News EA: Physical media still has a future

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2011/08/22/ea-physical-media-still-has-a-future/1

 

Damn straight it does. I do not like downloading games of 15gb or more, takes forever on my connection. A couple of DVDs on the other hand work great (until they degrade and break ).

 

Reminds me of Dune 2 on Amiga. Insert floppy disk 1-5 .

 

For new releases, the physical copy is always cheaper. I like cheaper.

 

I always prefer a DVD copy. Maybe one day when the UK has proper broadband the digital option might make more sense.

 

"Of course we still love DVDs! How else are we going to force Steam users to install Origin? They're not gonna download it!"

 

Price wise, yes, physical copies are cheaper (though they shouldn't be!) - the second this changes - It'll be all over for physical media for me.

 

On the contrary though my friend, personally speaking, 15GBs doesn't take more than an hour and a half to download for me - This is much less time than it would take me to get to a brick and mortar store and back home again - and this is something that I can purchase, and subsequently play when I feel bored anytime after 6pm/on a bank holiday/public holiday when the shops are closed, more often then not, it's also cheaper that a brick and mortar store purchase, and equivalent to an internet retailer price - which would take a few days to arrive.

Needless to say, all my games are safely stored together on steam where possible. Software bliss. I'm looking forwards to the Windows 8 'app store' for these very reasons!

TSB

 

Ha so true. I do enjoy cheaper aswell!

 

I love Steam and I wish I could have all my games on there. Unfortunately my broadband speed works against me and it often feels like a massive hassle having to leave my computer downloading for three nights just to download one 5GB game.

So more and more I'm finding it much easier to buy physical copies and then just add them to my Steam games. I just wish that Steam would let you change the image for non-steam games when in the Grid view, the pixelated icons look rubbish next to my nice lovely steam games.

Try ~80 hours for a 15GB download and then see how you feel. That's on a good day.

 

I never want a physical copy of a game again to be honest.
I like steam, when I got my new PC, I just downloaded steam and installed the games I will play.
Same with starcraft too, I got the client from my account login and downloaded it all from online.

I see an argument for physical media, but with most new games now, you cant resell them, which is the only reason I would want a physical copy. Although I guess I could sell my steam or battlenet account if i wantd to.

Save the planet, buy digital copies

 

How many people actually go to a shop to buy games now. Either download or online DVD copy. Whichever is cheaper.

 

Monkey Island 2! 12 disks damn it, worth every swap though. I got a second drive for it in the end (I think if memory serves you have to swap out disk 2 very often, so having that in a drive all the time cut the swaps by at least 50%).

 

You have to believe me when I say I understand; I do. The state of internet access in the United Kingdom is appalling, as with everything else. But the problem lies with your internet connection, and your ISP. From what you've said though - which I found quite positive, given you're one of the many low bandwidth internet users - you wouldn't hesitate to use such a service, i.e. Steam, if you had a much improved connection?

TSb

 

As others have said: I will stop buying physical copies when they cease to cost LESS than a download from the likes of Steam.

 

I haven't had an optical drive for ages. I hate using that obsolete piece of noise-making machinery.

I don't have a super fast connection, but even with 8/1 Mbps connection it really isn't such a pain to download the games I want to play - besides, you only need to do it once. I have my Steam games backed up on another HDD just in case.

Sure, physical copies are nice for presents etc, but I'm not going to miss them when (if) they're gone.

EDIT: Also there's absolutely no way in hell I'm going to pay money for a BR-drive.

 

So you live c.40 minutes away from the nearest town, yet still have an amazing internet connection? I am so jealous - we live 10 minutes from the nearest town and have a purely average connection.

I do like Steam, I love the Steam Cloud thing as I play games across 2 PCs, but I dislike their DRM (the offline mode has on several occasions failed to work for me). Even if I had a fibre optic connection, there is still a security in having your games available to install from a disk that I would not like to lose.

 

Sort of; live in Central London, have the mid-range VM50Mb package, 100mb isn't available by me for another few months - but for me to get to a 'Game' it will take me 45 minutes in each direction using public transport. The alternative would be to drive, at slightly reduced time, but at the additional cost of fuel, parking, the congestion charge, and time spent sitting in traffic doing nothing other than listening to the radio, makes travelling there even less attractive.

 

Another alternative is Amazon/Play etc... and it will usually be cheaper than Steam.

What's wrong with waiting a day or two for delivery?

 

Meh, us modern people like to get things as fast as possible London is great, but it's true I have no idea where to find a shop that sells PC games there.