Amazon Prime has introduced a thing where you get 20% off disc games if you're a member.

Great deal, right? Well, yes and no. Here's the gimmick: has to be a pre order or be within two weeks of release date, and it's 20% off list price, not Amazon discounted price. Though to be fair, it does say new games, and those games almost always stay at list price, even on Amazon, for a while after release. And then there's the Prime subscription.

However, if you wanted to buy something like the Life Is Strange Limited Edition for $40, then you're all set and are barely paying more than the normal game actually costs on disc, plus you get a CD and a neat book. Or, we may all be buying Destiny 2 on release day, and can get it for $48 if we pre order through Amazon.

For a subset of gamers, who are already on Prime, it may start making sense to buy disc games.

EDIT: it works on expensive as heck limited editions as well. Mirror's Edge Catalyst's $200 limited edition is $160.

For some reason.

The 20% thing seemed... not worth it for me, given how vastly superior Digital is (especially since it essentially cuts the price of any multiplayer game in half on PS4 if you share your account, which is impossible with Physical), but it could be real useful if you are sure about the game that you want and the drawbacks of Physical don't apply to you.

For some reason.

The 20% thing seemed... not worth it for me, given how vastly superior Digital is (especially since it essentially cuts the price of any multiplayer game in half on PS4 if you share your account, which is impossible with Physical), but it could be real useful if you are sure about the game that you want and the drawbacks of Physical don't apply to you.

The one place disc games win is in speed of play. Let's say you get a game at midnight. You have to wait hours for it to download and can't play, whereas with a disc you pop it in and are good immediately.

I am completely baffled why you can't either preload games which then unlock on release (steam does this I think), or simply have the publisher post games digitally right after it goes gold. I know people want to push digital distribution, and what better way than to be able to play a month ahead of the people who have to wait for disc pressing?

I have preloaded games several times on my XBone. Does PS4 not do the same?

could've sworn i downloaded Halo 5 early, even though there was a big day 1 update that i had to download as well.

I could see possibly getting a disc for some games. Games like Assassin's creed or GTA are just too damn long, and i have no intention of replaying them (or getting 100% completion). I could get the discount, burn through the campaign, and resale them.

I could also see buying games that i want to keep forever, like Halo. There's really no point in buying Destiny on a disk, since you absolutely have to be connected to a server for it to work. Once the servers are turned off, there will be no playing for nostalgia's sake 20 years from now; the game won't work. In that case, might as well go digital and not have to worry about swapping discs.

For some reason.

The 20% thing seemed... not worth it for me, given how vastly superior Digital is (especially since it essentially cuts the price of any multiplayer game in half on PS4 if you share your account, which is impossible with Physical), but it could be real useful if you are sure about the game that you want and the drawbacks of Physical don't apply to you.

The one place disc games win is in speed of play. Let's say you get a game at midnight. You have to wait hours for it to download and can't play, whereas with a disc you pop it in and are good immediately.

I am completely baffled why you can't either preload games which then unlock on release (steam does this I think), or simply have the publisher post games digitally right after it goes gold. I know people want to push digital distribution, and what better way than to be able to play a month ahead of the people who have to wait for disc pressing?

Check your power save settings. You should be able to preload games. Also, keep in mind that for disk games, you often have to sit through long installs and updates now (Battlefield 4, Halo 5). Preloading can include these updates.

I know folks who weren't able to play their disk-based Halo 5 games until the next day because of the massive install and update required.

Check your power save settings. You should be able to preload games. Also, keep in mind that for disk games, you often have to sit through long installs and updates now (Battlefield 4, Halo 5). Preloading can include these updates.

Wait. So you can download a game on PS4 before the release date, so that it is sitting on your drive ready to go? I've never seen that option. Power save just lets me download things in the background, but PSN hasn't ever let me download stuff until the actual release date.

Has that changed?

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At least downloads happen automatically. I have to physically be near my Xbox to actually start an install.

Anyway, I still think it's a nice thing to have if you're already a Prime member and can't really wait for prices to go down before buying a game.

Many games, when purchased digitally, will allow you to download them a few days before the official release (this is true on PS4 and Xbox One). But this is separate from the installation. Most games cannot be installed until the official release.

For some reason.

The 20% thing seemed... not worth it for me, given how vastly superior Digital is (especially since it essentially cuts the price of any multiplayer game in half on PS4 if you share your account, which is impossible with Physical), but it could be real useful if you are sure about the game that you want and the drawbacks of Physical don't apply to you.

That's funny. I would only buy a game on digital if I was completely sure about it, since I can't sell the disc used if I don't like it.

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I am completely baffled why you can't either preload games which then unlock on release (steam does this I think), or simply have the publisher post games digitally right after it goes gold. I know people want to push digital distribution, and what better way than to be able to play a month ahead of the people who have to wait for disc pressing?

If the publisher is fulfilling the order digitally why would it pay another online retailer (Amazon) for a share of the sale? That's probably the reason. They figure their own direct digital sales outlet is in competition with Amazon.

Once "they" are done with Destiny, and turn off the servers, they can release an update that allows people to play without constant online play. Bungie has previously released the net code for previous games that allow others to host servers. Not that Bungie has complete control, or that they are the same company a decade later, but when they decide the servers aren't worth paying for, they also aren't losing much money by allowing whatever community is left to host it themselves.