Why are Collector's Editions of PC games still including DVDs and not Blu-rays?

Xizer said:
Seriously. What is up with this crap? It's 2010. Everyone hardcore enough to be buying your power-hungry modern PC game has Blu-ray by now. ESPECIALLY if they're hardcore enough to be buying some overpriced "collector's edition" version of the game.
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Its 2010... and you're still buying disks?

what are you an 80's technet subscriber?

get steampowered.

and I play a pretty big number of games and don't have a bluray drive.
 
Meh, make a plea to the publisher, not to us. I honestly don't have a Blu-Ray player and probably won't unless we see a larger shift towards Blu-Ray aside from Movies. And as it stands right now, between digital distribution and the average size of most games, DVD is all that's really necessary.

If you're upset that games don't have hours of super duper 1080p cut scenes, well, complain to the developers and the publishers. Just don't wonder why they start charging you $100 for a "standard edition" game because of the "expense" of said cut scenes. They charge for everything now.
 
simple,

it is cheaper to stamp out multiple dvds than it is to stamp out a blu-ray disk
the VAST majority of people do not have blu-ray drives in their PCs outside of laptop users and then those guys are limited to newer models
 
Games on bluray are a couple years out for the PC imho. How many games currently require more than one or two DVDs anyway?
 
I watch Blu-Ray movies on my large but low res 52in TV using a PS3.
I play games on my smaller but larger res 30in monitor.
I have no need for a Blu-Ray player/burner in my computer.
 
Xizer said:
I don't see how you can possibly be a hardcore gamer who spergs out about Eyefinity and 2560x1600 resolutions and the latest $800 graphics card... and then be perfectly happy with all your video being at a resolution of 720x480.

It is mind-boggling. How could you possibly be a PC gamer who is happy with DVD video?
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I dont watch DVDs on my computer?
 
physical media is dying. the sooner we accept it, the sooner we can move on.

The real question is why are collector's editions not coming with steam redeemable keys.
 
Sick of all the fucking Steam cock straddling in here. Steams all good and well, but I'd like to maintain the ability to trade or sell used games wherever I can.
 
Yeah, but with crazy DRM, selling your used games is becoming increasingly difficult as well.
 
Xizer said:
I don't see how you can possibly be a hardcore gamer who spergs out about Eyefinity and 2560x1600 resolutions and the latest $800 graphics card... and then be perfectly happy with all your video being at a resolution of 720x480.

It is mind-boggling. How could you possibly be a PC gamer who is happy with DVD video?
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Because I'm a gamer and not a movie enthusiast?

I also have a PS3 for bluray on a 42" HDTV... why in the world would I spend the money on a bluray player for my PC?
 
Steam (and a bunch of other digital distribution outlets for all you weirdo steam haters out there) exists, therefore there is no need for bluray (or any physical media) for games. I haven't had an optical drive in my computer for over a year.
 
Kenworth said:
I don't even think this is probable (with all due respect). For the majority of gamers going forward, Steam and download services will be the norm and Blu-Ray will be just left out of the media content delivery for games. I think it will have a small time in the sun for movies but for the few gamers who live where it would just be ridiculous to download a game on their connection, digital distribution will be king.
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My theory is that the trend for media will be set by it's ability to be used for piracy. Right now if you could copy and burn a bluray disk for the same cost of a dvd there would be more demand for them. More demand in turn generates more competition ultimately driving the price down.

It's hard to say where bluray on pc fits in. Given how cheap HDs are these days I personally can't justify disk media when the disks are 2 bucks a pop. There was a 2tb on sale this week for a 100 bucks. 2tb works out to what? about 80 25g disks right? At 2 dollars each that $160 for the bluray and really who wants to juggle 80 disks anyway?

If on the other hand a bluray burner were 50 bucks and the media was 50 cents to a dollar I think that would change things. So basically if the price drops ,and it almost certainly will , the demand will be there and we will start to see more market penetration. Right now, it's simply not a cost effective way to steal shit and until it is DVD is probably here to stay.

That, or advancements in hard drive technology coupled with faster internet connection could dwarf bluray all together. At some point we will stop burning disks completely but I don't think it's this generation.
 
I have never even once considered installing any sort of Blu Ray drive in any of my PCs. I have a PS3 for that, in my living room. I don't buy physical media any more anyway, so it's kind of a moot argument in any case. But I'm pretty sure the reason I don't have Blu Ray in a PC is because it's pointless, for me, that is.
 
Based just on this thread, I think it's pretty conclusive that the BR adoption for PC's is pretty low even among high-end users. I'm thinking about adding an HD projector to my setup, and I might get one then. Aside from that, I just have no reason to. All of my backup storage is via NAS and FTP, so there's no point to it even then.
 
Term-X said:
If you're upset that games don't have hours of super duper 1080p cut scenes, well, complain to the developers and the publishers. Just don't wonder why they start charging you $100 for a "standard edition" game because of the "expense" of said cut scenes. They charge for everything now.
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Oh, this thread is about cutscenes?

I was under the impression that real games these days did their cutscenes with their game engines rendering it real-time at whatever resolution you're playing at?

The newest game I've played that has pre-rendered cut scenes is 2004's Far Cry...? That's over six years ago...

Even the original Half-Life wasn't using pre-rendered cutscenes...

Interactive cutscenes are here to stay, AFAIK...?
 
Xizer said:
So we're supposed to just deal with this crappy looking video forever because there's still too many gamers out there still stuck in the stone age? It's shameful. PC has always been about the cutting edge; leaving the old guy behind. Why is video the exception?

I mean, YouTube is better quality than DVD these days. YouTube. I still don't see why including an HD video file on the DVD isn't a viable option instead of using horrible 20 year old technology and doing a regular VIDEO_TS formatted DVD with crappy SD MPEG video.
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I love how you haven't even answered the simple question of what you are talking about. You keep mentioning games but from your post you make this sound like you are referring to regular dvd videos which have NOTHING to do with pcs in particular. There is almost no reason to have a bluray player in your pc and most "hardcore" gamers don't seem to from this thread. When there are 0 games that come in bluray for pc I don't see how you can even claim you can't be a "hardcore" gamer and not have one. The 2 are not related AT ALL. Downloadable games are the future, not bluray discs. (I am strictly talking about games, not starting an argument about bluray movies vs downloadable which is a totally separate topic)
 
I have 2 BD-Rom drives for my PC's.
HTPC has an LG HD-DVD/BD/DVD-RW and I have a Lite-On BD Rom sitting on my shelf that is going into the HTPC and the LG is going into my main rig.

I knew I was forgetting something when I had my main rig apart installing another video card and replacement hard drive in there, I should have swapped the optical drives.
 
For real I built my PC like 3 years ago, and there hasn't been a game that I can't run yet. I play 1680x1050 in every game and thats good enough for me. When there's a must play game that my pc can't run I'll buy a new one. But I have a feeling that will be 2 years or so out.
 
Serpico said:
Most games don't take up more than a DVD. Also, digital distribution is going to ace optical media in only a few years. The last physical copy of a PC game I've bought was back in 2007, and the only physical media I have bought since that time have been the installation discs for Windows 7, OS X, and Final Cut Studio. FCS is the only thing that would have benefitted from Blu Ray, and only if you wanted to install the massive media libraries for DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack, and Motion, none of which I installed.

No point given the number of PCs with a BR drives, combined with the size of games. Look at how long it took for publishers took to go from CD to DVD, and this was when 99% of users had DVD drives and the size of games more than justified the larger media. I've had Blu Ray in my PC since 2007 but I also realize that I'm in an extreme minority.

I think Blu Ray is the holy grail as far as watching movies, but that is something I do in my living room on a 60" plasma, not on my desk in a 24" or 27" LCD. Optical media is dying on computers.
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true digital distribution may take over as long as the US based ISP's dont keep getting their way with the bandwidth limits.. if this bandwidth limit trend continues to happen in the US it will eventually kill digital distribution of media due to the monopoly a lot of these ISP's (comcast, AT&T, and charter are the 3 major ones) hold over a lot of states..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
true digital distribution may take over as long as the US based ISP's dont keep getting their way with the bandwidth limits.. if this bandwidth limit trend continues to happen in the US it will eventually kill digital distribution of media due to the monopoly a lot of these ISP's (comcast, AT&T, and charter are the 3 major ones) hold over a lot of states..
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I kind of doubt the FCC will allow that. Right now the FCC seems to be gearing up to kick the telecom's asses when it comes to net neutrality and the like.
 
I don't see digital distribution taking over as long as there are people like me. I like actually owning my games, thank you very much. Tying everything to a single Steam account and not having a physical copy while being charged the same price is horrible. It's like all those dipshits who pay for iTunes: lower quality than CD music, no physical copy, bad lossy format you can't convert to anything else without losing additional quality.

I mean, why would you pay for an all digital product when it could be pirated for free? At least if it's a physical copy you get something over piracy. A nice case to sit on the shelf; and a nice archived copy of the game that you don't have to rely on the Internet to get.
 
A similar but different question:

Why aren't games being distributed on USB Media? I bought a 16GB flash drive for 20 some-odd euros at retail prices, I'm sure mass production orders could get that down to "next to nothing" prices. Its quieter and faster than a DVD....
 
Two DVDs cost considerably less than one blu-ray disc. Blu-ray adoption isn't that high with core gamers yet, so putting games on expensive discs that the majority won't be able to access let alone buy would be stupid.

If you're so lazy that swapping a whopping TWO discs exhausts you, buy your shit on Steam.
 
Canadian in Berlin said:
Why aren't games being distributed on USB Media? I bought a 16GB flash drive for 20 some-odd euros at retail prices, I'm sure mass production orders could get that down to "next to nothing" prices. Its quieter and faster than a DVD....
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Even at a highly discounted rate, they would still be a lot more expensive than DVD's. I could see it being done for a limited collectors run, but I don't see it becoming mainstream.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
true digital distribution may take over as long as the US based ISP's dont keep getting their way with the bandwidth limits.. if this bandwidth limit trend continues to happen in the US it will eventually kill digital distribution of media due to the monopoly a lot of these ISP's (comcast, AT&T, and charter are the 3 major ones) hold over a lot of states..
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Well there's still lots of places in the world which have bandwidth limits. If I want to stay within my download cap, it'd take me 2 and a half months to download a 50gb bluray :p
 
Xizer said:
I mean, why would you pay for an all digital product when it could be pirated for free? At least if it's a physical copy you get something over piracy. A nice case to sit on the shelf; and a nice archived copy of the game that you don't have to rely on the Internet to get.
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I can see your point, and there are some advantages to having a box copy. From a collectors standpoint, it's certainly superior.

There are also some advantages to having a service like Steam. You often deal with less DRM (though that's changing it seems), you have access to download your game at any time, no physical disk you have to keep track of, possible access to a cloud that saves your settings/saves, etc.. and if you really want a physical copy in case of internet outages, it's very simple to archive your installation to a DVD/BR/Hard Disk/Flash/etc.

I could be wrong, but I would guess that within 10 years, optical drives will start being phased out, much like the floppy.
 
Xizer said:
I don't see how you can possibly be a hardcore gamer who spergs out about Eyefinity and 2560x1600 resolutions and the latest $800 graphics card... and then be perfectly happy with all your video being at a resolution of 720x480.

It is mind-boggling. How could you possibly be a PC gamer who is happy with DVD video?
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I havn't even played a game in years that actually used "video" cutscenes. Most are done in game now. It's about gameplay and in game gfx. Not oo this cutscene is pretty but DAMN this game loads slow on my 8x bluray drive.... lawl
 
Why bother? Why limit your sales because a big percentage of your userbase doesn't have BR drives, and the percentage that does will see zero benefit in using a BR disc for your game? Most in-game cinematics are in-engine; the days of FMV are mostly behind us. So there is no point at all.

Also, I don't think you buy a collector's edition of game because you are a "hardcore" gamer. I am confident that most serious gamers don't buy most CE editions, if any. People only buy it for 1 or 2 games a year that they're really excited about, maybe.

Most of us go with the downloadable version. Much more convenient.
 
Blu-Ray uptake is pretty slow no the PC, I think.

I just got mine like a week ago.
 
GishForever said:
Everyone knows to only buy games when they go on sale on Steam, but thanks for pointing that out.
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Well, actually that's a Valve game, so it'll tie-in with your Steam account anyway.

So, you get all the advantages of Steam eventually (wait for shipping by Amazon) for less price by buying retail through Amazon.

Bad example by the OP.

(See "Retail CD keys" at https://support.steampowered.com/)
 
Silverghost said:
Probably because quite a few games still only need 1 DVD disc
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This.

Modern compression tools allow for even the largest of modern games to still fit on DVD9. Blu Ray is probably far away from becoming the standard for PC media delivery. Publishers know that most PC owners dont have a Blu Ray drive in their machine and are likely to just use digital distribution instead of having to first pay $100 for a BD drive to now run their games.

DD will become even more mainstay long before BD's ever come on the scene.

Xizer said:
You want to see a prime example of Steam fail?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/500/

vs.

http://www.amazon.com/Left-4-Dead-Game-Year-Pc/dp/B0025P9I9C/

Hmm, I wonder which one's a better value! :rolleyes:
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Wait.. lol do you buy your Steam games when they're not on sale?
 
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Xizer said:
You want to see a prime example of Steam fail?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/500/

vs.

http://www.amazon.com/Left-4-Dead-Game-Year-Pc/dp/B0025P9I9C/

Hmm, I wonder which one's a better value! :rolleyes:
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Since when did anyone say all games are cheaper on steam? The smart buyer shops around and steam has weekend sales / holiday sales that simply can't be beat elsewhere.

This thread basically reeks of: "I'm a hardcore gamer that has these preferences, how can you call yourself a hardcore gamer and not be just like me"

Get over it.
 
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Xizer said:
I don't see digital distribution taking over as long as there are people like me. I like actually owning my games, thank you very much. Tying everything to a single Steam account and not having a physical copy while being charged the same price is horrible. It's like all those dipshits who pay for iTunes: lower quality than CD music, no physical copy, bad lossy format you can't convert to anything else without losing additional quality.

I mean, why would you pay for an all digital product when it could be pirated for free? At least if it's a physical copy you get something over piracy. A nice case to sit on the shelf; and a nice archived copy of the game that you don't have to rely on the Internet to get.
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+1

Civ5 is relunctantly going on my no-buy list thanks to its Steam DRM. IMO "buying" any game with DRM that has to call home to the mothership isn't ownership - it's a long rental, and one that may fail to work under some circumstances.

I'll pay rental prices for an online-DRM'd game - like maybe $10-$15 tops for a highly, highly wanted game - but that's about it.

And BD on the PC? Only if I want to fight with the HDCP copy protection to get them to display on my FW900 monitor. I have a BD player - it's in the living room with the projector. I'd like a BD drive downstairs on my PC, but only barely - I watch very little on it. Until they hit like $30 or so I'm not liable to get one.
 
GishForever said:
Everyone knows to only buy games when they go on sale on Steam, but thanks for pointing that out.
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Oh yes exactly, I love not being able to buy games for a reasonable price any time I want. Instead, I would rather wait around for ages in the hopes that a cheaper copy of the game I want to play will finally be put out in some kind of gimmicky fashion that's only around for a limited time! What a revolutionary step forwards.

You can literally order a retail boxed copy of a Steam game off Amazon for a lower price than Steam sells at normally and receive it in the mail sooner than waiting for some random ass "sale" gimmick. I like playing games only when I'm playing a game. I don't like playing games trying to acquire a game.

Intel_Hydralisk said:
This thread basically reeks of: "I'm a hardcore gamer that has these preferences, how can you call yourself a hardcore gamer and not be just like me"

Get over it.
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When did this idea of choice go the way of the dodo? Jesus Christ. PC games used to be all about getting things the way you wanted them. Having to wait around for something to go on sale is not my idea of freedom of choice.

You sound like a console gamer. I bet you love getting nickle-and-dimed with DLC too.
 
Xizer said:
random ass "sale" gimmick. I like playing games only when I'm playing a game. I don't like playing games trying to acquire a game.
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These "random ass 'sale' gimmicks" have allowed me to buy games at probably an average of $5/game.

Pack of 14 of games for <$40, so under $3/game there.

Four-pack of a single game (three copies for friends) for $15. Sale the other three for $5/pop. Not only is the game now free for me, but since the game's normally priced at $20, people feel like they're getting a steal buying it for $5 from me.

These savings easily are enough to upgrade your video card every year. I saved $100 in the last month or so alone.

But we're on a tangent now from the OP.
 
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