Physical PC games (and Red Dead Redemption 2 for PC)

dowie

dowie

dowie

Caporegime
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After a busy period recently I've had recently found some time to return to arguing on the forums and may even have some time spare to try gaming again after a long absence!

I've mostly stuck with Rockstar Games since the 00s, played GTA from the original to Vice City on PC, I have a PS2 (bought for San Andreas, also have Bully) and a PS3 (GTAIV and V + Red Dead Redemption). I do have an old Steam account with Elite Dangerous and the San Andreas (it was cheap and wanted to try it in higher resolution on PC), I just need to install a copy of windows on my current PC and I can game again and I'd like to play the more recent Rockstar Games - RDRII and GTAV (no need for me to buy a console this time).

But I have a question having been out of PC gaming for some time - WTF happened to buying physical copies? Why are they seemingly easily available for consoles but not PC?

Is it all just digital codes and Steam? I can't just buy a box with a DVD? And therefore, more importantly, can't easily buy secondhand ones - as neither are new releases so there should be, by now, secondhand ones?

Like if I go to the rainforest place the PS4 version of RDRII is available brand new for £17 and there second hand copies for £10. As you'd expect the game has been out for a while and people are selling it on too. But there don't seem to be PC versions I can just buy there.

Likewise, if I google search then I get some US results - Steam for $59.99 and some sites claiming to sell keys for like $17 or so. I had a bad experience buying what seemed to be a cheap Windows key a while back so I'm not sure I'd trust those. So is there anywhere good to go to buy a secondhand PC game like RDRII or is that just not a thing for PCs anymore? It's all digital and you can't sell on the digital keys presumably? In which case where do I go to buy the digital copy?* Are the sites purporting to sell game keys likely scammy?

(*obvs pls don't say if a competitor just answer in general in that case)
 
CDKeys have RDR2 for £13.99, Ultimate version for a few quid more.

It’ll require the Rockstar Social Club to download and launch it though.
 
HRL said:
CDKeys have RDR2 for £13.99, Ultimate version for a few quid more.

It’ll require the Rockstar Social Club to download and launch it though.
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Ok cool, thanks, that sounds like what I need then if they're trustworthy. That social club thing seems like Rockstar's own version of Steam, which is probably perfect for me as that's about all I need really (save for when I finally get round to trying Elite again). :)
 
Who has an optical drive now? I have an old external Blu-ray drive and a new-ish external UHD drive, but all console games come on Blu-ray and I suspect many PC gamers simply don't have one.

The last physical game I bought for the PC was MS Flight Sim 2020 - and that comes on 10 DVDs (and has to be updated withs tens of gigabytes online the moment you install it of course).
 
in past there was always a price difference between console and pc gams, now with physical pretty much gone, its a big **** you and you pay the same, bigger profits as no physical media to produce, as above we were the architects of all this, so when we sit back and moan at prices, just think,(if old enough) this was our fault.
 
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MCFC_ANDY said:
in past there was always a price difference between console and pc gams, now with physical pretty much gone, its a big **** you and you pay the same, bigger profits as no physical media to produce, as above we were the architects of all this, so when we sit back and moan at prices, just think,(if old enough) this was our fault.
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Apart from a few of us at the mo. My pc still has a cd drive and my Xbox X has one ( why I went for it over the s) after 10 years of PC and going back to consoles ( because of crazy pc hardware prices) I was well happy looking at all the old Xbox games in cex the other day for £3 a pop. Which also made me think game pass ain't all that.
 
MCFC_ANDY said:
in past there was always a price difference between console and pc gams, now with physical pretty much gone, its a big **** you and you pay the same, bigger profits as no physical media to produce, as above we were the architects of all this, so when we sit back and moan at prices, just think,(if old enough) this was our fault.
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To be fair it doesn't seem too bad after all, if this CDKeys thing is legit then I'm happy enough.

The PS4 version is circa £17 brand new now and just over £10 secondhand. So £13 for the PC version via a digital key bought online seems like a reasonable price in line with those. Granted maybe it would be slightly cheaper were a second-hand market available but I'm not going to quibble much.

What I was slightly shocked by was the $59.99 full price for the Steam version in the first google result, if that were the only legit option then that would be annoying... probably to the point where if I wanted multiple games I'd instead have looked at getting a PS4 or PS5 and just buying the physical versions second hand.
 
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dowie said:
WTF happened to buying physical copies? Why are they seemingly easily available for consoles but not PC?
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Steam happened.

They pulled the rug from under everyone with HL2 and made it more cost-effective for publishers to sell/advertise through their platform, rather than do it in-house. There would have been a lot of incentives though, such as patching and updates, all done online obsoleting the need for PC mags and their CDs. The dawn of DLC (who misses expansion packs?) Another huge boon is you don't have to worry about those pesky pirates potentially pre-releasing your game. Lots of opportunities for data harvesting, especially now most games are also bogged down with the publisher's launcher. Also noted above, you can no longer sell/swap to your mates or down the market. PC architecture is also just more open compared to consoles so the whole digital distribution service caters better as it is more favorable to this diversity. It just goes on.

In exchange, we all get a tonne of convenience and some nice sales on games that we don't own anymore :cry:. Gave a huge boost to the indie scene though.

Physical console games on the other hand do have a place. I think it's just a stronger tradition with consoles and in the console community, physical copies and collectors editions. Plug and play. Which is why they aid in the sales of consoles. Another key reason is the Internet. Not everyone in the world has access to it that is fast or reliable enough to download ~100gb game. Piracy also must be a foreign concept at this point and seems to have died more and more with each iteration. I don't think it's been prevalent since the PS1 and to a lesser extent, the PS2. I dunno how swapping games work and if you can still do that.
 
Issue these days is even if you get physical media with the amount of day 0 updates you can install off the disc then still need a massive update from whichever launcher so most people don't bother.

Even expensive collectors editions rarely come with a game disc and just have a code to redeem.
 
dowie said:
To be fair it doesn't seem too bad after all, if this CDKeys thing is legit then I'm happy enough.

The PS4 version is circa £17 brand new now and just over £10 secondhand. So £13 for the PC version via a digital key bought online seems like a reasonable price in line with those. Granted maybe it would be slightly cheaper were a second-hand market available but I'm not going to quibble much.

What I was slightly shocked by was the $59.99 full price for the Steam version in the first google result, if that were the only legit option then that would be annoying... probably to the point where if I wanted multiple games I'd instead have looked at getting a PS4 or PS5 and just buying the physical versions second hand.
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How you finding RDR2?

I’ve started it twice but never seen it through to the end, but it is on my Todo List to complete at some point.
 
I think the ultimate version only gives you an extra mission. It's the special edition that has all the bells and whistles and it's double the price of the standard.
 
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