Poll: Would you be ok with games going exclusively digital?

[Mylinkay Asdara]

I buy digital games - they are very convenient - but I do like the option of owning a physical copy for other games and I do like the ability to lend my games out for friends to try before they buy and not have to lend them my whole machine to do that. I think physical copies are something I would prefer to stay around, but they don't have to remain the dominant form of game production for me to continue purchasing in the industry.

 

[MetalDooley]

If Steam was literally the only way anyone could get a PC game, I'd be happy with that.

Yeah because companies having a monopoly always works out well.Steam needs competition as much as any other company to keep them on their toes.I think it was either Jim Sterling or Yahtzee who said something along the lines of "Steam might be a good,well run company now but what happens when the guys running it retire?"

 

[Zac Jovanovic]

Yes, but not for the reason you stated.
Moving onto digital distribution would be the best thing that could happen to the industry in terms of quality right now.

Being bound to publishers by mandatory physical copies for consoles is the prime reason why we can't have nice things.

 

[Longstreet]

While i would not have a problem with it, there are several reasons why, for at least the next 5 odd years, they will not go full digital.

- Easier to keep all your games, you won't need 10 terrabites hard drives to save all your games.
- Limited internet access is still a challenger for some, they got stuff like d/l limit or bandwidth usage limit. So it's hard for them to download games.
- Hell, sometimes in stores is cheaper than digital.

 

[Cloudydays]

I'm pretty sure someone else would pick something up. I mean, Indie developers owe so much to Valve for Steam because, the way I see it, Indie games would not have picked up so much popularity had it not been for the convenience of Steam as a platform for selling/advertising.

 

[Milanezi]

I said yes, and part of it IS because of physical space, but mostly because I find it more comfortable and personal, but so far, in terms of special editions (the real deal, not the shitty ones), I haven't seen a digital "special edition" that lives up to the physical one, sure you get the special content, but for obvious reasons you don't get the pretty statues and stuff, and as I said, digital hasn't shown me a way to make me disregard that if I want a special edition... However, lately that seldom happens anyway.
My BIGGEST issue with digital versions: the download speed might be a pain depending on your net connection and size of the game.

Anyway, let's imagine perfect-internet-land (or at least what's considered good enough for today's standards), I'm all in for digital download. As a matter of fact, ALL my music, movies and TV Shows are being bought from Apple nowadays, games however not that many, since I play a lot on the Xbox and they suck at releasing digital games; on my Mac however I always download from Steam or something.

 

[Sansha]

If Steam was literally the only way anyone could get a PC game, I'd be happy with that.

Yeah because companies having a monopoly always works out well.Steam needs competition as much as any other company to keep them on their toes.I think it was either Jim Sterling or Yahtzee who said something along the lines of "Steam might be a good,well run company now but what happens when the guys running it retire?"

The horrendously buggy and complicated Games for Windows Live and the laughable Origin aren't what I'd call competition. I do agree, mind you, but Steam is currently not just the best but the only digital distribution system out there that you can take seriously.

 

[MetalDooley]

If Steam was literally the only way anyone could get a PC game, I'd be happy with that.

Yeah because companies having a monopoly always works out well.Steam needs competition as much as any other company to keep them on their toes.I think it was either Jim Sterling or Yahtzee who said something along the lines of "Steam might be a good,well run company now but what happens when the guys running it retire?"

The horrendously buggy and complicated Games for Windows Live and the laughable Origin aren't what I'd call competition. I do agree, mind you, but Steam is currently not just the best but the only digital distribution system out there that you can take seriously.

Just because it's the best doesn't mean it should be the only one though

 

[Ironside]

Do they still make physical copies of new PC games? The last physical copy of a game I brought was a re-buy of Rome Total War and that was a long time ago. If there are physical games still being produced I wouldn't notice at all if they suddenly stopped making them since I never buy them on disc.

I understand where the OP is coming from in regards to liking to display your game collection though since I like to do exactly the same with my book collection, which is why I don't buy digital books.

 

[Sansha]

If Steam was literally the only way anyone could get a PC game, I'd be happy with that.

Yeah because companies having a monopoly always works out well.Steam needs competition as much as any other company to keep them on their toes.I think it was either Jim Sterling or Yahtzee who said something along the lines of "Steam might be a good,well run company now but what happens when the guys running it retire?"

The horrendously buggy and complicated Games for Windows Live and the laughable Origin aren't what I'd call competition. I do agree, mind you, but Steam is currently not just the best but the only digital distribution system out there that you can take seriously.

Just because it's the best doesn't mean it should be the only one though

I could have worded it better. I don't believe it should, but I'd be okay if it was. It pretty much is, anyway.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

When digital rights actually give people rights, maybe. But even then, what about when you wanna sell it or trade it or borrow it or take it round a friends? And what about when your internet is down?

 

[xeyra]

I'd be fine with an all digital system as long as it goes with these rules:

1. You can redownload as much as you wish.

2. It is account locked, not machine locked.

3. You can interupt a download.

4. It will ALWAYS be available to redownload.

Agreed to all points, especially 2 and 4.

My game buying tends to be a mix of both digital and disk. Usually indie or older games through digital means (gog, steam, indie bundles) and latest releases on disk, because I can buy them from online retailers much cheaper than most digital platforms (or official sites), at least if I want to buy something within the first month of release.

 

[___________________]

No, I like having the physical copy. Looks good on the shelf, doesn't explode when it's sitting there in case my system kicks the bucket and I like all the artwork and the job opportunities it brings to people related to that field of work.

 

[Rariow]

I wouldn't excessively mind it. The great majority of my games are digital anyway. That said, I would miss being able to buy boxed copies of the games I really care about (For the record, the only four games this has happened for in the last two years have been Mass Effect 2 & 3, Skyrim, and BioShock Infinite), but can't say I'd weep if it means prices go down another notch.

 

[Aris Khandr]

Replacing my Dungeons and Dragons books will be the hardest.

Just out of curiosity, why?

Most of my books are 2nd Edition. Which, you know, isn't super in-demand, and thus relatively unlikely to be released in digital.

 

[Easton Dark]

I wouldn't mind it for me, all I buy is digital, but I would mind it for the people who still buy physical copies or who get their games from the used game market, because they still deserve to enjoy their purchases.

I didn't vote in the poll since that's not exactly an option.

 

[Nowhere Man]

If Steam was literally the only way anyone could get a PC game, I'd be happy with that.

Yeah because companies having a monopoly always works out well.Steam needs competition as much as any other company to keep them on their toes.I think it was either Jim Sterling or Yahtzee who said something along the lines of "Steam might be a good,well run company now but what happens when the guys running it retire?"

Or God forbid, they ever go public and have to deal with stock holders, board of directors, trustees, whatever that will make them change their focus to making more and more money every quarter at the expense of everything else (like EA). I really hope that never happens to Steam.

I don't mind digital distribution but there are still many kinks that we've listed that need to be worked out. I have a nice little Steam collection but my physical copies of games far out numbers it. And that's the way I prefer it. I like actually being able to physically HOLD the products I spend money on.

 

[mohit9206]

I primarily play PC.

I like physical copies for collecting and simply because my internet doesn't allow my to download a 14gb file whenever I want.

This. There are way too many people with slow internet to rule out complete digitalization of games. Not until each and everyone has a 10mbps connection atleast which is to say not anytime soon.

 

[mohit9206]

I voted no, but not because a physical copy is important to me. My internet connection is slow, everything takes forever to download. I've been avoiding downloading FC3 Blood Dragon for a couple days now because I just know it'll take an entire day to download and I don't want to tie up my connection for that long. Everything else will slow to a crawl while it's happening. So physical is much easier for me.

Same for me. Hi speed internet is way too expensive here and even the cheap hi speed plans have such ridiculous data caps its impossible to download large AAA games