Usually when we have talked about full PC game downloads in the past it has been in regards to pirated versions.

5 years or so ago games were either available via some physical medium or they were available by piracy. 10 years ago I remember going into the local Best Buy and perusing aisle upon aisle of a ridiculous amount of pc games, not the case any longer. PC games just don’t sell in a retail space like they did back then. Whether piracy or the lack of original pc driven content is the problem is debatable. The bottom line is that retail PC game sales are very low.

Digital distribution, in my mind, is playing a pretty significant role in driving sales of brick and mortar retail pc games lower and lower. Why? While there are some diehards of the old physical media model most gamers like the convenience of full pc game downloads have to offer. Personally, I have always hated cd/dvd checks in games. I would almost always download the crack to remove this requirement from the game. Then when it came to apply the most recent patch I would usually have to move some files around, which was a total pain in the ass! All this just so I could play the game that I purchased without having to place a cd in the drive every time. That is one of the reasons that I think retail pc game sales are down. Services like Steam, Direct2Drive, and Gamersgate have really provided gamers with options in how to get their games.

You get less hassle, in most cases, with services like Steam. It’s very easy to get full pc game downloads and you never have to worry about a dvd again.

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