Future of PC Gaming - No more DVDs/installation?

[Alex06]

So I was wondering...Why do PC games need to be installed to play? After all, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii games all only require a disc, and no installation on any drive...

What if PC games would go that way now? What would you think?
And what if you could install games, too (and not require the disc to play), or just choose to play them from the disc? (Like with Xbox 360 games)

What if with that, you could also install the games on USB drives? Imagine being able to install mods, maps, etc. with the game on a USB drive, and bring it over to your portable PC for vacation or to a friend's house? (In the case you install it on a HDD, it's the same as today, but if you play the game from the DVD, the game would create a folder somewhere in the documents folder where it reads all maps and mods from...)

The kind of copy protection that would go with that, you ask? Well, how about the same one as Sins of a Solar Empire? Would that work?

What do you guys think? Any thoughts. suggestions, hopes, comments? :P

[Zigurd]

I fully support this. But it would make cracking games a lot easier wouldn't it ?

[spychi]

If there will be no more monopoly on the internet bandwidth then it's a good idea, currently downloading 15 gb content would be a waste of time.
Also with my current HDD CRC problems ( i need to format it) I would have 100 issues with dling a freaking game.

[sandwich_bird]

The future of pc games doesn't include any disk.

[Islandsnake]

Either way you'll always have to install the game (even its from digital download) even ps3 lets you install games to run them faster ;d

For now though, most people prefer to buy stuff and have something to hold, plus some games have nice bonus stuff that comes with them!

It'll be awhile before the mainstream thing is Downloading, its already started though with several online stores that let you download and the new pspGo which is completely digital!


In the future I think installs will almost be instant, and HDs will be so big it wont even matter!

[GentleBen]

I get a lot of my PC games on Steam, which is completely disc-less and I like it a lot better than the old way.

[dynamiK-]

^ I imagine since internet keeps getting faster, we might see more games begin to use Steam or create programs similar. Or perhaps you purchase a game from their website and download it directly. Who knows...

[Hammy]

The future of pc games doesn't include any disk.
Yeah, I haven't used a disk in almost two years actually. I don't plan on having a physical drive on my next laptop (which I'll be buying some time this year). Imo it's a bit of a waste of space/weight/money nowadays. Especially when you look at the price of blu-ray players... If I ever absolutely need a physical drive I can just manage an external one from somewhere (but I doubt I will).
When it comes to dvd's and blu-rays... well a drive that's plugged to the tv does the job (and most people have that in addition to their laptop dvd player anyways) but downloading is the future of all forms of entertainement in any case (not necessarily pirate-downloading of course).

[Alex]

I think that although internet services like Steam will become more popular and more successful, there will still be retail copies, which will be sold on disks, just like today. There are just too many people that will have problems buying online, or downloading huge games.

I personally prefer to have disks - I just have a good feeling when I can see my game copy, with it's box art, manual and other stuff, then just having it in some account on some site. :)