The Pros and Cons of Discs vs. Downloads for Console Games

These days, gamers have a lot of options at their fingertips, from myriad characters to emulate, to which systems to choose, to whether their quests will happen at home or via mobile devices. But there’s another big choice entering the gaming ecosystem lately and that’s whether to purchase game titles as traditional physical discs or as digital downloads.

Just as some music lovers want vinyl albums or CDs and others don’t, there are no clear-cut “winners” or “losers” here. Both discs and digital games cost about the same, and they provide a gaming experience and interface that is often identical. Yet while physical discs still represent most sales, more and more gamers (and gaming console manufacturers) are moving toward downloadable cloud-based offerings. In this article, we’ll take a look at the reasons why, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each format.