Why are there so little physical copies for pc games now? ??

[ArsenalAccelerator]

Why?

[secuda]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Wolf Knight:

Do I miss having a box full of cd's? No
Do I miss searching thru it for a game to play? No
Do I miss <Insert Disk 2> prompts? No
Do I miss manually tracking down and downloading patches for the game? No
Do I miss having to make sure everyone is on the same Patch number when playing a multiplayer game? No
Do I miss having to try and get a disk replaced because it got scratched or cracked? No

This. However i do miss intressting manualls whenever i do buy physicall.

[Tesityr]

If I may, it's an effort to combat piracy. No discs, nothing to copy. When piracy started hitting Consoles as well, companies started going nuts trying to combat it. This, along with Key/ID checking for Multiplayer/Online play and game distribution clients like Steam and Origin (which act as DRM) have helped reduce Piracy to some extent.

Someday, everything will be Subscription and/or emulated in a client/server mechanism, like NVIDIA's GameStream. "I guarantee it" ~George Zimmer
This will then allow the most direct control to companies, over who has what copies of which games.


Do I miss it? Yes, I loved tiling my walls with the boxes of games that I purchased. I also miss the manuals, little artbooks of helpfulness... and the Posters, Cloth Maps, Figurines and other bonus items you would get with games and more.

[Arya]

Because printing discs is more expensive for Publishers than direct digital download. By selling direct through sites like Steam they're able to make a bigger profit. And as mentioned it also gives them greater control and some protection against piracy.

[Xaelath]

Do I miss having a box full of cd's? No
Do I miss searching thru it for a game to play? No
Do I miss <Insert Disk 2> prompts? No
Do I miss manually tracking down and downloading patches for the game? No
Do I miss having to make sure everyone is on the same Patch number when playing a multiplayer game? No
Do I miss having to try and get a disk replaced because it got scratched or cracked? No

cant argue with that lol

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Vince:

Sad day when you buy a physical copy at the store, open it up all excited for some type of paperwork that you pretend to be swag, and the 5 discs... but NO.

It is a cardboard box with a cardboard note that slides out of it, leaving the box completely empty. The note has the game key on it, to activate online.

Since that day I rarely buy games. I bought the Diablo warchest just to have it, but that was it this past year anyway.

Unless they could make disk without flaws and pretty much also input the same key except you cant trade it with other people once you used it to your psn/xone/steam account.

but people would complain i think.

[Jej]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Wolf Knight:

Do I miss <Insert Disk 2> prompts?

Oh man, I'm SO glad that isn't a thing anymore. I absolutely hated having to fiddle with a bunch of floppies just to continue playing a game I was enjoying.

[Mivo]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Chemistara:

Why physical copies if you can have online copies?

Because I live in a rural area with slow internet. That's OK if a game is a few GBs, but I've skipped buying some games that are 40 GB+ because I don't want to deal with how long it would take me to download them. Some people also have download caps, which I think may become more common again.

Proper physical copies can also be traded, sold, and bought used, but I don't actually care much about that aspect. For me, it's only about the download times and games getting increasingly bigger.

[[FFK3] Trovaa]

cause ♥♥♥♥♥♥ people with low disk spaces right

[Tesityr]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Festive Gremblygunk:

cause ♥♥♥♥♥♥ people with low disk spaces right

This is an unfortunate side effect... I've bought way more drives than I did in the age of physical media and playing off of it

[Γαῖα]

The biggest loss i think is, you have to have internet as lets face it no one downloads their entire steam account when they have an excessive amount of games.

You also no longer own the game and of course cant trade them. As for piracy, the truth is, it was an accepted loss prior to the internet because it was contained to an island. Yeah they still went after those dodgy salesman hanging around selling such but the damage was limited.

[Washell]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Mivo:

A dual-layer blu ray disc holds about 50 GB. Most games (compressed) are smaller than this still. But yeah, I guess not everyone has a BR drive in their computer.

What do PS4 games come on? (Dumb question, but I haven't had a console in ages.)

All modern consoles come with bluray, but thanks to Steam, Netflix and broadband, BluRay adoption rates on the PC are so low, it's not a viable distribution method for PC games.

[Mivo]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Washell:

All modern consoles come with bluray, but thanks to Steam, Netflix and broadband, BluRay adoption rates on the PC are so low, it's not a viable distribution method for PC games.

Thanks (to everyone else too), I was afraid that might be the case. I've always been a computer gamer, but since I don't see my internet situation changing in the next five to ten years, provided I don't move, I'm starting to wonder if buying a console might not be a more viable mid-term solution for me. Then again, I wonder if the next gen consoles will not also switch to online distribution.

[secuda]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Washell:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Mivo:

A dual-layer blu ray disc holds about 50 GB. Most games (compressed) are smaller than this still. But yeah, I guess not everyone has a BR drive in their computer.

What do PS4 games come on? (Dumb question, but I haven't had a console in ages.)

All modern consoles come with bluray, but thanks to Steam, Netflix and broadband, BluRay adoption rates on the PC are so low, it's not a viable distribution method for PC games.

Allso when to think about it Bluray drives are rather absolite allready, with the memory stick as an bigger accessability. i mean with a memory stick you could plug it in with any computer that support it for example, windows 10 did had a memory stick when they finally release it to the store. the only downside i would think of with that is the cost of the stick counter to dvd´s for the companies to put it on. The only one who did that to my knowladge is Blizzard with their CE of starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 as a prop of Starcraft 1 and Diablo 2 games.

[RRW359]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Mivo:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Washell:

All modern consoles come with bluray, but thanks to Steam, Netflix and broadband, BluRay adoption rates on the PC are so low, it's not a viable distribution method for PC games.

Thanks (to everyone else too), I was afraid that might be the case. I've always been a computer gamer, but since I don't see my internet situation changing in the next five to ten years, provided I don't move, I'm starting to wonder if buying a console might not be a more viable mid-term solution for me. Then again, I wonder if the next gen consoles will not also switch to online distribution.

Too many people, especially people outside the US and UK, use physical media on consoles for them to release the next generation of consoles without optical drives (although I don't think anyone knows when or *if that generation is coming). I could see someone reasing a slim-esque version of their next consoles mid-generation without a drive, but if they launch in the next 5-15 years, I doubt the launch models will be online-only.

*They may just do small updates like the PS4P or X1X.

[Esoteric]

Because, it's quicker to just download them.

[Abisha]

so you can't resale them reason why it's all digital. they so afraid of lossing 1$ this day's