Weekend Open Forum: Where do you buy your PC games?

[Matthew DeCarlo]

According to stats released by NPD last summer, digital game downloads surpassed retail stores in terms of units sold. During the first six months of 2010, gamers bought 11.2 million digital PC games versus 8.2 million physical units. That trend is spurred by the incredible prices and convenience offered by services such as Steam. Valve's digital marketplace reportedly earned $1 billion in 2010 and the company claims it's more profitable per employee than Google and Apple.

With that kind of cash flow, it's no surprise that a ton of competitors are scrambling establish a presence in the digital PC market. Just this week, Microsoft promised to improve its Games for Windows Live platform. Given this year's intimidating list of anticipated titles, we thought it would be a great time to ask: where do you buy your PC games? Steam undoubtedly earns the bulk of my game purchases, but I won't ignore a good deal elsewhere, especially on new releases.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/42788-weekend-open-forum-where-do-you-buy-your-pc-games.html

 

[Quinneypoo]

thepiratebay, bitgamer.

 

[KG363]

95% Steam, sometimes Best Buy

 

[Guest]

I stopped after the gamesellers (GameStop...etc) decided they weren't worth their while.

 

[TitoBXNY]

Now that Best Buy's PC section is nearly obsolete, Steam. GameStop's customer service is just awful, so Steam for me.

 

[Guest]

Steam is the best.

 

[Guest]

Steam, duh. those spinning media formats are so 2010...

 

[Cueto_99]

Well, I guess most of us will say Steam... Reliable, big discounts and excellent multiplayer platform... what else do you need?

 

[Raswan]

kg363 said:
95% Steam, sometimes Best Buy

this

 

[Guest]

I buy 90% of my games from Steam, 5% from Impulse and 5% from Direct2Drive. Think it's been about 5 years since I bought a boxed game.

 

[Route44]

I will still buy from the likes of Walmart, Best Buy, etc. if they have what I want. Amazon definitely and had a first good experience with Gogamer.com.

There have even been really good deals on eBay.

 

[Guest]

Stardock (Impulse), Target, BestBuy

 

[howzz1854]

steam and direct2drive

 

[Nima304]

Buy? Who buys PC games?

 

[treetops]

At the game vendors site if its new if not amazon or ebay. I also go to best buy every so often to buy a new game or to browse new\old games. I doubt I will ever buy a old game from best buy again.

 

[mailpup]

I still only buy boxed games. I don't buy a lot of games but usually they're from Best Buy.

 

[motrin]

all of last year bought countless games off of steam
and
2 from Games for Windows. (10 cents age of empires and MS points for one of the Stalker games)

 

[Guest]

Steam, is there some place else ?

 

[Tekkaraiden]

Steam, GOG and occasionally Direct2Drive.

 

[mrtraver]

I mostly buy boxed games, at walmart or best buy. A few downloads from GOG.com, but I still prefer physical media. Just old-fashioned I guess!

 

[Kibaruk]

Steam

 

[Guest]

EB Games (way overpriced in australia) , Steam

 

[Squuiid]

Steam

 

[TrekExpert]

I use to always by my games retail as until recently the fastest internet in my area was 500kbs. I just got a "speedy" 1.5mbs internet connection so I have been considering using steam.

 

[boybrushdred]

i buy from steam specially on BIG sale events!