Valve's Pipe Dream, Five Years Later > Steam has changed me

said by KrK:

I agree tho, games from Steam (or online in general) SHOULD be cheaper.

You go to the store, you get a nice box, the art, the manual.... but you get something else, too. The item has actual financial value. You can keep it as a collector's item, or if you grow tired of it, you can sell it to someone else or trade it in. Try doing that with some burned DVD-R of a Steam download.

One other thing, also connected to physical value. Let's say you have a disaster, and your house is damaged, destroyed, computer burned, etc whatever.... The software you bought at the story is covered by insurance. Your downloaded files? GOOD LUCK ever getting a penny for them....

Therefore--- games downloaded should be WAYY cheaper then the store... All the savings the manufacturer has from not paying retail stores, not having to ship, no phyical media or packaging--- ALL THAT EXTRA MARGIN should be taken off and passed to you.

IMHO.

Course.... it will never happen.

said by Nightfall:

As for the second point, that is incorrect. Lets say a tornado comes through and wipes your house out. You get insurance money for a new computer, and when you log into Steam you can redownload your game and play it. Really, you don't need to get anything for them because they are always available to you.

said by KrK:

but if your computer was wiped, and you're on a new PC, new ISP etc how can you recover your Steam Login?

said by KrK:

Well that is interesting, and kinda cool... but if your computer was wiped, and you're on a new PC, new ISP etc how can you recover your Steam Login?

I think I'd still prefer to have the physical item somewhere. Course Steam has an advantage if you have kids in one regard. Kids always seem to lose, scratch, and trash the discs. If you have Steam, well, not a problem. Still tho you can't trade or sell the games....