Publisher: PC Games Going All Digital in 2011
an international PC game publisher claims that retail stores are pushing the industry into going digital.
International PC games publisher 1C--or at least its publishing director Darryl Still--claims that retail outlets are forcing game publishers to go digital thanks to lackluster support for boxed versions. Many outlets refuse to stock certain PC games, and many push titles to the back of the store to make room for console games.
With that said, it's expected that most PC gaming titles will go all digital in 2011, landing on platforms such as Valve's Steam, Direct2Drive, and more. There's still demand for boxed version according to Still, however retail isn't meeting those demands by offering a limited selection at the back of the store.
"You just have to head into a games store and look for their PC titles, and you’ll see there is no focus, listings or promotions for them," he told MCV. "It is extra strange because there is a much better margin on PC games. The industry should be embracing PC more enthusiastically. Digital proves there is a consumer waiting for it. But these consumers are now more than happy to click the download button."
He also said that despite predictions that more than 50-percent of revenues will be earned digitally, he estimates that Q1 2011 will be when PC games go completely digital. The drawback is that there are many digital platforms on the Internet--publishers are having to choose the right ones carefully, as some may succeed where others won't. Still, it doesn't seem that publishers have any choice.
"If the PC games market has to wait until 2013 then we are all in trouble," he said.
- Survey: File Sharing is More Immoral Than Porn
- 19 Unofficial Ways to Speed Up Windows 7
- Friday Deals: Big Sale Continues on HP Envy
- Intel Q4 Numbers, Net Income Up 875 Percent
- PCs Getting Expensive Again, Say Analysts
- Kingston Coming With 30 GB 'Boot' SSD for $80
- Star Wars: The Old Republic Confirmed for 2011
- Former AMD Exec: Even I Wouldn't Buy AMD
- Gigabyte Unveils 2 Radeon HD 5600 Cards
- ATI Shows Monkey Upgrading PC With New GPU
- U.S. Gov't Staying Out of Google and China Issue
- 20% of Brits Think Steve Jobs is a Soccer Player
- Rumor: Apple to Launch Touchscreen iMac
- FREE: Mass Effect 2 DLC Free On Launch Day
- Concept Shows Display-less, Keyboardless Dell
- Tuesday Deals: Specials for January 19, 2010
- Microsoft Bing to Forget Your IP After 6 Months
- Sony Vaio Z Laptop Packs Quad-SSDs in RAID 0
Fraggin great. Nothing beats a box, its a nostalga thing ya know?
Fraggin great. Nothing beats a box, its a nostalga thing ya know?
-_- how so?
Well I am all for being lazy and downloading my games. I haven't actually went to the store to buy a game for my pc in at least 2 years.
Well, I guess this means I get to give more money to my favorite game developer, Valve, by buying all my games from them. Although, I think I have bought about 90% of my games from them anyways.
I like the convenience of downloading the games when I want. Besides, the games that I buy can be stored as a backup on my drive(s), so even if I switch PC's I still have my games ready to re-install. These back-ups last longer than a CD/DVD shelf-life.
Also, I have instant access to all kinds of deals and discounts.
Retail outlets? They deserve to go tits-up just for the way they treat the PC gamers.
I get almost all I need online for that reason.
I HATE steam and it's brethren. I want to play and not be strung out on the net just to do that with advertising I don't want and "friends" who aren't and all the other crap that comes with it. No box? I'm not likely to buy it.
What if you are on the road and don't have an internet connection? I am in the Navy and I play games when we pull into foreign ports or when I have time underway. I never have an internet connection underway. Consoles are nice and all but when you have 4 or more people trying to watch TV or playing games, it is really a pain in the butt. I take my laptop to the ship so I can have my own private movies and games. If all games require an internet connection I guess I am screwed. I know a lot of other military people are just like me.
I wasn't a big fan of Steam at first but i've dl'd couple of games and its not so bad. The Steam menus are a little confusing imo.
Soooooooo how exactly does this work? Forcing game content to be all digital.....with games coming out on DVD's (sometimes more than 1 to a game) and Blu-Ray.... and internet providers talking about imposing limits on downloaded data? Does nobody else think this fail ship is preparing to set sail?
While I don't buy my games retail (OK, maaaaybe 1% of the time), there was a study done as recently as last much that noticed that the vast majority of games were still sold at brick-and-mortar stores. I like Valve except when it comes to offloading games you no longer want... You can give them away, but that's about it.
On a completely unrelated note, I think Valve is going down the tubes. How long are they going to keep doing minor updates to a crappy engine? Where the hell is Source 2?
right, right, sure... publisher are going to LOVE having to use D2D or Steam for all their games
I like the convienence of not needing a physical disc in the drive anymore but on the other hand I like having a physical copy in my hand when I pay $50 for it.
I still havent downloaded Dirt2 from steam because for some reason it takes forever and it gets stuck at 0%!!!!!
Well I am all for being lazy and downloading my games. I haven't actually went to the store to buy a game for my pc in at least 2 years.
Yup. I get all my games off of Steam (yes, it's kind of a DRM HOWEVER I'd take Steam over most of the other cr@p any day(for now)).
My bandwidth is gonna hate me.
This won't work too well if Time Warner or Comcast is your ISP.
What if you are on the road and don't have an internet connection? I am in the Navy and I play games when we pull into foreign ports or when I have time underway. I never have an internet connection underway. Consoles are nice and all but when you have 4 or more people trying to watch TV or playing games, it is really a pain in the butt. I take my laptop to the ship so I can have my own private movies and games. If all games require an internet connection I guess I am screwed. I know a lot of other military people are just like me.
Steam has offline mode, to my knowledge all games work fine with that (except multiplayer, of course).
steam is awesome
having all your games in 1 library ready to download or launch is great
have no problems at all, no hassle, good sales on games, huge library of games getting bigger literally every day
btw, if you change the skin to obsidian the steam interface looks a whole lot nicer
seriously keep your crappy boxes. save the materials, the manuals, and the discs and go straight through distribution.
If I pay money for a game I want a physical copy. I buy them from online stores, just as lazy as downloading.
There is no technical reason why you can't buy a physical copy, then punch in a code that checks the validity of your game once so you can play offline. This would also allow you to play without the disc in the drive and there should be a button in some menu that lets you backup you stats and progress online.
All the reasons they're giving us to switch to downloading don't make sense at all: we can have all those functions without downloading.
What if you are on the road and don't have an internet connection? I am in the Navy and I play games when we pull into foreign ports or when I have time underway. I never have an internet connection underway. Consoles are nice and all but when you have 4 or more people trying to watch TV or playing games, it is really a pain in the butt. I take my laptop to the ship so I can have my own private movies and games. If all games require an internet connection I guess I am screwed. I know a lot of other military people are just like me.
This is to acquire games. Steam lets you backup games locally to a Hard drive or DVD so you can download them and back them up when you're on shore. When you're underway you can't buy games anyway (unless I missed something and there is an AAFES (BX/PX) in an carrier). I realize it is still a pain compared to buying the box but not impossible.
I also would like to have something in my hand when i fork over more than 50 dollars for a product.
honestly I have no real desire to have a hard copy of a game. On the contrary, I absolutely want to have a hard copy of a movie when I buy one...digital distribution of movies seems ridiculous to me. When the hard disc comes with a digital copy though, which I think they're starting to do more often now, that's the best.
I think game publishers are in cahoots with ISP's... just imagine the overage costs associated with downloading or streaming all your games, tv shows, movies, once the ISP's start enforcing bandwidth caps, charging for those overages, then "surprise, surprise" realizing that it's costing them way more than they're charging, then the caps get smaller and the cost per GB or even MB gets high again, like it was in the mid 90's.... as consumers we're all toast. They have us hooked, they known it and they're closing the vice on the low dangly bits.
Stop forking over $ 50.00 for a stupid game and you'll feel alot better just from that alone. And if
you buy direct from the Publisher your not paying more, your paying the same only your cutting
out the middle man which gives the actual developer more which is better anyway. Maybe with any
luck at all they can now lower the price alittle since they are cutting out the stores profit. If not just wait till it's 6 months to a year old and you will get it half price or less, the prices drop like new cars do when you drive them off the lot.
This may work in the US, but many other countries still have strong retail sales and crappy Internet driving those sales.
The problems i have is that #1 If and I should say "When" it goes to all Downloads for PC Games is that what happens when Steam or Direct2drive goes out of business and I want to play my game I bought from them? i will have to get it from somewhere and if they are gone where am i to get it?
#2 the game Costs me 49.99 when i buy it at Gamestop/Target/Wal-mart/Best Buy with a box and a manual and a REAL CD/DVD right now when i buy a game online from STEAM witch i do use is that the same game is still 49.99 i can see paying 49.99 for a game when i get a REAL CD/DVD and a box and everything that comes with it but when i buy it from steam im not getting the real Disc so they don't have to package it don't need to make Discs manuals boxed sleeves ect
I have made my own promise i will only Buy a game online if it meets the following 3 conditions
1-They are an established online store (Steam does Qualify)
2-it is at least $10-$15 less than what I would buy in the store
3- I can download an exe or an ISO from them so I can install it anytime I want
I was telling my co-worker the other day, when games go all digital, is when I stop buying them. I buy 80 to 90 percent of my games boxed, and will continue to do so. When this happens, and when consoles and handhelds do it too, i'm done.
I was telling my co-worker the other day, when games go all digital, is when I stop buying them. I buy 80 to 90 percent of my games boxed, and will continue to do so. When this happens, and when consoles and handhelds do it too, i'm done.
lol ok, that's rational and well argued
and secolliyn, for steam, you can download steam on any computer which takes like a minute and then install any/all games in your library. You would need internet connection to download steam though, so I guess you couldn't install a game ANY time you want, but every time you have internet connection you sure can
I wouldn't mind either way, as long as the companies distributing the games digitally (i.e. Steam) do not go belly-up.