News No physical release for Batman: Arkham Knight on Windows

I guess it makes sense for someone to try the digital only route seeing as most UK pc games sales are digital these days. I guess eventually boxed PC games will be no more.

 

This sucks... Some people like and prefer to have something tangible to show for their money, but I can see that this is the way things will go and it certainly won't only effect PC games. It doesn't bother me as much as it does when I consider digital distribution of music and an eventual push to phase out audio CDs.
Yet even though there is such a push to move everything to the digital realms we are regularly being notified of security breaches and data theft. It seems we are constantly in a transitionary period, rushing from one on to the next and never taking time to consolidate the move we have just made and it is during these periods that things are always more vulnerable.

 

Hmmn, the Luddite in me sees this as sacrilege but when I consider I have already exceeded my physical storage space for my PC games I'm only able to really add to my collection digitally now, I can see the merit of this. This is based on my reluctance to offload some of the oldies that I have clogging up my cupboards such as the the original big box versions of the Half Life games, System Shock 2, Mechwarrior 2 amongst many others.

I've lost count of the amount I've downloaded recently, what with Steam Sales, Origin sales and freebies, GOG, Humble Bundle, etc, etc.

Besides I now have less of the "I really shouldn't have bought that" category to sneak into into the house before the wife spots them.

 

It would annoy me if console games went like this, as they always have the resale value on top of them, but I can't remember the last time I bought a PC game physically.

 

+1. I agree completely

 

It's inevitable, and a good thing in my opinion - I can't remember the last time I bought a PC game on physical media. It might have been Crysis 2.

Much will depend on how fast this spreads across all platforms, because the stated average broadband speed of around 18mbps might be sufficient for the occasional game download, but I know quite a few people who are still in single digits, and I doubt 18mbps is enough to serve for the modern family - it certainly wasn't for mine.

 

Resale is a real thorn in the side for game publishers, it means that people are buying their game and they aren't getting any money for it - they don't like this at all.

Plus, if you don't physically have to produce the game on disc, box it up and ship it then you cut your costs dramatically. You also get an exact idea of how many you sell and you can control the pricing as you see fit.

Dark days in my opinion, I actually enjoy scanning the second hand shops for games, you can't beat the feel of both a good bargin and finding some old gem that you wish you'd bought at the time.

 

I'm sure the 5 stores that still stock PC games will be gutted...

...and for the record Portal 2 was the last disk-based game I bought [purely because it was cheaper than steam at the time...]

 

Who actually stocks pc games in the UK outside of Amazon anyway. Game is dependent on store and I can't name anyone else.

 

Tesco? ASDA? Morrisons?

To be honest, they could have stopped stocking PC games years ago - I don't look any more.

 

The Local GGs [we have a few since the chain originated up here...] had all stopped stocking PC games last time I was in, GAME had some but the bulk of the display was Steam vouchers... Tesco had a whole 5 PC games stocked last I saw, and 2 of those 5 were Skyrim...

 

Our local Tesco UltraMegaGigastore has a "Top 5" PC Games section, and that's it. Contrast that with about thirty-odd foot or so of console games, plus further shelf space for consoles and peripherals.

 

Surely the question 'Who stocks PC games?' is more about retail V online rather than about PC Games not being produced in a physical format in the first place? Amazon does stock physical PC games and so you can get them... The argument of whether you can or can not get them on the high street is irrelevant. I still think it is a crappy thing to do.

 

Annoying for people with slow connections.

I think max payne 3 was 35gb and took me a week to download.

I couldn't care less about boxes but having discs when you have a slow connection is essential.

 

I once bought a PC game, retail, a few years ago.

I got home, opened the box, the leaflet inside gave instruction as to how to install Steam and download the game using the code in the box. No disc in the box..just a sticker with a code on it :/

That was the last time I bought a game "retail".

 

I stopped buying boxed games in about 2004. Having to swap discs all the time and have boxes piling up on my desk was a pain.

 

This is BS. They want their cake (high price release) and to eat it (portion of resale money). You don't see car companies moan and look for a slice of the 2nd hand car market. I'm all for going digital and reducing prices accordingly. Although access to physical media for a nominal fee should be available, something along the lines of getting an Ubuntu disk from Canonical.

 

This may be aimed at those companies that sell a lot of boxed games to overseas markets. OzGameShop and Zavvi to name a couple, undercut substantially the local pricing of games in places like Australia. In fact, it's the whole reason OzGameShop exists.

With Steam's new lockout on trading keys across regions and now this, it seems publishers want to lock people in to high regional pricing for some easy extra revenue.