[citation][nom]moricon[/nom]I am an AVID PcGamer, and have never even installed steam on my PC, Yres I may be missing a few of Valves games, but there is more choice of hard box set games out there than steam could ever offer and I like to have the physical media for my game. If Steam were to offer the newest games at the correctly adopted price for a purely download product with no manuals, media box art work then I may, possibly consider them as an option. Nope, it seems to me at this time that my Alligence to Code-masters as a developer is still justified.. and for the record, Steam is definately not a monopoly!!![/citation]
Usually they have a few dollars off pre-order, I can't remember the time I sat looking over Box and the Box art remembering all the fun times I had in that game, and then finding a place to store that Box and Box art. Plus the fun of the new DRM's that require the CD to be in the drive, so you have to store the new ones close, and file the old ones away...
Steam's game library easily blows away any store in North America with the sheer number of games it has available for sale.... If you need media, you can burn you a backup and file it away.
If you are like me, I have 1/2 closet full of every PC game I have ever owned.... and all it is now is a waste of space that I don't want to throw away because of the thousands I spent buying them.
With Steam, you can be anywhere in the US with any decent connection and a decent PC, install and run the game and not have to deal with the storage of box, and manual... well unless you are a hoarder and all that junk will have some special meaning and we see you on TLC holding on to your old Space Quest I box with manual saying "no no no, can't get rid of that one..... I might want to play it again in 30 years".
nearly 200 games a click away.... no store in North America has that shelf space...