Steam vs Buying Discs

DovyNorris

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Oct 13, 2014
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Im about to start the life of a pc gamer but i was wondering if i should buy older games on discs because they are so much cheaper on sites like amazon and ebay rather than buying them on steam. If i bought a disc would i still be able to play with my friends on steam like there isnt a difference?
 
Solution
Depends on the game, steam is usually easier, there are also sites that sell steam keys, a lot of games that come on disc demand you install them with steam anyways after you insert the disc as well.

Steam also easily allows you to uninstall and reinstall the game as many times as you want on as many computers as you want so you don't have to manage a huge collection of disks.

And some games you buy on steam will make you use the other manufacturer's DRM-thingy as well (UPlay for ubisoft games, Origin for EA games). I.e. you bought it on steam, you open it with steam, steam opens origin or whatever, origin opens the game.
Depends on the game, steam is usually easier, there are also sites that sell steam keys, a lot of games that come on disc demand you install them with steam anyways after you insert the disc as well.

Steam also easily allows you to uninstall and reinstall the game as many times as you want on as many computers as you want so you don't have to manage a huge collection of disks.

And some games you buy on steam will make you use the other manufacturer's DRM-thingy as well (UPlay for ubisoft games, Origin for EA games). I.e. you bought it on steam, you open it with steam, steam opens origin or whatever, origin opens the game.
 
Solution

ddpruitt

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I use digital (Steam and Gog) almost exclusively now for two reasons:

First, I don't have to worry about losing or damaging discs. I look through my steam library and I have games I forgot I bought.

Second, easy to install and run. Installing a game from Steam is a just a few clicks and some time. Small games install fairly quickly and come with all of the updates. And for the most part they run without hassle. A lot of older games require hacking in order to get them running correctly, particular those with various kinds of DRM.

I get that some people have issues with digital but IMHO the convenience more than makes up for it.
 

DovyNorris

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If i bought an old game like black ops 2 on steam which is expensive and people stopped playing and moved on to play black ops 3 then i didnt bo2 anymore that would be money wasted though right?
 


That's the same no matter which way you buy it.
Also playing games that have new versions every year is dumb as well, i.e. COD/BO/BF/Ect.
 


Not, really.

You can get steam keys "on the cheap" from sites like GreenManGaming.com, G2A.com, CdKeys.com, they're all like 15-50% cheaper than retail price of new games, but they're sorta "grey market" items, because what they actually are, are CDKeys for countries where piracy is so rampant they have to be sold at a lower price or they won't sell at all.