Recently TechJaws was giving away Call of Duty Black Ops and you still have a chance to enter to win it … but the question is would you want to deal with a disk copy of the game or would you simply want a digital download? PC gamers have Valve’s Steam Online Store as an alternative to going to the store and picking up a disk – sure it’s a personal preference, but what do gamers want these days? Is a disk and some physical “collector’s edition” item worth the trip to the store or is the convenience of an instant download preferred?
One thing that makes digital downloads more appealing is the fact that you cannot “scratch up the disk” or worse yet, “misplace” it. Look at Apple’s iPad & iPod Touch & iPhone games – there are no disks, it all gets downloaded off their app store. In fact that same App Store’s coming to the Mac and Steam’s been released on the Mac recently too. Console players may start downloading all their games too, in the name of instant gratification… but will they wait for the download or would they get impatient and rush to the store to pick up the game?
What about launch parties where gamers gather in anticipation of their favorite title coming out? Are these dissolving in the digital world? Sure there’s a stereotype that the gamer is this sort of “anti-social” creature but then if you look at all the huge gaming events taking place all over the world – all the conventions, tournaments, lan parties, etc etc … suddenly that myth of the “anti-social” gamer appears to be nothing more but a myth indeed… What do you think? What’s the future of gaming and is there any space for physical media and store visits in it or is it going to get completely absorbed in the digital/online space?
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I prefer the digital download so long as there is a record that I purchased it and can download it again in the future. There are sites that once you download it, that’s it, so if your computer / equipment storage gets erased, then you’re just out of luck.
Kristi,
I agree with having some form of recipe to download the software again.
Physical copies are just easier to maintain imo. Downloading an iso and going through the process, finding a keygen, etc, is both long and unnecessary. Thanks for sharing; looking forward to seeing more from you in the future!
I would perfer the disk don’t have time to be waiting for the download.
Basically, owning a physical copies of video games is a great way to save time and money. You don’t have to rent for it in the video games bar and arcades. And besides, if you are collector of video games, this is a good way to have it.
It to avoid lost some data too.
Thank you.
Digital downloads are a great business model for corps. It costs roughly 8 cents to digitally deliver a game once to a consumer, where it is around $6 dollars to get a game into a B&M (pressing, graphics, box, shipping, theft, shelf, assoc, warehouse, retail markup, etc). In addition, I know of no digital download system where the game can be resold to another user after purchase like a B&M retail package can.
So, game companies make a much larger profit margin by removing almost all the non-development cost from the game cost. They are also removing the secondary market, forcing a consumer to always buy a new copy instead of buying the used disk from a friend (or resale shop).
For a consumer, the benefits are that you don’t have to track a disk, worry about scratches, and can easily move content from 1 machine to another. A visit to a retail store is also not necessary to make the purchase, though the $6 that is saved by digital downloading the game doesn’t go into the consumer pocket usually. The downsides (besides the above) are that there is now a single point of failure (SPOF) of your account that has your purchased games. If you forget your account, it is compromised, or you end up banned for some reason (VAC is one I can think of) you can lose everything that you purchased. You may also lose access because the digital download company you purchased from goes bankrupt. Could you imagine the outcry if Steam went bankrupt and no one could play the games on their steam account because the authentication servers no longer existed?
As a consumer, this concerns me. I get convenience at the cost of lost copyright rights and a SPOF. Is it worth it? Depends on the person I suppose. Personally, I buy every game I can though retail channels, and then link that game to my digital account. I then get the best of both worlds. I can re-download if I need to, and I can also resell my physical copy if I want to.
Evadman,
Thanks for the blog, this is a very insightful comment and probably one of our longest. Do you publish blogs? If so, please contact me.
Thanks for posting this information. It’s a great reminder that we all need to be careful and to utilize good smarts and technology to stay safe