Installing a game off 4 CDs...

[agibby5]

I'm sitting here, waiting for an install to complete. Why? Because there are 4 CDs rather than just 1 DVD. WHY is this?! This is a newer game too (Age of Empires 3). Then I started to think more into it...

What if the company wanted to increase the chance that you'll mess up one of the CDs and have to by a new copy? You'd be 4x as likely to mess up the package with 4 CDs than with 1 DVD.

It's not like most computers now don't have DVD drives. And the game requirements aren't too high, but would it be too much to require the user have a DVD drive too? After all, this particular game is branded for 'Games for Windows' which was a new thing to get people using XP+ to run their games, no?

/End of rant

Lemme know your thoughts.



EDIT: WHOOPS! I finally got to the 3rd CD and saw that the 4th DVD is the War Chiefs expansion. This doesn't do much to change my main point though!

 

[videogames101]

The thought process is: Not everyone has a DVD reader.

Obviously, this is dumb, because any computer that runs AoE3 will have a DVD reader.

 

[Sam25]

I remember having to install Far Cry from 5 cd's!

 

[coldmeat]

I just installed Half Life 2 the other day. It was 5 cds.

 

[zerocool84]

Umm Age of Empires 3 isn't a newer game. It came out 4 years ago.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: zerocool84
Umm Age of Empires 3 isn't a newer game. It came out 4 years ago.

Has it really been 4 years? Dang, time flies.

Regardless, any computer capable of running AoE3 would most likely have a DVD drive. Windows Vista required a DVD drive as part of its system requirements when it was released in 2007.

 

[Frodolives]

I think I installed LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth II from 6 cd's. Almost makes sense to me that as a publisher I would be hesitant to distance myself from the percentage of low budget geeks on aging systems that surely still comprise a segment of the ol' strat game genre.

 

[Lonyo]

UT2004. 6 CDs of lol.
I bought the DVD version obviously.
It did seem like Europe got DVD games sooner than the US, but the old days of lots of CDs was fun.
Baldurs Gate + TOSC was 6 CDs as well.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

yeah, its pretty sick when decent DVD/CD combo writers cost half the price of a new game

 

[Maximilian]

Thats BS, last game i had that came on 4 CD's was 2001's emperor battle for dune, everything else since then has been either a single CD or a DVD, post 2003-4 almost always a DVD.

They should really stop pulling crap like that.

 

[AmberClad]

The disc juggling really is a pain. Agree with videogames101 - some of these games are demanding enough that it's hard to imagine someone playing it on a system so old that it doesn't have a $20 DVD drive.

If we're counting games+expansions, the highest disc count for me would be Heroes V + Hammers of Fate (7 discs). And that's not counting the final Tribes of the East expansion, which I don't own.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Lonyo

Baldurs Gate + TOSC was 6 CDs as well.

BG1 was released in 1998, when the DVD standard was still in its infancy, barely available for television. And very pricey.

By the time DVD drives became widespread, it wouldn't have been economical to rerelease BG1 on DVD.

I do, however, wish they'd release a 'greatest hits' or something similar with all the BG games on a single DVD

 

[Raduque]

I had the first FEAR on like 5 CDs. Also the first Chronicles of Riddick game was on 4 or 5 CDs, too.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
I do, however, wish they'd release a 'greatest hits' or something similar with all the BG games on a single DVD

I think it's been discontinued, but the Ultimate Dungeons and Dragons Collection that GoGamer used to sell did have both BG1 and BG2 as a single DVD each, with the expansions on a separate CD each.

Which is just as well, since even with those two games converted to DVD, the whole compilation pack still takes up 17 discs...

 

[Elcs]

When it was released, Dawn of War came out on 3 CD's. I think that was late 2003, early 2004.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: Raduque
I had the first FEAR on like 5 CDs. Also the first Chronicles of Riddick game was on 4 or 5 CDs, too.

It's 5 CDs for the Director's Cut edition, which has voiceovers from the developers.

Looking back, I'm kind of amazed that they managed to fit Morrowind on a single CD. (I have the GOTY version, so there are actually three additional discs for the TES Construction Set editor, plus Bloodmoon and Tribunal.)

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
UT2004. 6 CDs of lol.
I bought the DVD version obviously.
It did seem like Europe got DVD games sooner than the US, but the old days of lots of CDs was fun.
Baldurs Gate + TOSC was 6 CDs as well.

Baldurs Gate was one of the first games to be available on DVD, along with The Journeyman Project.
It was a long time after that when DVD's became common.
UT2003 and 2004 were both available on DVD very soon after they came
out.

You can get the Forgotten Realms Pack with BG1 on a DVD, as well as BG2, and each Icewind Dale.
Interestingly enough, that collectors pack includes the CD version of Neverwinter Nights, which is stupid.
I guess they want you to spend money on the Diamond Edition, which is everything (expansions too) all on a DVD.

 

[Piuc2020]

Maybe pressing and licensing 4/5 CDs is cheaper than pressing and licensing a single DVD?

That's the only logical reason I can think of, catering to people with no DVD drives doesn't make sense and the "conspiracy theory" the OP proposed in his post is even more ridiculous.

 

[VashHT]

A lot of those games sold DVD or cd versions, you just had to look for the different version.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
Maybe pressing and licensing 4/5 CDs is cheaper than pressing and licensing a single DVD?

That's the only logical reason I can think of, catering to people with no DVD drives doesn't make sense and the "conspiracy theory" the OP proposed in his post is even more ridiculous.

As a consumer, I would pay the extra dollar or whatever for the DVD.

 

[imported_Imp]

Cause just a year or two ago, people were bitching about having to change over from a CD drive to a DVD drive. Ya, ummm, I can afford a $200 video card or processor, but not a $40 drive...duhh.

Honestly, I remember bitching on forums when Oblivion came out a few years back about this.

 

[Sam25]

I think the first matrix game also had 5 cds.

 

[Gothgar]

Originally posted by: Imp
Cause just a year or two ago, people were bitching about having to change over from a CD drive to a DVD drive. Ya, ummm, I can afford a $200 video card or processor, but not a $40 drive...duhh.

Honestly, I remember bitching on forums when Oblivion came out a few years back about this.

try 20 dollar DVD drive

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Imp
Cause just a year or two ago, people were bitching about having to change over from a CD drive to a DVD drive. Ya, ummm, I can afford a $200 video card or processor, but not a $40 drive...duhh.

This happened to one of my friends. He took BF2(?) back and exchanged it for the CD version after accidentally buying the DvD version rather than paying the ~$40 for a DVD drive.

I also recall people here complaining about not being able to install SATA drivers on older motherboards and being unable to update their motherboard's bios without a floppy drive for which they refused to pay ~$5.

 

[F1N3ST]

Floppy drives are outdated and fail, most motherboards can update BIOS through USB or Windows now thankfull.