Pros

• Pre-Download

One of the main benefits of buying a game online is the ease and convenience of getting your hands on your favorite game without the hustle and bustle of leaving your house. You can even pre-pay and download the game earlier than the release date although the content will be locked until the day of release.

• Access

You have a wider variety of game options when you download them instead of getting physical copies. With downloads, you can switch between games at the touch of a button and get instant access to new games to your console’s hard drive without the physical exertion of getting physical ones.

• Clutter

The downside of boxed games is that it turns your space into a complete mess. Boxed games take up lots of space and are usually are an eyesore. The upside of downloads is that everything is stored electronically on your console’s hard drive.

Cons

• Ownership

When you buy a physical copy of a game, you are actually purchasing a license to own that particular piece of media. This is essentially differently when you download a game. Your rights are limited with downloads because the rights of that game remain with the developer.

With a physical copy, you can resell, auction, give it away or do what you want with it. Should your account get hacked and investigations launched by a developer, all your downloaded games are inaccessible as long as your account is suspended and under investigation by the developer.

• Prices

Typically, most downloaded games are much more expensive than buying a physical copy of a game. The price of games on online stores is higher than purchasing a game in retail stores.

• Space

There is only so much space that your hard drive can accommodate and therefore, more often than not there will come a time when you either have to invest in extra space or delete a game to create space.

Granted, you can always re-download a deleted game when you so choose, nonetheless, it is so much easier to just pop a physical copy and play.

• Bandwidth

The essence of downloading a game is that you need to have good bandwidth speeds otherwise you can end up spending up to 24 hours downloading a game. With a physical copy, you simply pop it in and play instantly without having to waste hours and paying for the cost of the bandwidth to download.