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

Are you joking? I bought GTA IV for $5, and Kane and Linch 2 for $5, and Just cause 2 for $7.50... I cant get either of those for that cheep... Shipping alone cost that much... Steam is the CHEAPEST place to buy games (when they are on sale) otherwise they are full price that you would pay at Walmart or any place else. And when you buy a game you can download and play it several years later... With hard copies you could lose them...

Steam, if it's on sale, unless it's at least 50% off, I'm not interested. Five years ago I would use just use a torrent site, but these days I barely care enough about games to bother.

@thewind

That's not really true actually. I agree 100% that Steam is by far the cheapest during a sale, but look at any game over six months old on Steam and compare the price with somewhere like Amazon and you'll notice it's cheaper on Amazon 90% of the time.

Basically when a game first comes out it's generally slightly cheaper on Steam than a physical copy, after about six months to year later it's usually considerably more expensive to purchase via Steam than online store such as Amazon, and when it's on sale it's much cheaper than anywhere else.

People who use steam log on almost everyday and see the games deals. They usually change their deals 3 times a week. If you use steam you should be in the right place at the right time. You can get any game for cheap on steam you just have to be patient.

Physical stores for really old games, like command and conquer generals or age of empires 2.
Amazon for somewhat older games, like BF2, Starwars Battlefront, Portal (that's how I go into steam), etc...
Steam for indie games you can't get else where, eufloria (it is fun, even though it looks boring), audiosurf (very fun with a friend), plain sight, cogs, etc...
I don't like to get all my games digitally because if a place like steam were to go out of business, I would loss all my games. Very unlikely, but I like to be in the safe side, I don't buy a game from steam unless it's really cheap or you can't get it anywhere else.

@yRaz

I'm not sure you understood my post. I was talking about general prices, not my own buying habits. The fact there are lots of sales on Steam doesn't change the fact that they price most of their catalogue higher than non-digital competitors such as Amazon.

Like I said, I only buy games during Steam sales - including all other sources. I really don't care enough about games these days (due to the decline in quality over the past ten years) to exert the effort of installing a game from a disc, patching it, dealing with DRM hassles, etc. or to go look up an nfo site and torrent a pirate version. I usually snap up most deals if they're discounted over 50%, currently have 189 games on Steam, but only really got round to playing about a dozen of them so far.

i either by my pc games from Steam, Direct2drive or the EA store. i no longer buy hard copy of games. buying digital content instead of hardcopy you dont have to worry about scratched/damaged discs and\or lost cdkeys. if my HD were to crash i only need to re-download the game and reinstall it and i am good to go

I mostly buy REAL games(not downloadable stuff) from Amazon or Play.com, sometimes if I'm in the GAME shop I'll have a look at the games, if the price is good and I like the look of a game then I'll get one there.(GAME and gamestation is like gamestop in of the UK but always plays crappy music like gamestation does =/)

gog.com GOOD OLD GAMES

play.com, cex/gamestation (local used computer games shops). The only time I have torrented a full game was Metro2033 - this due to not being able to buy a s/h copy, which was a result of THQ's arsehole attitude towards its customers. I have a steam account but I ONLY use this for the half life series, Valve's customer care, along with their fat **** ceo's attitude is utterly ****!

The only reason i dont want or support digital distribution is because the current sale model doesn't allow for me to sell the game on after I have finished playing. In response to games companies attitude where I have to spend 30+ for 6-8hrs worth of gaming and then I'm stuck with the game.. I DONT ****ING THINK SO!

The only digital distro model I would be happy with is the ability to long-term rent a game for a fixed price that is a lot less than retail, so say Crysis2 for £10 for 6months - I arrive at this figures because I currently buy a game new for £30 and then sell for £20 etc.

I purchase games from multiple sources (various brick and mortar stores, amazon, ebay, steam, etc), at the same time I do night buy games very often as I'll make them last for exceedingly long amounts of time, either through replaying, higher difficulty runs, or multiplayer (note: I actually don't play that many mutiplayer only games).

That pic of Fry, is exactly how I will look like when Battlefield 3 is released at a local Gamestop.

Steam 80%
GamersGate 20%

I would probably buy one or two games a year (only really good ones) and download the rest. I would probably buy all my games from retail outlets if Australian consumers were not being blatantly ripped off and gouged by the retailers/distributers. Our dollar is currently on parity with the US yet we pay around $120 for a brand new game release whereas the US are only paying around $60. Profit is the only reason for such an enormous difference in pricing and I do not like being gouged and I do not like blatant profiteering. My protest to these greedy retailers/distributers is to download rather than put more money into their big fat wallets.

I really love owning a physical item, it makes me feel better. I never buy online unless I have to.

i'm from costa rica i'like steam ,iloved

Online mostly. Either through the company or steam. My store because I get a discount. Alaska is small for these things :-(

Steam mostly, with Amazon for the games I physically want to own.

For me it's just Steam and Apple's App Store for casual gaming. I don't buy games that often, so I haven't tried many other digital distribution platforms besides GOG once or twice, and I can't remember the last time I bought a boxed game.