Digital vs. Disc

Just two short weeks after its release, Sucker Punch's Infamous 2 has been made available for download on Playstation Network showing that the battle between online and retail video game sales still rages on.

Rolling out full, first party exclusives has been done on consoles before such as on Xbox Live but it's not usually this quick. Sony did it with Warhawk, but with game like Infamous 2 running at full price of $59.99 on PSN and whopping 15 GB a pop, it seems that buying games at your local retailer's the better option. Not everyone's on board with this though.

Visit almost any online video game forum and you're bound to find gamers debating whether they prefer their games in disc or digital form. Some claim that digital distribution is simply a sign of progress of gaming evolution that provides them with a perpetual gaming library that's available anytime, and that boxed games along with brick and mortar retail stores are doomed to go the way of the dodo. Yet, others argue that video game discs are immune to things like hard drive and server failures, and can easily last a long time with proper care. Not to mention there's nothing like tearing the shrink wrap off of the game case and whiffing that new plastic smell when you crack it open for the first time.

There's no doubt that online game download purchases are rising, however. According to an NPD Group report, consumers bought and downloaded 11.2 million full-game PC titles through services like Steam and Direct2Drive vs 8.2 million bought at retail stores in the first half of 2010. These sales made up for 43 percent of overall game revenue mainly due to the general higher price retail stores charge. With the expansion and integration of online capabilities on PSN and Xbox Live, it may be only a matter of time until more full console games become available online.

So is downloading games really better than discs, and why would you want to bother getting your video games off of PSN or Xbox Live? Here's a list of some of the pros and cons of digitally purchasing your next favorite title:

Pros:

• No need to leave your house.
• You can download games at anytime of the day.
• Game doesn't go out of stock.
• You're usually allowed to try the game before you buy it.
• No physical storage space required.
• No need to worry about losing or scratching your game disc.
• Downloading and installing games is generally very easy.

Cons:

• Downloaded software is proprietary, which allows the customer to use it but not actually own, resell or trade it in for another title.
  
• Full downloaded games take up a lot of HDD space and downloading them is usually a long and tedious process.
• Developers and publishers may decide that their legacy software/hardware isn't worth maintaining, which could prevent access to your downloaded games.
• Some games can't be played without an active internet connection, and if the server goes down, say bye-bye to your game for a while.
• If the hard drive fails, the game is lost until you replace your system and re-download the game.
• Downloaded games are less portable.

So, at the end of the day, games are games and while downloading them is becoming more and more popular, it's unlikely that physical media will completely go away. After all, everyone loves box art.