+1 to Morte Descovich
I always prefer a physical something. I’m a collector and I’ve got a whole room in my house dedicated to all the crap I probably shouldn’t be spending money on.
Discs are fine so far, but I have to say that I really like the USB concept up there. If that’s the way things go, I absolutely wouldn’t be upset. You could still put LEs together with them, too. LEs with only download codes just feel so… empty. I realize that physical media carries a bigger production cost with it (or rather that it carries any sort of production cost at all), but I’m totally fine with paying that premium, within reason.
But I do appreciate having having both a physical and digital copy sold together if possible. It helps when there are delays in production of physical copies or so that I can start playing when the game hits instead of waiting on a shipment.
Windows 10 Retail Will Be On USB Flash Drives
Alright, I'm sold. If Microsoft is willing to distribute their OS on a USB flash drive, then bit rot can't be THAT much of an issue.
Flash costs are somewhere around $0.40 / GB in large solid state drives. Is this distribution method even going to be economical for titles like Shiny Days that may be as large as 20GB? $2 isn't a big deal when the base product is $100. An $8 premium on a $40 game could be an issue.
The results are in.
The Future of Physical Media for VN Distribution + Poll
Only 36% of poll participants would prefer USB flash drives over DVDs. It seems that VN fans are highly resistant to change, perhaps because they fear that the move to USB would result in smaller and less eye-catching packages. Other concerns included added cost and that data would be less safe on flash drives (data might become corrupted or the drive would be more easily misplaced). Digital distribution was preferred over both physical options.
VN fans however were very excited that the move to USB could result in a new eroge trading card game, potentially with game discounts for avid collectors. Going forward, appealing to collectors' instincts could be profitable from a marketing perspective, as many visual novel customers are collectors.
DVD and download for me. Like the ease of installing from download, and having the physical edition as backup, and to look at, is nice too. I would not mind USB if it has the iso image like the DVD, though.
DVD for me.