[quote name='poehitman']I always hated buying games like that. Always being one hard drive failure away from losing all my games. I like having the feel of a game in my hand. Maybe it's because I'm old (32) and was brought up from having a regular NES.[/QUOTE]
Me too. I'm 37 and my first system was an Atari 2600. For $5-10 if it's something I've played forever(Mortal Kombat Kollection) or an intriguing DLC only game(Limbo, Shank, Deathspank, etc), then I'll give it a shot. But I just don't see how people are paying $20-60 for files they have no way to resell if they get tired of them.
[quote name='mkelehan']When you buy games digitally on XBL, PSN, or Steam, they're tied to your account, not the system. If the hard drive goes up, you can log back in and download them again, no problem. Because of that, it's significantly safer than buying physical discs, because if you lose them, you're effed. Nothing can ever happen to my PSN copy of Vagrant Story, but my physical copy of FF7 is a scratch away from uselessness.[/QUOTE]
Except that what happens when Sony/MS/Nintendo no longer support the old downloads? Then that $10 or so is gone, since you'll no longer have access to the servers to download them from.
That's why many of us prefer physical media to digital downloads, since at least with physical media you can resell it if you get bored of it.