Are PC games getting harder to find?

[warpstorm]

The Gamestops (also EB Games) have about 2 shelves of PC games in my area (South and Central New Jersey). This is about 1/20 of the store with the rest about equally divided between XBOX 360 (non-360), PS3 (PS2), Wii, Nintendo DS, and all other stuff (accessories and movies). The used movies section is the same size as the PC games section.

The Gamestop near me doesn't have much space for new console games. They have decided that there is no profit there either. More than half of the store is used console games (which are much more profitable for them as they pay much less for them - and none to the actual developers ).

 

[Maniacal]

I'd be careful about filling up my shelves with used games, as I would think they are returned for a reason, such as being crap.

 

[Macha]

Even with Steam, I still vastly preferr to have the hard copy and I don't lose my disks. Especially with larger games, if I re-downloaded everything I have on steam it would take me a few days. And going to a store to look at games is a nice thing to do if you need to kill some time in town. (I live in a rural area so when I go to town I try to do several things at once if possible, besides for work).

This. I have a (technically) 1mb connection (less in reality). With the average game now approaching 5GB, It would take me a ridicolous amount of time to download anything. Which is why it pisses me off so much when people say ("just get it on steam"). And I can't get more than 1mb where I live.

 

[damunzy]

I also notice that in alot of "game" shops there is also a lot of software being sold, what's that all about?

High profit margin would be my guess.

 

[Thrawn]

I don't generally buy from shops anymore, but when I do, I never really have any problems. Haven't been to ebgames for a while, but JB Hi-Fi (an aussie chain that's expanding in nz) has a pretty decent selection of pc games to go with their console games (Multiple shelves that are all several metres long).

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

And with hard copies, you don't need the internet connection. Unless it uses funky DRM. So if your internet goes down (for example in a storm) you can install and play until it comes back on.

 

[Mulholland]

And with hard copies, you don't need the internet connection. Unless it uses funky DRM. So if your internet goes down (for example in a storm) you can install and play until it comes back on.

Well, if you keep your games updated you can play Steam games in offline mode. Not the multiplayer only ones, of course.

 

[Maniacal]

You would still be able to play the multiplayer ones, you'd just have to host your own LAN server and populate it with bots (although there is no Ai for bots in TF2).

 

[Aramazd]

Best Buy always has a good selection. Target and Walmart are decent, but not as great as Best Buy. And if you really want physical media you can buy on Amazon. It doesn't really seem like a big problem.

 

[Maniacal]

Best Buy always has a good selection. Target and Walmart are decent, but not as great as Best Buy. And if you really want physical media you can buy on Amazon. It doesn't really seem like a big problem.

Why pay an extra $10 or whatever they charge for shipping, usually all the way across the continent?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

My friend who lives in New York City says that she can't find many PC games.
She found tons of console games at really high prices.

 

[Aramazd]

Why pay an extra $10 or whatever they charge for shipping, usually all the way across the continent?

Because you really want a physical copy of the game? I never said it should be your 1st option. Also, you can generally get free shipping on orders over $25. If you really don't care about physical media there's Steam.

My friend who lives in New York City says that she can't find many PC games.
She found tons of console games at really high prices.

You can generally find new releases. Also, I wouldn't call $60 a really high price when PC games go for $50.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well, she didn't give any prices, just said "high prices."

And some games you can't get on Steam.

 

[Maniacal]

And some you don't want to get on steam (even if they use steam, like Empires, I intend to try mods for it and I don't know if I'll be able to have seperate installs now, and I don't know if they will be in a seperate folder or in the game folder, hence I want to be able to easily reinstall it quickly without re-downloading it for several hours).

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

And people with dial-up can't even use Steam.

Mom's attempting to get some money into PayPal. (She says she doesn't trust me with that stuff. It's humorous, considering she never installs security updates and uses IE for banking. Managed to get her to switch to Firefox.) Maybe I can get a few things on Amazon and Steam that way.

 

[Maniacal]

Another thing I remembered about console games, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony sell the development tools used to create games for their consoles, which aren't cheap, and they get money from every game sold, plus there is also the publisher's fee, although the games are usually $10 more (in Sony and Microsoft's case anyways).

 

[Aramazd]

Amazon then. There are plenty of valid options to get PC games.

And people with dial-up can't even use Steam.

Mom's attempting to get some money into PayPal. (She says she doesn't trust me with that stuff. It's humorous, considering she never installs security updates and uses IE for banking. Managed to get her to switch to Firefox.) Maybe I can get a few things on Amazon and Steam that way.

There is nothing inherently wrong with that. I'd be much more concerned about keyloggers, which don't care which browser your using.

I do prefer Firefox to IE (though I mostly use Opera), but don't consider Firefox safe.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well, the main problem is that she doesn't install any security fixes. I wouldn't mind so much if she did.

 

[Swein Forkbeard]

Well, I WOULD have Sins of a Solar Empire by now (beat out Fallout 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV for IGN's PC Game of the Year Award), except that:

A. My computer heats up to quickly.
B. I heard Sins of a Solar Empire is too big (as in Civ4-big), and I don't want that right now.
C. I don't use my computer a whole lot.

So yeah, I'll stick with what I have. An occasional scenario in Age of Empires is enough for me right now.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Been back at Staples. Seems like there's hardly any games, whether PC or Console. And there's also a lot of QuickBooks boxes, whatever that is. And Print Shop.

There's also a clearance going on -- makes me wonder if they're closing.