Home Gaming Cure for massive downloads: Piracy vs Retail

Cure for massive downloads: Piracy vs Retail

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Steal button

There are no two ways about it, games have gotten bigger. While many people are celebrating the launch of GTA V on PC today, most fans had to start their download days ago if they hoped to play today; 60GB takes quite a lot of time on any line speed. There are ways around these massive downloads, but are they your best choices?

Over on PC Gamer, they looked at the growing size of games and how internet speeds (and caps) can’t keep up. However, they raise an interesting point when looking at the ways that people work around these massive file sizes. Pirates even care about file sizes, offering “repacks” which are essentially versions of games where they’ve compressed textures, audio and videos that then use special installers to decompress. Some repacks also strip audio support down to one language. This actually makes sense for publishers to look at – I never replay beloved games in a different language, if I could save on downloads by only getting my language of choice from the start, that would make life easy.

However, I cannot possibly condone piracy. It’s a blight on every industry it plagues, taking money away from creators and making it harder for people to feed themselves by creating our favourite form of entertainment. I know many people give a range of justifications for piracy, but in the end it’s stealing from the very people we need to support.

Of course, some people are going old school instead of digital distribution – retail is often an option for those who want to avoid massive downloads. However, it comes with its own headaches. I will never forget the horror of StarCraft 2; after buying the collector’s edition, it was still days before we could play thanks to the CD only containing the 4kb unlock file to start the digital download. Even when the data is stored on the discs, they aren’t Blu Rays (thanks to a relatively small number of PC Blu-Ray drives in circulation). Prepare for multiple discs and their associated installation issues.

Finally, if you buy at retail, you are most likely facing higher prices due to fewer sales. While locally at launch retail is often cheaper than Steam, games take much longer to get marked down to the extent they are on Steam or GoG. Plus, you may not be able to play through your portal of choice. For example, if you buy GTA V physically to avoid the 60GB download, you can’t install it through Steam, only through Rockstar Social Club. Sure, you can eventually link it to your Steam library, but you won’t get all the usual Steam benefits.

Digital is definitely the way forward – it’s the future and it’s the reason that local game distributors will face some serious struggles in the coming years as retail continues to decline. However, publishers should be careful of writing off retail too soon. Even on a 100Mbps line, a 40-50GB game takes an hour to download. Most of the world doesn’t have 100Mbps lines. The average in the US and Europe is around 30 Mbps with only South Korea and Japan averaging 40-50Mbps. The rest of the world is more likely to average speeds of 5Mbps which means that same game would take about a day assuming the download went full speed the whole time. Of course, very few of us have full speed lines regardless of how much we download, and upon getting throttled or shaped, the downloading experience deteriorates.

So, is there a cure for massive downloads? Probably not. You can buy at retail and pay more for the games, or you can fork out for more expensive internet and hopefully take advantage of sales online. Even pirated versions of games are massive, plus have the associated risks and downsides. Unfortunately, there is no magic cure. I just fear that Gavin was right in his predictions about the impact of digital distribution. Oh, and let’s not even talk about all the HDD upgrades that we’re going to need with games this size…

Last Updated: April 14, 2015

150 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief asked for this

    April 14, 2015 at 14:05

    I prefer having the physical copy.
    My wallet however, disagrees and waits for the sales or indies

    Reply

    • Kromas is drunk with power!

      April 14, 2015 at 14:13

      Physical=CE for me otherwise steam.

      I am actually worried that my CE of Witcher 3 will not give me the option to add DRM to it. I would be very sad.

      Reply

      • Captain JJ the flash noob

        April 14, 2015 at 14:14

        Haha. I see The Witcher 3 physical activates on Steam. Or at least it says so on the pre-order form.

        Reply

        • Kromas is drunk with power!

          April 14, 2015 at 14:15

          YAY! I could not care less about GoG downloader or whatever it is called.

          Reply

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 14:16

            I was a bit hesitant to change my Steam pre-order and swap for a physical order, until I read that.

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 14:17

            The statue matters to me sooooo I was a bit worried about not hacing steam support but still would have bought it regardless.

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 14:17

            I would have looooved to get that CE.

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 14:18

            I bought two. 😛

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 14:18

            Bastard!

          • Blood Emperor Trevor

            April 14, 2015 at 14:20

            That statue sold me on it. The last CE I bought that came with a statue was NWN2.

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 14:21

            A:CM … no wait …. Bioshock infinite … no … wait … ESO.

            Yeah ESO was my latest statue …. no … wait … Far Cry 4. 😛

          • Tulipdame

            April 14, 2015 at 19:07

            Mine was also in that order. Lol. Sadly, I can’t find a Witcher 3 collecto’s edition

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 20:08

            Yeah you really needed to be on the ball to get your hands on one of those in South Africa. I would however wait a day after release and call BT games cause someone always cancels their pre-order for some reason. Got a copy of Starcraft 2 CE that way after I forgot to pre-order my CE. 🙂

          • Blood Emperor Trevor

            April 14, 2015 at 14:17

            Need Steam trading cards!

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 14:17

            Exactly. And them achievements. And the lekker integration. And the news feed. And…and…and…

      • Tulipdame

        April 14, 2015 at 19:05

        I too only buy physical CE’s. I have gone full digital. I even rebought some of my physical games digitally (only those I haven’t played yet). It’s much less fuss and it is cheaper. Plus, now me and my husband can play the game together. Essentially, I am paying once for two copies.

        Reply

    • Shaun De Hoog

      April 14, 2015 at 15:06

      Love the physical copies myself, but to keep my hoarding under control, I try and force myself to buy digital, lol

      Reply

  2. Captain JJ the flash noob

    April 14, 2015 at 14:05

    I’ve found new games to be cheaper on retail than digital. Especially since the Rand is completely moertoe.

    Reply

    • Brady miaau

      April 14, 2015 at 14:37

      Indeed. Both points

      Reply

  3. Kromas is drunk with power!

    April 14, 2015 at 14:10

    Piracy aargh!

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief asked for this

      April 14, 2015 at 14:59

      GG

      Reply

      • Kromas is drunk with power!

        April 14, 2015 at 15:07

        Almost bought one at RAGE last year. Still tempted but it is a gimmick and I would prob only use it once or twice then get bored of it.

        Reply

        • Ranting Raptor

          April 14, 2015 at 16:37

          Lego.

          Reply

  4. RinceThis

    April 14, 2015 at 14:12

    Oh here come the few who frequent LG to justify their stealing ways. Really makes me shudder to think that people still think like this. I do agree with Gavin though, the impact of digital sales are going to kill the brick and mortar businesses in the next few years.

    Reply

    • Kromas is drunk with power!

      April 14, 2015 at 14:13

      BT Games is the last bastion and even they are moving online and having smaller shops.

      Reply

      • RinceThis

        April 14, 2015 at 14:16

        I actually thought they had closed in Claremont the other day but they had moved into a bigger shop!

        Reply

        • Kromas is drunk with power!

          April 14, 2015 at 14:20

          Really. The on in Northgate one went from a very big shop to a smaller shop to pretty much the smallest shop so far.

          Reply

          • RinceThis

            April 14, 2015 at 14:25

            Yeah. The are based in the link, next to Cavendish. They were in one spot for about 6 years and a few months back I went in to get a PS4 (which I didn’t get, as I thought they were closed). A week or so later I was cutting through the Link and saw their new store which is way cooler, with big screen TV to test out games etc. Much nicer than their old one.

      • Ottokie

        April 14, 2015 at 14:55

        Just yesterday I was trying to find the BTgames digital website, its not there anymore…or im missing something

        Reply

    • konfab

      April 14, 2015 at 15:08

      I don’t know, last time I was in BT games was when I was buying DA:I. The guy in front of me spent R9k on two Xbox 360s and a bag of games.

      Reply

  5. Pieter Kruger

    April 14, 2015 at 14:14

    I prefer digital, but also cannot understand why the digital version isn’t cheaper and actually more expensive in some cases??

    Reply

  6. BacchusZA

    April 14, 2015 at 14:14

    I suggested this on another article here a day or two ago, where brick & mortar stores could offer a service where you could pick up the install files from them for a nominal fee.

    I’d be more than happy to buy the game online from my portal of choice, and then throw R50 or whatever at my local BT Games to take in an external drive to get the install files from them, that they’ve already downloaded.

    I can imagine there’d be a large queue to use this service on launch days, but if you take GTA V for example, I had it downloaded a good few days before release, and could have picked it up without drama and long queues or downloads well in good time for it to go live.

    Reply

    • Kromas is drunk with power!

      April 14, 2015 at 14:15

      You live in JHB. If so then just let me know. We have a steam backup sharing group and between us I think we have all the popular games.

      Reply

      • BacchusZA

        April 14, 2015 at 14:18

        Pretoria actually, but thanks, appreciate the offer 🙂

        That is, of course, a decent alternative – in your circle of friends, the guy with the best connection speed & data cap downloads the title, and everyone else gets it from him, perhaps chipping in something for the data costs. Part of my idea though, is that it provides a way for the brick & mortar stores to remain viable and relevant in an increasingly download driven market, and to perhaps even turn a little extra profit.

        Reply

        • Kromas is drunk with power!

          April 14, 2015 at 14:19

          Considering I owned a small gaming shop many years ago I believe the steam policy on making money on steam backups are quite bad.

          Reply

          • BacchusZA

            April 14, 2015 at 14:22

            I take it they have an issue with people sharing backups? That’s odd, and I have to wonder why. I mean, it’s not like it’s an avenue for pirating games, as Steam versions of games typically **need** Steam to work, right? So you have to have a valid Steam account, and record of purchase from Valve for that title for it to work. It’s not like they run as stand-alone titles that you could get the files from wherever, and just crack it, if I’m not mistaken?

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 14:24

            Sharing backups for money. I also got nailed for creating 4 steam accounts and buying 4 copies of each game for the internet cafe side cause you actually need to subscribe to a net cafe service etc etc. They have quite a bit of stupid rules.

          • BacchusZA

            April 14, 2015 at 14:25

            Oh waaaaaait, never mind. It’s not the sharing backups, but the paying somebody to get that backup that’s the issue?

            But you’re not as such, you giving them money for the *data cap* they’ve used, not the backup from Steam. Or you could argue that at least, quite succesfully I imagine.

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 14:23

            Interestingly, speaking of policies, I bought two of the same game on the humble store not too long ago (one was a gift) and since they don’t want people buying games there and reselling it afterwards they actually tried to throttle me, saying I can only buy one.
            Tried with a different email account but they kept picking up it’s the same PayPal, so I had to pay the one through PayPal and the other with a card for it to go through.

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      April 14, 2015 at 14:15

      That’s a damn good idea.

      Reply

  7. Blood Emperor Trevor

    April 14, 2015 at 14:14

    Large download sizes like this make me think twice about getting a game. 60gb will take a while on my crappy 4mb line. If most new AAA games are going to be around this size I’m not going to be buying very many of them, despite Steam specials, unless my line speed is upped some time in the future.

    Makes me really glad I’ve got a physical copy of The Witcher coming, but Star Citizen is going to hurt.

    Reply

    • Dutch Matrix

      April 14, 2015 at 14:43

      I have a 2MB/S line… Retail for me fank you vewwy mooch!

      Reply

    • BacchusZA

      April 14, 2015 at 14:50

      It took me about 36 hours to get GTA V down on a 10Mb line, though it admittedly didin’t run at full speed the whole time. The time involed wasn’t a problem, given you could download well before the launch date, but the chunk out of my data cap? Oy, that hurt, a lot.

      And it’s the Witcher 3 next month.

      And Star Citizen too, at some point, though G_d only knows when that’ll be. That’s *already* looking to be 100GB plus, never mind whatever else they add in before the damn thing eventually launches.

      I’m seriously starting to think that buying physical copies is increasingly the way to go, given our internet infrastucture. For one, it’s very nice to have something physical in your hands to show what you’ve spent your money on, even if it is pretty much just the discs in a jewelcase these days. But I also don’t want to have to pay whatever I have to for a game, and then have to buy addtional data for my internet connection to manage through the rest of the month becaue I decided to buy digital instead of physical media.

      I may have got a good deal on the game I bought, but does that actualy mean anything when I have to fork out another R100-200 for more cap for the rest of the month? At that point you’re seeing whatever savings – if any – you made by buying digital evaporate very quickly.

      Reply

      • Blood Emperor Trevor

        April 14, 2015 at 15:14

        I’m not too worried about data caps, I’ve got uncapped. For me it’s just the time it takes. Just working off 36hrs that means around 90hrs for me, which is almost 4 full days of downloading. And that’s 4 days of nothing else on my line really, with my PC on permanently, which is really inconvenient for me. I’m also seriously considering physical releases again, they get decent specials a year down the line & I’d pay an extra R50 not to spend a week downloading.

        Reply

  8. Lord Chaos

    April 14, 2015 at 14:18

    Got my physical of GTA today.

    Pretty sure that when it comes to a really nice steam special in 2 years I’ll just add it there.

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the flash noob

      April 14, 2015 at 14:19

      That’s usually how it goes. Did the same with my Bioshocks

      Reply

    • Greylingad

      April 14, 2015 at 14:25

      Rockstar has a little surprise for you, hidden in the confines of a day one patch, you will find a very scarce, very illusive 100KB/s download speed for this patch… But if you reach a download speed that exceeds this, you will be remembered for your valiant effort against the slow download speed war… One where many people, many people have lost their lives, thinking it’d be an easy to live through it, I’m on hour 4 of rations right now….

      Reply

      • Lord Chaos

        April 14, 2015 at 14:26

        How big is the Day 1 one patch?

        Reply

        • BacchusZA

          April 14, 2015 at 14:32

          Eh, 400MB or so, nothing too dramitic.

          It would have been nice of them to release it into the wild a day or two ago though, so you could have downloaded it ahead of time, instead of having to deal with over burdened servers this morning.

          Assuming that was an option, of course…..

          Reply

          • Lord Chaos

            April 14, 2015 at 14:35

            Thanks. So they at least came close to a good launch.

          • Greylingad

            April 14, 2015 at 14:42

            Close! At least I haven’t suffered or heard of a server crash as yet…. but those 5 Giga toads of day one patchingness…. bloody annoying…

          • Greylingad

            April 14, 2015 at 14:40

            Correction… 5GB… I’m staring at an estimated time left that is the biggest load of *the following has been censored* that I have ever seen in my entire * This part has also been censored due to it’s descriptive nature* life….

          • BacchusZA

            April 14, 2015 at 14:56

            Seriously? Wow, I tried at 0130 or so this morning, & laughed it off due to server load. It was only ~350MB or so then, & wasn’t any bigger when I tried to download again around 0800 this morning, and I’ve certainly not had any more downloads pop up since.

            Are you sure you got the whole thing down before hand?

          • Greylingad

            April 14, 2015 at 14:58

            I’m installing, since about 9 this morning, from a retail copy of the game… Let me tell you, I am not impressed…

          • Aries

            April 14, 2015 at 15:15

            Shit and I’m fetching mine later, this is sad

          • Greylingad

            April 14, 2015 at 15:18

            I know!! I’m still crying….

          • Aries

            April 14, 2015 at 15:21

            And I thought I was pissed that I couldn’t get it this morning

          • Greylingad

            April 14, 2015 at 15:28

            Don’t be, the download is going to take an eternity for everyone from today probably until next week somewhere, I’ve now learnt to accept it and just go with the flow…

  9. Ryanza

    April 14, 2015 at 14:27

    I thought this article was about the numbers.

    We need retail and lets not forget that. Don’t blindly support one digital option. Keep Steam and other DRM out of retail. Let GTA 5 single player play on PC without internet activation. Digital and retail can work together.

    Let’s look at The Witcher 3. The Witcher for PC at retail will install and play without internet activation needed. The Witcher 3 will be on Steam and GOG and Origin and PSN and Xbox Live and ect.
    GOG will be launching a client called Galaxy. If you have a multiplayer game, Steam users and Galaxy users can play that game together.
    CDPR and the way The Witcher 3 is being launched is very important and all publishers and developers should take note, of how a game should be launched without restrictions.

    Internet should not be an requirement for games in retail. That means there are people who can’t buy the game in retail. Why is PC games dying in retail. Because PC games needs the internet to work. Take the internet requirement away and now there will be more people who can buy the game at retail.

    DRM. Control. Restriction. Conditioning.
    We are now entering a stage where more publishers will start to create their own DRM clients.

    Retail needs to be free of DRM. We can’t have these big corporations taking over everyone’s rights.

    Don’t Support DRM. It’s the right thing to do.

    Reply

    • Viking Of Science

      April 14, 2015 at 14:31

      Okay Seriously now… We Need to record you Reading your comments and upload them to youtube,

      Reply

      • Lord Chaos

        April 14, 2015 at 14:32

        Behind a pay wall. 😛

        Reply

      • Kromas is drunk with power!

        April 14, 2015 at 14:48

        First sentence free. The rest are payed for DLC. 😛

        Reply

        • BacchusZA

          April 14, 2015 at 14:54

          With DRM up the wazzooo

          Reply

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 14:56

            EA manager+origin+steam+starforce+GFWL+securomv1-4.

            Gonna be hell to get it working. 😛

            Also a massive Day1 HD patch. 😛

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 14:56

            Don’t forget Social Club and Uplay.

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 14:58

            Oh how could I forget those as well as the future GFWL aka Xbox Live.

          • Greylingad

            April 14, 2015 at 15:00

            Nooooooo!!!! Please! For the love of all things holy! Do not call upon the one we do not speak of!

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 15:00

            I think GFWL takes the cake though.
            I can still actually deal with Uplay if the game is really worth it (like Child of Light). Uplay is a bit like the little kid that desperately wants attention and everyone only plays with it because they’re forced to.

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 15:01

            Did you ever use StarForce though? Only ever used by Ubisoft and the worst thing they ever did and yes I am including Uplay in that list.

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 15:02

            Oh wow. No. I haven’t come across that one.

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 15:04

            Only DRM to physically harm hardware. Broke my brand new DVD writer years ago.

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 15:08

            Wow. Wait until EA gets their hands on that idea.

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 15:10

            They were about to sign on to that system for BF1942 when Ubisoft got hit with a massive court case. They quickly withdrew. 🙂

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 15:10

            Haha.

          • Greylingad

            April 14, 2015 at 15:02

            It sends shivers down our spines… that GFWL…I hope the guy that came up with that idea for a DRM, still to this day, has a cramp in his left testicle

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 15:05

            I bought that Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection on Steam. It uses GFWL. I don’t play it

          • Greylingad

            April 14, 2015 at 15:05

            We have fallen trap under the same spell it seems….

          • Greylingad

            April 14, 2015 at 14:59

            EAUPLAYSTEAMEAUPLAYSTEAMSOCIALCLUBEASTEAMUPLAYSTEAM!!!

      • Ryanza

        April 14, 2015 at 14:56

        You have a problem with my comment?

        Reply

        • Viking Of Science

          April 14, 2015 at 15:45

          Not At All… I Find them Awesome. Hence the need to preserve them in narrated video format.

          Reply

    • Greylingad

      April 14, 2015 at 15:17

      Hmmm…. You see, not every company is CDPR, usually when it comes to the protection of game files, especially the ones that could execute a game, one would like to have some form of control over it getting cracked or pirated, the reason, if that can be done, the files can be distributed without consequence… Which brings us to offline game file protection, usually this is implemented with a form of encryption, so when you run the executable it calls a function that decrypts certain game files that are necessary to run the game, these calls are bypassed by pirates, by the way, so in order to protect your game from the scum that we call pirates, the only option would be to use stronger encryption or online activation, the pros and cons you may ask? Harder encryption causes performance loss, online activation has the beautiful discomfort of an internet connection where you didn’t bargain on downloading 20 GB of day one patching( Wolfenstein the New Order), so my friend, those are the choices (very, very bluntly put) which do you prefer?

      Reply

      • Ryanza

        April 14, 2015 at 15:37

        So here’s the thing. The games are still being pirated. Online activation, encryption, still getting pirated. They adding more DRM, DRM on top of DRM, always online connected, they going to control the fuck out of you, in the name of piracy.

        So studies have found out that the piracy scene is not that big. In other words, people who buys video games, are so much more than there are pirates. So much fucking more than there are pirates. This war on piracy wants you to believe that there are more people pirating video games than there are buying video games. But that’s not the case.

        So who they fucking with in the name of piracy. The video game consumers. And if they make it so damn hard and so damn unpleasing to buy video games and these video game consumers stops buying video games, then it defeats the purpose. Treat your consumers right or else they won’t buy anymore. Just look at what happened to the music industry.

        Reply

    • Sageville

      April 14, 2015 at 15:49

      Without DRM in retail you get rampant piracy, piracy leads to price hikes.

      Reply

      • Ryanza

        April 14, 2015 at 15:52

        Oh i’m sorry. There is DRM in retail and there is still piracy. Don’t mislead with comments like that.

        Reply

        • Sageville

          April 15, 2015 at 13:18

          Oh, I’m sorry too, you need to read better: “Rampant”… meaning more than if there was DRM. I never said DRM games don’t have piracy.

          Reply

    • Kromas is drunk with power!

      April 14, 2015 at 15:54

      I would rather have steam DRM over DRM-free.

      But I do appreciate the fact that we have choice in the Witcher.

      Reply

      • Ryanza

        April 14, 2015 at 15:57

        Taking DRM out of retail is not going to hurt Steam. You can still have your Steam. But retail should not be an extension of Steam. Steam should stay digital distribution. And that is fine.

        Reply

        • Kromas is drunk with power!

          April 14, 2015 at 16:06

          Steam is not the issue with that regard unless it is a Valve game and let us be honest Valve games won’t be coming to physical again any time soon. Each dev has a choice to be able to do that just like CDPR has but they are the ones who prefers to leave it all up to Valve and steam. So leave steam out of that conversation as they are not the ones doing it.

          Reply

          • Ryanza

            April 14, 2015 at 16:14

            It comes down to publishers not devs. The Witcher 2 was launched with DRM into retail because Warner Bros wanted it. This time around CDPR said, fuck off, they doing it their way.

            Valve will release their games into retail. Most games require you to connect to Steam for activation, that’s what I mean by Steam games and an extension of Steam in retail. It’s not good.

            What you meant was that Valve ain’t making Half Life 3 for anyone, retail or digital, anytime soon.

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 16:26

            Valve has stated before that if and when they release a new game it will only be digital.

            Devs can also be publishers if they want and can choose what platforms they want to roll stuff on. Propject Zomboid for instance had a desura and steam version. They dropped desura support and gave everyone steam keys cause steam rocks.

            Activision as a publisher prefers to use steam for both digital and retail due to it using the steam servers for multiplayer and so on and so forth.

            So in short. Valve is done with retail and any game that requires steam on retail is not due to Valve forcing them but rather their or their publishers choice.

            Also:The ONLY time a game would require steam not by choice is any game using the new source engine cause that is the condition for using it and even then it is understandable since it is Valve’s engine that they are giving away for free (essentially).

          • Ryanza

            April 14, 2015 at 16:39

            Idk. I still think that if Valve releases a big title it will be in retail. But that’s the thing. Buying a game in retail or buying it from Steam, is the same damn thing.

            I don’t recall Valve saying they won’t release in retail anymore. But that’s what we want. No more Steam in retail. I could have been a marketing thing to keep or get more support for Steam. But I highly doubt that valve won’t release into retail. Unless Valve is planning to release games, what’s a realistic number, 25 years from now.

          • z1n

            April 15, 2015 at 12:09

            What fool would go to a BT Games to buy a Valve game? Heck even 10 years ago you wouldn’t do that. You got your HL or CS1.6 at LANs. You got your DLC there too. And your drugs.

  10. Brady miaau

    April 14, 2015 at 14:48

    I appreciate the new (ish) idea of being able to play while the rest of the game downloads. It makes sense.

    BUT, to download a 45 Gig games as it comes out? Too many other people downloading.

    Neverwinter, for example, did it right on the Xbox One. You could download a while before it would actually work, so on release night, I could play. Well, I say play, I mean Rubberband back and forth.

    AND I still prefer digital over disk, for most.

    Reply

    • Kromas is drunk with power!

      April 14, 2015 at 15:27

      WoW has a very nice play while you download system. It just requires the relevant info on the area you are in and downloads that first then continues downloading whatever while you are playing.

      Reply

  11. Ottokie

    April 14, 2015 at 14:48

    You can not smell that sweet sweet new game smell if its digital…

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the flash noob

      April 14, 2015 at 14:49

      So very true.

      Reply

    • Brady miaau

      April 14, 2015 at 14:50

      car dealers actually spray “new car smell” in cars, I heard from a friend that sold cars for a while

      Reply

      • Ottokie

        April 14, 2015 at 14:50

        i will take a case of that stuff please XD

        Reply

    • Kromas is drunk with power!

      April 14, 2015 at 14:50

      Still prefer the smell of coffee while my game installs over new game smell. 😛

      Reply

      • Ottokie

        April 14, 2015 at 14:51

        plus the other 2 cups with day one patches 😛

        Reply

      • Matthew Holliday

        April 14, 2015 at 14:59

        digital downloads would require alot of coffee

        Reply

        • Kromas is drunk with power!

          April 14, 2015 at 14:59

          Just 1 cup as the pre-load is done and my steam drive is a SSD. 😛

          Reply

          • Matthew Holliday

            April 14, 2015 at 15:01

            been tempted to go SSD for my games, but that would require me to uninstall a few games, even with the meagre amount of games i have installed, its still sitting at like 300gb, due to all games being 30gb+ now

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 15:03

            I only ever keep the latest games installed and ea games as they get updated a lot. DayZ gets an update per month and space engineers for instance gets an update every Thursday. Right now I have 10 games on my steam drive and 3 games on my Origin drive.
            Rest all backed up on my file server.

          • Matthew Holliday

            April 14, 2015 at 15:04

            aye, i should remember to backup some more of my stuff.
            most games are superfluos once you finish them once.

          • Ottokie

            April 14, 2015 at 15:05

            Went SSD aswell, will never go back, only downside is to remember to keep everything backed up if you don’t play it to much.

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 15:05

            True that although my Origin drive still has ME3 on it cause I actually enjoy the MP. 🙂

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 15:07

            I also back up my Steam games that I’ve finished downloading. If I feel like them again I just copy the files back over and done.

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 15:08

            Idd. My file server has 2 TB of game backups. That is half the size of my anime collection. 😛

          • Captain JJ the flash noob

            April 14, 2015 at 15:11

            Excellent. Mine’s about 1.5TB now.

          • Aries

            April 14, 2015 at 15:11

            Sounds like someone has some decent internet, mine was off for most of the morning today and yesterday

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 15:13

            Wireless so I bypass Telkom and all it’s crap and politics.

          • Aries

            April 14, 2015 at 15:17

            Wish I could, wireless abit too expensive for me

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 15:28

            R1200 for a 10mb uncapped or R700 for a 4mb uncapped and that is just one of many Wisps you get to choose from.

          • Aries

            April 14, 2015 at 18:45

            Still to much but maybe one day

  12. Greylingad

    April 14, 2015 at 14:53

    I’m annoyed at the idea of having massive day one patches, not only are the servers running into overdrive, but your connection speeds are simply horrific… Sure I’ll preload a game on my little 3G 20 Gig a month dongle contract, if it’s 20 MB in size, but 60GB? Not in sunny South Africa….

    Reply

    • Kromas is drunk with power!

      April 14, 2015 at 14:54

      Most pre-loads I have had (steam as EA pre-loads do not do it) had the day 1 patch already pre-loaded as well.

      Reply

      • Greylingad

        April 14, 2015 at 14:56

        Yep, with Preloads, but with retail copies you always have massive day 1 patches, like the one for GTA V now, 5GB, what did they forget to include the game on the actual game discs?

        Reply

        • Dutch Matrix

          April 14, 2015 at 15:02

          5 GB???? Oh fuck me. Good I ordered the game and getting it tomorrow. So I can download that monster tomorrow night to get the game ready for the weekend…

          Reply

          • Greylingad

            April 14, 2015 at 15:08

            Yep… I believe they forgot to add, you know, all of the game files in the actual release….

          • Aries

            April 14, 2015 at 15:09

            Guess I wont be playing it anytime soon then

  13. konfab

    April 14, 2015 at 15:05

    For AAA console games, it is much less heartache to just buy the disk. Now if PC games bothered to upgrade to blu ray, people would change. Using a packet of disks to install software is too 80s for me.

    Reply

  14. fred

    April 14, 2015 at 15:05

    Yeah , PS4 blu ray copy makes the most sense , and you can sell it after borrowing it to your family .

    Reply

  15. Aries

    April 14, 2015 at 15:08

    I made space for GTA V (retail) got a 2mb line, was a headache as I got quite a few digital games that I’m not keen on re-downloading and limited HDD space thanks to putting the money into CPU,RAM and GPU.
    Think the companies should release like with audio only that that country’s language can save alot of space

    Reply

  16. Admiral Chief asked for this

    April 14, 2015 at 15:09

    Zoe, trolling for most comments, huehuehue

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the flash noob

      April 14, 2015 at 15:11

      Write an article about piracy, pc vs console or mention “master race” in a heading and you’ve got gold for comments 😉

      Reply

      • Kromas is drunk with power!

        April 14, 2015 at 15:12

        Or DRM. 😛

        Reply

        • Captain JJ the flash noob

          April 14, 2015 at 15:19

          Oh yes yes.

          Reply

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 14, 2015 at 15:29

            Actually or 30fps vs 60fps, AMD,VSintel/Nvidia, 4k anything and Ubisoft anything. 😛

      • Her Highness the Hipster

        April 14, 2015 at 15:34

        don’t forget file sizes. people looooooove to talk about those massive day one patches and other GB related stories 😉

        Reply

        • Captain JJ the flash noob

          April 14, 2015 at 15:47

          Haha

          Reply

  17. Galbedir

    April 14, 2015 at 15:25

    Strangely, GTA V is the first game I’ve encountered which is more expensive at retail. R699 takealot, while on steam it works out to slightly less…However most new releases for PC on steam are $59.99, and R499 at retail. Making retail cheaper….

    Reply

    • Galbedir

      April 14, 2015 at 15:25

      At least with the exchange rate as it is…

      Reply

    • Ryanza

      April 14, 2015 at 15:40

      In the USA all new games are $60. So that is why you find new games on Steam for $60. Rockstar must have just demanded $60 for GTA 5 all over the world.

      The Witcher 3 is R499 at online retail, and you get a discount everywhere else digitally. $48 Steam, $53 PSN and so forth.

      Reply

  18. Ryanza

    April 14, 2015 at 15:25

    Just to add. Piracy didn’t hurt retail. Console games still sells well at retail. DRM hurt PC games at retail. It’s hard to believe but it’s true. PC games is on it’s way out of retail and that is not because of piracy. Where did those numbers go. All those numbers didn’t go to Steam. They went to consoles. Yes Steam took many fucking years to reach those retail numbers through growth. But the consoles have grown much faster over the years.

    If you have no internet to buy PC Steam games at retail, you not going to go download the pirated version.
    Plus studies have found out that A, the pirate scene is not that big and B, those who part take in pirated video games tends to buy more video games than those consumers who don’t part take in pirated video games.

    EA walked away from Steam to start their own digital distribution. Ubisoft walked away from Steam to start their own own digital distribution. Warner Bros. has plans to start their own digital distribution. The rest will follow.

    It’s called digital distribution and they distributing in retail. It doesn’t make sense.

    Don’t Support DRM.

    Reply

    • z1n

      April 15, 2015 at 12:18

      Piracy did hurt retail. It’s a fallacy to say that it didn’t. It’s just that we know the publishers leveraged that argument to push the DRM they wanted onto consumers. Piracy has hurt retail. But I think you mean to say that it doesn’t hurt retail that much. For most this is true however some of the Indie devs were having real problems with piracy and loss of incomes.

      I think the core problem you’re having is that practices which should be kept on the digital environment (certain types of DRM) are spilling over into retail and causing problems there. I agree that the two should be kept separate as much as possible.

      I had no internet for a long time but still pirated games :/ I would love to see your numbers or where you got them. I wonder why thepiratebay is still going so strong and there’s still thousands of seeds for popular games. Piracy isn’t going away any time soon.

      Reply

  19. Brady miaau

    April 14, 2015 at 15:40

    Ok, get this: I tried to buy Witcher 3 off my Xbox Live account again last night and could not. But it claims the game is a 25.3 GB download. Very little, no? I figure this number is wrong

    Reply

    • Ryanza

      April 14, 2015 at 15:41

      Why couldn’t you? Did they just add it now? and the game should be 40 – 50gb.

      Reply

  20. Ranting Raptor

    April 14, 2015 at 16:36

    There’s a simple solution. Retailers get the installer package in digital format that can be distributed to a user’s external drive. Go in store. Copy the FULL installer file. Get your key from the distributor.

    Go home. Install from the prepackaged installer, use your key. Bobs your uncle.

    Reply

    • Splooshypooh

      April 14, 2015 at 17:43

      Sounds so good in theory, but can you imagine little Pietie and his Granny going to BT Games with his 8GB flash drive to get his copy of GTA 5? CHAOS!!! They’ll need to add a call centre for support of just that function

      Reply

      • Ranting Raptor

        April 14, 2015 at 18:43

        Naturally there are issues around this. It doesn’t have to be the sole way of distribution. They can still have physical copies. But it could be a nice little alternative.

        Reply

        • Her Highness the Hipster

          April 15, 2015 at 09:25

          agree, retail needs to change its model…

          Reply

          • Ranting Raptor

            April 15, 2015 at 09:36

            Indeed. The current model won’t last long with the way things are going digital.

            That being said there will always be someone who wants the physical. So retail could absolutely still sell that for those who want and then offer some form of easily obtaining the game digitally via their stores.

            Heck, they could even allow in-store activation if you have your laptop with etc. There must be ways and means to change the model and still save retail. It just needs some careful thought and planning.

  21. justlikemo

    April 15, 2015 at 07:51

    Digital downloads coupled with load shedding

    Reply

  22. JetFire

    April 15, 2015 at 16:00

    Well korea has 24.6 mbps and i dont think Japan has that much speed at all althoigh inly a few services give 1-2gbps

    Reply

  23. Synesthesy

    April 16, 2015 at 10:07

    The problem with retail version is that you still have to download something. I live in Italy (10 minutes of car near Turin), I have a 70 kbs net speed, and I still need to download 5 GB to play GTA V AFTER having bougth and installed 7 DVDs (that took me two hours even in a SSD).
    If I have to wait days for a game, I should prefer to download it for free (piracy), shouldn’t I?

    Reply

  24. M00

    April 27, 2015 at 08:28

    Here in Australia i got GTA5 at a retail store for $79 AUD. On steam it’s $95.80 AUD. Considering this huge price difference and the fact that I have 4Mbps download speed (which is normal in this country) it was a no brainer to get a physical copy. Retail stores may be dying in countries with solid internet connections but I think they have a while left in Australia.

    Reply

  25. Robert Littler

    April 29, 2015 at 20:00

    I downloaded a repack to check that the game would meet my expectations and not be another farce of a port like GTA IV. Played for a couple of hours, then went out and purchased the retail Game (on 7 discs!).

    The fact that developers no longer release demo versions of games forces me to obtain cracked copies to test. How I long for the good old days where you could buy a magazine with a disc full of game demos.

    The repack was exactly the same quality as the retail, but exchanged install time for download time. I whish you could select from an uncompressed version for those with fibre and a packed version for those with less than stellar connections.

    Reply

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