The ability to digitally download full titles is one of the great things about gaming in a broadband age. And when it comes to downloading games on the PC, Steam is the program that most gamers are turning to. Their catalogue has been bolstered recently by some big name titles such as Far Cry 2, Fallout 3 and, most recently, Call of Duty: World at War. But with the Aussie dollar having slipped recently, is the convenience of digitally distributed games worth it anymore?
When Call of Duty 4 was first released on Steam, it was priced at $49.99USD; and that’s when our dollar was in the 90 cent vicinity compared to the greenback. For those who sat on their hands waiting to purchase it, the price very suddenly went up to $89.50USD to bridge the gap between the Aussie retail cost of the game and the Steam version. But now that our dollar is floating around the 65 cent mark, buying new games off Steam suddenly doesn’t make much sense. For instance, you’re looking at forking out around $85AUD for Far Cry 2, $93AUD for CoD5 and a whopping $108AUD for Fallout 3.
The savvy PC gamer doesn’t have to look too far for online Aussie game retailers to be able to pick up a boxed copy of these same titles for around $80 a pop. One of the biggest gripes when our dollar was so good against the greenback was that the strength was not reflected in adjusted prices for Aussie games. At least back then savings were easily made through digitally distributes games, but now that the pendulum has swung the other way, boxed copy PC games are starting to look a whole lot more attractive again.
