In the past, I've been one to want to collect games in the physical format.

But with the emergence of Steam/GOG/Origin/etc. . ., and the fact that I very rarely sell off old games, I have pretty much went entirely digital with regards to my collection of PC games.

I really enjoyed having a big library of games while not occupying a ton of physical space.

With that said, I'm on a mission to adapt that methodology to my purchases on the PS4, but it's proving to be a challenge as digital sales on console type games don't occur as often or aren't as good. I'm hoping that at some point, those kinds of deals get a little bit better.

I have a bad (?) habit of succumbing to the many awesome sales on PC games. When a game costs less than lunch at a fast food restaurant, it's hard not to justify picking it up. I'm the type of gamer that like to experience many different games / stories / worlds / etc and I know I'm typically not going to play any single game for a long time (especially not once I've finished it). So if I can snag it for a low price, I can at least give it a shot and if it hooks me, then great, otherwise, eh, I'm not out much.

All that being said, I'm still a huge collector of physical games. I mostly stick with mid-late '90s stuff for the nostalgia factor, but I go back to the '80s and into the '00s as well. I credit the Saturn for REALLY getting me back into gaming, so I'm always hunting down games from that era to get my nostalgia fix.

I've been pretty good at keeping my digital purchases limited to indie games only. The only digital games I have that are also retail releases are the psn+ games I have. Other than that, I'm having a real struggle going all digital. I love having the physical copy to add to my collection.

My collection, in general, is pretty all over the place between 2600 and PS4 games and almost everything in between. I tried to do a more 'focused' collection of Street Fighter and Castlevania but now that both are near completion, I've lost any sort of method for the madness.

If I had more room in my house, I'd probably still be on the path of buying mostly physical. I think now, though, the only time I'm going to really buy physical is if I see a collector's edition or something that I can keep sealed.

I almost always buy physical games and very rarely buy anything digital. Nearly all of my digital games are from free promotions....

I'm a PC gamer and I only buy digital these days, easy and no disk needed as my internet can load a game faster than it would take me to install it (including getting the disk, putting it in the tray, looking up the key code, etc).

Around 2000 I bought lots of games and still have most the boxes. Most are stored away because I don't have the room for them to display, but some notable ones I have on display like the original Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment, Diablo, Starcraft and System Shock 2. Once DVD's became the standard mid 2000, and boxes disappeared rapidly from the shelves, I was already pirating a lot so already shifting to ditital copies. These days I buy recent games digitally (90% of the from bundles), have almost all of my boxes digitally available and have bought all the pirated (and played) games digitally.

The last game I bought physically I think was Drakensang - Rivers of time before it was digitally available on Steam. The really last game I got as a present was Mass Effect 3. Didn't use the disk though. The last game I installed physically was I think Ankh, to see if I could get it to run without a disk. I failed.

I will buy physical or digital, no real preference on format, what it boils down to for me is cost.
Digital is quickly becoming the majority of my purchasing lately simply due to the absurdly low costs of a lot of pc games if you just wait a year or so after release. (sometimes not even that long)

Personally, I had an experience that really pushed me into the digital camp from here on out.

A few years back, I worked overseas. I lost one job, but got another and put my things into storage during the month I had to come to the U.S. to wait for the apartment for the 2nd job to come through, as I had accumulated enough to make it pretty hard to take back with me. Wouldn't you know it, the 2nd job fell through and I ended up losing all the stuff in storage. But, since I retained control of my various passwords for Steam, PSN and Xbox Live, I managed to keep all my digital stuff. Even all my Sims 3 games were waiting for me on Origin since I registered them on thesims3.com (which also gave me a higher opinion of Origin than most have.)

But I will agree Steam's low sale prices come very close to making the concept of buying a physical PC game absurd.

Physical first, if it doesn't exist digital.

I’m happy to add Kowloon High-School Chronicle to my physical Switch collection.

I moved about a year ago.

Digital games. Digital games, digital books, digital comics, digital music, digital movies. I am not renting a uHaul to truck around boxes of media again. The next move, anything that I can get digital goes to friends or eBay. Cloud saves only sweeten the deal.

Depends. On PC unless it's an older game then digital is the only option and you can't beat those Steam sales! With everything else, I'll try to get physical in all circumstances unless the physical is significantly more expensive than the digital. Only retail games I've ever gotten digitally were Puyo Puyo Tetris and Splatoon 1 and I regret doing so.

Circling back around since this thread resurfaced, I still stand by mostly digital purchases. The only consoles I typically buy physical for anymore are Nintendo related. Otherwise, pretty much still only purchasing digital content.

I do it basically like CrazyCaps said. In my Opinion nothing beats Steam on PC, it is also probably the last of the services to die of so I have faith in digital there.

On Consoles it is the exact opposite. I hate when they start closing of storefront and download server for bogus reasons. Like PlayStation initially tried with PSP/VITA and PS3 not so long ago. Not having the games as physical copies feels extremely risky to me. (Of course you could always jailbreak and go full Pirate mode, but it shouldn´t be that way.)

I tend to stick to physical these days. Used to play a lot of digital, both legitimately and illegitimately, but I find I increasingly like having something physical there to look at on my shelf as I get older and my gaming becomes more and more driven by nostalgia. Also, I really struggle with motivating myself to do things, and find that having a game on my shelf as a physical object makes me much more likely to actually sit down and give it a proper shake.

A lot of my consoles are modded anyway, and in some cases I'll just use the physical disc as a kind of install disc of sorts as opposed to literally playing off the disc. But yeah, I try to buy everything I want to play in physical unless it's digital-only or oppressively expensive.

My personal preference has been and always will be physical. The only digital games I have were either included on hardware or were free downloads. If I see a game that I want and it is digital only.....I just do without unless it is free. Yeah, I'm THAT guy. When it comes to digital, I probably have the smallest collection on this site (17)(insert your joke here). Physical....is a different story. Perhaps it is due to nostalgia from my childhood back in the '70's seeing Atari 2600 games hanging on the shelves of Howard's and K-Mart. Space is a consideration for most....and I get that. Trust me when I say that room is at a premium here as well. However, there is nothing like having shelves full of physical copies (and maybe when I get more room I can display mine LOL). Digital games are cheaper but it just isn't the same for me. If I ever have a situation in which I need to sell my collection, I can do that. Don't get me wrong....I am not collecting as an investment but it is reassuring to know that in a pinch I may have a safety net.

I drive a 20 year old car and my cds in the car are very scratched. Which is why I prefer to collect games digitally because I am free do admit that if I collected physically that I would probably ruin said collectikon. So digital all the way!