I buy retail most of the time due I like all those boxes and don't buy a lot of games at year, but lately with expansions and dlcs a very significative part of my buys are digital. I would say the ratio is around 65%/35% currently.
I haven't only bought physical games in many years. I have bought less and less every year though. The selection of physical games is just so small at most stores they don't have what I want. They can also cost much more (I don't mind $10 more but that's it), and have DRM where if GOG has the game I want it is DRM free.
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.
topgunmv
Hard drives fail, dvds can get scratched but if you take care of them they'll always be there.
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.
If you burn to gold archival dvd with a low write speed your data should be fine till you die unless the disk is physically damaged.
When I can, I buy digital, no need for boxes to lay around my place. It's like music and movies. I prefer all digital ! But it does take space though... not palpable space, but hard drive space :p
The games I buy physically tend to be Collector's Edition like Witcher 2 and even then I'll buy a Steam version. I have a weakness for a good CE package.
While owning the original box for pc games was cool in the past, the boxes they come in now are pretty lame. PC games used to be sold in much larger boxes but mostly are sold in slim sized cases that are just like console games. I find this made it lose its nostalgia because it makes it seem as though the boxes are less like art and are instead designed to use less space.
Besides, having a collective library on steam is much easier to maintain than a large shelf that gathers dust.
Last two box copy's of game I bought was skyrim and Fallout new vegas ult edition. It makes it to reinstall them when I've modded the game a little to much lol Other then that I buy all my game digital download, Its just easier then heading out to the store :)
I'd still buy cases, no problem. For the most parts, I've gone DD now. A few years ago, I actually threw away all my boxes. I kept the CD's and paper/sleeve if they had CD keys in a binder. I needed as much space as I can get, and the boxes/manuals were wasting them.flipin_jackass
Thats exactly what I did. Once digital distribution caught on, I went through my collection and threw out all the boxes and kept the discs in a CD booklet with the manual behind it. To me that served well enough as keepsakes for old games. The wife may have expedited this process a bit too, not wanting to look at all those game boxes... ;)
I buy both boxes and digital games, it really depends on the circumstances. Steam Summer Sale means I'm going to buy a lot of digital games, but if a new game comes out that isn't cheaper on Steam, I always go for the physical copy.
Last PC game I bought at retail was SC2 on release day (for the extras) but never again will I bother buying retail. PC digital games are generally far cheaper (AUS) and more convenient than retail games.
Used to be very strict about never buying digital copies of games arguing i prefer having the box to look at/display on my shelf. Ever since i started seeing the sales on Steam and how cheap i can pick up games.
For example over here in Australia L.A. Noire at JB-HI-FI was still around the 50-60 dollar mark, on Steam i picked it up for $4. You do the math ;)
There's really no such thing any more - the few box games I've purchased lately (Diablo 3, Guild Wars 2, Borderlands 2) were all basically useless as you can just use the included key to download them online. And it's been that way for years. I buy whichever is cheaper.
I have always preferred physical copies over DD. I like something that is tactile. For me, a DD is not worth buying. It feels like I'm buying some air instead. What happens in the future if my hard drive fails? Re-download (legit) it right? Wrong, the company that provided the DD service went bust. This is just a exaggerated scenario.
i hate it when i can't buy a box copy of a game. my internets too restrictive to allow downloading huge games... so whenever possible i try to get boxed versions... unless they have a drm like the limited installs thing.
[QUOTE="DJ_Lae"]There's really no such thing any more - the few box games I've purchased lately (Diablo 3, Guild Wars 2, Borderlands 2) were all basically useless as you can just use the included key to download them online. And it's been that way for years. I buy whichever is cheaper.Should import your games man, ebay, ozgameshop.com etc. are all good places. I don't mind JB, hell even EB when they're clearing certain items, but it's much cheaper buying things online, this side of digital.
80% of my PC purchases are boxed copies it helps that unlike the US, Europe still has a healthy boxed copy market, where even games like Terraria, Sanctum and Braid receive boxed copies
I would love to have boxes, at least of the games with cool boxart. Most of my games are straight through steam though so no luck, digital is were I get it cheaper/easier.
Unlike in NA, the PC section of game stores is quite big over here. That is why a lot of people still buy boxed copies compared to NA, where it died out.
Also DD prices are ludicrous where I live, except for sales I never buy DD. Crysis 3 on origin for example is 69,99 euro, while when it releases in stores I'll be able to get it for 39,99 euro, like a normal PC game costs. That's almost half as much.
So in short, I don't see myself going DD only anytime soon.
Where I'm from it is very rare to find boxed copies of PC games, so I buy digital all the time for convenience.ForsakenWicked
In my area, I noticed the local Best Buy is carrying less PC games than before while another Best Buy an hour away carries at least 3x more PC games. The local Wal-Mart and Target carry the PC versions of well-known games plus a huge assortment of lesser known adventure/indie games. It's no problem finding a boxed PC game unless it's DD only.
The local Staples carry a lot of the $10 classics like Homeworld and World in Conflict plus Stalker: CoP.
Yes. For the same old reason that I just like showing off my collection. I tend to feel that digital downloads take a lot of the value of ownership away.
Although I'm sure there will come a time when I won't have a choice anymore considering the recent near-collapse of HMV. I won't celebrate it though.
Depends on the game. Until recently if it was a game I really wanted I would usually buy the boxed version. However with BioShock Infinite I've taken the drastic step of pre-ordering it as a digital download only.
I don't think physical copies will ever totally die, but I do think that given enough time they'll be relegated to the role Vinyl records hold these days as a collector's item.
I stick to retail copies still. My younger brother buys me a crap load of games on Steam and those are my only digital games....he's purchased a ton of games for me over the past couple of years on Steam.
I like the boxes and artwork that comes on them, though almost all retail copy of games today sorely lack in the creativity that was put into the retail copies of days long gone.
I'd much rather prefer digital copies, but I live in Germany, so I'm forced to buy boxed copies of games that haven't
been butchered by censors. (Thank G*d for amazon.co.uk).
Steam region locks games, meaning, you can only buy the censored stuff off of Steam.
Ricardo41
If you have a friend in the states, you can send him the money and he can purchase an uncensored version and gift it to you via steam gifting. It will not be censored even if you live in germany.
I'd probably buy physical copies more if I was buying games on a day one. At essentially the same price, and given that most games now seem to link to a digital service, I'd rather get something physical from the deal. But since I usually wait until deep sales, well, that's something retail just can't compete with.
No, because I don't see the point. 99% of them are infested with some kind of DRM anyway, so might as well just go with the digital.
FelipeInside
"infested"? What do you think most digital games are? They need a client to run. That's the point. Why pick up a physical copy at a store, when I can just download it? As you said, they both require a client to run. And also I get them digital only because of Steam sales. I don't bother paying full price for games anymore because of the lack of DRM free physical copies.
No, because I don't see the point. 99% of them are infested with some kind of DRM anyway, so might as well just go with the digital.
Lost-to-Apathy
"infested"? What do you think most digital games are? They need a client to run. That's the point. Why pick up a physical copy at a store, when I can just download it? As you said, they both require a client to run. And also I get them digital only because of Steam sales. I don't bother paying full price for games anymore because of the lack of DRM free physical copies. Ahh I get ur point. True. I hate when I buy a physical copy and then it has to download a 4GB Update, lol....
I'm very much a latecomer to digital distribution; my first ever digital purchase was Unreal Tournament 3 back in March 2009. I didn't know how to make multi-gigabyte downloads, and I was still having sentiments about collecting game boxes. But it was a Steam free weekend, so the game was ridiculously cheap, and I just couldn't resist. Nowadays, the only games I still buy physical copies of are EA and Ubisoft games - I buy everything else from Steam and GOG. New EA games aren't sold on Steam any more, and even if they were I would still buy physical copies to avoid having to run Steam and Origin both at once. The latter is also the same reason why I also buy physical copies of Ubisoft games, what with their Uplay client.
Not anymore unfortunately, I still have some old collection of good boxes from the late 90's and early 2000 but in the last few years It's been mostly digital distribution. It does save me a lot of space in the home. ;)
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