Will off the shelf pc games be around for years to come?

I love buying pc games off the shelf when a new one comes out that I want. I like the selection Wal-Mart has. Although it is missing many publishers, it still has a lot of games I like. Do you think places like Wal-Mart will keep a good slection of pc games for years to come?

Nope.

Slowly shifting to DD

I don't think I've bought a physical disc for a game this decade.

I doubt it will ever shift 100% to digital because enough people still like that collector's edition schwag.

I really hope so.

I don't want everything to go to DD. I like going into EB Games or whatever and just browsing the boxes.

I remember when all the bookshops closed down in my town, it was so sad. Luckily two have opened since then.

I really hope so too. I like the way game cases look on my nice, organized shelf. Probably defeats some of the purpose of having a PC but I don't care. I like having discs for AAA titles.

i hope not. I like having discs and boxes for games that I truly love. Stuff like Mass Effect, the batman games etc. I like DD too for games that I think are awesome, but don't have that something that sets them apart.

EG - Darksiders has the awesome characters and environments, so even tho its not as amazing as some ppl think, it still is for me.

It will struggle, but I think it will survive this generation.

If the new consoles adopt DRM in their lifetime, then PC games won't be rushed out of the shops. Best you can do is keep buying retail copies and hope they keep stocking them. I've bought too many digital copies and perhaps I should buy a few retail copies this year, just to encourage competition and market space.

GoG.com =)

this. i like buying some steelcase games cos i have a thing for them. then again, i just use the key in Steam (or Origin or what ever) and never actually use the disc... my current build doesn't even have an optical drive lol

I think 10 years from now it won't exist on retail shelves anymore however, if you wish to have a boxed copy, I think the publishers will still send out physical copies by mail. Come to think of it if retail copies of pc games aren't going to exist anymore, that's going to take a lot of the publisher's job away and developers will be able to fend for themselves without a publisher and won't have to share the profit if they can just directly have their games up for download.

I can see collector's editions in the future shipping with USB keys instead of discs. But I think retail copies will be around for a while yet, I know I'm not keen on downloading 30gb per game!

it's nice idea in theory, but way too expensive. discs only cost pennies, when 32GB usb sticks cost $20 minimum.

but like you said, it might work with collectors editions.

Just compare the retail store's selection of PC games now and 10 years ago. All my stores barely have any PC games now. I'm sure in another 10 years we'll have even less or no PC games at retail.

As much as I'd much rather buy a physical copy, downloading is just the way they are being distributed. It's cheaper than physical, you don't even need to print a manual, so there's no incentive from a monetary perspective on the part of publishers.

I'd much prefer to buy a physical copy, if anything for a printed manual. Time was when we used to get all sorts of things along with the game and those things were every bit a part of the game as the game itself. Maps, bestiaries, spellbooks, etc, etc. Yea, some of that stuff still exists today, but seeing as the internet has changed the medium in so many ways they can deliver that content much more cheap.

Plus, I think back in the 1980s the average IQ of the average gamer was probably at least 10 points higher than it is today. Consider that only nerds and geeks played computer games back then. This, I think was factored in when publishers decided what went into the content of the game as well as the box design. Plus, the publishers were part of the creative team since it took only a handful of people to create games back then.

Bottom line is that physical copies of games are going the way of the printed newspaper.

I haven't seen them being sold for a long time. Last time I went in GAME they didn't have a section for PC.

Doesn't really bother me, it's faster to just download them.

Most of the major PC releases I've seen have a disc version although they still require Steam, Origin, or Uplay. The only exception is the Tomb Raider reboot. I haven't seen a disc version for the PC yet around here.

I resisted the move to DD, but gave in and never looked back. Could not dream of any reason to buy a boxed copy anymore.

really for Tomb Raider? I bought the CE although I'm in Europe.

Still like the collectors editions..Ive got quit a few from last gen..Fallout, Even got the statue from reckoning its kind of cool, dragon age collectors, and also the bioshock big daddy it way cool...So I still do like collecting cool stuff..How ever that's few an in between..Love steam click an download..Gog.com is a real good web site for older games, an a older pc player like myself..You know I still have my collectors everquest statue, its the healer human girl in her skirt..You guys wouldn't believe I still have maps from the old games..Like might an magic series lol...

Hopefully because some of these knucklehead developers have no idea how to compress a game properly. Wasn't COD: Ghosts like 40gb when something as expansive as Skyrim was only 6gb?

It's nearly impossible to get retail PC games around here other than the top 5 odd sellers. I do buy the odd one from Amazon though when they are cheaper than Steam (quite often when there's no sale on).

Hate to see them go but it is happening already and has been for a while here.

I wouldn't mind the special edition versions to be around, they're sometimes great to get. But not for standard versions, no.

i can't see them getting rid of physical game copies for a while. Especially for some games that are really huge. I think call of duty ghosts was like 30 gigs or more. That's impossible to download unless your lucky enough to have unlimited bandwidth and fast internet to download it.

Not sure why they even bother with any kind of DRM when games are that big, it makes no logical sense to download a game that big. My bandwidth is almost 2 dollars a gig, that'd cost me 60 dollars to download, plus electricty costs... making the game cost more to download even if done illegally... and since the cost of the game could be 60 dollars plus the 60 for bandwidth, plus maybe a few dollars electricity, you got a game that isnt worth your time or money to play. I rather toss in a dvd/bluray and start playing the game right away rather then wait days/weeks for a download to complete while putting my bandwidth costs through the roof.

But on the plus side for the next gen consoles is both have blu-ray players so they can release 50 gig games and really nail piracy just from the shear size of the games. I've seen even small 1 gig size torrents spread crappy... a 50 gig game will spread very slowly and die out much faster then the smaller sized games.

And the reason I can see why the COD Ghosts made the game so massive is to detour the piracy of the game, it wasn't from lazy compression. 30 gigs ? not worth it unless you can buy it physically. I know if i made a game i'd make it as large as possible to fill up a blu-ray... videos, high res textures, everything.