Boxed PC games market 'gone by 2011'

[skunksmash]

1C's international publishing director Darryl Still has accused retail of failing to support boxed PC games.

The industry veteran says that by refusing to stock certain games and moving PC titles to the back of the store, retail is forcing publishers to head towards digital distribution. And that PC games software will be sold entirely through digital channels by next year.

"In the PC market at the moment the growth in digital is phenomenal," said Still. "If PC games manage to get listed at retail, then they're rarely getting any exposure because they're appearing at the back of the store. There is still demand, but retail is forcing PC games out. Digital is fantastic, and we're very pleased with it. But it is not us as the developers and publishers driving products to digital - it is because the options for the PC at retail are so limited. 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. It is extra strange because there is a much better margin on PC games," he continued. "The industry should be embracing PC more enthusiastically."9

source


i hope this happens no time soon , what about all those with internet caps..??

 

[smarteyeball]

Call me crazy, but I still like the option to have something physical.

 

[Fantail]

Maybe I'm missing the point.
For what PC titles are still distributed on DvD you can usually purchase them through supporting sites or Amazon. Game stores are centered around 360 type platforms because those players don't typicaly use their box to browse / shop. PC platforms - gamers do. Or as an alternate I can shop direct2drive and buy & download any PC title I want and not have to drive anywhere to do it. So it's a digital format, big deal.

 

[skunksmash]

Maybe I'm missing the point.
For what PC titles are still distributed on DvD you can usually purchase them through supporting sites or Amazon. Game stores are centered around 360 type platforms because those players don't typicaly use their box to browse / shop. PC platforms - gamers do. Or as an alternate I can shop direct2drive and buy & download any PC title I want and not have to drive anywhere to do it. So it's a digital format, big deal.

lol......you wouldn't be saying that if you had a 5gb download limit for the month, the average game size is 7gb :sarc:

 

[Rjck]

Digital Distribution should stay as an alternative format and shouldn't attempt to replace Retail games EVER... That's what i think.

 

[DarkRhystar]

I like digital distribution a lot.

What I don't like is 10 companies all opening their own digital distribution shops and all requiring me to register at their websites to access their content. If I can get every game I want on Direct2Drive or Steam then that's fine but I'd rather not have to install a bunch of clients because every company decided to open its own personal digital distribution store.

 

[Wishmaster]

I prefer Digital Distribution method myself, and have been purchasing all my games this way.

However, I also do not think it should be the ONLY method, forcing everyone to go digital. Not everyone agrees its the best way.

 

[stew2]

Is this refering to things like STEAM. If so then thats the end of pc gaming for me

 

[mansrm81]

NO! I like having a disc. Thanks for the info SK

 

[Diosoth]

Call me crazy, but I still like the option to have something physical.

Game companies don't want you to be able to resell your used physical copies of games because for every used copy sold, it means that person didn't buy new. More consumer rights being stabbed and hindered.

 

[Frostmourne]

Rubbish, although some retailers look surprised when I want a PC game.

Mass Effect 2? Platform? PC. Interesting. Pause. Sale complete.

I would never touch Steam. It wanted to update Fear 2 with what looked like a 2GB patch. And the patch can't be removed if it breaks the game. Forget. I'd choose a box and DRM anyday.

 

[stew2]

I would never touch Steam..

Exactly. I hate steam, the hassle i went through to be able to run Half Life 2 without needing steam on the pc was unbelievable. The HL2 games now load easily twice as fast and the same for loading screens when in the games.

Whenever i see a game that requires STEAM etc i now simply dont buy that game.

Who wants to go through this?

• Launch game and wait for steam to load
• wait for steam to apply updates to itself
• wait for steam to apply updates to the game
• receive message that you cant play your game now as STEAM servers are busy

No thanks.

 

[Diosoth]

I run cracked games with no CD patches. DRM is bad, nor do I need a CD in if it does a full install. PC gamers are giving up because they're being treated like criminals. This is the fault of the companies.

 

[Billy]

I prefere digital downloads. I get most my games via Direct2Drive, The Ea Store, and Steam in that order(I avoid steam when I can). Having a disc is nice but I seem to be buying over the internet more often than not.

 

[Lebon14]

I understand the argument of Internet caps.
Here in the province of Quebec in Canada, we have probably the smallest caps you ever saw. Every extra GB you download is gonna cost you money.

Like, for my ISP, medium speed broadband (25$/month, 700kbps/700kbps (dl/up)), has a 2GB limit by month. On High Speed (45$/month, 7Mbps/850kbps) has a 30GB per month. The Extreme High-Speed (70$/month, my connection - 10Mbps/900kbps) has a 100GB per month.

Here are the extras $ you need to pay if you go over your cap :
For medium/high speed : 7.50$/GB, max 50$/month
Extreme high speed : 1.50$/GB, no limits (so, if you download/upped for 200GB, you gonna add 1.50$x100$ :\ )

So, people here are still heavily linked to their boxed content because of that. In the US, people has a 250GB cap and wine over it. For me, if I would have that, I would go crazy!

So, downloading 10 7GB digital games per month is really not for everybody. Even more if you format your computer and don't save much data each time...

OK, now that said, I'm not against digital video game services, in fact I like it. But, I would like to have an option, for exemple, for 10$ more, you have your digital download and a boxed version sent in the mail. Or, they could offer a good discount on the download but if you want it boxed, then, you will need to pay the original price (ex. 25$ for download version and 40$ for boxed version).

 

[EvilOzzmess]

Hogwash! It’s all to do with the game companies wanting to cut their costs, while keeping the game the exact same or an even steeper price, essentially ripping YOU off about 10%! That is why they are so giddy and excited about it, it’s just one more way to rip you off more!

Let me explain:

1) The cost of the actual DVD disk(s)
2) The design on the DVD disk(s)
3) The cost of the user guide/instructions
4) The cost of the encasement for the above
5) The cost of the printouts for the encasement

All roughly anywhere between an already grossly inflated $10 and $15 depending on X-number of disks, X-amount of plastic and X-amount of color ink/pages used to make the final product, plus markups on each material. So, by these factors you will be forced to pay the same price – if not more, for less and with the added inconvenience of NOT having a 100% sure-fire way to restore your game from a PHYSICAL MEDIUM should things go horribly wrong.

Sounds awesome… NOT! Who wants to give greedy companies MORE money for less, at your inconvenience? Not me, they already raise profits unfairly by well over $20 as it is! They do NOT need an extra $10 or more on top of that inflated $20, again at YOUR inconvenience!

However, if these companies guaranteed two conditions:

1) They LOWER the price by $10 to $15 to account for using NO materials AND 2) Allow you to BURN A PHYSICAL BACKUP DISK of the game - then hell yes, I’d say bring it on. BUT – we all know that will never happen. So… nope, not going there.


Once they pigeonhole everybody to this digital crap, I stop buying and playing new PC games - purely on principle! :mad2:

 

[valtonray]

people have been ranting about the death of pc gaming forever, they will continue to sell boxed sets same as always. a few reasons for this are that pc gamers are more likely to buy collectors sets and special editions, a large portion of pc gamers worries what would happen if a company like steam went under, could they access their games still, the reassurance of an installable disc eases some of that and the market for pc gaming accessories is pretty good, you want them in the store making impulse buys, something that isn't likely to happen with online vendors.

 

[Lordbob75]

Despite all the hate, there are some bonuses to steam:
1) All your games stay together on the program (i.e. you can redownload and run them on ANY computer you log into)
2) Settings across computers, change one thing on a desktop, your laptop gets updated
3) Dedicated servers (except for that one L4D one that crashes me everytime)
4) Your download is linked to your steam account, if you lose key/media, you can download it again and again. It is perma-linked to you.

Now, there are a lot of things I HATE too
1) Steam is glitchy, specifically on x64
2) Extra load times. I think they should link it in steam, but still let it run on its own
3) Breaks some games (EVE comes to mind)

So there are goods and bads.
For pricing, I agree, they will keep regular pricing because it costs them less (nothing actually, minus storage and bandwidth) to give you a download, so markup is like 95%.
They have the opportunity to make people really happy and HALVE prices, with the benefit of not wasting material...

We will see...

~Lordbob

 

[valtonray]

I run cracked games with no CD patches. DRM is bad, nor do I need a CD in if it does a full install. PC gamers are giving up because they're being treated like criminals. This is the fault of the companies.

maybe we wouldn't need DRM and copy protection if you bought your media...

 

[Lebon14]

Despite all the hate, there are some bonuses to steam:
1) All your games stay together on the program (i.e. you can redownload and run them on ANY computer you log into)
2) Settings across computers, change one thing on a desktop, your laptop gets updated
3) Dedicated servers (except for that one L4D one that crashes me everytime)
4) Your download is linked to your steam account, if you lose key/media, you can download it again and again. It is perma-linked to you.

Now, there are a lot of things I HATE too
1) Steam is glitchy, specifically on x64
2) Extra load times. I think they should link it in steam, but still let it run on its own
3) Breaks some games (EVE comes to mind)

Thumbs up for the pros here! That's why I like Steam (and bro do too )
As for the cons, I don't care about an extra loading time. The trick is to actually OPEN Steam before opening the game *sigh*
I cannot tell if it breaks some games or not because the only game I'm playing with Steam is Audiosurf. No experience here.
As for x64 glitching, I... don't know either. I'm on x86 and I didn'ts ee in bugs in the UI. Except that I would love Steam to open extra Windows by the store WITH THE DEFAULT BROWSER instead of opening it with IE.

Anyway. Also, I just wish it had less update... I don't seem to be able to disable updates for Steam itself.