Where do you prefer to download your games?

[oldmanwinters]

A 1st world problem if there has ever been one...

Since I got a capable laptop this year, I've been more willing to buy some games off Steam since I've got confidence my PC should be able to run most games at a decent performance. My old collection of PC gamepads was insufficient to play most modern stuff, so I started hunting for deals on Xbox 360 wired controllers. Today I ended up buying a used 20GB Xbox 360 that came with a wired Madcatz controller and a wireless official controller.

I've also got my Wii U, which I adore and even bought an external hard drive for all the various Virtual Console and eShop games. I primarily buy stuff for the Wii U when it's an exclusive or it's on sale (I got three or four of the Wayforward games when they held a digital sale last year, and I might go for the Humble Bundle deal currently going on).

So my question for the forum is... if you have an abundance of options for digital download, which service do you prefer overall or does it vary from game to game?

There are a number of titles which I'm debating whether to buy on Steam or Xbox Arcade. To me, the advantages of Steam include a better sense of permanence as my games are tied to my online account which means I can keep playing them even if I replace my PC hardware in a few years. Plus, it can be more convenient as I use my laptop far more often than I expect I'll use my Xbox360. And I notice that Steam holds sales fairly often, so there's a good possibility I can buy stuff cheaper there than on Xbox Arcade, where I get the impression prices remain fairly fixed.

One major disadvantage for the PC is that I don't have much idea how well the game might run on my system until I play it. I really want to play the newest Rocket Knight Adventures, but Steam has problems even getting the Demo to load. Even the new Sega Genesis Hub features some serious emulation problems when you try to use the brand new graphical interface (which does look cool)

Where the 360 is concerned, I'm not sure it's the sort of thing I'll always keep plugged in, as it will have to fight for space next to my other classic systems on the TV deck. So I might just keep it in storage until I want to play a particular game or something. But I have confidence it will run everything I buy so long as I don't fill up its small hard drive. Rocket Knight and the NiGHTS into Dreams HD demos look fantastic... especially on a widescreen television. I don't expect to buy a Xbox One or its successor system unless I just find one for a really good deal someday, so having my games tied to the Xbox Live account isn't a big deal for me. I think whatever I buy on Xbox will be forever confined to my 360 console.

So... I'm kinda torn. I was curious to see if you folks had any experience in this area.

[TurtleTitan97]

I get my games through Steam.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

I hate Steam.

I only have ever had one game for it: Civ V. Every time I started that game up (which I got on CD not knowing I had to install that stupid piece of adware) there was a steam client update I had to download. No internet connection meant not being able to play the game, even though I have never used multiplayer.

[sdp]

Steam on my PC mostly to "future proof" since I know that for the most part I'll be able to play my collection in whatever PC I have in the future. I don't see the need to get an Xbox or Playstation since most third party games I want end up on PC and looking better, there's exceptions of course where games are buggy but I can deal with that. I also don't have the need to play most games when they come out so I can definitely wait for any title until it's on sale. I've probably bought the entire must have list of games of last gen for the price of two full priced games and dozens of classics before that also for so little.

On my 3DS and Wii U I went full digital as well and own no physical game for either system sans Nintendo Land since that one was included for free. For the 3DS it just makes sense since it's portable and it's awesome having all your games when you take it on the go, only bad thing I can think of is I can't trade Pokemon between my own versions. For the Wii U I love it even if it's not a portable since it's super convenient to just have everything at the click of a button. However I kind of regret going full digital here especially since the new system is coming out and I have plenty of games downloaded that I haven't played and I plan on selling the system to buy the latest console and if they were physical I would've at least gotten something for them. Also the indie or third party games that are also on PC I would've preferred to have picked them up on steam instead so I won't lose them. I do think all future consoles including Nintendo for the time being will be backwards compatible since they'll be running on the same architecture or worst case scenario emulating but yeah I feel I may lose my titles on my Wii U if I sell it which I will likely do eventually.

[Ninjinister]

Originally Posted by TheSkeletonMan939

I hate Steam.

I only have ever had one game for it: Civ V. Every time I started that game up (which I got on CD not knowing I had to install that stupid piece of adware) there was a steam client update I had to download. No internet connection meant not being able to play the game, even though I have never used multiplayer.

So you hate it for something that's not Valve's fault at all?

Riiiight.

Also it's far from adware, unless you meant that in hyperbole.

[Prowler]

I've bought digital copies of on Steam, Nintendo's eShop and the Humble Bundle.

Steam is great. And so is humble bundle since you can just retrieve your purchases on steam through a code.

[AT-Man]

PSN store and occasionally Steam.

[The Deadman]

I dont buy anything on Steam as i dont have a PC capable of running all the bigger games. I do digital most of the time on Wii U and 360 but i also prefer physical discs as well.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Originally Posted by Ninjinister

So you hate it for something that's not Valve's fault at all?

Riiiight.

Also it's far from adware, unless you meant that in hyperbole.

As someone who is not a PC gamer, it certainly could feel like adware sometimes. It was not unusual for me to double-click Civ, have Steam load up, and have it pop out a window or two advertising some sale or whatever before loading my game. And then of course it'd probably update itself for the hundredth time.

It's probably useful for someone who needs a single place to access the games he's playing, but since I'm not a part of the PC Master Race it's not something I used very often.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by The Deadman

I dont buy anything on Steam as i dont have a PC capable of running all the bigger games. I do digital most of the time on Wii U and 360 but i also prefer physical discs as well.

I definitely have a preference for physical media and always will, but many of the games that interest me these days tend to get released as digital exclusives. Believe me, I was pleasantly surprised when Ducktales Remastered got a physical release!

One thing I'll give Xbox Live/Arcade a ton of credit for is the abundance of demos they offer for download. Sadly, this is one area where Steam seems to be deficient. It would give me much more buyer confidence to be able to see how the game runs on my machine before purchase. I can check a game's minimum requirements (and this helps too), but seeing it in action is the big selling point for me. It's too bad many of the same digital games that offer demos on Xbox don't do the same for Steam.

[Allio]

I get mine from [COMMENT REDACTED]

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Allio

I get mine from [COMMENT REDACTED]

Hmm, you don't say.

[Spike Spiegel]

PSN and GOG. I am not a fan of Steam.

Everything else, I buy physically.

[ProactiveMan]

I have bought a few games on the PSN, which was fairly painless, but not transferable from PS3 to PS4, and I don't like that. I have a few Wii and Wii U virtual console games, and that was fairly painless.

I like steam on PC and their tech support bent over backwards to help me out one time, so I was fairly impressed with that. I've generally had good a experience with Steam, but I'm by no means a heavy user. Funny to think that I would recommend it because when it came out with Half-Life 2, I cursed it's name and swore to bad mouth it at every opportunity.

I just wanted to play the game I got for Christmas, but I couldn't because of a huge day one patch that took all afternoon to download. It was probably only a few hundred MB, but the internet was hell slow in those days, and I was pissed off that this 'Steam' thing wouldn't let me play until all the files were updated and validated.

I still like to buy disks like and old man, because games are friggin' huge nowadays and it theoretically saves time and data (That is if the disk actually has anything on it, and if the game doesn't require a 40GB patch, *cough cough* Wolfenstein *cough cough*)

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

Only one of two places. Either Steam, as there are some incredible games on there, which regularly get sales that reduce the game by a large amount (I bought Super Meat Boy on a sale, as it was reduced from £11 to £1.50)

I also get my games from a site called GameJolt, where users can create their own games using any game creation software and upload them to the website for free.

[Allio]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Hmm, you don't say.

Yeah, [COMMENT REDACTED] has a great selection of [COMMENT REDACTED] games