Codies explains download-only PC F1 2010

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 21 September, 2010

"Appropriate to market observations."

Have you wondered why the PC version of F1 2010 is a digital download exclusive unless you've pre-ordered? Funny that. So did we.

Here's your answer: a Codemasters spokesperson explained the decision as "UK specific and appropriate to market observations of boxed versus digital distribution of PC titles".

"And it follows the game's US release, which is exclusively digital on PC," the spokesperson added.

In the UK the boxed edition of F1 2010 is only available if you pre-order it. With F1 2010's Friday release nearing, time is running out. But some shops, such as Amazon, are still taking pre-orders.

Codemasters' explanation of its strategy echoes the views of Championship Manager creator Beautiful Game Studios.

Earlier this month BGS boss Roy Meredith told Eurogamer the core PC Championship Manager series was "on hold" because of what he described as the ailing PC market.

"Sales are shrinking in that marketplace," Meredith said.

"I don't think boxed copy on PC is going to last much longer. It just feels like the boxed PC game is on its way out."

Meredith said PC users were smarter about how they shopped - choosing digital distributors like Steam or the EA shop or the Eidos shop over high street retailers.

"Because of that we've seen retail almost ignore PC.

"I was in GAME at the weekend and I couldn't believe how little there was. I saw a game, Bus Magnate I think it was, and I thought, 'Wow, is that what the PC market has come down to?'"

Over the weekend Kinect head honcho Kudo Tsunoda set the internet ablaze when he told Game Informer: "Hardly anyone plays first person shooters on the PC anymore" and insisted "it's all about the console".

A recent report from US sales tracker NPD claimed that during the first half of 2010 digital downloads of PC gamers far outpaced those from shops.

Commenting on the trend, NPD's Anita Frazier said: "The overall decline of PC games when combining sales via both digital downloads and physical retail sales is impacted by the expansion of social network gaming as well as the continued expansion of free game options."

Or, blame it all on Facebook.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • cheeky_pete #1 2 years ago

    Still no excuse for the use of GFWL

  • ZizouFC #2 2 years ago

    And the poor souls who don't have an internet connection? Their money not good enough?

    All this talk of PC gaming being dead - These people seem to be TRYING to kill it.

    /from South Africa - land of the reasonably slow interwebz.

  • Toothball #3 2 years ago

    Steam has been a large factor in my conversion to digital. I've bought loads of games digitally that I would never have noticed in a shop, so now reports like this I have no complaint about as I'm not so concerned with owning a disc these days.

  • urban #4 2 years ago

    I'd be happy if PC gaming pioneered 100% digital distro. However, I can see how it could become a big problem for those gamers living with shitty nets
    Edited by urban at 21/09/10 @ 15:28

  • Darren #5 2 years ago

    I'm glad I pre-ordered my PC copy from GAME last month then because I'm not a fan of Steam's pricing even though in this case (unusually) it's only a couple of quid more due to a 10% pre-order discount. Still there's no substitute for having a game on disc IMO as it makes it far easier should I need to ever reinstall it and digital downloads really should be cheaper since there's no disc, case or manual costs involved.

  • Darren #6 2 years ago

    Also... I think GAME are very keen to kill off digital distribution of games because I noticed earlier that while the PC version of F1 2010 was a reasonable £24.99 (if you pre-ordered that is as it is no longer available), the download version is an astonishing £39.99!!! Who would be insane enough to pay that anyway? :o

  • Machetazo #7 2 years ago

    Is the market shrinking, or are publishers deliberately shrinking the market?

  • butler` #8 2 years ago

    @Machetazo

    It's retailers rather than publishers IMO. Go into GAME and look at the distribution of shelf space. What takes up the most? 9 times in 10 it's probably pre-owned games. What doesn't the PC platform have? A second hand market.

    Digital distribution will superceed and out live bricks-and-mortar retail not just on the PC, but on consoles too sooner or later. The only place you'll be able to walk in a buy a game is a supermarket, and probably only major releases being sold as loss leaders.

  • Earlyflash #9 2 years ago

    So, why is it so much more expensive than every other damn PC game? Greedy fucks.

  • bad09 #10 2 years ago

    Seems silly to me as many are still overly paranoid about DD. Personally I didn't noticed as 27 off Steam was quite reasonable so preload ready and waiting. So is the wheel. COME ON FRIDAY!!!!

  • Darren #11 2 years ago

    Did anyone buy Split/Second for the PC by the way?

    That was a digital exclusive and it really pissed me off that it was never available on disc because I'm sure if it was it would have cost me £24.99 not the £39.99 I had to pay to buy it digitally. That game was never even released on Steam either in the UK to my knowledge, somewhat bizarre considering the game was made by a British developer! Makes you wonder how Disney expected to make any money from the game on the PC by limiting its distribution channels but then the hiked up price probably compensated for the reduced sales!

    Anyway, the point of that post was just to say that I find the idea of exclusive digital downloads somewhat worrying personally because it will undoubtedly lead to higher prices rather than lower ones. After all if you can only buy your games from a limited number of sources then what's to stop them charging whatever they like for games? At least with retail and online stores you have competition driving prices down.

  • IkariW #12 2 years ago

    Well the Market better get used to DD pretty quickly, as its the way its all going to go I'd say.
    First Pc, then consoles to follow suit... well, next generation of consoles, This generation is just testing the water.

  • Machetazo #13 2 years ago

    It's another inconvenience. That's why I, myself, don't like the PC DD model, and particularly, the mandatory proprietary "platforms". I don't see why I should have to muck around with all of it, having multiple tabs active, when what I want is to play games I'm keen to check out, and believe I'll enjoy.
    I believe that Steam, and its ilk, are in direct opposition to switch on, play, as it can be. They stand as a barrier to my game. There's no need for it. Anything I want to do for a game (updating, etc), I could do just as well, with a download from the pub's site, without that.

  • Miths #14 2 years ago

    "Meredith said PC users were smarter about how they shopped"

    Personally I blame laziness and convenience - and my own at that, since I almost exclusively buy PC games on Steam these days. While they regularly have some pretty good sales, new games are typically priced higher than I could get them for if I bought disc versions.
    Never underestimate the impact of laziness and convenience :).

  • thiagodeath #15 2 years ago

    I prefeer to buy the digital copy, and i will always do this. This market keeps growing, as we can see the impact on Starcraft II release a while ago.

  • Machetazo #16 2 years ago

    Darren: Did anyone buy Split/Second for the PC by the way?

    Not after THAT demo, lol! It never made it to retail, huh? After what I played, I almost forgot there was a PC version, and just focused on console. Even if it wasn't representative, what were they thinking, there? Diablo 2 would hang its head to be seen forced to be seen in that resolution, and quality!
    Edited by Machetazo at 21/09/10 @ 15:37

  • Phishfood #17 2 years ago

    So what will they do with the unsold retail copies?

  • Miths #18 2 years ago

    @Machetazo
    "I believe that Steam, and its ilk, are in direct opposition to switch on, play, as it can be."

    That's the exact opposite of my opinion. Buying my PC games on Steam is vastly more convenient than buying disc versions - through all steps of the process, from gathering info about a game to the purchase and installation over patching and eventually uninstallation.

    The only area where boxed games still win in my opinion are on price, as digital download services are unfortunately still overpriced (but not so much that the benefits, for me, don't outweigh having to pay a little extra, though I would obviously much prefer not to).
    And of course if you're on a slow connection or have bandwidth limits digital downloads might not be a great option either, but personally I can download even the largest multi-Gigabyte whoppers on Steam in an hour or less.

  • altitude2k #19 2 years ago

    People say about it not being fair for those without an internet connection, but at what point should we consider that an issue? Nobody complains about it not being fair that people aren't able to play games because they don't have a power supply. I think the cut-off point for expecting that people who want to play games have an internet connection is coming soon.

    More than 75% of households in the UK are now connected to the internet. How many of that last 25% of people are going to be gamers? Then how many of those are PC gamers? I can imagine that number is very small indeed.

  • neilka #20 2 years ago

    "I saw a game, Bus Magnate I think it was, and I thought, 'Wow, is that what the PC market has come down to?'"

    Don't let him near the Wii section.

  • bad09 #21 2 years ago

    "People say about it not being fair for those without an internet connection, but at what point should we consider that an issue?"

    Within reason I agree. However, games SHOULD work without connection I lost connection for a few days and Steam offline mode went crazy and asked me to go online to get offline. That meant no access to games I paid for which is wrong.

    Let's not go into the Ubiscum farce.
    Edited by bad09 at 21/09/10 @ 15:56

  • Macdory #22 2 years ago

    Well there is no way i'm paying for the rip-off prices on Steam (UK) - so I guess you don;t want my cash ... fair enough !

  • Sevens #23 2 years ago

    "Meredith said PC users were smarter about how they shopped - choosing digital distributors like Steam or the EA shop or the Eidos shop over high street retailers."

    "Smarter", huh.

  • Haue #24 2 years ago

    As long as people continue to download hacked versions of a game, publishers will try to find other ways to make sure that they get their money.
    I don't play many games, but the ones I do I buy in a store. So what if they are a little more expensive than digital download, the shop have to pay mortgage and pay their employees.
    If the publishers convert to only releasing the games on digital download, it will lead to increased prices because of less competion..

    There's only one way out of this... Buy the games in your local shop...

  • Darren #25 2 years ago

    @Machetazo - The Split/Second PC demo was admittedly a disaster not least because like the PURE one before it you couldn't change ANY graphics settings so the whole thing ran at a resolution of 1280x1024 at what appeared to be the low-medium settings. Not a great way to see how it runs on your PC really. If it put you off the full game that I'm not at all surprised because it nearly did me until I read more positive comments on the forums I visit.

    The price was downright nasty though but if I'd bought it on the 360 or PS3 it would have cost me the same so I bit my bottom lip and bought it. I don't regret it either as it *is* a great game actually but it's sad that the PC version got such poor treatment by Disney here in the UK where I suspect its sales were dire. Still paying that is hopefully the last time I have to pay that amount for a PC game!
    Edited by Darren at 21/09/10 @ 16:37

  • kenbrilliant #26 2 years ago

    Blame it all on Facebook while clicking the Facebook thumbs up icon at the top of the article.

  • thelzdking #27 2 years ago

    I am very annoyed about this. I have a slow internet connection and, more importantly, a very low download limit. If I bought this game from Steam I would probably have to incur charges from my ISP to download it. Moreover the way they didn't make the situation regarding the PC version of the game clear until very recently rankles me greatly.

    I also get a bit annoyed when people post things like "why can't people just accept digital distribution is the future - I don't see why they need a boxed copy". These people are too short-sighted to see that digital distribution is fine in principle but not in practice for some people.

  • neems #28 2 years ago

    Well, there's virtually no market in second hand pc games anyway - I have seen a few, but I would hesitate to buy them in case there was a problem with cd keys / activation.

    More importantly, as Jim Morrison up above said, monthly bandwidth limits are extremely common in this country. Plus the millions of people who have slow connections - personally I have a half meg connection, which can download at an almighty 56 kilobytes a second. Fine for actually playing games online, not so much for downloading them. Still it's not as if F1 2010 requires 12.5 gig... oh.

    Or even if Codies had actually announced, in advance, what the situation was. I always use Shopto, but I was waiting to see reviews and opinions. Once they started coming in, I decided to order it and hey presto, Shopto were out of stock, all preorders stopped.

    Even if pc games are dead on the high street (my local GAME has a two shelf wide chart section, plus another two or three shelves of back stock and special offers, plus dozens - if not hundreds - of budget titles in various price ranges, it's not bad at all) I'm willing to bet they're not dead through online retailers, who can get your pristine boxed copy delivered to your door on or before the release date for less money than the high street OR digital download channels.

    Of course moaning on EuroGamer won't cut it - we need to moan on Codemasters own forums.

  • Anciegher #29 2 years ago

    I'm just hoping LG will ship me the game...uncertain if my bluray player's ID went through their system :S

  • secombe #30 2 years ago

    Considering you can't visit the USA without accessing the internet now, I would say we are well past the point of that being a factor to not go down the DD road.

    Download limits, however, are a different matter. A single game download would breach many peoples limit in the UK.

  • placebo1960 #31 2 years ago

    Downloading sucks.

  • IneptPercy #32 2 years ago

    Will just have to wait until the £5 steam sale then...

  • immateriaux #33 2 years ago

    Kind of wonder a little here about the "chicken and eggs" side of things with this - my local game store had PC games shoved off down into the back corner long before Steam became a force at all. It constantly used to piss me off wandering around the store looking to see where they had moved the PC section to this week, all the energy went into Playstation/Xbox stuff and offers to re-sell your second hand copies of said console software.

    BUT. Like others here. I'm ceasing to care these days. Steam/Impulse etc works where I am so it will do. And some of their cheap sales are decent. Should I move - which I may do soon - to a place without decent broadband (which is very possible in the backward little dump of a country I live in) then I'm fucked. Probably have to buy board games or some such. Or remember how to play Spades and Hearts with a real deck of cards. Oh! And make actual, not virtual, friends. Nearly forgot that. Sounds bloody miserable.

  • GrandpaUlrira #34 2 years ago

    But what if the digital retailer goes bust? Don't you lose the ability to authenticate the games, and therefore can't play the games themselves?

  • Somenetdude #35 2 years ago

    Darren, whilst you're correct about digital downloads should be cheaper, but what you say about having the disc is easier isn't exactly correct. I see this being said on a number of times about Steam, how people would rather a disc when it comes to reinstalling. You see Steam has a back-up function in the Steam menu called Backup and restore game, with that you can backup your game to a number of formats, best choice would be to back up to an external hard drive, may even keep your progress in the backup but not 100% certain as it's been a while since I reinstalled a backup. What i will say is that there should also be an option to buy the game on dvd as these days a lot of isp's tend to throttle your download speed or you're limited the amount of data before becoming throttled. Some games are at least 4gb to download, that's fine if you're on some 50mb connection with unlimited download, but the vast majority aren't. I don't know what thel download limit is for your average ISP's typical package is, guess around 40gb per month is a typical middle of the road package. Now for me I like a variety of games, so there's a lot that appeals to me, right now I'm looking at F1 2010, Civ V, Dead Rising 2, then Football manager 2011 coming up as well as MOH and a couple of other shooters. Downloading all those is going to eat into my download usage, I can of course buy most of those on DVD with the exception of F1 2010 which could be a worrying trend. Infact this isn't good for those companies that are going to persue this digital only rout for AAA titles because if I've reached my limit for download usage then I'm going to be throttled and as such I wont be downloading much till next month so that means no purchase, thankfull those other games are on DVD so atm it's not a major issue.
    Edited by Somenetdude at 26/09/10 @ 22:11

  • gtmty #36 2 years ago

    just don't buy it and they'll have to do a proper release with a logical price.