Why i believe discs would never stop. Well for a while

Many people including my dad say stores like gamestop will die out because now everybody downloads games. But one flaw with downloads is that it takes up more space than discs. Well in next gen not so much of a difference. But once a hard drive is full no more game downloads until you delete a few. Disks are different especially in xbox 360 and ps3. But one thing that may actually happen is games on Flashdrives or some special type of physical storage space

I hope they never die, lasts year's events demonstrate that you can always count with your discs to play but can't always rely in digital content.

Maybe someone will develop green-ray HD technology that can store more data than than blue-ray. But seriously, I too hope game discs stick around for a long time.

Yeah I definitely hope discs hang around for a good while yet... I know it's only a matter of time before they go, but I'll definitely stick with them for as long as I can.

Physical for life!

There is a place for both physical and digital.

The real reason digitalisation of the games is happening is so you can't give it to another person a.k.a. all the big people: Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and steam/origin want you to buy your own instead of sharing it with your friends (and yes there are instances it is still possible)

@mdk12345: no one knows we can only speculate

It probably won't be long until all games have to be downloaded. I personally hope there will always be physical copies of games, I hate downloading games because they could disappear or be taken away at any time. And it's enjoyable to spend ages in a game store just looking at everything, it would suck if there were no more game stores.

I can exchange the disc for another game or sell it used to buy another game, I am down for digital as long as you can sell it or exchange it when you are done playing.

In addition to arguments already made, there is also the case of crappy internet connection still being reality in many parts of the world. Nor crappy per se, but 60gb downloads can still take forever. It all boils down to what's most profitable, ignoring customers from areas with slow internet, or releasing digital copies for the same price as a hard copy, while also preventing people from lending games/selling them.

I don't see games going all digital anytime soon which I'm very thankful for as I greatly prefer the physical format. I still buy all my movies, music, and books in physical form, I see no reason for games to be different.

I see game discs being around for the next 10 years before they become like CD's.

Right now companies like MS, Sony and Nintendo need advertising from retailers.

What about people who collect games just for fun? What about getting to an old age and to show your life's videogame collection to your grandchildren? What will you show them then? A hard drive?

Come on..

I doubt physical media will go away any time soon. Publishers still need/desire to reach markets where digital does not do well, like the folks who prefer physical above all else, and those with very lousy internet speeds, connections, and download caps.

@alanissak320: i will continue to buy physical discs because i like those more

The tip of the scale are connection speeds. If the average connection speed does not increase accordingly to the average game size (which it is currently not doing), dowloading 50+ GB for each game will be impractical for most people, leading to the demand for physical media remaininmg constant.

Plus, people like to sell games they are done with, and even though Steam has trading (which I am not fully sure how it works and what limitations it has), that's not really the same thing.

Ok sorry for late responses

@raugutcon: i do have both disc and digital but i rely on discs more (Storage wise) but a physical disc sometimes gets broken so i am half half but for sure discs will not die out for a long time.

@Collie_Lover: Sony and Panasonic have teamed up and are trying to make 1TB discs

@hrt_rulz01: Im still pretty confident that discs will stay for decades

@Chozofication: I got to agree on that

@mdk12345: discs will stay on longer and who knows maybe digital will go more onto the cloud side then physical storage

@dylandr: Thats a good theory

@Twazzk: that may be true digital saves companies more money. A disc costs maybe $0.40 each which seems like a little but when millions buy then its a huge difference so that may happen

@yukushi: that would be a cool feature trading/exchanging digital games but may be a bigger target for piracy ( for example a modder/hacker giving out free games)

@yngsten: while i agree i also disagree. Newer technology may make internet affordable and accessible by anyone any where. Have you heard that 5g cellular networks can offer Terabit connections. but 5g networks are still under development and wont be available till 2020 or later

@Archangel3371: I still prefer my movies/music digital. But games it depends some i prefer digital because for example a sale/discount or storage

@drekula2: well dvd's are already considered cd's by most people But blu ray is whats big on next gen and you never know when a new disc format comes out cheaper and higher capacity.

@matt2790: true i never sold any of my gamecube games, classic xbox games, ps1 games, or collectors edition games

@XIntoTheBlue: True some retailers depend on physical media more then digital

@The_Last_Ride: I will also but next gen i prefer digital since now xbox one and ps4 download everything off the disc to the console so the disc itself is just a key to play the game.

@Black_Knight_00: Like i said to someone else as a reply internet soon will be available for everyone nearly everywhere and at high speeds

Well I just finished replying to everyone

Its called a hard drive, you can buy them cheap on Amazon, newegg etc. I quit buying discs, I have no intention of trading in any games because I am pretty picky when it comes to the games I buy.

I've come around to digital distribution.

There are many places where fiber optics and future high speed supports will never reach. Unless they come up with satellite internet that's actually reliable, a lot of people in rural areas will be cut off from gaming if physical media is discontinued.

I can't really remember the last disc game I bought on PC.

I think it was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY Edition in late 2007/early 2008.

So long as internet speeds in rural areas continue to lag behind urban centres, there will still be physical copies of games. When that changes, physical games will disappear.

@alanissak320: the harddrive will be full and there isn't much hassle to switch discs anyways. There is no clear advantage between the two imho

I doubt stores like gamestop will die out completly, but it's not because of harddisc space on your console etc.. when/if you delete your game from your harddrive, you still have it, you just have to re-download it again, or you could invest in a new 2TB harddrive from NYKO for instance for your Ps4, the reason why gamestop wont die out is more because you can trade your games in when you buy physical games. When/if Sony and MS desides to let us trade and sell games digitally, then it will be game over for gamestop stores but they might have webstores where they will sell physical games though and ship them to you.

@ojmstr: but re-downloading is a pain

@alanissak320: Not really, you can just re-dl before you go to sleep or before job or school or whatever and when your back on again it's right there with your save files and everything.

Whenever Physical is out the window, so I am. Next gen PS5-6 ect can go **** itself, if something like that happens. tbh.