Boxed PC games market 'gone by 2011'

  What do you think pc platform right now seem like it going to be first to go DD.
 
 
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37120/Boxed-PC-games-market-gone-by-2011
 
 

“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.
 

I am all for it, if it's only on steam and not direct2drive where if you format, it's gone. Rather on steam it's permanently on your account. I am tired of putting in a dvd everytime to play a game, we should also have the option to uninstall and no installation limit and everything is tied to steam, which I trust unlike other digital distrubution services. The idea has my full support, however they should still sell boxed copies at retailers. Maybe limit it to eb games and gamestop kind of stores. Consoles next gen will probally go towards the same route.

This is not too surprising really. Services like steam and Impulse are cheaper and more convenient than any store will ever be.

" This is not too surprising really. Services like steam and Impulse are cheaper and more convenient than any store will ever be. "

fuck brick and mortar stores. fuck "gaming" stores where i have to go in with archeology gear and a flashlight to find pc games. 
 
With services like Steam, Impulse, D2D, amazon.com/.ca, newegg.com/.ca, there is 0 reason to go to these shitty retailers.

OH NOES!
 
From a business point of view it's sound but I love my hard copies. I'm gonna buy a lot more games now.

I haven't bought a boxed PC game in about 2 years so I'm all for it.

With 0.5mb internets speed downloading big sized games is just what i need. 

Yeah, the only issue for me is having to download games. Unless I can pre-load it, it's an issue.

It definitely wouldn't surprise me.  I don't know of anyone that buys boxed PC games anymore.

Depends. Personally i still buy boxed games, because i want the uncut UK version and not the german cheaply translated crappy version.

Also: Left 4 Dead 2 was like 32€ on amazon.co.uk and 69€ on steam... WTF?!!

Sounds great as long as that true broadband infrastructure comes to my neck of the plains in time. My current ISP is a crook.

I'm cool with it for PC. Steam does a fantastic job of taking my money and lack of disc swapping makes it even better.  Console though I do enjoy my shelf with all my pretty boxes in a row. I don't think the want for a hard copy is ever going to die, so it might be awhile before we go full DD with other platforms other than PC. Until then I'll still be buying my console games hard copy and pc through steam.

I am all for digital versions of "small" games, but not "proper" games.  When retail versions of games go, I am out of PC gaming.  All games need retail.  Game boxes sell games and if you can't  see what is around, you will miss most.  The average consumer will just assume they don't exist any more.  The trouble with the collective thoughts on sites like these is that they ignore the broader market.  Plus, no retail means no jobs and I fail to see how that is good.

Well, I'm find with that. I haven't bought a PC game in stores in years.

Not going to happen. To many people still have bad internet speeds and even if i don't know many persons buying PC games in stores, I know many buying boxed games over the internet. 
Steam is also more expensive than buying the games in stores for anyone living in europe, thanks to steams stupid $1=€1.

That 1C guy is wrong.  PC games are at the back of the store because the demand for them isn't there - not the other way around as he suggests.  Retailers don't put them there through spite, they do it because pushing the console games and putting them at the front of the store is more profitable.
 
You might see Boxed PC games continue to be scaled back in stores, but they aren't going to disappear entirely any time soon.  So long as Sims Whatever and WoW expansions come out and sell millions of boxed copies, publishers will release them and somebody will always be happy to carry them in their store.  Those particular sales won't translate into digital sales if they switch over entirely, most of them will just be lost.
 
All of my full-price PC games are still box copies, but always from online retailers.  It is by far the cheapest way to get them.

I know that this might happen to PC games soon, but what about consoles? 
 
THINK OF THE USED GAMES PEOPLE! 

Ugh, I love my physical media. The only game I've ever bought digitally was Braid, and if I had the option to buy a boxed copy of it for twice the price I would have instead of downloading it. I don't think download only will be viable until everyone has access to very fast connections; if I were to try and download something like Dragon Age I'd have to leave my PC on for several days doing nothing but downloading.
 
Who really buys games from game stores nowadays anyway? The demand isn't there for them because the general PC audience is more 'hardcore' than the general console audience and more willing to search around online for a better deal; the demand for the physical media hasn't decreased as much as it appears, it's only moved source to online outlets.

" I'm cool with it for PC. Steam does a fantastic job of taking my money and lack of disc swapping makes it even better.  Console though I do enjoy my shelf with all my pretty boxes in a row.

I wish Steam had some kind of retail points I could buy like Nintendo and Microsoft. My wife frowns on using the credit card for video games. I usually save cash and buy my games at brick and mortar stores along with the points for the consoles mentioned above. I just bought Dragon Age: Origins for the PC at Best Buy, and I don't have that many Steam games because of this.

Man i cant remember the last time i bought a pc game in a box.

" That 1C guy is wrong.  PC games are at the back of the store because the demand for them isn't there - not the other way around as he suggests.  Retailers don't put them there through spite, they do it because pushing the console games and putting them at the front of the store is more profitable.
 
You might see Boxed PC games continue to be scaled back in stores, but they aren't going to disappear entirely any time soon.  So long as Sims Whatever and WoW expansions come out and sell millions of boxed copies, publishers will release them and somebody will always be happy to carry them in their store.  Those particular sales won't translate into digital sales if they switch over entirely, most of them will just be lost. All of my full-price PC games are still box copies, but always from online retailers.  It is by far the cheapest way to get them. "

I buy console and portable games at retail all the time. I'd buy PC games too if my PC could run them. The ones I can run and do buy through Steam are the smaller games that probably wouldn't sell at retail. I still prefer retail copies for full retail games, even if the stores are total hellholes. That doesn't stop people from buying console games at retail though.

The only game worth buying boxed is Heroes of Might and Magic III/Complete Edition, just because it doesn't seem you can get them from online stores (except, Amazon).

Quite honestly, for me, PC has been digital since '08.  I can't remember the last game I bought at a brick and mortar store or in a boxed copy.
 
Wait, there is 1.  I bought lich king at wal-mart.  But other than that, all of my purchases for PC have been made through DD.

1. Absolutely NOT gonna happen by next year.  No way, no chance.
2. It would be disappointing if that ever happens because I prefer my games on disk for a lot of reasons.
3. It's not something anyone should hope for, what we should want is options and having a product in stores opens up the market to a lot more people.
4. Retailers don't have anything against PC gaming, they just want as much quick money as possible.

Buying PC games retail is something I haven't done in forever, and won't start doing ever again, nor does anyone I know do it either. It can go away whenever it likes.

I don't really have a strong opinion on it going away or not, but I do love Steam. And especially the holiday sales.

I guess it makes sense. I never see any EB Game selling PC games anymore; and places like Walmart doesn't have a lot of traffic in the PC games compare to the 360/PS3 area. With online distribution such as Steam being widely popular and a viable option; it makes boxed PC games obsolete.
 
Though how would that work with stuff like ordering the game from Amazon?

" Didn't realize they still sold PC games at retail anyway.  Other than some card game collections at walmart. "

" Man i cant remember the last time i bought a pc game in a box. "

A lot of you guys are forgetting all the games that never come to digital distribution and the majority sales of Blizzard and Sims games...
 
There's a heck of a lot of people that still don't get digital distribution (the vast majority of gamers), or just don't use it at all.

It pretty much fucks piracy up in the ass, and for that, its a very, very good decision.
 
Buy more stuff on steam people, its the way of the future anyway.

I don't have a credit card.
 
Well, fuck.

I agree.  PC boxed product will probably be around for at least 2-3years more. Eventually all game delivery will probably become digital as services like PSN and XBOX Live are already offering full games (PSN for PSP, XBXL games on demand and Wii Virtual Console) even now.  It really is just a matter of time though.

I generally have a hard time spending more than 20 dollars on a downloadable game.

I was at best buy and had hell of a time looking for the PC games and I actually never did.

I'm fine with it on PCs, because software patches will mean that I will be able to use my steam games 30 years into the future. 
 
On consoles, however, I'm not so sure. As new consoles come out, I could see them beginning to shut down the online infrastructure for older consoles. With the way console devs have been dealing with backwards compatibility, I also wouldn't put much stock in games from 2 generations back working on current gen (in the future) hardware. That means that, eventually, games I purchased could end up unaccessible, which is certainly not ideal.

" fuck brick and mortar stores. fuck "gaming" stores where i have to go in with archeology gear and a flashlight to find pc games. "

What about people with slow internet connections?
What about people who don't like steam's unreliable servers who's download speeds fluctuate like crazy?
What about people who don't like Steam's DRM, and the fact that you have to be ONLINE to play a game OFFLINE?
What about people who like buying the collector's edition of games that come with art books and music CDs, etc.?
 
Well, if you're gonna force us to pay full retail price and waste our time and bandwidth to download it I can tell you I'm not paying you to go through all that.  I'll still play the game but I sure as hell am not paying for it.

I love boxed games, but if it helps the dying PC gaming industry in any way,  I'd love it.

" fuck brick and mortar stores. fuck "gaming" stores where i have to go in with archeology gear and a flashlight to find pc games.   With services like Steam, Impulse, D2D, amazon.com/.ca, newegg.com/.ca, there is 0 reason to go to these shitty retailers. "

Don't the vast majority of PC gamers already buy digitally? Yeah this is no surprise.

I prefer physically owning something, but I have purchased games at discount through steam without a second thought. If it went like this, hopefully prices would go lower as retail packaging wouldn't be needed. Maybe they could print download cards or whatever to save shelf space for people that want to give em as gifts or people that cant pay for things online.

Why is everyone blasting on PC boxed games?  They still come in boxes!  The boxes look just like the Console games!!  Console games come in a box & I don't see anyone harping on that.  Do you still put a DVD into a PS3 & Xbox or Wii?  YES!  The medium isn't going away.  Hell, we just got a couple of DA:O PC games (boxed) for relatives for Xmas.  Why would I want to send them a $50 link as a Xmas gift when they can have a boxed version instead? Boxed versions make better gifts.
 
In the past, I really enjoyed the boxed PC games that were released. It had great artwork, thicker n' shit rulebooks, cloth maps, large colorful boxes. They were very creative with the boxes back then.  Today's game comes in some puke green or black plastic & the rules are dumbed down for idiots.  Nowadays if you want better art, etc, you gotta pay for it with the Collector's Edition!
 
This is why old PC games with their boxes & rulebooks have gone up in value.

I've only ever experienced Steam as a direct download service and I like it, mainly because PC games occupy about 1 shelf in a game store so you don't get much to choose from at all. However, there have been times where steam has been going at a snails pace which sucked.  
 
Also, what about people with terrible internet, or a download cap? I know my bro in laws internet has a bandwidth cap and downloading a 7gb game is going to cost him more money on top of the price of the game.. 

Most of my PC purchases are digital because of steam sales anyway. But I am afraid this means no more limited editions with palpable collectibles for PC games (i.e. Bioshock).