Digital Distribution

So today's a perfect example on how I'm realizing that I'm glad that things are shifting more and more to digital distribution as way to be able to buy, install, and play games on the PC.

With all of the discussion going around on Battlefield 2 with some friends of mine, (even though 2142 is my preference) I went looking for my BF2 stuff. I eventually found my installation disk, but no instruction manual (so no CD key to use during install).

Torqued on that I found my Civ4 stuff, but no actual install CD's to install Civ4. So while I was installing Galciv 2 via the stardock.net application (gotta get my galactic conquest on) I fired up my Steam account to see if they had anything else released for Ep2/TF2/Portal and lo and behold... they are selling Civ4 via Steam... AND they have a discounted deal if I buy it with the Warlords expansion pack.

So I did. Manly due to the fact that now... There's nothing physical for me to loose. I can now play Civ4 on any PC that I own without having to worry about digging around for DVD's/CD's/CD Keys, etc. Sure, I ended up buying it twice. But by doing it this way I won't need to buy it a third time.

I've got EA Link installed so I can buy BF2 through there if I wanted to... But I'll probably just spend an employee point via the internal EA Store for them to send me the whole BF2 pack. That's simply because why should I pay for it when I can get it for free? Otherwise I'd buy it via EA Link and download it through there.

So yeah... I'm glad things are shifting more and more digital distribution for PC titles. Sure, it's not perfect. Some applications (Steam) are far superior to others (EA Link) But I'd rather have the option to have to wait to re-download something when I want to play it versus having to find all the physical materials at some point in the future.
--
.ungawa

-Spyke