With more and more systems offering up retail titles for download... which method do you prefer? Do you prefer having a physical copy of your game? Or do you prefer downloading it? I suppose there are pro's and con's to both. With retail titles, you're likely to find them cheaper with sales and you can share your copy of the game with others... but downloadable games will always be with you on your system for easy access.

For me, I'm going digital only whenever possible. Right now, first party Nintendo titles are downloadable and I'll be downloading them all from now on. As soon as third parties come on board, I'll download those games as well. It's just so convenient... I can get them at midnight when they release, from the comfort of my own home. New Super Mario Bros. 2 is like 340 MB I think and that took me only 10 minutes to download. So what about you... are you staying physical or going digital?

Ill probably continue to do a mix of the two. Probably will definitely get games, if offered at retail, physical, and if games are exclusive on digital services get them their (not waiting months to years for a disc release).

Kind of dont like huge downloads though, last game I downloaded, PS2 Persona 3 FES, took me 12 hours to download...

I prefer digital, mostly because they tend to have shorter load times. For portable games, though, digital is a must. I don't want to carry around cartridges, so having all my games on my system at once is the only way to go. For a home console, digital is more of a convenience than a necessity.

With how small cartridges are getting for portables, is it really still a hassle to carry them around?

Yes. My 3DS game case is almost full, and that's just for 3DS games... doesn't include my other big carrying case for all my DS games. Granted, I don't need to carry around all of those (and I don't), but having to bring around a case for even some games is an extra hassle.

It's really more a matter of not having a place to put them. If someone would make little card cases that I could keep in my wallet, I'd be fine with that. I don't carry a backpack or anything though, so I don't like to have to carry carts and the system.

I'm fine with either. I mentioned in another thread, I'd get digital of games of ones I plan to keep long term, physical games of ones I'm not sure. I'd like to maintain a possible re-sell value or trade-in if I don't wish to keep the game long term.

You pretty much said everything I was thinking.

I might be the odd one out here, but I prefer physical, I like looking over at my collection of games. And I never sell my games, lol.

I was the same way until I realized the convenience of digital. Priorities, I guess.

Even if I don't have that much money nor games, I greatly prefer this as well.

I much more prefer physical copies of games over digital. It is just neat to look over at my stack of games and see the different artworks and be reminded of good times while playing said games. I don't get the same thoughts/feelings when I glance at my list of Steam games.

I just feel that the convenience of digital outweighs the novelty of physical.

I agree about it being more convenient, it really is.

I think that's where the argument/discussion point really is found in most people's opinions. The older I get, the more I tend to sway in the direction of convenience more than novelty. I appreciate the boxes/carts/discs, but I really like the ease of digital.

That's why I wouldn't mind the convenience of the digital games. Hopefully Nintendo will get this account system in place so it is easier to transfer from system to system.

That'd be my only fear, but I would have them repair it anyways so I wouldn't lose all the data, or at least send me a replacement with all my games/data.

I think I might appreciate digital more, if my internet wasn't slow as molasses. Literally, you can take a spoon of molasses and watch that sucker slowly fall off the spoon and it will be done before I can download a 5MB file. Okay, I've never actually tried this....but you get my point (my d/l speed is usually maxed out at less than a 10th of a MB per second...)

Anyways, just thought I'd add that in there -

Yeah, that would definitely affect your opinion, I'm sure. That's REALLY slow!

Yea, download speed can make a difference. Thanks to Verizon FiOS, I downloaded NSMB2 in 10 minutes, so that convinced me to go digital as it doesn't take long at all. And even if it did, I could start it at midnight and let it go, so once I wake up it's done downloading. So it's not just convenience of not having to carry around a cartridge, but also convenience in that I can get the game quickly and painlessly.

I hope that's something NOA discusses next week for Wii U... we know their first party titles will be downloadable, but I hope they discuss whether third party games will be or not, so I can plan accordingly.

Looking at the amount of third party Wii/3DS/DSiWare not to mention VC games I think there's a pretty good chance of seeing downloadable third party games.

Oh I'm sure they'll come eventually, and I believe it's been hinted at... I'm just hoping they'll be available for download at launch. With 3DS, I'm stuck with a bunch of physical copies of games... but for Wii U, it'd be nice to have every game downloaded so I wouldn't have any physical copies.

If I remember correctly, wasn't Epic Micky announced to be available in the 3DS eShop at E3?

EDIT: I guess not. I just looked it up and found this article. http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/13/3ds-digital-releases-to-include-epic-mickey-scribblenauts-unlim/

Three words: I love Steam.

I'm a little annoyed with them right now. My PS3 copy of Portal 2 came with a PC download code. This code doesn't work, and I can't download it even though I log into my account through the game on the PS3.

I created a support ticket a few days ago and still have no response. Since I have no internet at my new house, I can't go online with the console version of the game anymore. What's more, when (if) I do get the game on Steam, I'll have to download it at the library :/

If they had just included an installation DVD, I'd have it already.

Guess what, Epic Mickey has just been announced as an eShop title!
http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=187500