The bolded isn't exactly true. With digital you can also gameshare with someone you trust, allowing both of you to play the same game, at the same time, even in the same lobby. Not possible with a single physical copy. You can also preload to start playing instantly on day one, rather than getting home with a disc and waiting an hour for the install. I feel like physics install times aren't highlighted enough here, it's absolutely not insert-and-play like it used to be. With digital that stuff is much faster, since even the slow console HDD's are faster than reading from a disc. Digital is also far less wasteful. Better for the environment, better for the decor of your home.
European pricing always weirds me out though. How is it even... possible for retailers to sell for so much less than MSRP at launch?
Pricing for games is usually around £35 to £45 here in the UK, same as it was last gen, a little higher in some cases, whereas digital is anywhere between £50-£60.
Never thought about gameshare which is a good point. I also play on a PS4 and copying from the disc is pretty much always been faster than downloading, sometimes a lot faster, of course it depends on the internet speed but I can't remember a game where it's been like an hour for the install whereas a 40GB game is going to take over an hour for me even with a 100MB connection, which is a lot faster than the average UK broadband speed.
As far as preload is concerned for launch day games, I understand it might be quicker but you're talking about something that unlocks at midnight instead of waiting for the morning delivery, and even in that case every physical pre-order I've made this gen apart from a couple have either been delivered a day, 2 days or if it's a Tuesday release the game will be sent on Friday meaning I end up receiving it on Saturday as the postman delivers on that day also. So usually it's earlier or worst case half a day later which I can live with.
Plastic waste yeah sure, understandable, decor I don't really own so many games or even know anyone who's owned that much for it to be a problem. I have like 20 I own at the moment physically, I'm not keeping games I don't intend to play again anytime soon, plus I keep most of them in a small box tucked away, I have one case where I've got like 6 discs in it. I'm never going to play more than that many at one time and since they hardly take up any storage a cardboard box is fine to place them in with the 5-6 games I'm playing in one case in the room.
