Digital Distribution - Or why I love Steam

Games
1

I’ve discovered with some surprise that I haven’t bought a single game off the shelf in the past 12 months. Not one. Every game I have is now digitally purchased, ranging from GOG, Steam, iTunes and sometimes directly (e.g. GSB from cliffski).

I sat down and thought about it and there are a number of compelling reasons:

(1) It’s just faster to sit your ass at home and buy games - no trip to the mall etc - internet speeds are sufficiently fast for most of us;
(2) It’s easier to find online discounts;
(3) I don’t have to worry if the discs are going to be damaged/scratched;
(4) I don’t have to care about putting those boxes with the manuals and the CD-keys etc away (good luck if you lose that CD-case with the key);
(5) About those manuals… long gone are the days of the Falcon and Red Storm Rising manuals over which I could literally spend hours poring (although digital manuals like cliffski’s humourously done GSB manual are very very welcome);
(6) The digital platforms are maturing/have matured (although STO was a serious f-up there, Steam old boy);
(7) There’s less DRM when you purchase an online game (Ubi can suck balls); and
(8) Automatic updates (provided the developer supports the digital distribution platform).

I’m firmly in the digital distribution camp for PC games - perhaps one day we will also purchase console games in the same way. Even if I find myself wandering through a software store, I just don’t feel an inclination to pick up a box anymore. I can’t see the future of bricks and mortar software stores being very bright anymore.

2

This poll is missing:

3: I buy digital unless I have no other choice

and

4: Shit Bonerz.

3

Steam is the only reason PC gaming still exists. They still print games on disc? How quaint.

4

3 is pretty good - missed that.

I actually typed out 4 and then went “Naaaaah…”

5

I don’t understand this “advantage” at all. There’s usually more DRM with digital purchases.

6

Hey y’all. First post engage!

I mostly buy physical copies of games, primarily because I like having something I can hold in my hands. The smell of a freshly opened dvd case is one of life’s littler pleasures. Also with console games I’m automatically locked out from downloading the PC version because my PC isn’t current enough to handle anything released beyond 2005.

I really like digital distribution though and have started buying some games on Steam/GOG lately, which is great for two reasons: One is that they’re all games I missed the first time around when they were originally released, so not only are they awesome but my computer can run them just fine, and the second is that most of them are in that $5-$10 sweet spot price range. Being generally poor (in a middle class liberal arts student kind of way) means that I will probably start buying digitally more in the future since it’s cheaper (love those Steam sales).

7

If I can buy it on Steam, I will. If I can’t, I will launch it through Steam so I can use the overlay. I don’t use any other digital distributors, though. I plan to use Good Old Games eventually to get stuff like Arcanum.

8

Sometimes the packaged goods are worth owning, sometimes not. It depends what’s offered and how much it costs. I don’t really think about it in “either or” terms.

9

Boxed here, main reason being I can’t get high speed at home. I’ve bought several DD games mostly because they were cheap or not available at retail. Even then I only get things that are fairly small to download. 1GB is generally the limit for me.

One thing to mention is I see automatic updates as a negative. An easy way to get and apply patches is a great idea as long as you aren’t required to update. Not long ago I was playing Borderlands co-op with 3 of my friends and there was a patch that made getting a game together a pain in the butt. I suggested we just go back to the previous version but one of my friends had bought the game on Steam so that simply wasn’t an option. What if an update changes or removes something you like? Or adds ads? (I believe that happened with Counter-Strike 1.6) TF2 is praised because its like a whole new game with all the updates they’ve done but maybe if I don’t like the changes I can just play the game I originally bought, you know?

I’m sure I’m the odd man out about that, though.

10

Shit man, that’s the boners. You gotta include it.

11

I go where the best deals are, which being european means often importing from UK (I got AC2, GTA4 Episodes, Arma 2… and about 50 other games for 15 pounds month or so after release) but Steam, D2D and GOG have often such a good sales that I go there as well. So for me it is about 50:50.

12

How so? Half my game time is spent unconnected from the web. With my Steam games, I start it up, choose play in offline mode and I’m playing the game. No discs, no phone home, etc. That’s pretty damn close to drm-free to me.

I’m a big digital purchase guy. That said, due to Steams sales, I never buy a game at full price. I await weekend/mid-week/x-mas sales.

Jorune

13

I voted either, which just happens to be 99% Steam. The ridiculous Steam sales have me buying games I normally wouldn’t. I was highly dubious about digital distribution since I figured no way in hell they’ll charge less for it and you’ll get all the added disadvantages of being reliant on a company not to get bought out or go tits up and take your game(s) with them, but Valve’s sales knock the price down to a point where I don’t mind. At this point I’m sitting at around 250 games so I’ll be pissed of all those cheap purchases get flushed, but since Valve is seemingly doing so well at this point I hope they will continue being a benevolent dictator.

If Valve ever goes to the dark side I don’t know what I’ll do. Probably play Dwarf Fortress, DoomRL and Nethack all day.

14

I think people still get worked up about those very rare occurrences (that I’ve never encountered) where phoning home to Steam in order to install and play a game is a downside.

And I think that’s balanced by the fact that if I went to Europe right now without a laptop, I could load up Steam/Impulse/GOG and download games without having a CD with me, or set it in Offline mode if I don’t.

DD is just to god damn awesome, and every video game sale number from me will be through digital download.

Let’s boycott boxed copies WHOOOOO

15

A few months ago, I moved out of the apartment where I lived for the last 12 years.

I hate physical goods now. So much stuff that I hadn’t looked at in ages. So, yeah, downloads for me from now on out.

16

Steam also is the DRM for plenty of boxed games now. I wasn’t able to play Just Cause 2 when it arrived in the mail, despite having it installed, because the publisher had used Steam to lock the game for another 24 hours in Europe. It always puzzles me when people cite Steam games as being ‘DRM free’. It may be DRM that you personally get along with, or that has never caused you any particular hassle, but it is DRM. You can even have your entire account suspended and access to all your games cut off by Valve if they decide it is appropriate.

To answer the original question, I tend to go where the cheapest deals are and also keep half an eye on the size of the game because we have a monthly data transfer cap on our broadband that Steam can quickly consume. In the UK this tends to mean most new AAA games get bought boxed because they can be almost half the price of the price on Steam.

17

For the sake of argument

  1. Going and coming back to the mall: 20 minutes. Installing, 10 minutes. Downloading a modern game from Steam: Around 6 hours.

  2. Discounts? Dunno. I know there are more offers in DD, but recent releases are cheaper in physical format.

  3. Yeah. In exchange you have to worry about the system working fine (i.e. this weekend Steam has been erratic).

  4. I never have lost a vidogame.

  5. Sometimes there is less, sometimes there are more.

  6. You don’t need DD to use automatic updates.

18

We’ve been buying some games from Steam, but we’re still mainly buying boxed games.
Our maximum download limit is simply not big enough to cater for 3 gamers in one household.
And boxed games (both Amazon and brick and mortar) are usually vastly cheaper then Steam et al, unless Steam has a good sale on. But you can’t count on a sale if there is a particular game you want, like Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age.

Besides that, I’m slowly moving more and more to consoles, and there isn’t any download service for the Xbox that can be considered competative with retail prices.

As it stands, buying digital is still a novelty for us, and I can’t see that changing anythime soon.

19

Nope. Not unless you live way out in the countryside or only play old games - and if you live way out in the country it still might not be faster, because decent broadband might not be available.

(2) It’s easier to find online discounts;

Again only if you’re just interested in older games.

(3) I don’t have to worry if the discs are going to be damaged/scratched;

True. One reason why I love Steam - I’m not good at taking care of stuff.

(4) I don’t have to care about putting those boxes with the manuals and the CD-keys etc away (good luck if you lose that CD-case with the key);
(5) About those manuals… long gone are the days of the Falcon and Red Storm Rising manuals over which I could literally spend hours poring (although digital manuals like cliffski’s humourously done GSB manual are very very welcome);

Both true. I throw everything but the serial# away… and then I lose the serial#, because it’s now only one small piece of paper.

(6) The digital platforms are maturing/have matured (although STO was a serious f-up there, Steam old boy);

Yes.
(7) There’s less DRM when you purchase an online game (Ubi can suck balls); and
(8) Automatic updates (provided the developer supports the digital distribution platform).
[/quote]
No.
Just like I couldn’t play Settlers for most of last sunday, I couldn’t play Half-Life 2 at all the day I purchased it because Steam was overwhelmed - both singleplayer games that I couldn’t play, because the built in DRM wasn’t up to the task.

While Steam is way better than Ubisofts servers these days, I have had connection trouble playing MW2 and experienced being thrown out in the middle of a match, because Steam needed maintenance. But I could at least still play the singleplayer and one can hardly blame Valve/Steam for MW2 singleplayer not being worth playing…

I’m firmly in the digital distribution camp for PC games - perhaps one day we will also purchase console games in the same way. Even if I find myself wandering through a software store, I just don’t feel an inclination to pick up a box anymore. I can’t see the future of bricks and mortar software stores being very bright anymore.

I still buy boxes, when there’s a good offer or a cheap used copy of something I was never inclined to pay full price for.

I like Steam and DD for the convenience and am willing to forego other stuff to have that. But I’m not keen on being tied into one store, losing the ability to buy/sell used games especially with the more expensive console games. And unless consoles come with ample storage or the ability to use any external harddrive for backup, I don’t want to go DD only on consoles.

20

I don’t understand how come western providers (uk, etc) still “feature” bandwidth caps, while I get cable connection of 25mbits without any cap for 20 bucks a month.And this connection is quite widespread here, some 400K people are using this provider.