Do you pay for downloads?

[EricMartello]

Two, maybe three years ago, if I were given the option to buy a game or software either by having media sent to me by mail, or by downloading it, I would always choose the physical media option.

Recently, I started playing World of Warcraft thru the free trial offer. The client downloads for free from the website, and then you just create an account online. After 10 days, if you want to keep playing, you pay $20, then $15 a month thereafter. Essentially, I paid $20 to download Warcraft and I have no physical copy of it. I noticed that Blizzard did the same thing with their new expansion set, where you can buy it in a store for $40, or pay $40 to have your account upgraded online. I think they should have discounted the online upgrade option, because at $40 I'd definitely go for the physical copy instead (and I did).

I prefer to have the physical media most of the time, but in some cases I think it's just easier to download or stay 100% digital. A lot of places sell downloads of various things from software, games, books, music, videos...of all those things, which would you pay to download and which would you prefer to have on physical media? Also, if you are the type who pays for downloads, do you feel that there is a limit to how much you would be willing to spend?

 

[pontifex]

i've bought games from Steam and Direct2Drive multiple times. as long as you can copy it to a cd or dvd or redownload it if you need to, whats the big deal?

 

[VTHodge]

If I am paying for a download, I want a discount of at least 20%. The seller is getting a much higher profit by cutting out retailer, shipping and media.

For me, the biggest reason to buy games on disc is for reselling used games on FS/FT.

 

[Captante]

Aside from Steam I've always snagged a hard-copy of all the games I own ... I purchased all the episodes of Firefly from Direct2Drive but considering what a pain it is to enter the activation key (and also that it can only be used once) I'll never do it again.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

digital when possible

discs/boxes/manual are nothing more than clutter

 

[eplebnista]

physical media

 

[apac]

Originally posted by: VTHodge
If I am paying for a download, I want a discount of at least 20%. The seller is getting a much higher profit by cutting out retailer, shipping and media.

For me, the biggest reason to buy games on disc is for reselling used games on FS/FT.

I'm not so sure about that. The distribution bandwidth costs alone might be uber high for popular games. i.e. 100,000 copies @ 2gb each is 200 TB of bandwidth. Then factor in that no one will want to take more than 1 day to download, so you need a huge pipe to upload at over 100 kb/s to each customer.

 

[EricMartello]

When it comes to games, I almost always prefer physical media. I like to have a box, and like the other guy said, if you wanna sell it you have something to sell.

 

[Agentbolt]

Physical media for me. Maybe when retailers stop screwing us and offering a tangible discount for digital, I'll switch.

It's just like the stupid banks that make it seem like the biggest favor in the world to get your statement online. I still get my paper statement to file away. I'll start printing out an online one when Chase cuts the crap and gives me 10 bucks to go online-only or something.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I buy CDs instead of digital for music and games, except for rentals:

- I have the Napster rental service to try music before buying, and for songs I like but not enough to own.
- GameTap.com at $10/month looks like an interesting way to play PC games I'm not sure I'd buy or that are overpriced "collector's items" like Freespace 2.

 

[ThaGrandCow]

So burn it to a DVD when you download the client. Online games always let you patch for free for point releases. Major expansions you'll have to pay for, but just burn that to a dvd also.

What are blanks going for these days, 50 cents or something?