release so you can't verify a game until the devs want you to etc.
It's destroying their business really as many people don't think it and has become a turn off.
Also with games becoming 12+ gigs in size your looking at weeks maybe months to download said game files.
You can download games over and over on Live. I'm sure you can on PSN. So crashing hard drives isn't a big deal.
You can download games over and over on Live. I'm sure you can on PSN. So crashing hard drives isn't a big deal.
Thats why Steam and Impulse and other similar services thrive ( especially steam)
Not only you can redownload the game you bought as many times and in as many pc's you want but there is a backup option in case something happens you dont have to redownload the game again just use the restore option
You dont own DD games. You borrow them from a publisher.
Its a ripoff for games. Thankfully sony and nintendo have both said that future portables/consoles will never be dd only
if i had a giant harddrive and a badass internet connection than maybe download but for now hard copies
Hard Copy 4 life
I would never buy a console that had download only games. My experience with downloading anything is that it never goes smoothly. Also download only limits games to people who have an internet connection. Many do not. Not to mention the fact that games will stay at the prices they are released at, with no price reduction. Just look at the games avaliable on 'games on demand' - far higher prices digitally then avaliable on physical media in the shops. Out of the xbox 720 and the playstation 4, I will buy the console which has physical media, not download only.