I Remember When This Was All Fields

I now have a games collection which is predominantly virtual.

Being a PC gamer, I’m used to buying from Steam – I have been for almost a decade. I signed up for my Steam account late in 2002 and I have a four digit account, which according to Steam aficionados is a big deal, it means I was there at the beginning, when the digital distribution revolution began.

Ol' buddy ol' pal of mines!

So, I had worked out that my total collection on Steam, plus my collection on my Xbox, all of which were either games or DLC purchased through digital distribution, are now worth more than the total of retail games, peripherals and hardware that I have purchased and are greater in number.

I think by now most people are used to the ease of delivery that DLC offers us but that wasn’t always the case. I can distinctly remember whole walls dedicated to PC games in most retail games shops. Times have changed though, there is very little wall estate used up for PC games now, some people say that PC gaming has declined but I think it’s more that digital distribution has had more of an impact than games retailers would like to admit. Some now even offer it as their only option for selected PC games from their own sites.

With that said, I don’t think that consoles are quite there, I would prefer it if when a game went retail, if we were given two options, buy it from a store or download it directly over the web, allowing us to preload and unlock content as it becomes available.

I can appreciate that you may not get as many grand game launch queues outside stores, but I think it will give a more accurate number of pre-orders and it’s a step closer to the excellent options that PC gamers have.

The only downside of this for consoles is that storage space is a real consideration, with my Steam folder currently sitting at 196Gb and with only 70% of the titles I own actually downloaded and installed, I think that even with current options on console storage way up at 250Gb, it still means that people will have to actively go and manage their collection, which I think a lot of people won’t want to do.

So yeah, I was there at the beginning, when this digital distribution thing began and yes, it does make me feel like a big man.

You'll always end up with a number of points so low they can't buy you anything, it's a cunning ploy from Microsoft to get you to buy more!

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