Downloadable vs Disc

ubersonic said:
Steam is great value, its always cheaper than physical shops and around the same price as on-line shops plus during a sale it destroys both. Seriously if your going to try and make a point don't use ridiculous exaggerations.
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Couldn't agree more with this, IMO steam sales are single handedly carving PC gaming to what it is today, its an attractive model to people curious about PC gaming. The last 3 major steam sales I've spend near to £120, and currently have about 110 steam titles, 95% of those from steam sales, thats just over £1 a game, some AAA titles in there too.
 
ToejaMz0r said:
Downloadable.

1)Convenient, no need to que up
2)Usually cut+paste cd key
3)Often buy from steam as it saves the cd key so no chance of losing it in the clutter here
4)Constant patches often make CDs redundnt as you end up downloading the same amount as the game, especially as games move on and end up with overhauls not to mention expansion packs
5)Usually cheaper
6)Better graphics
7)Often modifiable to improve things the devs cba to do (like fallout3)

The only reasons I can think of getting the retail copy is for putting it on your shelf as maybe a collectors item or for sometimes the extra maps, manuals and shinys that come with it.. but for me that'd only be for resale. Not like the old cartridge games these days.
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Pretty much!
 
Since my recent upgrade, and my broadband upgrade to fibre optic, I will certainly be going down the downloaded route.

Just saves the hassle of having the disk in the machine all the time for one.
 
ubersonic said:
Er, Yeah, like when I bought RAGE for £10-£15 less than the high street stores wanted and then preloaded it while I was at work so it was ready to play on launch. I wasn't using the PC in that time plus it would have been a ***** to sit there and load CD's/DVD's in while it installed 20+GB.

Steam is great value, its always cheaper than physical shops and around the same price as on-line shops plus during a sale it destroys both. Seriously if your going to try and make a point don't use ridiculous exaggerations.
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Except that nearly every preorder or new release can be had cheaper than steam by buying physical copies online - a 2 minute browse on 1 popular site showed MW3 and Skyrim at least a fiver less. So no its not great value really in most cases.

Everyone knows highstreet shops are a ripoff these days so not sure why they are even mentioned.

The steam sales can be decent and there are some bargains but there are just as good bargains to had in online shops and even in retail, the gaming bargains thread has just as many physical copies as downloads if not more. I agree that it can be convenient if you have the download speeds to support it and patching can be easier (although many retail games activate on steam making that a moot point for some). Steam doesnt even have the 'all the games in one place' thing going on any more with other people jumping on the digital service with some big releases not being on it (possibly in some cases) such as BF3, Batman: AC, Crysis2, SW:ToR.

Steam can be good and I love that it supports the indie developers and the more budget titles (Amnesia and section 8: prejudice etc) and its possibly more convenient to some with great connections (I dont so any big game is a major wait that takes up my bandwidth and will only get here marginally quicker than a retail order) but I would prefere to save a few quid, get something physical to keep at the cost of that major hassle of putting a dvd in a drive.

All my point of view ofcourse. Feel free to argue it as theres probably a lot that I have maybe overlooked but right now I dont see Steam or any digital distribution as a superior choice for a lot of people.

Edit: also to the guy who said better graphics for downloads.... What?
 
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Disc. Don't have to wait for the download and if you have to reformat for whatever reason you don't have to download it again. Tho with Steam you can back up the game so it that instance it isn't too bad.
 
My preference is physical + steam activation. As far as I am concrened ALL big enough games should be available as physical copies and the publisher should have the Digital copy available to either buy on its own or download if you have the physical copy.

If I lose the physical disk I can at least then download it legally, easily (for the most part).

After that I don't really mind. I bought the last 5 TW games on Steam for £40 in a sale which was a bargain as far as I was concerned. I bought Anno 1404 and World in Conflict on disk partly because it was cheap and partly because they were not on steam. I've never even looked at another download service.
 
If they're the same price, disc, because my internet's crap and I like actually owning the physical thing (silly, I know). But if one's significantly cheaper, I'll just get that.
 
ToejaMz0r said:
Downloadable.


6)Better graphics
7)Often modifiable to improve things the devs cba to do (like fallout3)
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So if I download instead of buying the disc the game looks better? ;)

Number 7 is also :rolleyes: as in fact steam tends to lock some .exe files. kotor is one that stands out.

Anyway for me some games I dont want the box etc, but games like Witcher 2 I want a box and disc. Depends on the game for me
 
Download for me definitely, as internet speed is not an issue for me. However, it sometimes worries me that my 100+ game steam account could be locked at any moment, which is why I understand people who prefer to buy disc versions (Which I do myself sometimes, like for Skyrim, especially if it's cheaper).

I actually refuse to buy new games from steam now as they tend to be much, much more expensive. Same goes for Origin actually, my BF3 preorder cost £40, which is ridiculous for a pc game :@.
 
Disc every time as Steam are a pain in the but.
The only problem is that now the new games are very rarely issued on a disc.
 
Download unless it's a collectors edition. It's quicker for me to download a game than go to town get it etc so download all the way for me.
 
I'm gonna join in here,

I'm in favour of downloads, but as all your getting is the game files no box and other bits it should be anywhere from £5 to £10 cheaper then buying retail, I personally like all my games being in one place "IE" Steam.

If I do buy a boxed game like Metro once it's been put onto steam I found that I just binned the box and disk to save space I'm not a collector of "Limited Edition" metal tin boxes with a cast iron toy or a paper map of the games world inside, As once you have them then what??? it's just sitting there collecting dust not worth anything...

Plus with Steam and so on, if there's any new updates it'll do it all for you...
 
voorhees1979 said:
So if I download instead of buying the disc the game looks better? ;)

Number 7 is also :rolleyes: as in fact steam tends to lock some .exe files. kotor is one that stands out.

Anyway for me some games I dont want the box etc, but games like Witcher 2 I want a box and disc. Depends on the game for me
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You know, I have no idea why I wrote those two.. after the ones before I think my mind thought the thread title was PC vs Console.

I blame the manflu and the 83908902 sneezes I did writing it :)
 
I can see the need for DVDs for those on slow connections, unlucky :(

I would usually go for the download if it's around the same price as the DVD. I don't want physical media cluttering up the place :P
 
I prefer to go for disc if buying on release i.e. skyrim or Witcher 2, as I like to get something physical for my cash. Although I have been using steam more and more recently on their deals.
 
Some games I will get through Steam, others I will buy the disc version, purely because I only have 2.5MB internet, buying Rage via Steam would have resulted in my having to download 21gig!

Same applies for Battlefield 3, I have the disc version pre-ordered.
 
barmyllama said:
Either, which ever is the cheapest.
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This.

I'd prefer games which doesn't have to be linked to an account or service though.
Not for pro-piracy or 2nd hand sale reasons, purely for "what if the account gets banned/hacked for no reason or the service goes down forever" reasons.

With games on disc that don't need to be linked to an account or service, I feel much more at ease.
I also detest that linked games cannot be unlinked from accounts.


(yes I'm paranoid)
 
trackrat said:
Disc every time as Steam are a pain in the but.
The only problem is that now the new games are very rarely issued on a disc.
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Just curious which other new games aren't issued on disc? with exeption to indie games, the only one I can think of is DiRT3. Just curious :)
 
pgi947 said:
Just curious which other new games aren't issued on disc? with exeption to indie games, the only one I can think of is DiRT3. Just curious :)
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My wife likes playing the Lara Croft games and the download from Steam would not save games unless you did a whole section at a time, it was a common fault apparently, but no disc to buy.
 
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