Digital Distribution or Actual Copies Which Do You Prefer?

Actual Copies hands down

Actual digitally distributed copies.

DD for those of us who live places that often get releases very late.pieatorium

usually actual copies if it's the same price or lower and DD only if it's much cheaper or i can't find a hard copy

Actual Copies hands down

spidadragon1

me 2 coz the speeds are not very good for digital dist now

mayb after some years when better speeds are offered

I prefer DD by far... keeping all that plastic is a waste of space heh. the only hard copies i buy are collectors additions. Also i have no problems with limited harddrive space etc, i can easily get a 500gb harddrive for less than a $100, and with services like steam you can delete and redownload the games as many times as you want so space isnt really a problem either.

To each his own though... as the topic suggests, this is my preference.

In the case of games like Warhawk and Socom Confrontation , I will take the download version. Something about always having those multiplayer games on the xmb ready to go anytime is appealing to me. I don't have to worry about the extremely painstaking process of reaching over an ejecting a disc , pulling out and picking up the disc , reaching and grabing the game's box , then opening the box , then putting the disc in the box , closing the box , then extending my arm to put it away , and then reaching for another box , opening up the box , getting a disc , then putting it in , and then having to put the box down. Way too much work for me ,lol.

Actual Copies, I want to COLLECT my bought games and don't want to show them to my friends on my PC/console. Also it would be very difficult to rent a game if you only could download it.uRan_Ehr

Personally, I sell most of my games after finishing them. Never seen the point in making a collection.

Actual Copies.

Downloads is just good for demos and mini games.

actual copies for me

i like digital dist. it saves the pain of going to the store for soem big games, and its a little cheeper cus i dont pay for the disk and packaging and shipping and all thatshadow_hosi

Actual Copies,

No question, I actually want something I can hold in my hands if I am going to shell out the green.

DD unless I want to get some special editions. PC boxes these days are crap.taker42

[QUOTE="shadow_hosi"]i like digital dist. it saves the pain of going to the store for soem big games, and its a little cheeper cus i dont pay for the disk and packaging and shipping and all thatVandalvideo

Digital Distribution lets you create hard copies (legally) from your own machine. For example, you can backup your STEAM games to DVD. Hard copy means you only own the "one copy" of the game, and your license is tied to that disc itself. You cannot duplicate the data, back up the disk, or simultaneously store and play the game.

Ten years from now, if your "hard copy" of Orange Box gets a deep scratch, that's it, game over. If my computer hard drive fries, I can get my backup off my backup drive, DVD, or redownload it from STEAM - I will always own that game, as long as I live.

-

Neither is perfect, but the trend that has happened in music (who buys CDs anymore?) may very well happen with TV and Games.

small games or ANY game on the PC = DD

Any other game = HC

Digital Distribution lets you create hard copies (legally) from your own machine. For example, you can backup your STEAM games to DVD. Hard copy means you only own the "one copy" of the game, and your license is tied to that disc itself. You cannot duplicate the data, back up the disk, or simultaneously store and play the game.

Ten years from now, if your "hard copy" of Orange Box gets a deep scratch, that's it, game over. If my computer hard drive fries, I can get my backup off my backup drive, DVD, or redownload it from STEAM - I will always own that game, as long as I live.

-

Neither is perfect, but the trend that has happened in music (who buys CDs anymore?) may very well happen with TV and Games.

subrosian

Wow, you just made me be a 100% DD supporter. I always thought you had to keep it on the HDD. So does that mean friends can borrow it and stuff without a Steam account or what?
wemhim

in order for your friend to borrow it you'd need to give them your account access and they wouldn't be able to play while you're playing. (at least not online)

[QUOTE="subrosian"]

Digital Distribution lets you create hard copies (legally) from your own machine. For example, you can backup your STEAM games to DVD. Hard copy means you only own the "one copy" of the game, and your license is tied to that disc itself. You cannot duplicate the data, back up the disk, or simultaneously store and play the game.

Ten years from now, if your "hard copy" of Orange Box gets a deep scratch, that's it, game over. If my computer hard drive fries, I can get my backup off my backup drive, DVD, or redownload it from STEAM - I will always own that game, as long as I live.

-

Neither is perfect, but the trend that has happened in music (who buys CDs anymore?) may very well happen with TV and Games.

wemhim

Your friend can log into your STEAM account and play your games, if you wanted to share your STEAM account with them. The downside of STEAM is you can't really re-sell your games or give them away - it's a tradeoff to consider. You could bring your games (on a DVD) to your friends computer, install them, and play them, but without your account information they wouldn't be able to play them.

I wouldn't say "buy all your games on STEAM" but for some games it makes sense. With certain games (like Orange Box PC) even if you buy a retail copy you have a STEAM backup of the game. To me, that would be the *ideal* mix - basically, sell the games at retail, but let me redownload them if my disk gets scratched.

The problem right now is only Valve games have that feature.

Actual copies.

Not only is it nice to look at a tall stack of games, but if anything goes awry with the hard drive you don't lose your game.

Granted most companies are pretty cool about it, but it's a lot easier to just grab the disk than to redownload stuff.

I do like the idea of having digital downloads for smaller games I'm less interested in though.

Actual Copies hands down

spidadragon1

I have never and will never buy a downloaded version of a game. I always buy the disk.

Hard copies please, I don't mind DD if the hard copy is hard to find. I'd kill for a hard copy of Parasite eve 1-2 that worked...Jynxzor

So if I gave you a target would you live up to your words? Haha jk

I prefer Hard Copies for my games. Except for PC games.

Actual Copies.

Digitial distribution is just... Stupid.

I'm not a collector.

I don't want a big ugly stack of video game cases in my nice clean stylish bedroom

I hate looking for disks when I want to play my games

If/When I move again I don't want to drag along 100 video games with me

I don't want anyone to steal my games

I don't want to lend out disks and never get them back

I don't want to dust off disks or not be able to play because one has a scratch

I don't live in the past, I live in the present and look to the future....

...Digital Downloads please

I can't keep a disk without scratching it. (not being able to play Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force FTL)

So, DD for me.

[QUOTE="wemhim"][QUOTE="subrosian"]

Digital Distribution lets you create hard copies (legally) from your own machine. For example, you can backup your STEAM games to DVD. Hard copy means you only own the "one copy" of the game, and your license is tied to that disc itself. You cannot duplicate the data, back up the disk, or simultaneously store and play the game.

Ten years from now, if your "hard copy" of Orange Box gets a deep scratch, that's it, game over. If my computer hard drive fries, I can get my backup off my backup drive, DVD, or redownload it from STEAM - I will always own that game, as long as I live.

-

Neither is perfect, but the trend that has happened in music (who buys CDs anymore?) may very well happen with TV and Games.

subrosian

Your friend can log into your STEAM account and play your games, if you wanted to share your STEAM account with them. The downside of STEAM is you can't really re-sell your games or give them away - it's a tradeoff to consider. You could bring your games (on a DVD) to your friends computer, install them, and play them, but without your account information they wouldn't be able to play them.

I wouldn't say "buy all your games on STEAM" but for some games it makes sense. With certain games (like Orange Box PC) even if you buy a retail copy you have a STEAM backup of the game. To me, that would be the *ideal* mix - basically, sell the games at retail, but let me redownload them if my disk gets scratched.

The problem right now is only Valve games have that feature.