Why Do So Many People Buy From Steam?

I love how people think that a value of a game is given to it by being put onto a round piece of plastic, that's hilarious.

BigDaddyPOLO

You're forgetting the cardboard or plastic casing of the round piece of plastic.

I personally spend about 50% of the playtime of any game reading its manual or gazing at its box.

The sales.

But I stay away from Steam unless it's for older games or something that requires Steam intergration anyway. Modding on Steam is a b****, more often than not.

It's easy really

I have the bandwidth to download fast

Don't care about plastic discs with 1's and 0's on it

Have plenty of drive space

and I just click buy, check out and download.

I dont understand why so many people buy newly released (non-sale) games on Steam. If youre in the US, Steam rarely offers their games at a lower price than in stores. Even months after release, games can cost much more on Steam than you can find in a retail store or online. In fact, doing a simple search right now on Google, you can find all the front page Steam games like Witcher 2, Fear 3, Shogun 2, etc. for HALF the price, shipped. Hell. even Portal 2 can be found for much less online than on Steam. How come no one in SW mentions this?

Why spend more on a digital copy that costs more? At least with physical copies, you can add the physical box to your shelf or something. You can pull out the disc and install the game instantly if your game data gets corrupted or if you need to reformat. Plus, if your Steam account gets hacked or banned for any reason, every game tied to that account is gone.

Now I get that in some countries Steam provides much better prices, but for all the North American gamers, can you explain why you choose a more expensive Steam copy over a much cheaper physical copy? My eyes bleed everytime I look at Steam prices for new games, yet Im always seeing people praising Steam and digital downloads.

90% of you guys are completely missing the point of this thread.

I never said Steam sucks. I use Steam everyday and love the community features. Im asking why would you buy a Steam game thats not on sale when you can get the physical copy online for a fraction of the price? Im also pointing out the disadvantages of a digital copy such as not having the physical material that many consider to be collectible and the possibility of losing all your games in the event that you somehow lose your account.

USBxDVD

why? Because I won't have anything physical. I like not having to change disks every time I want to play a different game. I like being able to bring my entire games collection over to a friends. I like being able top back up my entire collection.

If you lose access to your account there's very few games you'll actually lose access too, I have all my games backed up on a hdd in offline mode. If my account is lost or if steam goes under there's maybe 1 or 2 games that require a constent internet connection or a initial connection each time you play that I'd actually lose.

Really there's very very few dissadvantages to using steam and the dissadvantages there are, are way overplayed.

Also concerning your point about sales, Steam is constantly having sales, I have never found cheaper pricing than during a steam sale added with Steam's many advantages over a physical copy and it's a no brainer.

[QUOTE="def_mode"][QUOTE="USBxDVD"]

With the non-Steam version, there would be no need for the word "currently" It would be "has and always will work". Its nice that you ignored that point though and focused on the hope that the modders would come to the rescue.

USBxDVD

90% of you guys are missing the point of this thread.

I never said Steam sucks. I use Steam everyday and love the community features. Im asking why would you buy a Steam game thats not on sale when you can get the physical copy online for a fraction of the price? Im also pointing out the disadvantages of a digital copy such as not having the physical material that some consider to be collectible and the possibility of losing all your games in the event that you somehow lose your account.

I don't think it's that 90% of people are missing your point, but rather that you're missing the point of a lot of the replies in the thread.

When I buy full priced, newly released games, ill typically buy through STEAM. I do that for a couple of reasons:

1) I like to keep my games bundled in one place. I currently have far more games on steam that I do on Direct2drive, Impulse, EA's online thing and my shelf added together. If I buy a new game through steam it'll automatically be added to the bulk of my other games. That's practical and convinient to me.

2) I prefer a digital copy to a physical copy. A physical copy can get scratched, lost while moving, that cat might pee on it (damn monster), a co-worker might borrow it and forget to return it and so on. I still have my first STEAM game from 2004. I doubt I have a lot of the physical games I bought back then. Most have been lost one way or another. I can understand why some people prefer a physical media; I just have a different preference.

3) When I buy a full priced game it's often a spur of the moment thing, I very rarely pre-order. I prefer to wait until I can read some reviews and get an impression of the game first. That means that if a new game comes out, that I read reviews and forums and decided I want to get it, I don't want to wait another 2-3 days for it to arrive in the mail. With STEAM I can be playing in an hour or two (give or take). I'd rather spend an extra $5-10 than wait. Again I can completely understand that others feel differently, those are just my preferences.

4) If a new patch becomes available I don't have to find the publishers web site, sign up for yet another online membership, and browse through different web sites and so on. This is rarely a big hassle, but I like not having to figure out if there's a new update out there or browse around to learn how to get that update. I prefer to let STEAM deal with that so I can focus on playing the game.

I dont understand why so many people buy newly released (non-sale) games on Steam. If youre in the US, Steam rarely offers their games at a lower price than in stores. Even months after release, games can cost much more on Steam than you can find in a retail store or online. In fact, doing a simple search right now on Google, you can find all the front page Steam games like Witcher 2, Fear 3, Shogun 2, etc. for HALF the price, shipped. Hell. even Portal 2 can be found for much less online than on Steam. How come no one in SW mentions this?

Why spend more on a digital copy that costs more? At least with physical copies, you can add the physical box to your shelf or something. You can pull out the disc and install the game instantly if your game data gets corrupted or if you need to reformat. Plus, if your Steam account gets hacked or banned for any reason, every game tied to that account is gone.

Now I get that in some countries Steam provides much better prices, but for all the North American gamers, can you explain why you choose a more expensive Steam copy over a much cheaper physical copy? My eyes bleed everytime I look at Steam prices for new games, yet Im always seeing people praising Steam and digital downloads.

90% of you guys are completely missing the point of this thread.

I never said Steam sucks. I use Steam everyday and love the community features. Im asking why would you buy a Steam game thats not on sale when you can get the physical copy online for a fraction of the price? Im also pointing out the disadvantages of a digital copy such as not having the physical material that many consider to be collectible and the possibility of losing all your games in the event that you somehow lose your account.

USBxDVD

Steam Deals, Ability to Gift games and DLCs to friends, Community features, and Steam Deals

I kind of agree with you, Steam offers pretty terrible prices when a game isn't on sale. I think most people buy games during the sale, but some buy without a sale. I don't really know why because like you said, you can typically find the same game cheaper elsewhere.

I never buy games from steam

I like to own my games and not rent them for few years until steam shuts down and my hard drive breaks

I never buy games from steam

I like to own my games and not rent them for few years until steam shuts down and my hard drive breaks

Zurrur

I never buy games from steam

I like to own my games and not rent them for few years until steam shuts down and my hard drive breaks

Zurrur

How do you own your game anymore if its on disk than if its on a hard drive? If your disk breaks do you somehow magically keep your game?

If you like your game so much just burn it onto a disk. You did know that Steam lets you do that, right? For that matter, you did know that you don't need to be online to play games purchased off steam, didn't you? If Steam shuts down you will still be able to play any game you want because everything would default to offline mode.

Why do people buy from stores, why do people buy online? Simple.

Because they want to.

I don't buy games off Steam if they're not on sale.Hexagon_777

[QUOTE="Zurrur"]

I never buy games from steam

I like to own my games and not rent them for few years until steam shuts down and my hard drive breaks

YoshiYogurt

he said "and" my hard drive breaks...not "or if" my hard drive breaks. if steam is gone and his hard drive breaks then the download is lost and he can't redownload them.

[QUOTE="YoshiYogurt"][QUOTE="Zurrur"]

I never buy games from steam

I like to own my games and not rent them for few years until steam shuts down and my hard drive breaks

CaseyWegner

he said "and" my hard drive breaks...not "or if" my hard drive breaks. if steam is gone and his hard drive breaks then the download is lost and he can't redownload them.

I don't buy exclusively from Steam, I also use Impulse--both are very solid.Stevo_the_gamer

[QUOTE="Hexagon_777"]I don't buy games off Steam if they're not on sale.xsubtownerx

Preloading, having it all my games on one list, not having to waste the gas and go to a store, don't have any nostalgia for pieces of paper or boxes of plastic, steam achivements, etc.

Some of those reasons are not good on their own, but all together they aren't bad.

When your a monopoly no one has much of a choice except to buy from you.

When your a monopoly no one has much of a choice except to buy from you.

WilliamRLBaker

stop calling it a monopoly because it is far from it and saying/implying such a thing is just a very ignorant statement. last i checked there are a good amount of DD services other than steam for the pc community. the others are doing good business to stay a float so far. i assure you, if steam ever became a monopoly that imposed unsatisfactory decisions, the pc gaming community would drop it like a bad habit.

remember, pc gaming community =/= console gaming community. anyone remember what MS tried to do when they first implemented GFWL? they tried to charge pc gamers for it! lord knows what would have happened if that service actually took off, i think it would be safe to say MS made a horrible decision even without a hypothetical monopoly hold in DD pc gaming service.

just because steam is the most popular and more embraced by the pc community doesnt make it a "monopoly". do you even know the definition of the word? saying steam is a monopoly is like saying steam is the only DD service on earth, which is to put it simply, a ridiculous lie! please read the following definition so that you can refrain from saying such ludicrous statements in the future.

mo·nop·o·ly   [muh-nop-uh-lee]

–noun,plural-lies.

1.exclusivecontrolofacommodityorserviceinaparticularmarket,oracontrolthatmakespossiblethe manipulationofprices.Compareduopoly, oligopoly.

2.anexclusiveprivelege tocarryonabusiness, traffic,orservice,grantedbyagovernment.

3.theexclusivepossessionorcontrolofsomething.

4.somethingthatisthesubjectofsuchcontrol,asacommodityorservice.

5.acompanyorgroupthathassuchcontrol.

6.themarketconditionthatexistswhenthereisonlyoneseller.

7.( initialcapitalletter) aboardgame inwhichaplayerattemptstogainamonopolyofreal estate byadvancingaroundtheboardandpurchasingproperty,acquiringcapitalbycollectingrentfromotherplayerswhosepieceslandonthatproperty.

When your a monopoly no one has much of a choice except to buy from you.

WilliamRLBaker

origin, impulse, gog, gfwl ,d2d, amazon off the top of my head. 6 competitors=monopoly now?

I dont like physical copies of games.

I buy from them because I don't care much for physical copies of games, and sale prices are too good to pass up.

However lately I've been feeling less inclined to use them to buy games. I think GoG is set up much nicer.

I just wish Steam would have you download the games' installer rather than the entire game. That way you can buy from Steam, and still have the ability to install the game anywhere on your hard drive. This would allow more mods to work, and would just be so much nicer in general. The Steam client kinda gets in the way.

That's why I like GoG is because you just login online, choose a game you want from your shelf, and download a copy that plays, and functions perfectly without some GoG program attached to it. It's the closest thing I've seen to physical copies, but from a digital store. I can't support them 100% though because they don't sell new games :(

[QUOTE="WilliamRLBaker"]

When your a monopoly no one has much of a choice except to buy from you.

topgunmv

origin, impulse, gog, gfwl ,d2d, amazon off the top of my head. 6 competitors=monopoly now?

he goes around saying that in every single steam related thread, but this time i decided to call him out on it (see my post). there are a good numer of DD services so it makes it quite ridiculous, as well as very ignorant, to say such things.

When your a monopoly no one has much of a choice except to buy from you.WilliamRLBaker