US PC download sales surpass retail sales, says NPD

VG247: NPD’s just sent out a notice announcing that PC downloads have passed retail sales for the first six months of the year in the US.

[il-mouzer]

Kind of obvious.

I also noticed that this year, I bought less games (in general) than I used to do in the past, mostly due to the ever increasing price for the product itself, but also due to the fact that I didn't want to support those developers who'd release over-priced DLCs (that should have been in the game at retail to begin with). Whilst other companies keep on giving free and frequent updates for their 3/4 year old games.

[chak_]

exactly that

Less game, more time for'em.

[Psychotica]

Not really surprised. There isn't to many retail outlets that carry a half decent selection of PC games now. Gamestop has a pitiful selection while Best Buy in my area has the largest selection.

[Fadetoblack69]

All the stores around me carry shite for PC games now. If I can't buy it, I simply don't play it. I won't get into digital downloads ever... NO physical media = NO physical $$ from me.

Really sucks PC keeps getting the low end of the games thanks to console makers bad attempts at forcing you to buy their products though "exclusives". For me, it's PC or nothing since I enjoy my freedom. I suppose in the long run this is saving me a lot of $$$ though.

I used to build a new PC every 4-6 months just to keep up on the latest gen tech.... now I don't have to bother. Been using the same system for 2-3 years now and still having no problems with the games so no reason to upgrade. My bank account is going up faster than down now.

[Saryk]

I haven’t bought a hard copy game in years, excluding Starcraft 2. I got it on a combo deal with a video card, so no choice.

[cdland]

The first 4 comments above are true,IMO. I would buy on line IF the price was cheeper than retail stores. Producing and shipping costs are built into the store price. So why pay full price when you have nothing you can hold in your hands. All games should be $10.00 less or more, no printed maps or instuctions in a download... DLC's... if it's not a content unlock, I can wait for or not bother with at all. I only game on PC, free emulators are great with free rom's or web pages that have Java brouser games, if you like old games... have fun CC :D

[Sez]

Only way I would buy a physical copy of a game is if steam doesn't have it. I had go to five different store just to try and find SC2 which sucked. Now places like gamestop barely sell pc games and target usually don't carry most of the games I want.

I must say thanks steam

[Fadetoblack69]

I've never tried digital downloads and most likely never will since I'm a fan of Physical Media.

The one thing I was curious about is; you download all you things digitally right? What happens if your hard drive crashes or your motherboard packs in? Do you have a way to backup and re-install the games you've downloaded? Just curious how that works.

[Psychotica]

Yes, just download it again from Steam. You account and the software license are permanently tied together. You can download it to other PC's too, under your account of course.

[Fadetoblack69]

Ok thats cool, I didn't know about that. I hate most of these 'online services' like having to pay to play on xbox and stuff but Steam seams pretty cool, I've been debating on using them.

In fairness I just found my Counter Strike disks and went to install but the paper with the keycode is missing so Steam would have been the better option. The only thing I don't agree with is the pricing since alot of the pricing in games is supposedly for physical media, box art, shipping etc.

Maybe I'm just stuck in my ways though, who knows ;)