Poll: Are You Ready To Ditch Disks?

[XT inc]

digital distributions pros: you don't have to get off your ass to get something.
cons- you paid the same price for it and can't do anything else with it, you now have 7+gigs of space taken up on your hard drive, if you want more games you will have to buy a bigger hard drive on top of your games .

Discs pros- free hd space, game box/disc/manual/something you can trade,sell, or rage smash if need be. cons you might have to buy a shelf to hold them in and you can break them if you're touched in the head.

Ill keep my discs until the markup is slashed, you take away the fees that the stores add for markup and the costs of the discs,packaging,shipping etc and then we'll talk.

 

[Brandon237]

I'm a sentimental fol who lives in 3rd world country with Bloody slow DL speeds and internet caps and I love my boxes! And I have a small hard drive...

Disks forever!

 

[Wolf Devastator]

Nope. I like it as an alternative, but I need to show off my collection!!! :O

Steam almost has it figured out, but the only way it will work is if the major console makers make their own system for digital distribution.

But I agree on one part, lets skip discs and go back to cartridges!! Go N64!

 

[Wolfram23]

I really like digital. Discs are nice, I think it's great for consoles where you can bring a game to a friend's house and all that. However, I prefer digital because boxes, to me, are only really fun to look at on the ride home. After a week or two, who needs the box anymore? It's just wasting space. Now, I do love a good manual. My favorite manuals ever being Starcraft 1 and Homeworld. But... the manuals these days suck! There's no point. As long as digital versions start shipping with a nice PDF manual I'm happy (sadly, most don't).

Finally, with digital you can totally just back up the game on disc anyway. Also, while not every game does this, there are plenty which do provide discounts for the digital/PC version. I just bought F1 2010 for $35.99 which is selling for $69.99 on consoles. Ouch! Digital also opens the doors for indie developers to get their productions out there, which would have been very very difficult if they were forced to front disc copies and try to get them onto store shelves.

 

[NoNameMcgee]

I already have ditched disks. I've been almost exclusively using Steam now for the past year. I only buy a disk now if the game isn't available on Steam or if it is much cheaper.

Consoles will catch up.

DD is innovative and it's the future.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Hell naw...

I love my discs!

I dislike microtransactions mainly because I dislike paying for something that isn't physical. I realize not everything I buy is but it still feels weird. I've bought DLC in the past which I try not to think about too much but buying movies and music without discs is just kinda strange to me. It isn't bad it's just new and strange SO I RAGE AND REMINISCE ABOUT THE GOOD OLD DAYS!!! Remember cassette-tapes!? Those were pretty great. Rumble was a cassette and he could KICK YOUR ASS >.< Let's see a cloud of 1's and 0's with no physical form do THAT!

 

[zfactor]

I don't buy digital versions, but that is just because I really really like having a massive row of boxes on various shelves and drawers... Sort of showing off to myself. The only problem is when you want to play a different game and have to switch disks (but some of my games are steam, so they don't need the disk, but I still have it from the install and original purchase). So that is why I have four CD drives now!

 

[zfactor]

Nope. I like it as an alternative, but I need to show off my collection!!! :O

Steam almost has it figured out, but the only way it will work is if the major console makers make their own system for digital distribution.

But I agree on one part, lets skip discs and go back to cartridges!! Go N64!

Yays! Minimal load time! (none with most of them...)

But PC and console games will have to be the size of a dozen NES cartridges because of massive memory requirements. And prices would vary by a lot (everything costs $50 now, but there used to be huge price differences because of the difference in circuitry in cartridges. Some more complex (Ocarina of Time), others simple (...Knife Edge Nosegunner?))

 

[Hitari0]

Almost all of the games I own are on Steam and I trust them completely; but I would like to be able to remove them from my account if I were to want to switch accounts or give them to someone else without giving them my account. However, I am not familiar with Direct2Drive, so I wouldn't know about that.

 

[AVATAR_RAGE]

Hell naw...

I love my discs!

I'll drink to that one......your paying though

 

[Mikeyfell]

how am I supposed to borrow digitally distributed games form friends?

how am I supposed to by used games 6 years after they came out?

I've learned better than to not pay full price for any current gen game (Except Mass Effect 3)

so If games go Digital Distribution I'm going to have to start reading books or god forbid, going OUTSIDE.

 

[Kaez]

Yeah... I like hard copies of games, right up there with games not requiring internet access (not everyone has the best connection out there).

 

[Evilsanta]

I like to have a copy that i can touch.

 

[Legendairy314]

Sharing games with friends, physically renting games, more hard drive space, and being able to sell the games later on. I don't think digital formats for games are my cup o' tea.

 

[GonzoGamer]

They only asked console gamers, according to the article. Herp, derp.

Hear hear.

How retarded would you have to be to not want digital downloads? It saves money off production and distribution, and more importantly, saves space in your home.

Do you really think the savings are ever going to trickle down to us or lead to a game filled with more content that might actually be worth $60?

I would be all for it if I had any faith in the console makers and publishers to not screw us over.
If things went to exclusive digital distribution: where ps would get games from psn and 360 would get games from xbla, they would have a monopoly and could charge whatever they want for the games. So even though they would be spending less by not having to ship and print, you can bet we would be paying more. Then there would probably be all sorts of exclusions and limitations that would result in a fair share of people buying some games twice.

 

[lvl9000_woot]

No, I like having my games with awesome game boxes.

This -- because it makes me feel better about paying $60 per new game.

 

[John Horn]

I would love to have a physical storage of the game, but I hate discs. Discs are slow, fragile. I think the future lies in non-volatile memory like NAND Flash memory, used in SSD and memory sticks.
And this is a strong possibility if and when USB 3.0 is accepted standard by the industry. Faster than discs, can be driven over many times by a car, trampled on, and still provide the same data undamaged.
I store my old gaming boxes from 1994 (Tie Fighter, Normality etc) in my parents' garage attic. I don't keep any game boxes in my apartment. Of course, I have fond memories of them, but having the boxes around isn't doing me any good.

Until a USB 3.0 flash unit is used in the games industry, online storage like Steam is much more convenient for me. I prefer to have books in my shelves rather than game boxes with manuals.
Problem with online storage is that not everybody has a good broadband connection.

 

[DazBurger]

Hell no! I want a hard-copy.

EA have already screwed me over for 10$.

The only place I might compromise would be Steam.. IF there is more than just a few bucks to save on it.