PC Games and Best Buy

[Dijeangenie]

Even for the crappiest video game, somewhere out there, some honest hard-working guy dedicated years of his life to it. 8:00 to 5:00, every single day, at his desk, on his computer, putting in his best effort so he could get paid, feed his family... and then watch all of his hard work get shit on when the game actually releases and the negative press starts rolling in.

It's one of the reasons I stopped pirating games. Music is one thing; film is another; and then you have the insanely massive, behemoth projects that are modern video games. I feel scummy downloading years of someone else's hard work for absolutely nothing in return.

This is true - but it doesn't make it ok to pirate films or music, albums can take years and years to produce for example. Sure, it might be a smaller team of people, but it can still be years of hard work for those people and many musicians are hardly raking it in, they need the album to sell etc.

 

[pontifex]

I can't remember the last time I bought a physical copy of a PC game, let alone bought it at a B&M store.

I buy pretty much everything off Steam or other direct download sites.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Totally agree here.. albums can also cost a lot of $ and time, so they shouldn't be marginalized.

This is true - but it doesn't make it ok to pirate films or music, albums can take years and years to produce for example. Sure, it might be a smaller team of people, but it can still be years of hard work for those people and many musicians are hardly raking it in, they need the album to sell etc.

 

[Red Storm]

I think they still sell boxed copies of TF2 (now a free to play game) for $10.

 

[Keeper]

Only console versions appear to get exclusives now...

AND THAT TOTALLY SUCKS. :thumbsdown:

 

[Keeper]

Digital should mean better pricing. For $60, at least the console version usually comes with pre-order bonuses.

You are 100% right. I was going to bring that up but didnt want to get into the debate that appears to be starting above.
We were told cheaper when music went digital.... It reallty didnt.

LOL My BIGGEST pet peeve was Swingline Staplers (YES. I am old) .

When NAFTA went live Swingline pulled out of Brooklyn in 3 or 4 years.....and went to Mexico...
Paid a FRACTION of what they were paying for labor up here. Did Staplers get cheaper?
NOPE. More profits went to the company.

Makers Mark just tried doing it a differnet way.
Cutting their alcohol by 3%. Basically a 7% PURE PROFIT (minus the cost of the water and bottles) built in.
ALL to "maintain supply".

Capitalism is good...I do believe that.
But we consumers... Sometimes... We are kooks.
I will not buy a bottle of MM now. I pick my battles.
Gaming? Its SO much harder to be "righteous" with that.
The new TR gaming looks AWESOME and Angry Joe and I have similar tastes..
He gave it a 9/10.... So I will have to bite.... Eventually. (COME ON STEAM SALE)

But MM, NEWS FLASH. There are many bourbons to pick from. Hopefully others are doing the same.
Breyers? Turkey Hill? You now sell me a 1.75 quart container for the price of a half gallon.
HELLO BEN AND JERRY...

We now return you to your regular programming.

 

[Madia]

I can't remember the last time I bought a physical copy of a PC game, let alone bought it at a B&M store.

I buy pretty much everything off Steam or other direct download sites.

The last B&M buy for me was Civilization 5 since I was hoping that a physical copy would contain a printed edition of the civilopedia. I could instantly tell that it didn't but I bought it anyway since I was already there and with the physical copy I wouldn't have to wait for it to download to play.

I have bought a number of games via physical copy though since often a site like amazon will have them on sale vs. digital download. For example, I bought Far Cry 3 for $40 about three weeks after release when the digital download was still near $60. Often if you wait three of four weeks after a release you can find the physical copy for 33% off.

 

[Midwayman]

Because the production cost for a mass produced box copy is tiny. It's a DVD case with a disc and a few pieces of paper put in it. Going digital saves almost nothing, and in fact incurs some equally marginal hosting/bandwidth costs.

Ultimately the real cost of the game is the content within. The packaging is practically irrelevant.

FWIW when I worked for a PC dev, staff copies were about $10. When I worked for a console dev, they ran $17-23 or so. That's probably a realistic assessment of cost to manufacture and ship. Consoles have to pay a per disc royalty to MS/sony etc. The biggest cut is always the retailer. If you self host your games like origin, that's a huge win. DD with your own host (IE no steam) can save huge money over physical product.

 

[Dankk]

This is true - but it doesn't make it ok to pirate films or music, albums can take years and years to produce for example. Sure, it might be a smaller team of people, but it can still be years of hard work for those people and many musicians are hardly raking it in, they need the album to sell etc.

Sorry if I made it sound like I pirate movies and music. I certainly don't. I'm just saying, I think video games are the most complex form of entertainment we have.

 

[Dijeangenie]

Sorry if I made it sound like I pirate movies and music. I certainly don't. I'm just saying, I think video games are the most complex form of entertainment we have.

Yep, would agree with that - pirating a game is also removing the only way they make money, I mean films have cinema viewings and musicians have live performances (which obviously doesn't mean it's ok to pirate them, but pirating does effect them less).

 

[Digital Savior]

My local BestBuy had 8 copies of Heart of the Swarm collectors edition sitting out. Not much else.

 

[sublime420ec]

i used to go to best buy back in the day too.... they used to have a massive isle of pc games and now they have nothing......it really fell off at least in my area around 2003-2005 or so can't remember but i did slowly watch them phase out....i can hardly find pc games anywhere and it sucks cuz i have 3g 5gb cap so i can't download games i had a crysis 3 free key but can't d/l due to connection...sooo i'm like crap i havn't bought a game in store in awhile i have to buy online for the most part....so i got to target like wth....and it almost blew me away haha was a decent choice of games there the had far cry 3 black ops 2 crysis 3 ASC3 and some others nothing like it was back in the day but i know where i can at least pick some nice new titles up in store .... i have new bioshock key coming when it's released if i can't find new internet i won't be able to d/l ...hopefully target will have it =D

 

[AdamK47]

15 years ago in the late 90s Best Buy had a few isles devoted to PC games. Now it's just a couple shelves. I avoid Best Buy as much as I can. Micro Center is my go to place for boxed PC Games.

 

[Keeper]

15 years ago in the late 90s Best Buy had a few isles devoted to PC games. Now it's just a couple shelves. I avoid Best Buy as much as I can. Micro Center is my go to place for boxed PC Games.

LOVE the MC. Even though I had a issue with them last fall.
I keep telling them we need one out here in Suffolk.

So what did they do? Went Queens!!! :\

for those who dont know. West to East on long Island.
Queens Nassau Suffolk.

I live in Suff. they are DEEP in Nassau... :'(

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Had to check if the first post was from 2008.. You just found this out?

 

[Dankk]

15 years ago in the late 90s Best Buy had a few isles devoted to PC games. Now it's just a couple shelves. I avoid Best Buy as much as I can. Micro Center is my go to place for boxed PC Games.

My local Smith's grocery store has the best PC games selection in the whole area, which I think is funny. Better than Gamestop, better than Best Buy, better than Target and Wal-Mart. I rarely buy boxed anymore, but if I do that's usually where I go.

 

[dagamer34]

Part of me wonders why Best Buy dedicates so much space to music when it's clear digital downloads are going to take over if they haven't already.

 

[lupi]

I last went in to a BB and looked at the PC isle around October. Usually they would stock up finally just before christmas....turns out the 2 and a half isle shelves had been reduced to 2 very short ones and it was mostly MMO boxes and game cards. Rather disappointing.

 

[Midwayman]

Part of me wonders why Best Buy dedicates so much space to music when it's clear digital downloads are going to take over if they haven't already.

'Cause BB caters pretty much exclusively to the tech illiterate at this point. Their average customer probably still owns a tape deck too.