A huge amount of physical media has changed in our lifetime (last 20-30 years)

Vinyls, cassets, cd's, dvd. All format that our kids will not know.
Do you still have your grandfathers Vinyl collection, that he kept safe for you, thinking it was the best thing ever?

If kids grow up in a world with Morpheus and Occulus Rift, will they WANT to play Super Mario?

I'm thinking the games we have now (Snes to PS3) might be available for free or for cheap on Smartphone in ten years...

People should strive to leave houses, businesses etc for their kids, not games lol.

The biggest thing that I have noticed is most collectors don't actually appreciate the games they have anyway, it's more of an addiction for them to just keep buying games and having them on the shelf. I've met a lot of people who collect games but know very little about them or even go back and replay them. These people are usually the one's that don't want to let go and move on, as I said the whole addiction thing.

Whether it is physical or digital you will still be able to play it in 10 years anyway. If I can still download and play Mario and Metroid I am pretty sure I will be able to do this same with games from this generation.

Digital won't be cheaper than physical on release anytime soon, unfortunately big game stores have too much say in that, but give it a few weeks and you will find the game in a sale or for free if you have PS+. I mean I spent like R300 for 3 big titles the other day on PSN, 2 of which are R390 each 2nd hand. Although some launch titles are currently cheaper on PSN than they are in stores.

People need to have an open mind and look at the bigger picture when it comes to digital, for lack of a better term, look past your gaming shelf

I recently sold my Xbox360, PS3 and Gaming PC, I made a lot of cash back on the games that I bought for console, but since I bought most of my games on Steam for PC I obviously could not sell them, I never really thought about it at the time of purchasing the games but I will probably never play any of the games I have on Steam again and now I feel like owning the games is such a waste, not just from a financial perspective but because at least when I sold my console games they went towards another persons enjoyment and I got some cash back.

And it's not just Steam, I have Diablo 3 on PC, i want to get it on PS4 but because of Blizzard T&C's I can't sell my PC copy... surely owning something means I have the right to sell it?

So in short no I don't think we own digital media, and I have learned my lesson, I will never buy digital again!

@DP - I do agree with your collector's comment. I've got a mate that holds onto everything, even terrible games he spent little time looking into before purchasing. I stick mostly to physical copies and hold onto only game that will get replayed or GOTY/Ultimate editions in which I'll replay with all the DLC.

@Gex_ZA - With game prices rising, digital games on PC (and all the inevitable sales), really makes sense if you're looking to access the widest variety of games. But I agree, a physical copy with actual value is still great and can find further use elsewhere. It's why I love 2nd hand books even though I've still got a Kindle for latest releases and hard-to-find books.

@Gex_ZA
Aaaah but that's where they get you. Manufacturers do not want you reselling. Remember when Xbox was going to tie your game to your console?

Digital is cheaper (from the perspective of sales, bundles, pre-orders ect.) but it has no resale value. Sometimes they can resell you the same game, though bundles, special editions and such.

Unfortunately, even physical media is now tied to digital. With the excessive patches, extras and DRM, your discs become a burden. I had to throw away my Starcraft 2 discs, since they just stop working in my cd-rom
My 3 day old Elder Scroll discs are now worthless, because the information on the discs is outdated so badly, I need 22gigs worth of patching before playing. The digital version is up to date...

Let's face it, if car manufactures had their say, there would not be a used car market. They circumvent this by making cars that only last ten years, and then costs thousands to keep on the road.

PS3/360 - Dark Souls2 Black Armour Edition = R745 - Resale price R300 (If you are lucky) R745 - R300 = R445 you will basically fork out for the game.

I pre-ordered (PC) Dark Souls Black Armour Edition (Digital) last week or the week before for R460, so the resale/trade in value of console games means nothing tbh, there's a R15 difference in what I pay for PC and what you would end up paying for a console game, that R15 is less than what I would spend on petrol and time to drive and buy the game. I can show you games on PC which is even cheaper than what you would buy a PS3/360 version for including reselling it.

I can always add extra to my PC's price the day I want to sell it, also getting a "resale value" for the game saved on it.

Anyway, some ppl find a rack of games fantastic, I find it annoying, especially the fact that they worse than the food blender my wife bought, we at least use that every 6 months or so I hope she doesn't read this, else I'll have to use the money I save on digital games to fix my face

Biggest problem with games is that 90% of them these days with digital have very little value attached to them anymore.

You go to when FF7,8 and 9 were not available digitally you could sell off origional ps1 copies for stupid prices. These days now that you can buy the game digitally people are not that interested in paying large sums of money to own physical copies.

So your only option is for a lot of this stuff what you are leaving your kids and honestly what do I still own of my parents? Nothing, absolutely squat.

There is nothing from their pasts that has been past on to me because it no longer has any use, I am sure as hell not going to go an dig up a vinyl record player when i can listen to the songs online.

Will be the same for our kids, they are not going to go and dig up an old ps4 and try get to work with components that have probably changed like the tv's no longer supporting hdmi and crap when they can purchase the game online for a fraction of the price.


Lets face it as well, the likely hood of any of these services going down is minimal. If PSN goes down that probably means the whole of playstation is going with it.

WHich then if you have a physical collection sure is great. But the bulk of people are going to oh, well that sucks.

If one day I loose my digital library I loose it, I probably wont replay 95% of the games I own digitally ever again lol.

I agree with woofels here

Nevermind saw it in another thread

DarkPrince said ...

People should strive to leave houses, businesses etc for their kids, not games lol.

The biggest thing that I have noticed is most collectors don't actually appreciate the games they have anyway, it's more of an addiction for them to just keep buying games and having them on the shelf. I've met a lot of people who collect games but know very little about them or even go back and replay them. These people are usually the one's that don't want to let go and move on, as I said the whole addiction thing.

Whether it is physical or digital you will still be able to play it in 10 years anyway. If I can still download and play Mario and Metroid I am pretty sure I will be able to do this same with games from this generation.

Digital won't be cheaper than physical on release anytime soon, unfortunately big game stores have too much say in that, but give it a few weeks and you will find the game in a sale or for free if you have PS+. I mean I spent like R300 for 3 big titles the other day on PSN, 2 of which are R390 each 2nd hand. Although some launch titles are currently cheaper on PSN than they are in stores.

People need to have an open mind and look at the bigger picture when it comes to digital, for lack of a better term, look past your gaming shelf

Leaving things for your children or grandchildren is not as easy as some people might think, my one grandfather spent his entire life working and he was a savvy businessman, that is how he left us an inheritance. I am not saying leaving games is a good thing for inheritance but leaving an inheritance in the past was a difficult act for anyone and in this day and age if you want to leave your kids an inheritance you better be ready to work your life and even then it might end up pointless.

An open mind is critical but don't let your mind become so open that you don't see when the world is screwing you over

Digital purchases may right now appear as if you have purchased and 'own' them however if it is digital and on PSN then in essence they still 'own' it you just think you 'own' it when you are only renting it from them

This is the reason why I only have 2 digital games and those games don't even have a physical copies