With the recent announcement that Sony PlayStation will not be creating physical games for the PlayStation 5 from 2028 and the fact that I have to check the Does It Play website to see if a title has the full game on the disc just shows the sad state that modern gaming is in.
I even recently bought a Switch 2 because I wanted to play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (and Switch 2 exclusives) and the Switch 2 version was the only one that held the full game on the physical release - the Xbox version only has one disc and the PS5 version is worse with only 20GB of data on the disc so you will have to rely on an Internet connection to download the rest of the game for the two platforms. The game is also available on DRM free on GOG, which is great, but the game has demanding specs and my PC is not good enough to play the game.
When Square Enix announced that the third game in the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy was only going to be on one disc and the rest of the game had to be downloaded from the Internet, that was what broke the straw on the camel's back for me. The Final Fantasy VII Remake games have been massive games, in terms of Gigabytes. The first part of the remake came with two discs on the PS4, and then part two was released on the PlayStation 5 with two discs, but for some reason part of the final game will be provided only on one disc and the rest of the game will have to be downloaded from the Internet.
Unless Square Enix change their mind and provide more discs with the full final game, I may look to the PC and Steam to play the last part of the trilogy (although, I would prefer the game to be on GOG as well).
All the above are some reasons why I am thinking whether I should go fully digital for gaming on PC and leave consoles in the past.
I have titled the subject as Physical Console Games Vs PC Digital Games, rather than Physical vs Digital games in general as PC has the benefit of being an open platform, whereas consoles only have one digital store and are basically a monopoly if they go the all digital route.
*Note - Physical Console Games are covered only for the PS4/5 and Xbox One/Series of generations.
Physical Console Games - Pros
1. Most Games Fully on the Disc
Most disc based games are fully on the disc. (94% out 3500+ can be played offline without any issues - according to Does It Play)
2. Many Ways to Buy Physical Games
There are many options to buy Physical Games - via various online retailers or physical stores and this also means price competition where if you research you can find the same games for cheaper at different stores.
3. Can Sell Your Games
If you no longer want a physical game in your collection then you can sell it, with digital it is stuck in your account.
4. Ownership
You can display games in a room if you want to, or lend it to a friend. You own the copy of the game so you can do what you want with it.
5. Can Still Buy Games That Have Been Delisted On Digital Storefronts
Physical games may stop being printed, but you can still buy them on the used market, whereas digital games may be delisted and if you have not bought them you will not be able to access them through legal means.
6. Disc is 1.0 Version
Patches may in some way make a game worse, whether that be taking away content due to political or licensing issues - with a disc version you can always reinstall the pre patched version of the game. An example of this would be the PS2/Xbox era of the GTA games. The GTA games are known for the real world music you can listen to on the in-game radio, but due to licensing issues some music has been taken away from the games through patch updates. If you have the original discs on the PS2/Xbox platform the music tracks will still be there.
PC Digital Games - Pros
1. Many Options to Buy Digital Games
Unlike a console, there are various online stores on the PC such as GOG, Steam, Epic, Amazon Games etc.
2. Refunds
In some places you can get refunds for digital games e.g. on Steam if you play a game for less than 2 hours you are entitled to a refund and GOG offers refunds. The PlayStation store on the console side does offer refunds, but if you play the game at all then you will likely not get a refund.
3. GOG DRM Free Games
GOG store on the PC is DRM free meaning you own the digital game and have more freedom. On Steam and Epic some games are DRM free. I found out by accident some of the games I have on Epic are DRM free.
I downloaded the 2017 version of Prey on Epic and copied it to an external drive to save for later. When the time came to play the game I copied it to my PC SSD and tried launching it via the Epic games platform (as I have done with many other games), but the game would not launch as it just wanted to download the whole game even though I had all the files on my SSD, so I explored the Prey folder on File Explorer and found the EXE file and I managed to launch the game without the Epic Launcher.
I explored a number of games like this and was happy to see that a few other games also launched in the same way as Prey (2017).
4. Open Platform
The PC is an open platform, while digital only on consoles is a closed platform. Even games that have DRM restrictions are likely to work many years later on the PC.
5. Does Not Take Up Physical Space
If physical space is a problem, then you do not have to worry about games filling up shelfs and taking over rooms.
You do not have to worry about packing all your games if you are moving house.
6. A Wealth of Mods to Enjoy
As the PC is an open platform then you can install many incredible mods that have been created by fans for many different games - which can add new life to some of your favourite games - this is not possible on an un-modded console.
If you need to revert patches that have been installed - this may be harder without a physical disc, but GOG can easily revert to earlier versions of a game, Steam can also revert patches, but not as easily as GOG.
7. Fan Games
Another great advantage of the PC is the sheer number of fan made games that are available to play. I am a big fan of the classic grid based Tomb Raider games that were released around the original PlayStation era and the fact that I can play thousands of old style Tomb Raider levels via TRLE.net or TR Customs.org is incredible.
There are also many original great free games that are created by enthusiasts on stores such as Itch.io and Game Jolt.
Physical Console Games - Cons
1. A Small Number of Games Are Not Fully on the Disc
Some games are not fully on the disc - some examples include Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, FFVII Revelations, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Assassin's Creed Resynced. According to Does It Play out of the 3500+ tested games 33 PS5 games are not fully on the disc. I think on the Switch and Switch 2 console the number of games not on the physical media is increased as I have seen many third party games requiring noting that they have an Internet connection to download the full game.
2. Required Patches
Almost every game in the modern era requires patches and many are day one patches, so while many games may play fine without any patches, they may not play in the optimal way without patches. There are some instances were a game is unplayable without a patch (as stated earlier Tormented Souls II has a game breaking bug), and thus the disc version alone is rather redundant.
3. DLC and DLC not on the disc in Game of the Year/Complete Editions
If you want DLC for a game then you will have to download it, but it will be tied to your account and you wont be able to sell it or swap with a friend. It used to be the case that developers would re-release 'Game of the Year' physical editions that would have the game and any DLC provided on the disc, but that is not always true anymore. I have Read Dead Redemption and GTA IV on the PS3 'Game of the Year' editions and the DLCs for each are on the disc.
Sonic Origins Plus is another example - the game is fully on the disc, but the 'Plus' part of the game has to be downloaded, which comprises an extra playable character and the bonus Game Gear games.
More recently I bought Streets of Rage 4 Anniversary Edition for the PS4 and that has the DLC on the disc, but there examples of companies like Capcom releasing games like RE4 Remake Gold Edition on the PS5. The Gold Edition contains the game and the Separate Ways DLC, but the problem is that the DLC is just a download code and not on the disc, thus making the physical version the same as the original physical version just with a different cover. So if you lend the Gold Edition to a friend that would be the same as giving them the original version (if you have used the code for the DLC). So even if you buy the Gold Edition you will only own the main game and not the DLC, whereas if you buy Streets of Rage 4 Anniversary edition you own the copy of the game and the DLC.
4. Physical Space Issues
Another issue of physical games is that they can take up too much space (depending on your environment). I myself have around 740 physical games, and while that is not a huge number of games (if you compare with game and movie collectors that you see on YouTube who have thousands upon thousands of physical media pieces) sometimes it is a bit overwhelming, but at other times I feel happy to own what I have.
I am not a collector and I do not see myself buying hundreds of games in the future, I just want to buy games when I am ready to play them and I tend to buy them physically more for the ownership purposes rather than displaying them all in a specialised game room. Most of my physical games/movies/TV shows are in easy to access drawers or storage, as do not want to see them all on my shelves all day, every day - I have some of my favourite games and movies on shelves (around 30), but I am happy to have most of them in easily accessible storage hidden away and ready too be used when needed.
5. Analogue Media Can Fail
The good thing about physical media that is fully of the disc is that you own the copy of the game that you bought, but analogue media is not 100% full proof. A physical disc can become scratched and unplayable, you can break it, you could lose it or it can also be stolen from you.
In my understanding CD and DVD based games are probably the most vulnerable to scratches, whereas Blu Ray discs are tougher to scratch and cartridges are probably the most robust of the physical formats - although the batteries on old cartridges are likely to fail over time thus save files are lost. Really, analogue media should be copied digitally in order to preserve the data in case something happens to your physical media.
PC Digital Games - Cons
1. Hard Drive Space
Hard Drive space can be an issue especially if you are one to download a lot of Triple A modern games as some games can take up over 130GB and need an SSD drive to run properly. Luckily you can buy more internal of external hard drives and are not limited with external drive space like you are with a console - however this can prove to be expensive. The PlayStation 5 does not take higher than 8TB external drives and the Xbox One is limited to around 16TB external drives.
2. Cannot Sell PC Games
A downside of digital PC games is you cannot sell them to anyone else - maybe you can sell your whole digital account to someone if you want.
3. Digital Delisting
Digital games can get delisted from stores and unable to be bought by others. Luckily you can still download delisted games if you bought them before they were delisted. Frustratingly, some games are delisted by companies when they release a remastered version. An example of this is when Sega released Sonic Origins Collection, which contained the classic Megadrive/Genesis games and Sega wanted the separate listings for Sonic 1, 2 and 3 etc to be delisted.
The problem was the games in the Sonic Origins Collection were remastered versions and in some instances they played differently from the originals, so if someone wanted to buy the originals to see the differences, well, then they are not able to. Luckily, there are many other ways to play the old games, through physical or by other means.
Another example of a delisted game comes also from Sega and Sonic again. Sonic Generations was remastered and saw a lot of changes to the game where the remastered version is fundamentally different to the original version. The original Sonic Generations was kind of delisted in that on Steam you can no longer buy the classic version individually, but it is included in a Sonic bundle of games (which can be rather pricey when not on a discounted sale). This is an example of when a fully on disc physical game is important as the original version can still be bought on the used market for the PS3 or Xbox 360.
4. Anti Piracy Measures
This is something that is a horrendous implementation in PC gaming. In some games on the Steam platform publishers decide that anti piracy software needs to be added.
Denuvo is probably the most infamous software that infuriates many PC players as the software can actually negatively affect the games people purchase. Denuvo has been know to slow some games frame rate and make a game play worse than it should on a persons PC. This is understandable as some people spend a lot of money configuring a high end PC only for Denuvo to run a game as if it was playing on a lower (and cheaper).
In the end the anti piracy software only punishes the people that bought a game legitimately while the people who actually have a pirated version can run the game without the negative effects - it ends up rewarding the pirate and punishes the person who bought the game legally.
I am not (as of yet) a hardcore PC player, but it is my understanding that anti piracy software is not as much of a problem as it used to be and I hear a number of stories were publishers decide to take the anti pirate software from their games.
I am sure when Steam was created on the PC platform it was to give players a better experience on the PC than they had at the time. Gabe Newell of Valve and creator of Steam is known for saying "piracy is almost always a service problem, not a pricing problem".
Conclusion or Confusion
So, to answer the question of which is better physical console games or PC digital games? According to what I have written physical has 6 pros and 5 cons, while PC digital has 7 pros and 4 cons - so statistically PC digital game wins over physical console games.
But, I do not think it is quite as simple as looking at it analytically and determining a winner - as console physical and PC digital both had a good number of pros, while the console physical had more cons than PC digital.
I cannot determine whether digital on the PC is truly superior to the console physical - I think I really have to look at it on a game to game basis. Sometimes digital on PC is better for me - when the game includes DLC I want, is on the GOG store and when the physical disc does not include the full game.
But, then there are other times I would prefer the physical version - when the game is fully on the disc, does not contain game breaking glitches without a patch and will not have DLC I want to play (or it is on disc on a Complete Edition).
But, then again, the PC digital version means I can install mods, save physical space, own the digital version if it is available on GOG and also select which patched version I play on GOG.
My thoughts on writing a Pros and Cons list was to help me determine which option would be better for me, but I think it has just led to confusion as I see good points in both options.
Maybe digital on the PC is the way to go for most games because of incomplete games on disc, patches, DLC, physical space - I just find it difficult to let go of future games on physical media. If all the games available on Steam were on GOG then it would be an easier choice as, to me, GOG digital is the next best option to physical media as you have ownership with GOG. But, then again, digital games can be delisted while the physical version can be bought on the used market.
One thing I am sure about is that if the next consoles go fully digital, then I am not interested in them. At that point in a digital only future, then at least PC is an open platform with many options.