Publisher: PC Games Going All Digital in 2011

[hakesterman]

Stop forking over $ 50.00 for a stupid game and you'll feel alot better just from that alone. And if
you buy direct from the Publisher your not paying more, your paying the same only your cutting
out the middle man which gives the actual developer more which is better anyway. Maybe with any
luck at all they can now lower the price alittle since they are cutting out the stores profit. If not just wait till it's 6 months to a year old and you will get it half price or less, the prices drop like new cars do when you drive them off the lot.

 

[randomizer]

This may work in the US, but many other countries still have strong retail sales and crappy Internet driving those sales.

 

[secolliyn]

The problems i have is that #1 If and I should say "When" it goes to all Downloads for PC Games is that what happens when Steam or Direct2drive goes out of business and I want to play my game I bought from them? i will have to get it from somewhere and if they are gone where am i to get it?
#2 the game Costs me 49.99 when i buy it at Gamestop/Target/Wal-mart/Best Buy with a box and a manual and a REAL CD/DVD right now when i buy a game online from STEAM witch i do use is that the same game is still 49.99 i can see paying 49.99 for a game when i get a REAL CD/DVD and a box and everything that comes with it but when i buy it from steam im not getting the real Disc so they don't have to package it don't need to make Discs manuals boxed sleeves ect

I have made my own promise i will only Buy a game online if it meets the following 3 conditions
1-They are an established online store (Steam does Qualify)
2-it is at least $10-$15 less than what I would buy in the store
3- I can download an exe or an ISO from them so I can install it anytime I want

 

[Flying Sq]

I was telling my co-worker the other day, when games go all digital, is when I stop buying them. I buy 80 to 90 percent of my games boxed, and will continue to do so. When this happens, and when consoles and handhelds do it too, i'm done.

 

[trkraus]

[citation][nom]Flying Sq[/nom]I was telling my co-worker the other day, when games go all digital, is when I stop buying them. I buy 80 to 90 percent of my games boxed, and will continue to do so. When this happens, and when consoles and handhelds do it too, i'm done.[/citation]

lol ok, that's rational and well argued

and secolliyn, for steam, you can download steam on any computer which takes like a minute and then install any/all games in your library. You would need internet connection to download steam though, so I guess you couldn't install a game ANY time you want, but every time you have internet connection you sure can

 

[eddieroolz]

I wouldn't mind either way, as long as the companies distributing the games digitally (i.e. Steam) do not go belly-up.

 

[skykaptain]

Aren't CD/DVD's digital anyways?

 

[anamaniac]

[citation][nom]jaydeejohn[/nom]Fraggin great. Nothing beats a box, its a nostalga thing ya know?[/citation]
Sure, a nice metal bxo with beautiful art engraved into it is a nice thing to have, but, I have a hundred discs already.
I also happen to own 6x500GB and a 1TB HDD, so I'm all for digital distribution.
The only problem I have is that, thoiugh I like Steam as a company, I hate their client.

P.S. Most of my PC games are torrented, so I'm used tot it anyways. -_-

 

[maximun_payne]

iam in austrlia and i have all right net ADSL2plus 150gb limet
but most people i knnow are still on 20gb or less plan and there speeds are crap

 

[KC8DKT]

No thanks, I like the disk and will stick with newegg.com I gave up on the D2D games.

OFDR on steam was about 30hrs late and d2d had to wait 3 days after the patch came out. The same patch did not work on all 3...?!?!

Some games/d2d systems needed the download software installed and LOGGED IN or the games would not play even in single player mode.

Was it Crysis or FrontLines that DVD started servers would not let D2D people join and vise versa because of PB file mismatches?

Alot of friends had crash problems but after they got the store DVD they worked fine. I never had this problem but check the Steam forums!

At least Steam has given $$$ back to SOME people that had the crash probelm and sent them proof they had to get a store copy! "in the forums as well"

 

[Guest]

As I've mentioned time and time again, we the consumers are all being screwed over and we don't seem to get it yet.

These moves to push for digital content are not to make our lives more convenient or save money for game developers. What's happening here is that the game industry is trying to kill the second hand gaming market. If you don't believe me just look at the articles about used Dead Space copies outselling retail ones, companies hate that, but I got a great B+ game for $20 that would have otherwise cost me $60!

Once companies succeed in destroying this second hand market prices on games will stay inflated for years instead of going down (look at MW1 for example), and DLCs will become more common, and more likely to include content that should have come with the $65.00 game to begin with.

We need to speak out and not stand for this! The end of the second hand gaming market means the end of affordable finished games.

 

[Swindez95]

Ok this is total BS. What the fuck are us people on download limited internet supposed to do? Get another internet service? What if your like me and Verizon wireless DSL is the only option because you no longer have a landline and even still DSL service isn't offered in the town I live in, no cable companies whatsoever offer a cable internet solution either, and satellite internet is so damn useless its pathetic. If this happens I will no longer be a PC gamer, thats total bullshit from hell.

 

[Guest]

I'm 33, I'm a serious systems design consultant. On Christmas day I opened a present with Dragon Age: Origins in it. It was like being 7 again. There is a joy to the physical, even that plasticy new smell is exciting.

Also I have never had a truly positive with a digital download yet. If firms want to go digital download then I have to say secolliyn's three points are true. In my case i expect them to provide me with an easy way to burn the install package to DVD and the ability to re-download and access my license keys.

 

[beayn]

With download limitations becoming more popular among internet providers, PC games going all digital will just hurt sales more. I don't understand why Microsoft would want to kill PC games for the Xbox. People who have consoles don't upgrade their PC often. If they don't upgrade their PC often, they don't buy new versions of Windows. Increasing Xbox sales and decreasing OS sales... sounds like fail to me. They're gonna shoot themselves in the foot if they continue to force consoles on everyone.

 

[beayn]

With download limitations becoming more popular among internet providers, PC games going all digital will just hurt sales more. I don't understand why Microsoft would want to kill PC games for the Xbox. People who have consoles don't upgrade their PC often. If they don't upgrade their PC often, they don't buy new versions of Windows. Increasing Xbox sales and decreasing OS sales... sounds like fail to me. They're gonna shoot themselves in the foot if they continue to force consoles on everyone.

 

[maximaniac]

secolliyn,
I don't think the developers would ever allow the online distributor to let you download the ISO file. One of the primary reasons for having online distribution is to stop piracy. If you go on any game piracy website, you're downloading the ISO that someone created from their game cd/dvd. I'm not saying you would do it, but what's to stop someone else from posting that ISO on one of those websites?

 

[gorehound]

All Digital is destroying a lot of good things in life.All of you should start waking up before you do not see any bookstores,record stores,videostorers,and now game stores.

just keep buying your ereaders and downloading digital files and you will eventaully find a lot of people out on the streets with no jobs.
Stores will suffer and so will UPS (shipping companies), and manufacturing,a nd a lot more.
I own no digital only physical products.I rip my own mp3's and I buy only physical always till I die or it goes away.

There is a bad trickle down effect already starting to take place.
more sad news i say.

 

[randerson]

I prefer boxed games, but i will buy digital if they are cheaper. Those steam sales are just so tempting. I hate ebooks though and on the few times i have bought them I bind the book myself.

 

[millerm84]

[citation][nom]gorehound[/nom]All Digital is destroying a lot of good things in life.All of you should start waking up before you do not see any bookstores,record stores,videostorers,and now game stores.just keep buying your ereaders and downloading digital files and you will eventaully find a lot of people out on the streets with no jobs.Stores will suffer and so will UPS (shipping companies), and manufacturing,a nd a lot more.I own no digital only physical products.I rip my own mp3's and I buy only physical always till I die or it goes away.There is a bad trickle down effect already starting to take place.more sad news i say.[/citation]

Gorehound first off that made in China sticker on most of your games and CD/DVDs means that very few US manufacturing jobs will be lost, secondly retail jobs usually pay about what McDonald's pays so I doubt there will be a lot of heart ache there, lastly UPS/FedEx suffer more from gas and diesel being $3+ a gallon then losing the $4-$6 a game they get for shipping besides with ebay and other online consignment/retailers they will never run out of business.

If PC games go all download then the consumer should receive a hefty discount. With no manufacturing, no trans-pacific or trans-continent shipping, and no retail space to purchase PC game prices should come down by a third. Seeing as how Wal-mart markup alone is at least %50 it should be easy to drop prices which in turn would drive up sales.

The reason they don't drop online prices now (I know someone will ask) is because it would hurt retail sales, so do away with retail and give the consumer a much needed break for the hassle of downloading every game they want to buy.

 

[loomis86]

millerm84,

yeah right. Prices will never go down. We will be getting less for the same price.

 

[jestern]

Anyone who thinks this is a good idea (And isn't a developer or publisher) have probably never been without a broadband connection for the past 12 years or so. I can see that it only profits the devs./pubs. by cutting out the costs of production for the boxes, manuals and discs and ancillary costs to the distributors and retail outlets.

Its the same reason that alot/some devs. started only including pdf manuals instead of paper ones in older titles. Its all about money.

I suppose its more convenient for some (If you have the money for a high quota bandwidth connection then you probably have the money to purchase alot of stuff spur-of-the-moment), but 'some' doesn't equate 'all'. Those who think this would be good for all, get a clue and try to see past your priviledges and good fortune(s).

Simply put I guess this means you'll *NEED* a broadband connection to be a PC gamer in the future and if you don't have that, then someone else will have to develop a business where they can receive digital copies from the developers and burn them to physical discs and ship them out to the wankers who are too cheap/poor/techno-geo-graphically challenged to have one. A bit tacked on to make a tidy profit of course.

Yet more proof of the continuing growing economic divide in this country/world. Pretty soon only people in 'corporate communes' will live the way we live today, freely.

 

[aletoil]

As slow as my internet is, all digital would make me friggen quit.

 

[CoryInJapan]

You.Ive went in bestbuy maybe 20 times with a PC game in mind and they never have anything I want to buy.When they do its usually cheaper on newegg or steam so I dont even bother.

 

[rjkucia]

Technically, aren't games distributed digitally anyways? I mean, CDs and DVDs are digital.

 

[pochacco007]

if this happens then you can kiss gaming good bye forever.

consumers buy games because they are in full possession of the game. having games as digital distribution isn't going to favor the customers. it will however favor the companies. the question that comes in mind is, what's in it for me as the consumer? the answer is nothing.

if you buy download games, it's like buying pirate games. in both you can't sell/resell either because there is no value for it.

there is no ownership in having digital downloads. if i have an actual physical disc, i can give it to a friend, or i can stop by someone else's home and play it in their house. you can't do that with digital downloads. transfer of power.

immediate play as opposed to waited play. if you buy it from a store, you just play it straight. but if you download, you have to wait until you're done installing.

if you buy it from a store you get fancy materials like a map. you don't get that from digital downloads.

simply put, when this happens, it means gaming is dead.