Publisher: PC Games Going All Digital in 2011

[trkraus]

[citation][nom]matt87_50[/nom]what ever. but I don't like the DD system there is at the moment, having to pick one distribution method. there should be a general DD management system that holds all your games, developed by a third party, then all the different stores distribute their games in a common format for use with that third party system. imagine if different game shops had exclusives, so you could only buy the next Half life from EB, then imagine that you had to keep any game you bought from EB at EB, if you wanted to play it, you had to go to EB to pick your copy up. that’s what the DD system is like at the moment, and I don't think its good enough, its anti competitive encouraging users to pick just one online store for simplicity.[/citation]

I totally agree, well said. I love steam, but I would also like being able to shop around between digital distributors. like, I've got a couple games that I've downloaded through EA's digital thing, which is kind of annoying because those games are now separate from the majority of my games which are on steam. I pretty much won't buy a game from anywhere else but steam now.

[citation][nom]Maxor127[/nom]I hate Steam. It's worthless bloatware and I like having physical copies of my games.[/citation]

Lol how is steam bloatware? It's just one process and doesn't use that much memory, not to mention it is far from worthless. Even if you don't like it you can't argue that it doesn't do anything...

 

[sargentchimera]

Ive always liked having the ability to install without an internet connection since i moved my computer and it isnt even close to the wireless router so my download speed now is like 400kb instead of what it was which was 1.2mb =(

 

[jalek]

So.. why is Tages causing Windows to complain about vulnerabilities? When did it get installed? It's apparently a disk to disk copy protection driver.

I HATE this secretly installed crapware. If digital downloads meant less of that, I'd be all for it.

 

[gomi]

On one hand I see why consoles are so popular because you don't have to worry about minimum specs but the pc industry shouldn't forget about the pc gamers. I for one don't like using controllers for fps games and would rather stick to the mouse and keyboard.

 

[hemelskonijn]

Since PC games are software aren't they digital to begin with ?

The only non digital way to sell software would be old-school style like MSX and C64 magazines used to do.
Printed code ready to be typed over by the reader only to find out after 6000 lines that there was some error in line 412 (gotta love those syntax errors) so next month there would be a rectification that solved the initial problems if you copy typed the rest of the syntax without any mistakes.

Now seriously the title of this article makes no sense at all.

 

[n3ard3ath]

One another hand. Here's an article about the big threes saying absolutely the contrary about digital distribution.

http://rightnreal.com/activison-chats-to-the-big-three-about-digital-distribution/

The shady publisher 1C vs Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, who's right?

 

[n3ard3ath]

BBcode not showing up? Oh well, here it is. http://rightnreal.com/activison-chats-to-the-big-three-about-digital-distribution/

 

[zebow2002]

I've been using steam since early 2003. Works great, you should see my account, over 60 games.

 

[drksilenc]

[citation][nom]mac_angel[/nom]was wondering how many others were going to bring this up. I download a lot of games and think Steam has amazing deals. But with so many ISPs having bandwidth caps you're not going to only pay for the game, but to also download them. Then just imagine having 20 games installed on Steam and then reformatting (I just did)[/citation]
not entirely true. i have a steam account i can give that steam login to another person. i make a new steam account for every game buy from steam for this exact reason. also you can make a physical copy of the game if you want its in steam native code but its still a physical copy and i for one prefer this compaired to the boxes of manual and cds i have floating around my house cause ive been a gamer since around 1990 on pc's

 

[hemelskonijn]

D_kuhn:

I did write about that just above you

 

[lowguppy]

Steam is pretty much the only way I buy games now. I really like having my ownership of titles being tied to a membership, rather than a CD key that can be lost, or a disc that can become damaged (CD drive ate the CD key sticker off my Diablo 2 and now I can't install it.) Considering how convenient Steam is, I really don't see a reason to buy a box. If someone did, they should be able to just order it from the publisher.

 

[itadakimasu]

They're right about retailers... I was planning on buying MW2 for PC, since FPS on a console is stupid

But guess what... Frys didn't have the PC version in stock. Just PS3 and 360.

 

[jacobdrj]

I am not so diametrically opposed to downloading games. It takes too long on some ISPs, but I like digital movie distribution, so games are no different. My problem is that they haven't come out with a compelling title since 2002. Where is TIE Fighter 2? Starfleet Academy 3? Syndicate Wars 3? Any modern Flight Sim? etc...

 

[cptnjarhead]

Downloaded masseffect the other day from direct2drive.. i was very impressed... install went without a hitch.. well.. had some issues because my system is overclocked.. but who's isn't?.. unless your not gaming.. anyway.. my overall experience was good.. but wont bandwidth become an issue in the future?.

 

[peteve]

it's called profit margin. we are all used to paying the $50-$60 price tag...the same price from steam as in stores. now if we all switch to steam, the money for manufacturing all of those disks and manuals and boxes and shipping / packing goes away. thus their profits go up.

 

[n3ard3ath]

[citation][nom]peteve[/nom]it's called profit margin. we are all used to paying the $50-$60 price tag...the same price from steam as in stores. now if we all switch to steam, the money for manufacturing all of those disks and manuals and boxes and shipping / packing goes away. thus their profits go up.[/citation]

Exactly, this is why I'm against encouraging DD as long as they don't offer fair prices for what it is. Sure, there's a lot of good deals on DD services for older games that you don't get with retailers, but for new releases, it's 98% of the time the same price as the retailers.

For an old game, I would go as far as paying 20$ more for the boxed copy vs the DD version. For example, I would gladly pay 30$ for a boxed copy of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC vs 10$ for the DD version. But that's just my opinion. It's just to show that if I'm willing to shell 20 more bucks for an older game, which is a pretty big margin, that margin could be even bigger for a new title. I would prefer to pay 59.99$ for a boxed copy than 29.99$ for the DD one, but that's far from what they are offering. The 2% of the time they offer a deal for a DD on a new release is 10$ less than the retail version.

If everybody were like me, they would need to get their act together pretty fast, but that's not the case. People are comfortable paying premium prices for half of the product.

In theory, the end result is the same, we both want the digital content on the medium, but like I said, the solid medium is worth something, and have a production cost. Even if that medium is worth nothing to you, and that DD only content satisfy you, why accept to pay the same price?

Just my 2 cents.

 

[trkraus]

Steam does have some sales at release...a LOT of the games will be 10% off if you preorder it. Not to mention they are starting to offer 4 packs, where you buy 4 copies of the game for the price of three. For left 4 dead 2, they had a 4 pack preorder that was 10% off the 4 pack price, so each copy ended up costing $33.75 instead of $50...I'd say that's a pretty good deal. There's nothing like that with brick and mortar stores.

 

[Hellcatm]

I think streaming games like with OnLive will kill store bought and download gaming. This could actually change the PC industry as we know it. It could actually kill consoles as well.

 

[Nimmist]

I downloaded Dawn of War II a few weeks ago from THQ’s online store after not being able to find it in any brick-and-mortar store near me. After about 18 hours to download I installed it only to find it required Steam. I haven’t used Steam since Half-life 2, so I could not remember my Steam account information and it would not send me an email.

I tried contacting Steam, and the only option I found was to open a trouble ticket with them, there was no phone contact information for this type of problem. I heard nothing back from Steam. I contacted THQ (As I recall email was my only option) and they said they had no connection with the THQ online store. I contacted the THQ online store (again, my only option seemed to be through email) and they said they were sorry, but there was nothing they could do. Finally, after 54 hours of waiting, someone from Steam sent me my account information with a new password.

This is absolutely terrible service from both THQ and Steam. $40 to wait 3 days before I could play the game I legally purchased. Had I pirated the game, I would still have had to wait for the download, but I would not have had to wait for Steam, or even have had to install Steam on my PC. The gaming industry is alienating their paying customers.

Granted, the online download gave me the option the purchase the game when the brick-and-mortar stores failed to have it, but for the time it took to actually play the game from my point of purchase, I could have just purchased a box version from Amazon and not missed any playing time. I won’t be going all digital any time soon.

 

[bad_code]

[citation][nom]rjkucia[/nom]Technically, aren't games distributed digitally anyways? I mean, CDs and DVDs are digital.[/citation]

Welcome to the technological age. Most people even screw up MB and KB. Look at the download speed its not KB it's Kb 1/8th of what it says.

 

[species8472]

This sucks. Nothing beats a hard copy. Imagine the nightmarish DRM that could be come up with. The powers that be would have complete control.

 

[trkraus]

If I recall correctly it was the DRM in the retail version of Spore that was "nightmarish" and had everyone po'd...whereas the steam version is fine and doesn't have that awful ea drm. Steam has their own drm which is unobtrusive and not restrictive, unlike the retail one. So you've got it backwards there.

 

[Nimmist]

You may find Steam unobtrusive and not restrictive, but not everyone sees it your way. Waiting 54 hours to get a response from someone at Steam certainly seems restrictive to me, especially when I didn’t even know I’d be required to use Steam to play the game I bought until AFTER I downloaded and tried to install it.

As for EA’s terrible DRM, they tied it in with all their new games, whether it was retail, Steam, or even a demo. This is ANOTHER example of the gaming industry alienating their customer base. It doesn’t mean that retail is bad and therefore Steam is good, it means the gaming industry needs to find ways of distributing their software WITHOUT alienating their paying customers. Again, if Steam works for you, great, but it does NOT work for all of us.

 

[isamuelson]

At this time, the only way I buy a boxed game is because:

1. It's not available digitally
2. I can purchase it at a better price rather than digitally
3. There is a special collectors edition that comes with a lot of cool "extras" that you can't get digitally.

Otherwise, I purchase digitally and mostly from Steam which is always having some sort of sale on a game. Otherwise, Steam works great. It's not tied to a machine, it's tied to your account, so if I get a new machine, I can just backup my Steam directory (games and all) and restore it to the new PC and it works. You can download the install files and back them up to CD/DVD for later install. You DON'T have to be online if the game does not require online access. Also, Steam will check to see if there are updates to any of the games and will download the patches for them. And finally, just about every Steam game I've purchased has also come with the documentation so there's no way for me to lose the documentation. Couple that with the fact that I don't have to worry about losing the install medium or worse, the install medium get's lost or ruined and I can no longer install the program. Steam ensures I can reinstall the application either by the backup I made and/or allowing me to download it again (at NO cost since I've already purchased it).

 

[isamuelson]

[citation][nom]Gulli[/nom]If I pay money for a game I want a physical copy. I buy them from online stores, just as lazy as downloading.There is no technical reason why you can't buy a physical copy, then punch in a code that checks the validity of your game once so you can play offline. This would also allow you to play without the disc in the drive and there should be a button in some menu that lets you backup you stats and progress online.All the reasons they're giving us to switch to downloading don't make sense at all: we can have all those functions without downloading.[/citation]

But what does the physical copy give you? All you purchased was a license to play the game, not a right to own it. Read the user license agreement. When you click "I Agree" you are stating that you understand that you are given a license to play the game, but that the soul owner of the game is actually the publisher and that your license to play it can be revoked at any time.

Also, with Steam, you backup the program to a CD/DVD to install it later on without having to download it again.