i have always been a very ardant proponant of physical games, they're what i started with when i picked up my day one copy of FF13 and a used copy of folklore and they're what i stuck with, partially as i instantly got into consoles like the ps1 and ps2 that only had physical games, but they always appealed to me. the boxes, the art, the manuals when we had them and just the tactile nature of it and as this was early in 2010 digital still wasn't really a thing beyond a few outliers like warhawk and small arcadey stuff like scott pilgrim or gundemonium (which both got physical releases anyway). i was never a PC person either so for the first few years i didn't even know what a steam was, still never used it of my own choice either, so the idea of buying anything bigger than an arcade title was foreign to me and i still didn't really enjoy buying even those small arcade games, though for some very special games like dark mist and gundimoneum i did do it. but as the gen went on i did notice it more and more, games like tokyo jungle being digital only in the west while having a boxed version in japan, ranko tsukigime and pirate warriors series, two of my favourites on the console, getting only released boxed in pal regions, it stung to see, even if i did end up getting all of those games physical when i could and it started my dislike of digital. not helped by this was when i did end up buying and regretting digital games, there aren't many games i dislike but when i do dislike games i always like selling them, it's cathartic and it gets you some of your cash back ad this just isn't possible with digital games,a good exmple for me is with the game portal, i heavily dislike portal, i don't think it's fun or funny and it just annoyed me for my whole playthrough, this was one of the first digital games i bought and i regretted not just paying a little extra for the orange box where i could have sold it and made my money back and this is how i feel with a lot of digital games, regret will always sting in a bad game you can't sell, doubly so if you paid full AAA prices.

physical games would also very shortly really prove their worth to me as in two of the more high profile delistings of the time, marvel vs capcom 2 and scott pilgim were both pulled from stores, one of my favourite fighting games and a cool as heck beatemup were both just gone outside people that owned them or one of the few lucky enough to have hacked systems at the time, it was a real wakeup call for me at the time and made me promise to always go physical as i was scared of these games just being ripped from me entirely, a fear that would become very real years later with the PT incident. for the rest of the ps3 gen i very rarely touched digital, i'd occasionally get some dlc and a few very cheap sale games that had no physical release, though i never paid more than like 5 for these and thats a philosophy i still stick to, though i'd prefer to never buy a download, and i always wait for physical, if i 100% had to i would pay up to 5 for a game, like i did this gen for D4 and korra, just to name two, but this gen would only strengthen how i feel about physical and digital, with more and more games going digital only i started to feel kind of bitter, especialy on my main console, the vita and delistings were still common, korra, a great game from a studio i love is lost to time legally and PT may as well not exist for anyone without a hacked console. though this era did have one saving grace for me, limited print companies. i know they may be contravercial, LRG have many a detractor and the likes of SLG and super rare have their issues (though personally the only one i dislike is special reservre as their shipping rates to europe are extortionate) they gave me a chance to experiance games i may never have otherwise, plus physical releases of rare as heck games for reasonable prices, like metal wolf chaos, princess saiyuki and the cotton games, for someone like me these companies are lifesavers and i think they deserve more credit there, especially as many have genuinely been improving over the years and i tend to buy at least a few games a month from the various companies.

that gen would also being me to a kind of tipping point, the wii store shutdown, i did buy the few wii games legally before the shutdown just to have them on a non hacked console as the idea seemed kind of cool at the time and i hadn't went full into piracy, and i managed to beat a few of them and had a great time, then the store fully shit down and i made peace with pirating the rest, and then my wiiu bricked taking those legit wii games with them. naturally i was pissed, i'd only spent about 20 but i couldnt redownload those games even though i tried to on my new wiiu and it was so disheartening, id did not make this mistake with the other nintendo consoles.i havent really bought a digital game since and i don't think i will, i have other means of getting older games that i'm happy with, piracy is a moral right in my opion and piracy should always be supported as far as i'm concerned as they are the only ones that can preserve the history of the medium, i used to be a big proponant of preservation and although i still am it can be very hard to be passionate as it seems hopeless at times with the major players pushing digital server reliance and always online systems are harming it beyond repeait. for newer games if i really want to play a digital game i can wait until i can play it for free in some form, while supporting the release happily if it gets a boxed one as i did with unpacking. i'm still very much physical only, this week alone i picked up a few boxed older titles like dark cloud and socom, a few newer boxed games like jack jeanne, charademaniacs and the switch versions of gimmick and trip world and this will not change, as much as companies might want it. i am perfectly happy with buying physical, it's fun hunting for games in local used game stores, getting good deals on ebay, importing new otome games and rpgs to try while studying and it's nice to have a memory on a shelf when i'm done with the game, or extra money back if i dislike it and all of these would not be around if physical dissappears and thats half the fun for me, game hunting was one of the few things i had in common with my grandparents and over the years we've spent a lot of time looking for them in local stores, though they're more interested in antiques than games it's still a great time and i'll cherish those memories forever, something i can't do with browsing a digital storefront. sometimes it can for sure be difficult being physical only, major cultural titles that i just didnt get to even try for years like night in the woods, hollow knight, cuphead and papers please or sometimes games being quite rare like the shantae titles (which i did eventually get for cheapish) but it's not something i'd ever want to stop, maybe its just stubborness but i don't want to adapt, and i don't think i will.

MS and sony this gen have both been pushing much harder with digital, with first party games that a gen ago absolutely would have had boxed releases like hifi rush and pentament have been digital only, both companies have digital only consoles with the xbox one SAD, the series X and the ps5 digital, though MS is much pushier about it, with them adapting to it last gen and pushing the series S and gamepass something hard where sony have mostly kind of ignored the digital edition outside of a few limited editions not having a disc, a stupid trend i hope becomes less common. the savings these consoles will give you is not worth it in the long run and a PS5 digital especially is just a silly investment, when a disc console is a hundred more and you make a much bigger saving on games with it, just check prices of games like demons souls and ratchet digitally vs how much you can get them used in local stores or ebay and you'll see how silly it really is, and even beyond that most digital games cost more than physical day one, for a recent example ff16, a game i do not care for, is 70 digitally but every local store has it for around 50, it's absurd. some other companies are trying to force digital too, however, with the eterally dissapointing release of alan wake 2 being, for now, a digital only title, it was all things considered one of my most hype games but now i'm not sure ill ever even play it unless it gets a later physical or i find a way to play for free, it's disheartening and i can imagine a sign of things to come. it is worth noting that one arguement some people do make is that physical is aleady pointless as they are just "a key" and this is wholley untrue for most games, some like your average COD and first party MS games generally are like this and it's disgusting, but most, like a good portion of smaller AA, japanese games and limited release titles are all complete on disc, plus or minus some dlc, fully playable. do i think the industry will go digital eventually? probably yeah, the amount of control they et over pricing, perchases and price margins is much too high for them not to, but will i still be playing games by then? no, at least not new ones, i'll maybe consider these consoles when i can get some free games but i will not be paying full prices for a download ever, not now and not in the future, it'll be rough for sure and i know i'll miss a lot of fantastic titles but part of me also doesn't mind that, there's so many good older games that i don't think i'll ever run out, i wish people the best in the digital only future, weather thats in the form of how it is now, an all sub based future, or god forbid, a cloud future, i hope the games are still good and people are still having fun, but i'll be here playing my boxed ps2 games in peace :)