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Digital distribution--you don't have to leave your apt.!
Dangerou-Dave
__BANNED USERS regular
__BANNED USERS regular
So it's occurred to me recently how amazing digital distribution is. As a PC gamer, there are plenty of options already. Direct2Drive, Steam, Good old Games all offer new and old games for purchase. I've known about this, but for some reason it's never occurred to me to buy games this way.
I'm just now getting into the whole thing, so I was wondering what avenues you guys take to buy your games digitally...or where you think the trend is going.
As far as I can tell, one of the biggest thing going for digital distribution is the hot ass deals. Weekend Sales, play-for-free-periods and 3-day-price-drops abound. It's great. I'm debating picking up Mount and Blade (as seen in the pic) for seven bucks as I type--and Left4Dead was marked down ridiculously cheap last week on Steam.
What makes me a believer is the fact that tonight, I was bored...I pulled out my debit card, and five minutes later I'm downloading a new game onto my computer. It's like I've suddenly realized this awesome means of purchasing content that's been under my nose all along.
So yeah. Cloud, Steam, GoG, etc. etc. etc. What do you guys think?
Edit: Ah, I've been a member of Gametap for about a year, but they have really let me down. Their PC games aren't Windows Vista-64 compatible.
Yes, that's the same OS that's been shipping out of just about every decent new PC for the last year.
I'm just now getting into the whole thing, so I was wondering what avenues you guys take to buy your games digitally...or where you think the trend is going.
As far as I can tell, one of the biggest thing going for digital distribution is the hot ass deals. Weekend Sales, play-for-free-periods and 3-day-price-drops abound. It's great. I'm debating picking up Mount and Blade (as seen in the pic) for seven bucks as I type--and Left4Dead was marked down ridiculously cheap last week on Steam.
What makes me a believer is the fact that tonight, I was bored...I pulled out my debit card, and five minutes later I'm downloading a new game onto my computer. It's like I've suddenly realized this awesome means of purchasing content that's been under my nose all along.
So yeah. Cloud, Steam, GoG, etc. etc. etc. What do you guys think?
Edit: Ah, I've been a member of Gametap for about a year, but they have really let me down. Their PC games aren't Windows Vista-64 compatible.
Yes, that's the same OS that's been shipping out of just about every decent new PC for the last year.
Dangerou-Dave on
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Digital was my lifeline when my DVD drive crapped out and I refused to buy a new one. The scary thing is that it wasn't games that got me to finally buy one...since in broke back in 2007 I have yet to have a reason to use a DVD for a game.
It's definitely a mainstay in gaming once some growing pains get sorted out (DRM), but I don't think brick-and-mortar is going anywhere just yet.
I've found Direct2Drive has the best selection, though. They have crazy amounts of awesome games. The download speeds are pretty inconsistent, though. They average around 500kb/s, but it'll swing as high as 1mb/s and as low as 100-200kb/s. 200kb/s seems decently fast, but that'll take several hours for a PC game.
If it still exists: act as if it didn't.
I'll stick to brick-and-mortar stores for now, I think.
You speak of some sort of internet hell
It's a university connection.
So, yes.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
As for me, it is extremely rare for me to buy a PC game if it's not on Steam. I have bought so much stuff on there. Sometimes I even buy stuff for other people because it's so cheap. I remember buying Audiosurf when it was on sale for 3 bucks for both my fiancee and her brother.
My Backloggery
I try entering in my credit card information, and I can't get the address I enter in and the address on my card to match up, so it won't let me make purchases.
What I mean is, I've lived in four different apartments in the last five years, and so I really don't know what the hell I'm supposed to enter in to XBL. Even if I do get the right address, it has to match up exactly, and I have no idea if it's entered in as...130 E Jefferson. 130 East Jefferson...130 East Jefferson St...130 East Jefferson Street, etc. etc.
So basically I just keep getting the message that my address doesn't match the one for my credit card. I probably could sort this out with my bank, but I've just reverted to PC digital distribution instead.
I love the convenience of buying games and knowing that they'll always exist for me, come what may
I love not having to keep track of fucking discs and serial keys and all that bullshit
I hate requiring an internet connection and subsequent "activation" for single player games or games with optional multiplayer when you bought it in a brick-and-mortar store
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
See, I couldn't care less about owning a physical copy of the product, similar to my purchasing of music on itunes.
There was a time when I was younger when I might have, but...yeah...
As far as the 'it's only cool if it's a game that's not in print' thing...Why wouldn't you want more places to buy the games you want to play? Go buy it in a store if you want, but the fact that you can buy, install and play Fallout 3--all while sitting on your PC--is pretty fuckin' rad.
The only reason I bought Supreme Commander tonight digitally is because I am going to have zero time for games over the next several days, and I wanted a quick new game to zombie-out on tonight.
4gb into my download, my computer totally freezes up...which has actually never happened before (As in, not even ctrl alt del worked)
After the restart, the download begins from 0%? Are you fucking serious? Here's to another four hours of waiting, I guess...
Sorry to go all pissy-pants, but I'm under like, ulcer-inducing stress right now...and tonight was my only night to game before the next several days of working my ass off.
The first file is like 4gigs out of 5 complete...and the second is the redux download that's only at 15% or so.
Notice the complete lack of any sort of file/settings/tools menu on D2D's download client. I can't find any conceivable way for it to pick up where it left off on the file that's nearly completed.
I'm wary of XBL purchases, though. And to some extent Steam.
What happens when your account gets screwed up? My original XBL account disappeared into the Microsoft Abyss of No Recovery because I didn't log in for 3 months even though I paid for a whole year. If I had bought any digital downloads on that account I would be supremely bummed out.
And what about steam? What if my account were to be banned or something because of a pissed off server admin in some game (may be a stretch, I dunno)? All the games I bought would be no longer available to me if that happened.
Other than that I think digital downloads are better than boxed games. I mean besides collector editions when has a boxed copy been worth the trip to the store/mailbox? The only time I've bought one recently is because it was cheaper than steam (e.g. on amazon or gogamer).
Also metered bandwidth is a crime against humanity.
SC2 NA: exoplasm.519 | PA SC2 Mumble Server | My Website | My Stream
XBL games are tied to the System ID and LIVE ID. One of these must be active to work. If you're offline on the original system the game was downloaded on/for, it still works.
Also, no server admin can negate all your steam purchases.
Sony pretty much has DRM right as far as this goes. Microsoft kinda has it right (sorta). Wii? I'm not even sure.
To compare:
Microsoft
- I can buy a game on a console and anyone can play it on that console, on any Gamertag, offline or not.
- However, if you buy something on your old system and then the system shits out (as 360s are prone to do sometimes), you can only play it on that Gamertag online.
- This is, unless, you do a DRM transfer.
- But you can only do one DRM transfer a year.
- I've had three 360s within one year before.
It's really not a problem if you don't have insanely bad luck with the consoles themselves.
Sony
- If I buy something on a console, anyone can play it on that console, on any PSN ID, online or off.
- If my PS3 shit out, I could log into my account on my new PS3 and download it again, and I can continue playing it on any PSN ID, online or off.
- You can activate your account on up to five consoles.
The only problem with Sony's really is that it's easier to exploit and give free things to your friend. But then again, every friend you give things to is one less system for you to activate an account on if you have bad luck with consoles.
I'm thrilled with the way the new Battle.net works, too. I probably won't be throwing away my old boxed Blizzard games, but the ability to tie them to my account and download them whenever I want is great for revisiting old games when I get that itch without digging them out or having to keep them close at hand.
Really hoping that consoles get serious about downloadables - Sony's impressing me most with their recent Patapon 2 downloadable-only test and rumors of an all-downloads PSP2, but I love WiiWare and XBLA, too.
That said, digital distribution has its own problems. I do love Steam and GoG, but I really don't want to have to go to 3 different other services because they each have one game I want. The entire point, to me, is to keep all your games in one place, and have them ready at the click of a button. If it isn't convenient, there is little point.
I also hate all this "number of activations" nonsense. I have an account on Adventure Shop, which is a pretty good site, but each link you receive can only be used 3 times. You can just mail them to get some more, but there must be another way to do it.
Holy fuck.
I've been missing out.
I find driving 30 minutes to the nearest electronics/game store a giant hassle (and who even knows if they'll have what I want). I have no interest in displaying my collection of games on a shelf. Hard copies just end up in a clumsy pile in a nook below my computer desk until I get sick of looking at shit I haven't touched in years and throw them away.
Hard copies are definitely on the way out. I imagine something like what NIN/Radiohead did will occur where most people just pay for the digital version but you can pay extra and have a hard copy shipped to you if you're a collector.
I ask because different sites have drastically different selections and run different deals on different games.
It's a pretty big disparity too.
The Titan Quest expansion pack is $20 on Steam right now...but on D2D, you can get Titan Quest + the expansion for the same price.
It has a run down of all the best deals each weekend, across all of the DD places. Might be a good place to start.
No that helped a lot, thanks. I visited and am already finding new sites. Just found Stardock's service.
Digital distribution is the bee's fuckin' knees. So many sales...
Also, buying Dark Messiah Might and Magic at the moment. All I can say is it was 10$, and I can't pass off chopping up some goblins for the price of lunch.
I keep going back and forth on Neverwinter Nights 2, Sacred 2 (Big Diablo/clone fan), Titan Quest (Played a lot of this, but it just seems so soulless sometimes) and X3. Price is a big factor, otherwise I'd buy some newer games like the Witcher or Demigod in a heartbeat.
I really should have picked up Mount and Blade when it was 40% off last weekend...
That's nothing compared to the deals that you can find on physical media, though. DigiDistro also means the end of clearance sales, since there is no such thing as overstock.
There are definitely convenience benefits to DigiDistro, but there are also serious downsides for consumers in the form of less control over the market and the removal of resale value, among others.
If digital distro wants more of my money they need to learn to price match.
US$39.99 for L4D on STEAM
vs
US$26.99 on Amazon
Hmm, maybe I need to dig deeper into the settings. I usually play MMOs but when my internet goes down I usually take that time to play some of my single player games but Steam games won't start for me w/o an internet connection.
Stardock does this. It's pretty neat.
So I can't get into how or where I got this information so believe me or not, but retail sales dwarf digital sales by a huge, huge margin that hasn't varied much over the past few years. The top games on Steam sell maybe a few thousand copies a month, versus hundreds of thousands at retail. Keep that in mind when prophesying the downfall of B&M software sales.
As far as the industry is concerned, it's a compelling business model that is a long, long way from catching on. I sure love it though. I haven't bought a game in a box for ages.