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low rated
I unfortunately only buy games from GOG, but I would love it if we had retail game copies with GOG redeem codes

I recommend you check out the channels Metal Jesus Rocks and LGR on YT, they've got cool collections, I love seeing all that tangible, actual physical media

What about you? Do you prefer buying games on GOG or physical media?
Post edited March 11, 2022 by TheNamelessOne_PL
Physical, whenever reasonably possible. Many retail shops around here still have boxes of older games that didn't sell out completely and I regularly scrounge whatever new (or old) shows up every couple of months.

I don't mind when a boxed game requires Steam activation as I still have something physical as a proof of purchase. Note that I never buy "code only" boxes. It has to contain a disc.

But the only place I buy digital games is GOG. I will only ever spend money on a purely digital product if it is without DRM.
Post edited March 11, 2022 by idbeholdME
low rated
I prefer to own what I buy, meaning to effectively be in control of it. Oftentimes, "digital vs physical" is a bit of a false dilemma or non sequitur, as I would much rather have a DRM-free GOG offline installer versus a physical box with a Scheme key inside. I think ideally games would come with the physical packaging but completely DRM-free on a USB stick such that the files could be transferred, copied to separate drives, etc. I would like there to be both physical copies of big boxes, expansive manuals, maps etc as well as DRM-free digital versions included on the drive.
low rated
Always prefer physical.

Would love to see GOG provide physical editions of some games (somewhat like Slitherine.. except with "goodies" incorporated), but moving from store to quasi-publisher -- and the monies involved for both GOG and the customer -- might be a bridge too far.
low rated
That is an excellent question. I'm glad you brought it up. I'm an older person, so the thought of solely digital purchases scared the hell out of me for many years. I would tell myself that it was basically giving money away. I'm a stickler for disc-based media, especially when it concerns gaming consoles. However, I do not share this attitude when it comes to my PC. I feel 100% fine getting digital goods here on GoG. I have a 10TB external HDD and I simply store everything on it. I also regularly check the site for updates to maintain my files.

Even though I'm a stickler for disc-based media for my consoles, I may soon abandon that as well. After all, these games get updated often, and that is never going to be on the disc. I think even the newer emulators for PS3 and X-Box 360 require you to get the additional updated files for games just to play them from disc too. Almost forgot to mention that none of my PCs has a disc drive anyway. lol I miss those.

Why did the world get so complicated? lol

By the way...Clint from LGR and Metal Jesus rock!
Post edited March 11, 2022 by JoaoPauloZA
I preferred the physical version, but as for the PC, Steam has almost completely destroyed the market with its useless keys.

That's why I still think that if GOG formed a partnership with some brand in the limited physical videogames sector and slapped a nice "GOG Collection" logo on selected titles that would have a good following among fans.
Physical.

What if GoG goes bankrupt, what if GoG looses your games. Services get hacked daily, what if they
remove everyone's games, what if they give everyone all games - GoG goes bankrupt and you loose it all.

We are moving towards digital only, there is no stopping it. No need to print copies, no more "Sold Out",
less trash, faster distribution, less physical storage requirements.

I own Witcher 3 complete on 6 DVDs, that was the last physical copy i bought.
I bought Andromeda through Amazon, got a code in a box.
What's the point of that? If only we had the power of email I wouldn't have had
to wait for mail and we could have saved us from some pointless plastic trash.

I can see movies go down the same path some day.
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renegade042: I can see movies go down the same path some day.
Some day maybe, but that day is still far away. As long as streaming services are stuck on 1080p or offer inferior bitrates or compression for 4K or any other resolution, physical media will always have the advantage here.
Post edited March 11, 2022 by idbeholdME
People say they prefer "physical" as if it granted more ownership than proper DRM-free digital files.
But they usually just end up with semi-obsolete media supports\formats tied to proprietary hardware eventually doomed to fail\be abandoned.
Plus such games will often still require extra digital content, like patches, so they won't even be standalone.

Physical only beats digital for the tangible extra goodies and if you're incapable to maintain backups, otherwise digital wins all the way (convenience, portability, required space, etc).
Post edited March 11, 2022 by phaolo
Mostly on gog due to not having limitless room space, while i don't mind a physical media if they are drm-free i got stronghold collection and painkiller collection that are drm-free.
And gog still doesn't have stronghold 2 or legends here for some reason.
Physical is many years dead. Whilst you can get physical releases they are simply steam or other store codes now. I used to be a big collector of physical, but I sold most of it. Takes up a huge amount of room, you have to keep mods and patches separate, endless dlc and InDev now, none of it is conducive to physical media now. I know the old boxes and maps and inlays etc. were great but that time has gone.
I'm only buying off GOG and itch's charity bundles. My requirement is no DRM.

I'm playing games on a laptop, which means Windows 10 and no compatibility with disc-based DRM. There's a ton of physical media games taking up space in a closet that won't work because of disc DRM. I do believe that physical media can give people a false sense of ownership. Yes, you physically have something in your possession. That doesn't change the fact that you don't really own it if you have to connect to an online server (as that's the current DRM) just to play a single-player game.

When I have any doubts about my position on DRM, I just remind myself of Might and Magic X. This is the single-player only game that UbiSoft kept selling through Steam even after they turned off the DRM-validation servers. When people started leaving negative reviews warning others not to buy the game as you couldn't play past the first chapter, they're next response was to pull the game off the store. It doesn't matter that people came up with their own fixes or that UbiSoft eventually decided to give people that bought it permission to play the game again. This can happen with any game that has this type of DRM in it.
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phaolo: People say they prefer "physical" as if it granted more ownership than proper DRM-free digital files.
More ownership? No. Something on top? Definitely. You can make an ISO out of a disc (if the game is from times before discs also started getting DRMd). But the reverse process is pretty much impossible as you really can't make a pressed disc at home.
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phaolo: But they usually just end up with semi-obsolete media supports\formats tied to proprietary hardware eventually doomed to fail\be abandoned.
I wouldn't consider DVD a "semi-obsolete medium". Doomed to fail depends on how you store them. They can last decades if you don't handle them terribly. I still have CDs from the early to late 90s that work without issues. Blu-Rays don't even have a set lifespan yet but the claims are anywhere in the 100+ years territory with proper storage. And disc drives are also backwards compatible. Even a Blu-Ray drive can still read CDs.
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phaolo: Plus such games will often still require extra digital content, like patches, so they won't even be standalone.
I consider separately downloadable patches as an advantage. They can often bring undesirable changes, like changing balance in RTS or aRPG games or introduce new bugs (as is the case for a couple of games on GOG even). Makes me thankful I have Battle for Middle Earth games or Command & Conquers on discs and can play a different patch than the latest one which screws the single player campaign balance for the sake of multiplayer, which has been long dead.
Post edited March 11, 2022 by idbeholdME
I am not sure if i prefer digital or physical media, but i've many times had issues with internet so having something on hand that i can just use.

You know with how chips are today. I'd almost prefer software and games to be distributed like in Shadowrun, on a chip that's a ROM, not too unlike a micro SD card. Better yet fast enough to run without installing anything but any dependencies and run without installing the main game to your hard drive....
Digital, provided its drm-free. Physical formats clutters my house and I'm trying to at least give lip service to the environment. Even with local hard-drives for backup, its not comparable.

However, if it is not drm-free, I prefer physical (which doesn't guarantee no online requirements, but there are greater chances of it). For mainstream books, I still buy physical, because most digital mainstream books don't have a drm-free option (sorry Kindle, no money from me, I don't want Jeff's blessings to access the books I bought).