Poll: Would you embrace a shift to purely digital distribution of games?
- Thread starter rob_simple
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The internet of the majority is still far away from what would be needed for this to be reasonable in reality.
I think the only game I have bought a hard copy of for my PC in the past two years was starcraft 2, and that was because I coulnd't buy it online. It is so much nicer and easier to download games, plus I no longer have to store the physical media. I don't even have to worry about backing things up since I can download copies of my games form Steam or impulse if I get a new computer. I think this will be the way of the future.
I woulnd't get your hopes up about the price going down though. Disks and shipping costs are a very small percentage of the cost of a game. Plus in economics, everything is worth what the buyer is willing to pay.
I woulnd't get your hopes up about the price going down though. Disks and shipping costs are a very small percentage of the cost of a game. Plus in economics, everything is worth what the buyer is willing to pay.
No way I love having my physical copies and it would become too much of a monopoly for a handful of digital distribution services to sell all games as at the moment I can go to video games stores supermarkets computer shops and various other places to pick up my games and it keeps competition in check. I will admit DD is good for smaller companies to get there games to the masses in ways they couldn't before and without it things like amnesia would never have been as successful but there should always be an alternative
No chance.
Not just because I buy used games, though I do, but because I like having a tangible collection. Digital experiences are great, but I just enjoy seeing a huge stack of games on my shelf as proof of my addic- hobby.
Not just because I buy used games, though I do, but because I like having a tangible collection. Digital experiences are great, but I just enjoy seeing a huge stack of games on my shelf as proof of my addic- hobby.
No. For a start, my connection is mediocre at best. It seems with the two main ISPs available I have to choose between speed and line quality. Secondly, I do like to have a physical collection. I can start them up any time I like, make backups that will run no problem at all. With services like Steam, as much as I use it, that's another barrier between not playing a game and playing a game.
Regardless of my personal opinion, if the industry is going to go digital it's going to have to wait for the internet services to catch up first.
Regardless of my personal opinion, if the industry is going to go digital it's going to have to wait for the internet services to catch up first.
To be fair I can udnerstand how thats annoying. But the point of the online mode is essentially one more step to stop pirated games. The thing with ofline mode is to play any game, you need to go online and play that game once so that you can play it offline. From what I understand its so Steam can basically verify your game files and cdkey to check you arent running a hacked version.Fishyash said:
Yes I can understand its annoying, but to be fair long lasting connection problems..ie ones that mean you CANNOT get on for like a day or so, are very rare. If you have an on/off internet connection, all you would do is wait for it to connect briefly..then sign in and go into offline mode and your sorted. Actual long period connection issues are becoming less and less frequent as internet speed and knowledge increases, so I dont really see it as a total deal breaker.
It was just an example because music has been digital for some time now. The point I was making was that there are some things, be it games or music that I want an actual real copy of, not just a line of text on the computer saying I own itBoris Goodenough said:
I've not bought a boxed game in years. I think it's time people stopped living in the past and started to embrace the glorious digital ages.
I do not agree with a total shift. While digital has it's advantages in ease of access and lower costs since they don't need to make disks and packaging, we never actually get to see these savings passed on to us. the steam download of a game is almost always the same cost as buying the hard copy. It would also cause the wide shutdown of game stores across the globe if there was no physical medium for games. As well, there's a security in owning something physical. This digital distribution thing ties your purchases to licensing connected to your account, or worse, to your computer.
Get banned; lose 600 dollars worth of games? Get a new computer, lose all those games because you aren't allowed to copy them over? Too much potential for abuse by the game companies. I feel that there should always be the choice to get a physical copy of the game.
Get banned; lose 600 dollars worth of games? Get a new computer, lose all those games because you aren't allowed to copy them over? Too much potential for abuse by the game companies. I feel that there should always be the choice to get a physical copy of the game.
If it became digital only I would either stop gaming or become a pirate. Next gen of consoles I plan to NEVER connect to internet by any means possible. PC games I am making effort to do my best to locate a hard copy of game. I will fight against one system of purchase coming out as only one. I look forward to age where digital and physical are more in harmony with as close to 50/50 as possible. If dark future of oppression of gamer rights that comes hand in hand with digital distribution being king then I don't want to be gamer. Some might say that digital distribution isn't that bad but of course it isn't right now it still has to compete with physical purchases. Once it's all alone it will lead to control unimagined in hands of people that see consumers as walking credit cards to bleed dry. Right now digital distributors have to play nice. I don't see it as impossible that first thing that would be killed by publisher pushing digital distributors would be modding by causing any modding software on computer equal account lockout of all games purchased.
I pretty much only use Steam for my games, when it's not Steam then I buy in retail but that happens very rarely. I just pre-ordered Mass Effect 3 on retail but not on Origin. Other than that, I don't remember the last time I bought a game retail. It's been quite a while.
No. At least I know what I own with a physical copy. Servers shut down, companies go bankrupt. It all just seems sketchy to me.
There's good and bad to the digital download. I love using steam and recently I started buying books in digital download. Yet there are some digital downloads you have to be careful about. Some digital downloads give you a copy, it's your copy but if you lose it you have to buy another one at full price. Even some digital downloads say that you don't own the item. It's still there's. When you own a physical item it's yours. You don't have to go threw loops to prove it's yours.
Example: I bought a few games on my phone for fun. I loved playing them but when my screen broke on my phone I had to get another one. When they transferred the data to my old phone to my new one. All my games were gone, I told them they were missing and that I wanted them back because I payed for them. They told me they couldn't get them back and that I can't prove that I had them. So I would have to buy them all over again.
Example: I bought a few games on my phone for fun. I loved playing them but when my screen broke on my phone I had to get another one. When they transferred the data to my old phone to my new one. All my games were gone, I told them they were missing and that I wanted them back because I payed for them. They told me they couldn't get them back and that I can't prove that I had them. So I would have to buy them all over again.
The internet used to be a luxury. Now it is a necessity considering how many things depend on having an internet connection and how it is bordering the usefulness of an automobile.s69-5 said:
A good portion of jobs out there today require you to apply online. Leaving those without an internet connection very disadvantaged in terms of looking for a job. And that's just one of the many important advantages of having internet access.
Having a job is definitely not a luxury.
This is quite an extraordinary claim. Source?s69-5 said: