In any event, that’s good news. Hopefully Cat will be as easy… though I’m still scared I’m going to give in a little early to see if there are any in-game pre-Cat events.

So next time when you stroll in to pick up a mouse, PSU whatever that you simply must have that day, or that you just feel like shopping for your next game purchase might be advertising itself to you.

That’s at least why I’m playing EQ2, originally I started with Guild wars, moved onto WoW but got bored. While at the time I didn’t have a PC I still remembered the Everquest 1 display at the local game store (it was like a mini shrine once a year, which with hindsight was the expansion launch months).

So the advertising worked well for me, its also a great place to buy time cards too for those who have no credit cards. I think Blizzard might just be shooting themselves in the foot with this move, but longterm that probably is a good thing for the rest of the gaming industry.

I guess part of my argument was that we are all internet savvy people who do our research on a game, maybe download a demo, compare prices and then buy. But we’re not all people, or even all PC gamers.

That said, you do have a point – we probably skew digital. Out of all gamers (PC, console and handheld) we are probably more likely to try downloads. Whether that’s a symptom of the download market becoming more popular or just a result of the reduced focus on PC gaming by videogame stores etc is probably a bit trickier to calculate.

The e-reader phenomena has the ability to kill it. Its going to kill the college textbook market very soon, as well as re-releases of legacy works in the public domain. Why re-release dracula when you can get it free from Project Gutenberg? How will authors compete against a flood of free or ultra low-cost vanity publishing?

Look at the flash game market for an example. Or the portal movement, and how many games are moving under them and offering themselves for free or for tips.

It’s difficult times.

And the DVD even let’s you select all the languages you like to have and installs them all. You no longer have to install language packs. (Probably of less importance for an English native .

And although games are more than just PCs, there’s also an increasing move towards downloading stuff for consoles too. I know my PS3 now offers various ways to stream video (via lovefilm or the iplayer) and it’s easy enough to buy games via the online store too. I could see this market also moving further towards digital distribution in future.

Also, the title of this post is about PC games which – as you say – have been relegated to a couple of shelves in shops these days. But PC gaming isn’t dead yet in the way this would imply.

Bottom line for me is that if downloading gets cheaper or more convenient than buying boxes, then I’ll download. At the moment, I get a good discount from pre-orders which is the only reason I haven’t cancelled my Cata pre-order.

And of course, the other side is trading used games. This is why console developers will probably try to encourage downloads over retail too.

(btw, this is one of the really nice things about battle.net. You don’t have to have bought your original copy from them to be able to download, as long as you registered. So from that pov it’s better than Steam.)

It was all very hassle free. Took an overnight stint to get the data, but no need to install any extra patches.

First up, many people in the US and Canada have download caps on their broadband. Word is that these caps are on their way to markets like the UK and Australia too. People with limited/slow broadband connections will prefer to buy a DVD with the game on instead of a direct download.

Secondly, shelf space is a huge advertising opportunity for games. The amount of people who walk in, see a title they like and buy on impulse is still pretty high, especially for gamers outside the “hardcore” market (read: anyone with more than a casual interest in videogames).

Thirdly, games are more than just PCs. Console markets are still doing well, and stores like Game see them as their primary focus. PC games have shrunk from dominating an entire wall to just having a couple of shelf units at the back. Chances are that they’ll keep PC stuff in the store purely because of the buying discounts they get from multiplatform publishers like EA and Activision. It’s only when PC makes no money for them that they’ll consider trashing it.