Is there a downside? I dunno. Are you an American? If so, then the current status of copyright law here means you get a raw deal when you "buy" digital. And those quotes were intentional, because you aren't really buying anything. You're simply trading in your consumer rights in exchange for a marginal increase in convenience ("I saved 30 whole seconds by not having to swap discs! Yay! Whatever else would I have done with that time?"). With digital anything, you have several big disadvantages, which I describe in greater detail here (about half a page down), but in summary:

• You own nothing.


• Since you own nothing first-sale rights don't apply. That means you can't sell, lend, or trade your copy unless the copyright holder explicitly gives you permission and the ability to do so, and they can revoke said permission whenever they want.


• Since you own nothing, the copyright holder can technically revoke the license whenever they see fit, meaning you lose what you paid for. There is precedent for this, so it's not like it's some made up scare story.


• Long-term availability of purchases is an issue. If your hard drive crashes (and it will eventually crash) and you lose all your content, you'd better hope said content is still available for purchase. Whether it's the console maker no longer supporting the system (and they're not going to support them forever) or the rights to a particular title expiring or otherwise being held up in limbo, it's possible and perhaps inevitable that you will permanently lose your digital content with no means to redownload any of it.

Really, aside from the minor conveniences of predownloading something you plan on preordering (which basically saves you a trip and wait in line at Gamestop or wherever) and not having to switch discs (which saves you a whopping 30 seconds), digital has no real benefit over physical. If you want to "buy" digital, that's your prerogative, but as for me, I'd rather own and control what I buy, and I don't feel comfortable giving complete control to the publishers and service providers. I've seen enough shenanigans and know enough about copyright law (and proposed changes to said laws) to know that the rights holders can't be trusted when it comes to digital content, which is "licensed, not sold." The last time I bought a game digitally was five years ago, and even then I've only ever bought smaller, less expensive games (Perfect Dark HD and Mega Man 10 were my last digital purchases). The only digital games I've gotten in recent years were free as part of some offer (mainly free games with PS+, but my XBO had download codes for two AC games bundled and I also got Pikmin 3 as part of some promo Nintendo ran with Mario Kart 8 last year).