It's an undeniable trend in the gaming industry that digital, downloadable versions of the games being released is steadily taking over for the traditional versions delivered through physical discs, cartridges etc. It has been the case for the PC platform for years, and is increasingly becoming true also within the console space.
That being said, the trend does not seem to align with the players' wishes, at least not as far as the UK crowd is concerned.
Quite on the contrary, a new survey conducted by the ERA (Entertainment Retailers Association) shows that as much of 77 per cent of the players prefer the old fashioned way of game distribution.
The survey was conducted amongst 1216 British citizens classified as "C2", which means that they represent the most passionate video game buyers in the UK. Within this group 74,3 pe cent of the male participants said they prefer physical discs, while as much as 80,9 per cent of the female participants said the same.
Furthermore the survey mapped the various reasons for physical discs being perceived as the premium option. Amongst the most popular reasons were tangibility (23%) permanence and security (16.5%), convenience (12.9%), habit (11.6%) and the ability to trade in pre-owned games (7.7%).
Is it enough to stop the move to an all digital world? Not likely, but at least you are far from alone if you swear to the good ol' discs.
Source: MCV.
Interesting numbers, even if we're not sure how telling they are of a larger spectrum of gamers.