HoC Opinion: Digital versus Hard Copy

Herd of Cats have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of digital media versus hard copy previously however some recent occurrences had me flip flopping on my previous opinion. Up until now I have always been a staunch supporter of hard copies without understanding the interest in digital copies.

I have a significant number of my primary games digitally on my Xbox One. Destiny and Call of Duty Advance Warfare due to Activision's buy last-gen get next-gen free promotion. I bought these when I only owned an Xbox 360 and future proofed my hopeful upgrade to an Xbox One. I also own Titanfall digitally due to a $15 promotion for the entire game with all the DLC included. It still sells at $29.99 for just the physical copy (with no DLC).

Two solid reasons to support digital media but what really got me recently during a conversation with SeanMCR was the disc switching between digital games and the annoyance factor of having to physically dig up my Call of Duty Ghosts disc and put it in my Xbox One just to play Extinction with you guys. No problem if I only had one physical game but I was usually playing my physical copy of Watch Dogs before everyone came online.

Note that as Titanfall was digitally, both the physical games Ghosts and Watch Dogs were obtained at a significant sale price. One at $10 and one at $20.

So digital won just because I was too lazy to switch discs.

Or did it...

Shortly after the conversation with SeanMCR I got to the point that I was finished with Watch Dogs and I was looking for another cheap single player game to continue my alone time. For over a week I looked around with Coxxorz's help and found nothing for less than $39.99. Well above my previous set price point.

Then I had a chance encounter with my neighbour. My neighbour from this story. I mentioned that I was looking for something to play and wondered if he had anything I could borrow.

This is how I ended up with physical copies of Wolfenstein: the New Order and Dead Rising 3 on loan.

On loan. Something difficult to do with a digital download. Well, okay, impossible to do with a digital download.

Of course, my neighbour has asked to borrow my copy of Ghosts which was a problem as I am still actively playing it. I said something along the line of "he could pry it out of my cold dead hands!" Something like that. He understood but if anyone had an extra Xbox One copy of Ghosts lying around it would really help me out.

So the simple happenstance of borrowing two games from my neighbour has put me, once again, firmly on the side of physical media. I can survive the additional strenuous effort of switching game discs if it still allows me to play some games for free.

Please note I was always planning on buying Dead Rising 3 for coop with Coxxorz but Wolfenstein: the New Order was never on my radar. Boy is ever on my radar now. Wolfenstein: the New Order is an extremely good game and I am having a blast playing it. A bit old school but that doesn't seem to bother me at all as I am pushing my way through Chapter 14 right now.

So who wins between Digital Download versus Physical Media?

Physical Media!

No contest and my previous opinion remains intact withstanding a brief but minor fluctuation.