As some of you know, I live on Blue’s News and Shacknews along with a few other sites so when I saw the Impulse top 10 sales list on there I thought that pretty cool. So here are some random thoughts on digital distribution, numbers, and retail.
These are just my personal opinions take them for whatever you think it’s worth.
1. Retail still dominates compared to digital distribution on PC games.
2. Individual retailers don’t sell that many units a week. I.e. I would say that Steam outsells an individual major retail chain on a new release and that Impulse probably outsells the typical individual smaller retail chain.
3. Retail will continue to dominate as long as digital distributors don’t come up with a standardized digital format for games (i.e. standardized installer). I don’t have to make different boxes for every retailer but if I want to put my game on various digital distributors, I end up having to do work on each one.
4. Many hard core gamers I’ve noticed think that it’s all or nothing for digital distributors. It’s not. Gamers should want as many choices as they can competing for their hard earned money.
5. My guess is that digital distributors represent around 25% of the PC games market for games also sold at retail.
6. My guess is that Steam currently has around 80% of the digital distribution market. Impulse probably has around 10% and all the others have the remaining 10%.
7. The entire combined active online community of Steam, Impulse, etc. is less than the Halo 3 community on the Xbox 360.
8. The market penetration of digital distribution is probably at around 10% on the PC IMO.
9. The top 10 sales numbers on Steam and Impulse are easily as statistically valid as the top 10 PC games sales on Amazon.com (in terms of actual units sold). Or to be even more clear cut with my opinion, I believe, based on having seen numbers, that a random game on Impulse or Steam will outsell same game on Amazon.com. This isn’t a critique of Amazon.com (where I do an insane amount of shopping) but more of the numbers that Impulse and Steam (particularly Steam) are capable of doing and their specialization.
10. Most games in digital distribution sell terribly. However, those same games would simply be unavailable at retail. The onus is on the providers of digital distribution services to make it easier to get games on their services. It is not the responsibility of publishers to do this. Digital distribution offers the opportunity for game developers/publishers to turn their games into long-term assets.
If a game is available on Impulse I will buy it there. Main reason is that I don't want to deal with having the CD in the drive when playing a game but also because I'm coming around more to the digital distribution model. This has been hard for me since I like to "collect" the game boxes but I'll get over it.
I like how Stardock makes the boxes version available of their games for a few bucks more, I did that with Elemental for example. But it's not available for 3rd party games.
I refuse to use Steam, it's a virus as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather support Stardock with Impulse and try to get them as a vital alternative to Steam. I'm seeing more and more hot/top flight games coming to Impulse on Day 1 which is a nice trend to be sure.
Now just get Fallout 3 Game of the Year edition on Impulse so I don't go buy it at retail.
Call me old-fashioned but I really enjoy holding a box in my hand and being able to put it into my games shelf and look at it. Gives me more of the "now-I-own-something-feeling". If I buy something, I wanna own and posses it. If I have the box, a printed manual and a professionaly labeled disc, I truly have this feeling. My PRECIOUS!!!
So when I order something on Impulse I want the box mailed to me as well. I don't mind not being able to save the shipping cost obtaining the game that way.
Anybody else feeling like this?
Usually I do, at least with the more mainstream games. I was lured by price to try something different with Tropico 3, and now I am regretting it.
When you get the disc mailed from digi distributors, is it a real copy of the retail version or something else?
That was it for me with GalCiv2.
Lest I forget: If I own a boxed hard copy of a game I can easily sell it second hand in case it gets old to me and I ever get bored playing it and don't want to own it anymore. (Though I only once ever sold a game. I don't like to give away what I own.)
You cannot easily do this if you don't have a boxed copy.
I agree with much of what Raven said in reply #3, as well as what some others have said. I greatly prefer a retail version over digital versions. Also, I really detest the trend toward tying games to individual accounts, a scheme that is designed to kill the resale value of the game and to limit consumer rights. Don't get me wrong, I think that Steam, Impulse, etc. are great for the people who like those services. I am simply old-school in my attitude toward shopping and gaming. That is, if I buy a game, I want to be able to play it whenever I want to play (1) without a third-party program running in the background, (2) without being unable to sell or even give away a game that I no longer want, and (3) without needing to "activate" or connect to the internet to play a single-player game.
I think that digital distribution serves a good purpose, but I do not believe that it will replace boxed retail versions anytime soon. Digital distribution will have to offer much deeper discounts to be more competitive with retail. Also, I believe that there are too many people who like the "physical thing" too much to give up on retail purchases. People just like the sense (or illusion) of true ownership that possessing the physical item symbolizes. It's a lot like the book industry. People just prefer to buy bound, printed books over digital versions, even when the digital version might be cheaper and much more environmentally friendly.
Well i have to say I love digital distribution. Even if it's the same price I'm glad to know that money wasn't wasted on packaging. Mind you I'm no treehugger. I would just rather the developers make the money rather than make something I'm going to throw away. I'm happy to support the folks that make my hobby possible. By the way it's not the same price you save on sales tax, gas, and personal time.
Also, if there isn't a pretty box to catch the lemmings attention the developers and publishers have to focus on quality. Digital distribution sites have direct access to review sites, forums, etc. It's much more difficult to push garbage. I don't miss the stores at all or miss having to switch disks to play a different game. I only ask that more games allow pre-loading so I'm ready to go.
Well the time it took for me to sit around and wait for my pre-order to be released on release day, I could have driven to the store, picked up a nice new copy, read the manual and returned home at least a half dozen times before the release was, well released in the afternoon of release day. Then the time it took to download the game, I did manage to clean up the house some and do random chores. When that was done, and the game installed. I moved onto some light chores outside. So by around 2pm I actually had the game, bout 4-5 hours after I woke up this morning expecting to be able to hit the download, get ready for the day, and play the game.
Now some of the delay, about 30 minutes of it, was me not realizing that the directions I was given to install the game left out the part where I am supposed to change a view option to see applicatons not yet installed. Granted, that will probably be the last time I make that kind of mistake so really, at least 3.5 hours of waiting that would not have happened had i driven 15 minutes (not low balling this) to the local mall and picked up an actual copy. The benefit I have was I paid well well below retail for the game, and now I don't need a disc. But, given the option, I probably won't do a pre-order again through digi distrutor again.
I used to be one of those people that collected all the shiny boxes and was proud of my monument to slacking. One day though I looked over at the six, three foot high stacks of game boxes taking up a good portion of space in my computer room and thought "What the hell am I keeping all this crap for?". Hard drive space is cheap and a lot more practical when moving.
I have collected a few shelves worth since dumping those, but I have done pretty well in weening myself of all the clutter they represented. After buying 60+ games via Impulse and Steam I can say I don't miss the boxes. I agree it's not for everyone and I do at times miss the printed manuals, but it's no biggie. Most manuals just give you basics anyways and real in depth info you find online anyways .
I am also not one to resell games(I still have all my games back to 8bit Nintendo) so having them tied to me permanently is also a non-issue. In fact it makes the chance of them getting lost or stolen non-existent. My only complaint is it's almost too easy to whip out the ole credit card and grab games impulsively, but that just takes a little self restraint .
One other good thing about DD is I can browse, find a game I'm interested in and immediately research it online. If i find something that looks interesting in store I either have to go home to do further analysis, then return to the store to purchase, or take the chance that the game is not as it seems on the box(any game can look like it's awesome by reading the box). I'm old enough I'm pretty patient, I rarely pay full release day retail prices for games, so waiting even a few months for prices to settle aren't a problem for me and I find a lot of great buys on DD channels that I couldn't otherwise find in retail. Of course it probably helps my choice for using Impulse and the like being in a small town with only the dreaded Walmart as a retail outlet for PC games.
So... you are me.
just got to this thread as it was bumped.
seems interesting.
I would say retail with an option do download again. I love the actual manuals and such. However, I do not want to be screwed if my CD gets scratched or lost. I should not have to buy the game again, just DL it from the company site.
I buy like 2 games a year so I want Collectors Editions all the time so it's retail for me. If a Coll Ed isn't available then I just take the cheapest possible version.
I know what you mean about Steam. After the ridiculous measures in Half-Life 2 (What? I can't play a single player game offline?!), I have boycotted anything that requires Steam. Is it really better than DRM when it's actually more restrictive than some DRM measures? Impulse is great though. Internet down? No problem, I can still play any of my games.
From what I heard, the full Fallout 3 package is intended for retail only though.
With Steam you can indeed play offline, as long as the account has logged in at some point.
Admittedly, I don't think it was an option when Half-Life 2 was launched, but that was a hell of a long time ago.
I do, depending on the game though. I grabbed Demigod because it's multiplayer only so, like Counter-Strike Source, I don't really mind not having a box. However, with games like Oblivion or Half-Life 2 I wouldn't get them on Digitial Distribution.
Yeah, the only thing that bugs me is having to be online to LAN l4d...drives me crazy...means we can't LAN at ppl's house w/out the internet. Really wish they'd get rid of that, though I can see their point of view.
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