Poll: Are physical copies of PC games dead?

[KnightOfTwo]

90% of physical copies come with DRM nowadays anyway, so you're effectively just buying the digital copy anyway - with all the disadvantages that carries. I like buying physical, but when the price online is so low for exactly the same product, it's hard to logically reason against it.

That said, if I have a choice between Steam and a DRM-less site like Good Old Games, I'll go for GoG every time.

Pretty much this.

But really a lot of the time it just comes down to 2 things for me buying the physical.

1) Is it a collectors edition or something like that which comes with some really neat extra stuff? An example for me would be Skyrim (I sadly didn't get one of those), the Alduin statue looked good and I'm really into maps (which is why I'm considering getting The Elder Scrolls Anthology physical copy).

2) Is the game really big space-wise? If the answer is yes, then I will more than likely get the physical copy as I have rather slow internet (256 kb/s download). So if I was to play something like Titanfall then I would absolutely get the physical as that would take me days to download. With the physical I only have to worry about updates. So anything above about 15GB and I will get the physical. It is just more practical for me.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Yeah, until every country has capable Internet infrastructure, we will continue to see physical copies of games. Especially in Australia.

 

[BeeGeenie]

There should be more options on this poll, for example:

Yes, and it makes me sad.
Yes, but I'm okay with that.
No, down with digital distribution!
No, there are places where digital distribution is impractical.
meh.

OT: I'm in the "I wish I could still find physical copies of games" camp.

 

[Pink Gregory]

I've managed to find a few DRM-free (so the disc ain't worthless) collector's edition type things, bundled with nice physical extras and extra keys in my time.

Mostly released by a publisher called 'Merge Media' or something along those lines.

Found Frozen Synapse, Monaco and the Inner World, I know they also released Botanicula.

Nice to have I guess, and I managed to get 'em cheap cuz no other bugger wants to buy them, apparently.

 

[votemarvel]

I hope they don't go away.

Steam is great for sales but its prices on new releases are often more expensive than buying the disc based version, which more often than not needs to be activated on Steam, from Amazon.

Buying the disc means I get all the advantages of Steam but at a cheaper price.

 

[somethingorother003]

Not entirely dead, no, but we're pretty darn close. Physical copies are only useful to me when the game doesn't require Steam/Origin/Whatever, so I don't even count it if it does.

Of course, there's a certain novelty in physical copies that makes me sad that they're doomed. Recently I found an old CD case with Command and Conquer 3, and Airline Tycoon. Damn those are fun to play.

We're not there yet, shitty overpriced internets with caps, dead service, excessive wait times are all holding digital back, but I'd say in a few years as those things finally get fixed we won't see many PC games even having a physical copy.

 

[lunavixen]

I would say that Physical discs on PC are dying, but not as quickly as you'd expect, for AAA games it's happening faster as more require registering on EA/UPlay/Steam etc. anyway, that and with most PC games being unable to be resold or traded in the purpose of physical copies aside from decoration is diminishing.

 

[Maple Syrup]

I like them both.

It's good that there are awesome Steam sales, but there's nothing like having a shelf full of DVDs to show off.

 

[mechalynx]

I buy physical copies of the new releases unless no such option is available. Steam sales are for stuff I couldn't be arsed to pick up around release. I'm thinking that if the servers are ever shut down, I'm within my right to work around the DRM one way or the other, since I paid for the game and have a nice shiny disc to prove it.

 

[Britishfan]

I wouldn't say they're completely dead. Very occasionally when something very special (or at least, what looks like it's going to be very special) I might pre-order a physical collector's edition, At least that's what I did for ME3. I also pre-order a physical copy of Rome II, but only because it worked out cheaper. That said easily 90% of my purchases are on steam, and that proportion is only set to go up now that I don't pre-order at all any more, and don't buy AAAs until at least a few weeks or even months after release.

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

Most games I buy are digital, but after an incident with Guild Wars 2, (I lost my key and could not remember my password so I was essentially locked out of my account for good.) I have made a personal rule to always buy a physical copy of an MMO or any game where a product key is needed to request a password change. I also tend to only buy physical versions of collectors editions like the Elder Scrolls Anthology or the Mass Effect Trilogy simply because I like all of the physical goodies that usually come with them and the boxes are usually pretty well designed.

 

[Cerebrawl]

90% of physical copies come with DRM nowadays anyway, so you're effectively just buying the digital copy - with all the disadvantages that carries. I like buying physical, but when the price online is so low for exactly the same product, it's hard to logically reason against it.

That said, if I have a choice between Steam and a DRM-less site like Good Old Games, I'll go for GoG every time.

This right here.

I haven't bought a physical game for at least two years and even then it was tied to steam, so what's the point? I can usually find them cheaper online anyway, by a landslide, even when they're on sale in the physical shop.

It might have a point if it was DRM-free, but that almost never happens with a physical release, more likely on digital, and then I can just make my own physical copy. Heck I can fit quite a few little neat DRM-free indie games on a backup CD. I do shop at gog.com, indiegamestand.com, humble store, etc, where there's usually a DRM-free download option.

I actually have at least half a dozen games waiting to be played for my laptop when I travel, all DRM-free, so that lack of an internet connection won't stop me playing them. All from gog, indiegamestand, humble store, or some other bundle site.

Of course it helps that I have 100Mb/s with no bandwidth limits. I can usually download a game faster than the time it would take me to get up, grab the CD/DVD, put it in the tray and install from there. (Heck even for the larger titles that might take 10 minutes to steam install it's probably faster than installing from multiple DVDs).

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

is it even still possible today to walk in to a store and buy a game that can be played on a pc without an internet connection whatsoever? Could I buy, install and play a game on an offline pc?

 

[porous_shield]

I live in a rural area hundreds of km from the nearest large center and we also have shit internet (I average about 100 kb/s on the only internet package offered other than the stupidly expensive satellite internet) but I still haven't bought a physical PC game in close to 4 years. When I go into town the only games they have in the big places are the big AAA releases I don't play or crapware. I'd rather just buy a game on Steam/GoG and let it download for a week than buy a physical copy that will make me do the same but make me have to wait an extra couple of days for it to arrive.

 

[Lightknight]

On PC, yes. Steam sucka's.

Consoles, no. Not unless Sony or Microsoft start doing steam-level sales. I also enjoy being able to have my game and play it rather than leaving my consoles unusable while it struggles to download games that are tens of GBs.

 

[lacktheknack]

I hope not. Until I can get something better than a family-shared 50 GB cap, I'd rather keep my downloads under 10 GB.

 

[The White Hunter]

Every now and then, there will be an interesting and fairly old game available for a tempting price in the branch of a major supermarket chain, usually on a small set of shelves at the end of an aisle. Apart from that, the digital stores are the only ones that have prices I find acceptable. I have not bought a physical copy of a game in nearly five months.

I would say that physical copies of new games are still becoming less prevalent, but they're not gone yet.

Green Man Gaming generally sells physical PC games cheap.

I just grabbed Titanfall for quite a bit less than a digital copy there.

I mostly buy my PC games digital kand on sale, but anything I buy early is usually physical, not to mention the sale sections ins upermarkets, or even in Game, every PC medal of honor title for 3 quid? Why the fuck not.

 

[KouDy]

I wish i could say I hope they are dead. We live in 21st century, why would anyone want to touch things like DVDs. Sooner they are dead the better.

On the other hand i get it with the internet problem. I have some 16mbit line. Might not be fastest out there but it's more than enough for my needs. So 20GB games take 2-3 evenings to download, big deal...
2 years ago i lived on place where there is only 1mbit DSL with horrible support and priced more expensive than my 16mbit now. Hard to believe it's really 21st century on some places.