The True Cost of Digital Games - Microsoft’s New Xbox is their Worst Deal Ever

$50 Dollars means A LOT these days, but when the current wisdom is that buying physical games is cheaper than collecting digital ones, does that make disc-free consoles like the PS5 Slim or Xbox Series S/White X a bad deal? Should you go Physical or Digital? Well, the answer might surprise you. Luckily, we’re going to break it down, and give you some very practical tips that WILL save you money..

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Link to the some Socials that Track Video Game Related Sales:

CHAPTERS
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0:00 Meet the New Digital ONLY Series X
1:46 How we tracked the differences
2:25 The Answer to the First Question
3:38 Practical Tips to Save you Money
5:54 Things that Complicate the Equation
7:42 Transferable Licenses
8:27 Do Subscriptions matter?
9:53 The Final Tip

[rgulatr]

one of the worst things is the physical boxes that are sold, with only a download code and no disk

[Rayz]

If buying isn’t owning.. pirating isn’t stealing..

[mimi]

You forgot one important point, which I believe is the reason for the companies to remove the disc drive. Once all consoles are digital and you have no option of using used physical copies, the digital (sale) prices are going to increase. Right now the digital sale prices are competing with the used market, without that effect, it's obvious what is going to happen.

[MixedRealitySimRacing]

The biggest saving is buying a used game and selling it again after you've played. That way you maybe spent only 5 bucks on a game, sometimes maybe nothing or even get more than you've paid for if you were lucky. Biggest argument for me to still buy a lot of games digitally even though I have a disc version is the convenience of not needing to swap CDs.

[youtubesilv]

The optical drive also turns a console into a perfectly fine dvd and Blu-ray player

[brandonalexander]

With built in backwards compatibility, its way more worth it to have the disc option to be able to play older games. I play my 360 discs on my series x all the time.

[james]

All the diskless, always online, DRM focused console releases this gen lead me to believe the next gen consoles wont have a non-digital edition.

[PlateOfSpeg]

One thing to remember that with physcial if you get your account banned, for whatever reason that may be, doesn't mean losing access to all your games. You just gotta make another account lol. With digital, you'll have to rebuy them.

[jacobhaussmann]

I miss the days when you could put a disc in and not have to install anything.

[johnjohannesjuan]

TL:DW 10:19
The console with the disk drive could also be calculated by always taking the lower price - no matter if phyiscal or digital. If the digital game version is cheaper you can still buy it on a console that has a disk drive.

[christopherrobinson]

It's not all about cost.
Sometimes it's game availability.
What if I wanted to play Forza Horizon 1, 2 or 3?
These were all pulled from sales at the digital stores because the music/car licensing was not renewed.
I could still go out and pick up a physical copy, however, and play through that without an issue.

[die_flugel_der_freiheit]

It's always better to have options. When you have a disc drive console, you can always go both ways and win. If you only go Digital - you lose too much.

[Tomiply]

0:36 $50 is a lot of money? That's not even ONE new AAA game. Come on, it should at least be $100 cheaper.

[PieStudios]

God I hate all-digital consoles. 100% going to become e-waste when the servers are inevitably shut down

[xdlol]

We went a way from 1 of your friends having a copy of Mario Kart DS and everyone else playing along through Download Play vs the crap they are pulling nowadays...

[natopoppins]

I’m trying to figure out why the Xbox is a prop here and he started with an opener about it, yet the emphasis seems to be on PSN and not Gamepass????

[Foojaleeckalikeelamaka]

As someone who works on gaming retail I'd pick a physical game playing console every time. Physical games:
1 ) Can be swapped between friends/family.
2 ) Can be sold to stores, marketplace or eBay.
3 ) Can be bought for cheap.
4 ) Has no input from the console manufacturer, meaning they don't get to decide how much you pay or if you can even buy it at all
5 ) If your account gets banned or the service shuts down you don't lose your entire collection.
6 ) You can return games you don't like / want as easily as just going back to the store with your receipt.
7 ) Literally everything the digital console does so will the physical drive console but also let's you put in disks. This means all the benefits digital has physical also has and more.

Edit:
Well this got more attention than I expected.
Just to clear some things up.
I have been working at a game store part time for several years as I study. I am not a CEO or big regional manager or something, just a dude who sells games to kids & grandmas. If the entire industry collapsed today I would have another part time job by tomorrow. It's a little over the top to say I have a vested interest in all of this, I'm just commenting on the real world examples of benifits to the customer I see several times a week for the past few years.
4 ) I was referencing pre-owned games. You can sell those for $1 or $1, 000 without the console manufacturer or game maker getting a say in it. I should have been more clear on this.
5 ) Kids especially get themselves permanently locked out of their accounts all the time & adults often get accounts banned / deleted by ex's. Again I have these conversations with living breathing human beings every single week & spend a not insignificant portion of my week in contact with Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo on behalf of clients.
The points about game disks not containing the whole game or just containing licence keys are very good ones & while not always the case it is sadly becoming much much more common. However those licence disks still give you the ability to sell it to others, swap it with friends, buy it cheap second hand, not lose access if your account gets suspended and return the game if you do not like it. They also often will work even if the console's store does not sell that particular game in your region.

All in all digital is the way of the future but I don't think a future where console manufacturers hold all the cards is a good one.
Imagine a world where Nintendo gets to decide IF you can play your favourite Mario ever again or if they're just going to remove it from sale permanently / jack up the price to thousands of dollars.
With a digital only future you don't own anything, which means it can be removed with little to no compensation at all.

[nichie]

I always buy, sell, and trade my physical games, yes it's time consuming but as a college student who is saving up money it is worth it. I am able to play newly released games without having to spend so much money. I could buy a $70 game and sell it afterwards for $40+ on the marketplace depending on how much time has passed since its release, so technically I only spent $20-$30 for new games. Not to mention trading which is a 1:1 or 1:2 swap if I want to get older games for my new one without having to spend any money. Then I use those newly acquired games to find and trade to other games and the cycle repeats, its also fun having to talk to other fellow gamers in the community when I'm meeting them for a deal.

[JuryDutySummons]

1:10 - "eleven and a half" - LIES! It's more like "Almost 12 min"!

[jtyezbick]

I have a standard Xbox Series X which obviously includes a disk drive. I'm glad I have one, especially for movies, although in the 3 years I've owned in, I've never inserted a disk.
All my games are digital, but I still hope that Microsoft still makes disc-ed consoles and physical games. Without physical games, I'm sure the sales in the online store will plummet.
Biggest reasons for me to buy/use digital games is that I like the convenience of having all my games ready to play at a moments notice (especially with Quick Resume). I also don't have to worry about transporting games while moving my Xbox, and having my full library on both of my consoles is very convenient (I recently purchased a Series S to leave at family's house seeing as I spend a lot of my time there). I also don't have to worry about losing, damaging, or theft with my digital games.