When was the last time you bought a physical game?

Probably within two months. I purchased Tetris (ugh where'd I put the box) (I'm pretty sure) for the DS through eBay just to play it. I don't own a DS or 3DS but one of my nephews basically abandoned a 3DS and none of his cousins want to touch it, plus all have access to their own Switches, which lately they haven't been playing much of - but that's probably an on and off kind of thing.

Anyway... I know I over paid it a tiny bit on eBay..(a little over $30 - complete game in box w/instructions etc) but I really wanted it / and actually had a bit of money to spare. I had always wanted to get my hands on a Gameboy with Tetris since college.. but was rural poor when it came out, and totally forgot about it when I had money to splurge when I was working w/ career after college. With the Tetris DS I'm sort of disappointed by the music, which is mostly past Nintendo game theme tunes.. but admittedly I had never played Tetris on any Nintendo platform. (after recently seeing the Tetris movie.. I'm amazed that's been the case). Outside the music issue, which is easily solve-able by muting it or/ listening to a something else I still play it at times. Eventually though I know I'll have to get my own DS or 3DS.

Late last year I did get a digital download for an official Tetris for my phone, but was super disappointed by it due to long ads during part of the games. I'm pretty sure I even removed it. I'm not sure if there was even an option single paid version to get rid of the ads, or maybe it was only offering a subscription service... not sure why I wouldn't have just purchased it.. unless it was something that really turned me off. It must have been something, because I got the DS version partly to have something to play with while waiting at the airport / and on those slight rare situations if my Kindle had run out of power. I had even pondered getting a Switch of my own / family had been suggesting it due to being more modern for me to use /, but.. nothing really personally grabs me to justify getting one (or even an Xbox-X or PS5).. but it might have to do with just wanting to 'lightly chill' or read and not draw attention with a Switch (or even those customized refurbished older Nintendo handhelds that one occasionally sees between the $300 to $400 price) when sitting at some random airport. I do however aim for physical media options if it's something I can do.. but if not I'll go digital.

Anyway that digital Tetris I got for my phone late last year.. the ick/not fun factor for me was enough that it pushed me to not even bother getting the one available on Steam (though to be fair I'm interested in single player and I think the Steam version - packed with another game - is more geared for multi-player / but probably still offering a single player experience).

Last week. Two Nintendo Switch games (the Mario x Rabbids sequel and SNK Fighter collection), a copy of Top Gear and Urban Strike for SNES.

I still prefer physical media, but the time for that on PC is pretty much totally done. I don’t think I have downloaded a whole game on any of my consoles. I did download DLC for games on the PS3 for Valkeria Chronicles, but I didn’t purchase anything digital any on the PS4, XBOx and 360. It just defeated the purpose of a console to me. Now they are limited, lower power PC more than anything and that doesn’t interest me.

SMTV:Vengeance PS5 is arriving today! Hopefully...

For me,...2006/7-ish.

For my niece and nephew, last Christmas. Got them a Switch game.

Overwatch. I got a mostly empty box with a key in it. Why? It was cheaper than buying it online.

I don’t have a console newer than a 360, so I literally have no idea what the state of that market is. I’d be inclined to buy physical media because it can’t be removed from my library, but there’s no guarantee these days.

All my gaming for the past 10+ years has been on PC, and I almost entirely shop from Steam. Valve has a good track record for consumer friendliness; it’s basically the only place I go these days.

Haven't bought a physical PC game since Doom Eternal came out, and that just had a damn download code in it

But when I finally bought a PS5 (can't remember when now) I got a couple of physical games with that, and sometime after I got a couple more. Apart from those, it's been a long time... bought a bunch of PS4 games of course. I'm rather a holdout for buying console games on physical media - it just seems to be the whole point of a console and I don't trust the online stores to be any cheaper than retail, plus you can't sell the games on again if they are only downloads.

And we've bought physical games for the Switch for the kids.

Ooooh, I did buy the original Armored Core game for the PS1. I have manifestly not stuck to my new year's resolution to play it though!

I had to update my vote; I put "1 to 3," but I think it's just north of 3, and should be "3 to 5."

It was Mass Effect Legendary Edition (PS4) in May 2021. I think I just didn't want to download 3 Mass Effect games; my download isn't that great at my house. And it's certainly a game I could see lending to someone. I already owned all 3, but not any of the DLC, and wanted to be able to replay 1 with a controller on the TV, which was never possible on PC until the Legendary Edition re-release. Back when I first played ME1, I rolled my computer out on a CPU cart and had mouse and keyboard on a lapboard, so I could play in the living room with co-pilot wife, and that arrangement was always wonky, since I had to roll the computer back into the office each night.

It wasn't to save money, apparently, as it looks like I paid full price. I know I got No Man's Sky on disc because I got it cheap, $20 I think.

Jedi Survivor when it was 50% off on Black Friday. Haven't played it yet. :/ If you love the boxes, that's fine, but personally I'm leaning more and more to getting digital editions. Getting older cheap stuff used is good too though.

I think it's been a decade and a half or so since I've bought a physical game.

Playing on PC so that makes things easier.

On PS5 i buy Physical when it's significantly cheaper than digital (which is quite often, so within the last 6 months)

For PC it was probably Diablo 3 whenever that came out

derevo_people said:

I haven't bought any physical games since I got the internet. Actually I don't know why people need physical games now, when you can collect all the games in your Steam library or smth. Perhaps only for trading or buying used once with a discount, but I think it may be some punishment for launching a used game while connecting to web. Or there is no such thing?

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Household sharing, so my kids can play Switch games on their own profile or without having to wait for online checks, given we have multiple Switches.

Also, though I'm now on Starlink, for a while I had to rely on a limited hotspot for internet. I'm not going to assume that I will always have good internet until I have cable or fiber at my house.

I will buy physical media for consoles until that is no longer an option.

I got a boxed version of Wasteland 2 for being one of the higher tier kickstarters - used the code to download on Steam and never opened the box. It's in storage somewhere. It was around 2014.

For myself?

Probably the Alien Invasion expansion for Anarchy Online.

I'm pretty sure I've downloaded everything since then, although I can recall a few trips to game stores where nothing was purchased. The one exception was a gift for my nephew.

About a month ago, when Paper Mario TTYD released on Switch. I will also buy Luigi's mansion 2 HD on Friday.

For console games, I generally prefer physical media when available for larger games and downloads for small/indie games.
PC games have been pretty much download-only for 10-12 years now I think, there's not really any meaningful choice there anyways and physical PC games never really had the same advantages as physical console games.

I still buy physical games for consoles because i don't trust Sony long term and it's hard to fix any boneheaded decision on their part with torrents like you can do on PC if Steam gets bought out by EA or someone.

The price for the disc version dropping much faster than digital also helps, of course.

On PC, I just stuff my wish list (both Steam and GoG) with things I'd like to play some day and get them when they're real cheap. Digital only. Wait, can you still get PC games on disc?

One disadvantage to disc based games at least with Sony's consoles (PS4 and PS5) is that you can't switch them out easily if you're using remote play. If you're in the same location, sure, but if you're remote and connecting over the internet, well, that's a whole other story...