Digital vs Physical: How Should You Play?

With the release of Borderlands 2 and reports of it’s various bugs during launch the question has arose admits Vita users, as well as next gen console owners, should I go with a digital copy or it’s physical retail counterpart? Let’s take a look at some at some of the differences.

Perhaps the most prevalent example that comes to mind, albeit not on the Vita, of a digital game being totally inferior than it’s physical counterpart is Grand Theft Auto 5. Last fall when the game was released, there were tons of videos and side by side shots of the game at certain points showing the digital game having horrid loading problems. Many a gamer lined up at their favorite store and made the purchase at Midnight, while others sat in the comfort of their homes and simply waited for the game to download. Again, this is the PS3, and the game played directly off the blurray disc, and in the age of the PS4 and Xbox One, games bought on disc format are simply installed onto the machine’s hard drive and only use the disc to verify DRM, so the issue isn’t as prevalent this generation, or is it?

If you ask any Vita gamer who purchased a digital copy of Spiderman will tell you horror stories of a game rendered unplayable. I’m not talking about slowed frame rates or poor loading times (although they are annoying) I’m talking about bugs that made the game, well, worthless. As you can see from the pictures, when Spiderman disappears, I’d call the game unplayable. Another issue that plagued this game was the free roaming feature. It didn’t suffer from lowered frame rates or poor loading times the game froze to a standstill. Here’s what Hackinformer had to say about the digital release he purchased

 

“I’ve been purchasing quite a bit of digital games and Spiderman was one, but at the same time I was given the Cartridge as a gift. There were a lot of glitches in the digital version, buildings wouldn’t load, sometimes the background would disappear altogether, swinging around the city the game will slow down dramatically or chug and the overall loading time was even slow on the digital version. Now when I popped in the physical cartridge, I didn’t see any of these issues anymore. No more frame rate drops and buildings not loading, even swinging through this city it didn’t slow down. Don’t get me wrong, there were a still a few hiccups but nothing like the digital version. We already know that the PS Vita memory sticks read quite slow but never thought it would make such a big difference between a digital and physical game. I mean, I know after a while this space gets fragmented and other things like that but still, that is pretty inexcusable considering memory card prices.”

I personally purchased a 2K Vita on launch day, and hated it. While I did not care for the system, I did want to give Borderlands 2 a go. Now keep in mind the game is about 5.5gb with all the DLC and and patches. It literally took me about 5 hours to download the game an before you ask, ALL of my wireless devices average around 40mbps/sec download times with the exception of my Vita’s and VitaTV. They hover around the 5-8mbps/sec speed. I know I’m not alone here either, I’ve spoken to network engineers that own Vitas and cannot get speeds much higher than 10-15mbps, which is still painfully slow. Now there is a workaround if you have a PS3, you can download the game via PS3 then transfer, which will give you a much faster download rate, but still takes quite a bit of time to transfer to your Vita via USB. Basically IF the game was made available at Midnight on release(which they aren’t, they are usually released around 3pm EST) It would be faster for me to hop in the car, drive to the games retailer, purchase it, drive home and play.

I played with the digital version of Borderlands 2 after the nightmare of actually downloading it, and if you have read any reviews of the game I’m sure you can guess where this is going. There were plenty of freezes and glitches and being a FPS type game, even a little slowdown can be the difference between a perfect headshot or being mauled or stabbed to death by the game’s AI. I found myself running into these problems where I didn’t want to play the game anymore. Combined with the fact I didn’t like the unit, I returned the system after a few days. Being an honest gamer, I deleted the game off the memory stick and bought the physical release a few days later. While the difference wasn’t night and day, it did still slow down a bit, the loading times were faster and the lag issues were gone not as prevalent. I found myself going from not wanting to play Borderlands 2 on the Vita, to not wanting to put it down.

There’s one more thing I’d like to discuss that doesn’t have anything to do with download times or lag issues. It is the economics of physical vs digital titles. When you walk into a video games store and pick a copy of the new hit vs downloading it, consider the travel that game took. Once the developer is finished making the game, the 0’s and 1’s are most likely transferred to some plant in China where they are injected into little tiny chips which are injected into little plastic cases. Then those game carts are stuck into cases (probably made off site by a different company) and then shipped off to a boat where they then travel to some port probably in California where they are unloaded by dock workers, loaded into trucks and shipped off to regional distribution centers, from there they probably hit another district distributional center, then maybe a local one before being loaded again onto a truck which brings it to your favorite games store. Then the game store clerk stocks the game and you walk in and buy it. The point of this story? Every step along the way you are paying someone’s wages in the price of that game. From the point it leaves the developers all that overhead, from manufacturing to shipping to distributing to stocking you are paying for it. That cost if offset to the consumer, because after all gaming is a big business. But what about digital downloads? The 0’s and 1’s go from the developers to Sony’s network to you. Sure you got the price of the network, but digital games are basically removing all of the overhead, and is all of that savings passed on to you? Nope physical games cost the same as digital for the most part, plus, if you buy a game digitally and don’t like it, you can’t sell it back or trade it into a games retailer and at least get some of your money back or credit for a new game.

It would seem that digital games are pushing physical games out of the way. Big business loves it. It means less overhead and greater profit margin. In the new generation, consumers are embracing it, with the PS4’s new preload function I won’t have to wait for the download to begin, I can start playing at midnight, throw that into the mix with the fact I won’t have to change discs while using remote play, and I’m loving it. In all truthfulness I already have Watchdogs preordered for my PS4, and I will most likely continue to buy digital games for it. But as for my Vita, my local GameStop employees will tell you that I just ordered another game card case to go along with my 15 or so Vita preorders, but those are all single player games. When it comes to 2 player AD HOC games, I will almost always buy digital because I own 2 Vitas. I’d rather lose some more precious space on my memory cards than buy 2 physical copies of a game I can play together with my daughter.

Minecaft will be a digital purchase for me.

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