Physical or Digital

[MD-Blu]

In my opinion it seems like Nintendo is trying to get people more into digital games for the Switch 2 because of the key card games. I’m most definitely not going to be buying game cases that has the key cards in them.

So my question to everyone is, physical or digital for the Switch 2? I’m actually leaning towards digital for the Switch 2 and I’ve always been a physical ever since I’ve played video games.

[Diesel]

I buy almost everything physical on both Switch and PS5, so that will stay true for Switch 2. The only times I buy digital is indies (which I don’t buy often) and significant discount sales (Arkham trilogy on PS4 for example).

[Talal86]

The plan was to buy mostly digitals, but seeing the prices of the SD cards made me change my mind

[dyne]

Never buying key cards so by default mostly digital.

[master gandhi]

Mostly digital, but occasionally I will get first-party Nintendo games on physical to free up system storage space.

I had originally preordered the Samsung 256GB memory card for Switch 2, but I canceled it because I’ll wait for an official 512GB memory card down the road.

[heyadol]

Digital. I find even on the rare occasion when I buy a physical game these days, I still buy it digitally if available.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by Talal86

The plan was to buy mostly digitals, but seeing the prices of the SD cards made me change my mind

The prices will likely come down considerably by next year like with the regular MicroSD and NVMe Gen 4 SSDs for PS5

[dyne]

Originally Posted by Diesel

The prices will likely come down considerably by next year like with the regular MicroSD and NVMe Gen 4 SSDs for PS5

Walmart had a 512 card for under $100 last week. I want to say maybe $80 max. The same item was also on sale at Amazon for a little over $100 iirc. Just waiting on that pricing at Best Buy.

[ps3bd_owner]

Physical but only real cartridge releases, no GKC or CIB crap.

[Akibiyori]

Both depending on the situation. When I can get something like the Resident Evil remake in the $5-$10 range, I’ll go for that, and some of my most enjoyable purchases have been the EGG Console, Sega Ages, and Arcade Archives releases. In recent times, I’d get something like Dragon Quest III HD-2D on cart and Ys: The Oath in Felghana digital (didn’t need the large box and trinkets in the latter.) All of my 1st party games have been physical. If something is collector bait then to hell with it, I’ll just get digital.

Key cards are a firm absolute “No” going forward. I don’t plan on selling my stuff, so it’s completely pointless.

[SurgeonOfMean]

I prefer buying physical. Any game getting a game key card only release will just be purchased digitally when it goes on sale.

[TecmoZack]

Physical for 1st party Nintendo stuff.

I'll buy digital for anythign else likely.

I did purchase Cyberpunk for Switch 2 in physical form.

[ChadFL]

Seems to be more accidental (decision to go with a technology offering faster carts, but only available in 64 GB) than planned that Nintendo killed off most third party physical releases on Switch 2. That's the most Nintendo thing ever.

[logboy]

i'm expecting to buy cheap digitals (on sale) from my wishlist, mostly.

patiently waiting to see how the marketplace takes to key cards. that's where the shift will come from (if anywhere) and maybe pressure from publishers to give more options on cartridge sizes.

for me, this move from nintendo is an answer to piracy during the switch. you'll be reliant upon servers to access a download, so they can make a game live on release date. don't know why some (first party) will be entirely on the cartridge, other than the cartridges aren't a cost for nintendo in the same way.

[jzbadblood]

Digital everything for video games. They get patched to hell anyway nowadays.

[dyne]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Seems to be more accidental (decision to go with a technology offering faster carts, but only available in 64 GB) than planned that Nintendo killed off most third party physical releases on Switch 2. That's the most Nintendo thing ever.

Accidental would imply they had no idea during the roadmap there would only be 64GB cards. They knew. This is arrogant Nintendo. It's what SONY does after a massively successful generation. Both try to pull an Apple and force the industry to what they want. Both have been successful so far.

And before anybody cries, yes Xbox tried it from 360>One but the industry and fans quickly demolished them.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by jzbadblood

Digital everything for video games. They get patched to hell anyway nowadays.

Depends on what games you play. Nearly every game I own physically for the Switch is perfectly playable without downloading any patch. Especially so for first party Switch games as Nintendo does an excellent job at releasing games in a completed state, outside of a few rushed Pokemon games I don't care about.

Even for games that do need patches, you can usually get revised carts which includes all patches/updates on cart if you wait long enough.

[Kid Ryan]

I prefer physical games, but have been leaning more towards digital copies lately.

It's mostly a mix of running out of physical space, and digital is more convenient.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by Kid Ryan

I prefer physical games, but have been leaning more towards digital copies lately.

It's mostly a mix of running out of physical space, and digital is more convenient.

I personally despise digital. That being said, I 100% get this argument. The lack of space to store your games can be a huge problem for many people, especially if you life in somewhere like a big city with sky high rent and it's hard to store all your stuff short of renting out a storage unit (which can also be very costly). Hell, where I live in Florida isn't traditionally an expensive place to live, but nowadays, you can't even rent a decent 2-3 bedroom place for less than ~$1.5-2k/month. Until about 4 years ago I lived in a smaller place and was definitely at my breaking point on room to store my game collection, with a lot of it packed into boxes.

That's not even getting into potential dangers from natural disasters. I see you're in California, which had both a very real earthquake and also wildfire risk. Here in Florida, I constantly. have to deal with hurricanes and flooding. My home (and large game collection) only barely survived 2 major hurricanes in the last 3 years. I have to pay to upgrade my insurance on home contents just to ensure my $60k+ game collection is insured.

[Kid Ryan]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

I personally despise digital. That being said, I 100% get this argument. The lack of space to store your games can be a huge problem for many people, especially if you live in somewhere like a big city with sky high rent and it's hard to store all your stuff short of renting out a storage unit (which can also be very costly). Hell, where I live in Florida isn't traditionally an expensive place to live, but nowadays, you can't even rent a decent 2-3 bedroom place for less than ~$1.5-2k/month. Until about 4 years ago I lived in a smaller place and was definitely at my breaking point on room to store my game collection, with a lot of it packed into boxes.

That's not even getting into potential dangers from natural disasters. I see you're in California, which had both a very real earthquake and also wildfire risk. Here in Florida, I constantly. have to deal with hurricanes and flooding. My home (and large game collection) only barely survived 2 major hurricanes in the last 3 years. I have to pay to upgrade my insurance on home contents just to ensure my $60k+ game collection is insured.

I also live in an area that could be easily flooded, if the dams ever broke rip.

That and my bedroom isn't the master bedroom, my mom owns the house.

I'd definitely stay physical only if I could, you don't own your digital copies.