Do you still only buy PC game box copies?

I remember even going back 2 years ago, alot of PC forum regulars would refuse to participate in the seasonal steam sales, because they were OCD about displaying game boxes in their cabinet. I'd scoff because to me it obviously was a dying trend. Today, alot of North American stores are phasing out boxed copies of PC games, if they even still sell them at all.

Have you guys transitioned over to digital at this point, or are some people still finding a way to only buy box copies of games.

I pretty much buy everything digital these days. Except for select games from publishers I've been a fan of since I was a kid. So, basically... Blizzard games. Hahaha. Diablo 3 was the last retail boxed game I bought. Starcraft 2 was the last one before that. I do have a boxed retail copy of Bioshock Infinite on preorder, though. Because it's going to be amazing, and I have boxed copies of Bioshock 1 and 2.

I usually buy physical discs whenever possible. I save DD for games like Hard Reset and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. For the DD games, I make backups on DVD asap.

I usually buy physical discs whenever possible. I save DD for games like Hard Reset and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. For the DD games, I make backups on DVD asap.

jun_aka_pekto

What's the reason for backing up on DVDs as opposed to high capacity storage drives (in RAID or otherwise)? I haven't burned a physical .iso in 4-5 years, due to convenience and the declining cost of storage capacity.

I'm a gamer since the early eighties. When I look at my collection, I love to pick up the old cassette tapes, 5 1/4" and 3.5" 2DD or HD floppies. Than, when I move up a shelf, I see CD cases and boxes, manuals, user guides, maps etc. When I look at the future shelf, I see a void :cry: NOTHING beats a physical copy of a game. The joy of unwrapping, reading the booklet on the toilet and the memories you get when you look at your collection every time you walk by are irreplaceable.

Only time I buy digital is if it's significantly cheaper than box.C_Rule

A few years ago I bought most of my PC Gaming stuff in the stores and most of them still offer a great varied and mostly current collection of them, but recently I've catched myself buying way more on Steam than in the stores.

Though some major releases like Far Cry 3 will always be bought in a store by me, I just want to have the Box with it.

Hardly nowadays.

I'm a gamer since the early eighties. When I look at my collection, I love to pick up the old cassette tapes, 5 1/4" and 3.5" 2DD or HD floppies. Than, when I move up a shelf, I see CD cases and boxes, manuals, user guides, maps etc. When I look at the future shelf, I see a void :cry: NOTHING beats a physical copy of a game. The joy of unwrapping, reading the booklet on the toilet and the memories you get when you look at your collection every time you walk by are irreplaceable.

geitenvla

[QUOTE="jun_aka_pekto"]

I usually buy physical discs whenever possible. I save DD for games like Hard Reset and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. For the DD games, I make backups on DVD asap.

True_Sounds

What's the reason for backing up on DVDs as opposed to high capacity storage drives (in RAID or otherwise)? I haven't burned a physical .iso in 4-5 years, due to convenience and the declining cost of storage capacity.

I have plenty of blank DVD platters. I only make disc backups of those games which are relatively small. Plus, I use my archive hard drives for raw videos and digital photos but not for games. I may buy a dedicated hard drive for game backups later.

When I first started serious pc gaming back in 2007 when I bought my first graphics card I used to buy almost exclsuviely boxed pc games online from amazon mostly sticking to older pc games even before DD sales older pc games would drop in price faster and reach lower prices then console games for new copies $10-$5 was not uncommon for games 2 year and older pc games if you shopped online. Physical retail store prices where usually terrible unless the game just came out or it was cheap already like $10 or less. I bought some digital this gradually shifted over a period of 5 years until now its pretty much all digital only for pc games

The prices are cheaper when you wait for sales and its also more convenient. Installs from a dvd are a hassle especially with games that are multi disk installs and especially bad if you want to install a bunch of games at once with DD its much easier especially the client based DD like steam and origin. You can queue up downloads for your entire game library if you want to and they will download the game files to your pc and first time you launch them it will run a mini install. With stuff like gamer gate and amazon where it downloads the install files to your hardrive and then runs them to install the game its not as convenient but still more so then physical copies but if you don't won't to lock all your games to a single account then those and gog.com are necessary although with more and more games requiring steam and some origin its becoming harder to do that.

My internet is also alot faster then back when I started pc gaming only had 1.5Mbps download now its 50Mbs download I can downlload games so much faster now so further pushes me towards DD. I would go for a retail copy if it was alot cheaper or even pay a bit more if it required steamworks/origin like Skyrim or Battlefield 3 so just have to add the key to my account or one of blizzards games wheres it tied to my battle net account even the older games you can register to your account with the cd key I've kinda run out of room though for physical boxes though.

For consoles I rarely buy games when they first come out and for older games the retail copy is almost always cheaper then the DD copy which tends to be overpriced and they pretty much never go on sale and barely drop in price I'm not willing to pay more for convenience of not having to swap out the disk to play another game. I stick to digital for the digital only games on my ps3 for wii games and ps2 games I buy the games and rip them to my hardrive and play on emulators on my pc.

The last one I bought was Diablo 3, mainly because I love the art and I always have physical copies of Blizzard games.

Only time I buy digital is if it's significantly cheaper than box.C_Rule

I'm a gamer since the early eighties. When I look at my collection, I love to pick up the old cassette tapes, 5 1/4" and 3.5" 2DD or HD floppies. Than, when I move up a shelf, I see CD cases and boxes, manuals, user guides, maps etc. When I look at the future shelf, I see a void :cry: NOTHING beats a physical copy of a game. The joy of unwrapping, reading the booklet on the toilet and the memories you get when you look at your collection every time you walk by are irreplaceable.

geitenvla

PC games boxes suck though now adays there not even big dvd case anymore just slim plastic dvd cases and don't come out with a manual anymore just a single sheet of paper that includes the controls and some advertising at most. Only collectors editions include nice packaging and some bonuses that make it more worthwhile going physhical assuming you buy the game at launch they sell out quick and then people price gouge them. You have some exceptions like the witcher 2 regular retail box includes alot of nice stuff. If pc games still came in these super sized cardboard boxes I might buy more physhical copies those are nice like mini collectors editions I only have a deus ex I lucked out on buying on amazon had no idea it was going to be a big box copy was surpsied when it arrived.

[QUOTE="jun_aka_pekto"]

I usually buy physical discs whenever possible. I save DD for games like Hard Reset and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. For the DD games, I make backups on DVD asap.

True_Sounds

What's the reason for backing up on DVDs as opposed to high capacity storage drives (in RAID or otherwise)? I haven't burned a physical .iso in 4-5 years, due to convenience and the declining cost of storage capacity.

It depends on the game. If there are a lot of packed in goodies/an awesome manual like the witcher 2, then I'll buy a boxed copy.

If it's EA and there's just a legal info insert in the box, then no (I'm not going to spend nearly as much on a digital copy either).

[QUOTE="True_Sounds"]

[QUOTE="jun_aka_pekto"]

I usually buy physical discs whenever possible. I save DD for games like Hard Reset and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. For the DD games, I make backups on DVD asap.

ampiva

What's the reason for backing up on DVDs as opposed to high capacity storage drives (in RAID or otherwise)? I haven't burned a physical .iso in 4-5 years, due to convenience and the declining cost of storage capacity.

Not true. I've had old disks (5-10 years) start shedding the metallic material that the data is burned onto, rendering them useless.

It depends on what materials were used to make the disk, and these change all the time depending on material costs.

Incredibly rare that I do. Most recent is GW2, was just convenient to grab it when i got my laptop when the game released, both from newegg. I just don't have the space for boxes or the care to keep a collection of cardboard

Yeah I still get retail copies sometimes. I would never say "I would never buy DD" That's just stupid. Poll should be fixed.

I bought a retail copy of Guildwars 2. Im not gonna pass up a Steam deal just to have a box though.

Where's the option of "I buy both Physical and Digital" ???FelipeInside

That's the option I was looking for.

Where's the option of "I buy both Physical and Digital" ???FelipeInside

well that would be "no" I guess, shoulda titled the thread the same as the poll

[QUOTE="ampiva"][QUOTE="True_Sounds"]

[QUOTE="jun_aka_pekto"]

I usually buy physical discs whenever possible. I save DD for games like Hard Reset and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. For the DD games, I make backups on DVD asap.

topgunmv

What's the reason for backing up on DVDs as opposed to high capacity storage drives (in RAID or otherwise)? I haven't burned a physical .iso in 4-5 years, due to convenience and the declining cost of storage capacity.

Not true. I've had old disks (5-10 years) start shedding the metallic material that the data is burned onto, rendering them useless.

It depends on what materials were used to make the disk, and these change all the time depending on material costs.

That depend on the brand too. I seem to have very good luck with Verbatim discs. I still have a load of cd-r discs from 2001 and earlier with data that are still fine.

[QUOTE="topgunmv"]

[QUOTE="ampiva"]

What's the reason for backing up on DVDs as opposed to high capacity storage drives (in RAID or otherwise)? I haven't burned a physical .iso in 4-5 years, due to convenience and the declining cost of storage capacity.

jun_aka_pekto

Not true. I've had old disks (5-10 years) start shedding the metallic material that the data is burned onto, rendering them useless.

It depends on what materials were used to make the disk, and these change all the time depending on material costs.

That depend on the brand too. I seem to have very good luck with Verbatim discs. I still have a load of cd-r discs from 2001 and earlier with data that are still fine.

Sometimes I check online to see if the game is redeemed on Steam. If it isn't, I pass.

Sometimes I check online to see if the game is redeemed on Steam. If it isn't, I pass.

Sometimes I check online to see if the game is redeemed on Steam. If it isn't, I pass.

Sometimes I check online to see if the game is redeemed on Steam. If it isn't, I pass.

CBN16

Sometimes I check online to see if the game is redeemed on Steam. If it isn't, I pass.

CBN16

Sometimes I check online to see if the game is redeemed on Steam. If it isn't, I pass.

CBN16

cant even find physical copies of anything not named WoW, call of duty, battlefield, or the sims in my area.yellosnolvr

No, I only buy them when I have no choice.

[QUOTE="geitenvla"]

I'm a gamer since the early eighties. When I look at my collection, I love to pick up the old cassette tapes, 5 1/4" and 3.5" 2DD or HD floppies. Than, when I move up a shelf, I see CD cases and boxes, manuals, user guides, maps etc. When I look at the future shelf, I see a void :cry: NOTHING beats a physical copy of a game. The joy of unwrapping, reading the booklet on the toilet and the memories you get when you look at your collection every time you walk by are irreplaceable.

DJ_Headshot

PC games boxes suck though now adays there not even big dvd case anymore just slim plastic dvd cases and don't come out with a manual anymore just a single sheet of paper that includes the controls and some advertising at most. Only collectors editions include nice packaging and some bonuses that make it more worthwhile going physhical assuming you buy the game at launch they sell out quick and then people price gouge them. You have some exceptions like the witcher 2 regular retail box includes alot of nice stuff. If pc games still came in these super sized cardboard boxes I might buy more physhical copies those are nice like mini collectors editions I only have a deus ex I lucked out on buying on amazon had no idea it was going to be a big box copy was surpsied when it arrived.

Sad enough, you're right about this. When I look at my collection I can see a huge difference between modern boxed games and older ones. Companies have become cheap and the nice extras have been replaced by a simple sheet of paper in most cases. To me, as a collector... this hurts a lot. Nowadays I can hardly tell the difference between my modern games- and movie collection. But still, I've got something to hold in my hands.

Because of this topic, I was browsing through my shelves, openend the last ninja tape for C64 and immediately grasped the feeling that I had as a kid. That tape used to be so important to me and the worn down ink on the cassette proves how many times I slid this into my deck. Digital copies are lifeless... sure you can play the game but it has become more sterile. Imo, no matter how stripped down the box is, I'll still prefer it over digital.

If I can get it in a boxed copy for a good price, I will. If I know I'm getting it launch day, boxed or bust unless it's digital only. I like having that collection. Some games I haven't got yet but want are Of Orcs and Men and Dark Souls. I want boxed copies though (especially Dark Souls) but they never came to the US so I have to import from somewhere. Seems like the price never wants to drop for those so then it becomes the matter of one game or 3-4.