The losing battle of physical vs. digital PC games

[sin2beta]

To be honest, I'm kind of the opposite of a lot of people here. I feel much safer with digital releases. Name a PC game, it can easily be downloaded and played on anything.

Try playing a lot of Sega Saturn games on anything but a saturn. Physical media will deteriorate. It becomes difficult to collect for. 3DOs are getting difficult to find in working order. Jaguar CDs are even worse. Not only that, but the adhesive in CDs will corrode and become impossible to read. That is a big problem with Laser Disc now.

Digital is the easiest thing to pirate and I have a lot of faith in pirates. If I purchased something on steam and then had issues using it, I do not see any problem emulating or looking for a way to break it. In that way, digital is very archive friendly. Multiplayer with severs could change a bit of that though...

[ko1ru]

I haven't played or bought any PC games in a long time as my PC's hardware is so outdated I couldn't even hope to run a newer PC game on it.  And my laptop isn't equipped for gaming either.  The boyfriend has some digital titles, roms, etc. for his PC, and a "hacked" PS2 and Xbox with tons of roms.  I personally have no interest in Steam, GOG, or even roms on consoles.  I'm all about the physical media.  The only digital games I own are XBLA titles, and it will probably remain that way.

[libernullmal]

To be honest, I'm kind of the opposite of a lot of people here. I feel much safer with digital releases. Name a PC game, it can easily be downloaded and played on anything.

Try playing a lot of Sega Saturn games on anything but a saturn. Physical media will deteriorate. It becomes difficult to collect for. 3DOs are getting difficult to find in working order. Jaguar CDs are even worse. Not only that, but the adhesive in CDs will corrode and become impossible to read. That is a big problem with Laser Disc now.

Digital is the easiest thing to pirate and I have a lot of faith in pirates. If I purchased something on steam and then had issues using it, I do not see any problem emulating or looking for a way to break it. In that way, digital is very archive friendly. Multiplayer with severs could change a bit of that though...

I've tried running a digital PC game copy burned to disc on a sega saturn and it kept asking me for a saturn disc.. why why must you lie.... j/k

[insektmute]

BTW get better soon.  I had that crap last weekend.

Thanks. Really hoping it doesn't stick around - took today off, but I don't feel any better or worse than I did yesterday :/

Uh. What?

I thought this wasn't available on the Steam version at all?

Hrm, you might be right on that one. I don't see it mentioned or listed on there, anyway.

I haven't played or bought any PC games in a long time as my PC's hardware is so outdated I couldn't even hope to run a newer PC game on it.  And my laptop isn't equipped for gaming either.  The boyfriend has some digital titles, roms, etc. for his PC, and a "hacked" PS2 and Xbox with tons of roms.  I personally have no interest in Steam, GOG, or even roms on consoles.  I'm all about the physical media.  The only digital games I own are XBLA titles, and it will probably remain that way.

That's always been my stance too (except my hardware doesn't suck :p), and will definitely remain so on consoles, but with a lot of PC games now, they might as well be giving you an empty box with an activation code in it. It'd be easier if I weren't interested in any modern releases, but in a lot of cases (The Witcher 2, Borderlands, Bethesda stuff, etc), I'll take PC over console any day of the week, and there are still a lot of top notch exclusives.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with XBLA and PSN over the next few years, though. The future is way more uncertain with them.

[insektmute]

Interesting thing I just noticed (and had been wondering about) on Steam: Games that have been removed from the store can still be downloaded and installed if they were purchased. I picked up Neverwinter Nights 2: Platinum awhile back during one of the uber cheap sales, and it's no longer in the store, but it still pulls up in my library and works as normal.

[foxhack]

Interesting thing I just noticed (and had been wondering about) on Steam: Games that have been removed from the store can still be downloaded and installed if they were purchased. I picked up Neverwinter Nights 2: Platinum awhile back during one of the uber cheap sales, and it's no longer in the store, but it still pulls up in my library and works as normal.

Uh, yeah.

That's why I add stuff that isn't in the store anymore. If I can find a listing, and a cover shot, I add it. I've gone through lists of removed games just to add them to the site.

Unfortunately pulled items are often left without any sorts of updates, so if say, you bought Stubbs The Zombie on Steam, you're boned, because Aspyr Media won't bother fixing up the title ever. Then again they're assholes who abandon games a year after they release them, so.

[sin2beta]

Interesting thing I just noticed (and had been wondering about) on Steam: Games that have been removed from the store can still be downloaded and installed if they were purchased. I picked up Neverwinter Nights 2: Platinum awhile back during one of the uber cheap sales, and it's no longer in the store, but it still pulls up in my library and works as normal.

It seems to be the case with XBLA and PSN, although they have some hoops sometimes. But Outrun is no longer listed and there are people who have been able to redownload it.

[insektmute]

I still won't buy anything from PSN/XBLA that isn't exclusively available that way, but it's good to hear that's a possibility. It's sad, but I think one of the biggest obstacles with digital stuff and games that rely on digital services is going to be license expiration. Pretty much anything related to movie franchises, tabletop role-playing games, sports, racing, etc. is a ticking time bomb.

[kimimi]

I'm a pretty big stickler for boxed titles, but Steam has some damn good offers and it's never given me any hassle re: authenticating other PCs/helping me out when I forget my password, etc so I can't really fault the service; and modern western PC boxes are usually pretty underwhelming anyway so if Steam are selling a £30 for £10 in a sale I'm not exactly missing much.

If games still came with giant fold out maps, novellas, spell charts and grid paper I'd be all over physical but I'll save that money and put it towards some retro instead

[elraiser]

I have always prefere buying physical games because i have the satisfation i have bought something. With the digital, i have more the feeling to rent a software which one day will not be available anymore because the server to download it will be closed.

The day i will not be able to find physical copy of my games, it will be time for me to stop collecting new stuff.

[scott]

I've pretty much given up on Physical PC releases. Though there are a few games I am holding out on buying digital. For the most part though, I'm resisting digital as much as possible. Both with games and with movies and music. Especially with music. I love having CDs and having them out in view. The same can be said w/ my console games. I really enjoy having a vast library of titles in my bookcase to flip through.

[insektmute]

Being able to display everything, and feeling like I don't really "own" something digital, is really the only thing that's stayed my hand so far, but with space at a relative premium, it's starting to feel kind of silly having boxes full of discs that literally never have to be used. Gah, I just don't know.

I think for the time being, I may go with sort of a middle ground option - buy boxed if the game is completely standalone, buy digital if it uses Steam or GFWL for authentication, and buy on GOG if it's a old game that I want to be able to run on modern hardware.