Transition from physical media to digital market place

Hey everyone,

So, at the forefront of where gaming and my politics meet is the question of how everything is transitioning from physical media to digital media.

I am and have been a physical media guy. I've bought some DLC, used steam here and there, and am intrigued by new distribution means like OnLive, but generally, it's for inexpensive stuff or really great sales. If I'm going to shell out $40+, I want a disc.

I could rant for a while over specific little things that have irked me in recent history on this issue or how I think its biased against customers, but I'll just start out by asking how far along the physical-digital sliding scale you all are?

Cheers!

I much prefer Steam. I am not a very organized person and I have lost/scratched my cds far too much in the past. I find Steam very convinient and so far reliable. I just love it

I really like having my 200+ games all together in one place, Steam is perfect for this.

Also the insane sales and discounts that happen on Steam regularly is a reason I mostly buy my games there. I sometimes use GMG or D2D if I can get a cheap Steam key from them and I use GoG for older games.

I rarely ever buy physical copies of games anymore.

theshizno wrote:

I find Steam very convinient and so far reliable. I just love it

Aginghobo wrote:

I really like having my 200+ games all together in one place, Steam is perfect for this.

Interesting. As I get older, have less time for games, and can afford to get new games I want, I can see this perspective more since I doubt I'll go back and replay a ton of games anymore because I'll have new ones to play in the time I have free.

But, I think I'm a bit more paranoid when it comes to trusting a company who leases me something I've paid for and then, they're free to turn off their servers at some point or just go bankrupt, etc.. and you may end up with nothing.

With something like steam, you at least you at least have your original install, but since we all have to rotate hardware/OSs frequently, at some point I presume, you just can't get you're games anymore (again presuming you actually want replay Assassin's Creed II in 10 years :-) )

OnLive exemplifies this concern for me since its a young company, streaming only, so if they file for bankruptcy tomorrow, I can't even finish a game I'm in the middle of since I have no install at all.

I think the marketplace is demonstrating I'm in the minority, but its interesting to hear from other gamers.

Cheers!

Thinking about i've recently bought almost exclusively digitally, but i'm not particularly fussed to be honest, whichever one gives me the best deal is what i'll go towards. I don't care about my digital purchases being on steam either, in fact quite often other services such as greenmangaming and gamersgate have been cheaper and easier to use so ye....I'm easy.

I pretty much exclusively buy from digital download services (I did just buy a retail game from Amazon, but only because it wasn't available digitally (D&D Classic Anthology)). I find it much easier to organize my games, rather than having to hunt for discs or serial codes. Also, scratching is a concern with two cats.

I do like having a case and manual, and the feeling of actually "owning" something (you never truly own your games, retail or not), but for me the convenience of digital downloads wins out. Auto-patching is another main reason that I use Steam.

I do understand your concerns about Steam going bankrupt or otherwise turning off their servers, but I'd like to think that they'd find some way to recompense their users if that should happen. I don't think it will happen for another 10 years at least though; they are very successful right now.

Also, considering is still can't get la noire to work (and everything i've read says its the steam version that has loads of problems) i've gone slightly sour towards steam for the time being.

I am now entirely digital. Though I made the transition grudgingly. I didn't have much choice since brick and mortar stores simply shrunk their PC sections to nearly nothing.

But the older I get, I realize, like you said, that I don't tend to replay games the way I used to. There just isn't the time in a day to play new games much less replay old ones. It is sad though that I can't unload the games I've played on ebay.

What about price points? I think steam has done great with its sales, but honestly. Once things go digital I find it harder to think it's actually worth as much money. There's no distribution costs, you need no store-fronts, no inventory, no warehouse, etc... there's just a sever somewhere with a copy of a game that can be infinitely reproduced (licensing subtleties, etc... but still) skipping the supply and demand relationship that comes with having limited space on a retail shelf or limited space in a warehouse (i.e. these 10,000 copies of duke nukem forever have got to go so we can replace it with something desirable).

So for an full release title sold at $60 out of a store, I think there should be some inherent pretty deep discount if the producers/manufactures get to skip many of the hard/expensive steps otherwise it's likely "sweet! more profit!" Not to mention there can be no used market for digital downloads, so once the digital switch is complete, (and given a roughly comparable user base) every sale must be a new sale and lo and behold, more profit! :-)

So, $30 on steam. Hell yeah. $60... not yet for me.

I promise I'm not this grumpy and ::cough:: republican-y ::cough:: (;-) no offense, really) in all aspects of my life though. Interesting to talk about and hear others' opinions though.

Cheers!

Sadly, prices will never go down regardless of cost. People are willing to pay for the game so the market price has already been set and they know this. The only way prices would drop is if sales went down. Like, way down.

It was the same thing when DVDs came along. They were cheaper to produce and package, yet the price remained the same. Once a market price has been set, very little other than sagging sales will change the cost.

Michael wrote:

Once a market price has been set, very little other than sagging sales will change the cost.

Too true. A digital only marketplace will risk me reading a book or going outside while I wait for sales, but I'm drop in the bucket (or ocean) so I can probably look forward to playing fewer games in the future.

Though, my first son is due any day now... so honestly, my gaming is likely going down independent of what the marketplace is doing :-D

I used to prefer hard copies, but it is so nice to have all of my games in one place when I can buy them through Steam I'm a sucker for steam achieves

Yeah me too... I wish they were worth points like on xbox so everyone can see just how much of a nerd I am

Yeah, it would be nice to have them be worth points. I have over 20,000 GS on the Xbox, I'd hate to see what I have on Steam

When the Western world has a good amount of common broadband speed (1Gb they are aiming for by the end of 2016) then the big digital change will come, music and films included.

Shame, I do like owning a hard copy. I like having cases but I think it'll need to go. Out with the old and all that.

I just wish I didn't have to deal with clients. I have no use for them.