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View Full Version : PC Downloads Overtake Retail Sales


Honolulu Blue
09-21-2010, 05:23 PM
On my way to somewhere else, I was pointed to this article: PC Downloads Overtake Retail Sales (http://pc.ign.com/articles/112/1122088p1.html)

Which shows how far we've come in the past decade or so. I was just remembering the first game I bought by digital download (other than the odd shareware game). Why, it was FOF2, of course. 25 MB download on a 56k modem, fun... :banghead:

I know some of you guys are excited about another game that's available for download today, so I'll let you get back to that.

Passacaglia
09-21-2010, 05:35 PM
My first was FOF2 also -- I remember ordering it a couple days before my exams so it would arrive right after my exams were done, then getting all giddy when I realized I was going to be able to play it instead of study!

cartman
09-21-2010, 05:45 PM
I think my first digital download buy was Wolfenstein 3D :)

sovereignstar
09-21-2010, 05:47 PM
Digital River ftw

Mota
09-21-2010, 08:16 PM
I think that is in part due to the major retailers essentially abandoning PC gaming over the past few years. I begged with the buyer at EB Games to keep their PC section in but the used games make so much more margin for them that this choice was not available to her.

Groundhog
09-21-2010, 08:21 PM
With video games as they are in Australia, I wonder what the ratio is down here.

A new PC game costs generally around $20 more to buy (at least) from EB Games than it would for me to buy from Steam or any other online retailer.

A new PS3 game sometimes costs up to $40+ more for me to buy from EB Games than it would for me to buy from play-asia (not digital, but just to show how crazy prices are here).

stevew
09-21-2010, 09:00 PM
I'd say in 10 years physical games are done for consoles. Our grandkids will laugh about our midnight launch stories.

Drake
09-21-2010, 09:26 PM
FOF2k1 was my first digital download. Now I prefer those, especially if I can download the whole package, save the key to a text file and back the whole thing up to external storage.

Not having to fuck with disks in my drive to play games I own is good thing (and saves me from having to search unsavory sites for no-cd cracks that gamecopyworld might not have).

Along the same lines, I saw yesterday that gog.com has apparently gone out of business already. That makes me sad. I probably bought 20 games from them in the last year.

Matthean
09-22-2010, 07:56 AM
Along the same lines, I saw yesterday that gog.com has apparently gone out of business already. That makes me sad. I probably bought 20 games from them in the last year.

They are claiming that they aren't 100% gone. They maybe back, but in a different form.

Ksyrup
09-22-2010, 08:01 AM
I don't recall my first download. I know I had the original Baseball Mogul before I'd heard of FOF (that's what got me searching for similar games to begin with) and I'm fairly certain I didn't buy that in a store, but I don't remember if it was a download or I bought it online and had a disk sent to me. Probably the latter.

spleen1015
09-22-2010, 08:17 AM
I don't recall my first download. I know I had the original Baseball Mogul before I'd heard of FOF (that's what got me searching for similar games to begin with) and I'm fairly certain I didn't buy that in a store, but I don't remember if it was a download or I bought it online and had a disk sent to me. Probably the latter.

This is exactly my situation. Mogul led me to find OOTP and I found FOF from there. I can't member how I got Mogul though.

I am firmly in the boat of downloading now. No going back unless I can only get things in the store.

Groundhog
09-22-2010, 06:30 PM
My first digital download was probably Arlie's Coaching A Dynasty. I still have fond memories of that game. :)

Sun Tzu
09-22-2010, 06:55 PM
TNM...definitely TNM. Followed by FOF.