Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-35301431-20150124185052/@comment-53539-20150127085401

The "downloading versus physical" issue is actually logical.

In the west, people are more likely to choose downloading as an option because of several reasons. Firstly, the consumer finds it cheaper. Secondly, the % of profit is great then a physical copies may produce. Thirdly, if its something the company hasn't done before they may not even be in a position to be able to send the software out yet and are still arranging details while in Japan everything is already in place due to previous experience. The company can also control the distribution of the download and monitor it much more closely.

In Japan, there are also many collectors who do buy physical versions to have the full set. There is even a video on Nico showing a guy's full collection, including two copies of Sonika (one for each boxart that was on sale at the time). I don't have the url anymore. Basically, producers are just as likely to buy physical in some respects as they are download, it just depends on if their a collector or not. Plus it was confirmed long ago that outside of Japan Vocaloid is treated as a export and it costs more just to develop a vocaloid because of this.

Even if you take into other factors, lots of things can go wrong more on a physical copy then a digital download. Its also why STEAM is so popular for gamer buying and how now 40% of all bought games come from steam.