I bought the Orange Box over Christmas Break and the process was flawless.

I'm a big fan of Steam now, and the Steam Community just makes it even better.

Absolutely perfect experience.

Atari also has The Witcher up on their download service as well.

I'm usually a bit of a laggard when it comes to new technology. I think I'm the last person I know who bought a DVD player. I just never see the appeal. However, I've jumped on the digital download setup easily. I never saw the appeal of having tons of boxes cluttering up my shelves. In fact, as soon as I buy a physical copy of a game and I install it, the CD gets put in a sleeve and the manual and box are thrown in the trash.

I already download all music available in that format, so games were just as easy to transfer to. Unfortunately a good amount of games still aren't available that way. I know plenty of people still hesitant to do it though. Worries about how some companies won't let you download again after a certain period. EA Link is the worst unless they changed it recently. You can't download it after six months AND they don't let you save it on a backup disc. The kinks are still getting worked out. Yes, there is concern that the distributor might go out of business, but you could say the same thing about the publisher of a physical copy, and/or you lose or damage the disc a few years down the line. I also like the growing appeal of downloading older games as well. Buying a 5 year old title off Steam is far better process to me than buying some scratchy disc off someone on email exploiting the rarity of the game with a high price.

The major drawback for me is that I can't resell the game on ebay if I buy it on Steam. That's a big loss if it's a game with limited replay value like Bioshock or Crysis. I paid $39 for Crysis and sold it on ebay for $30.

Other than that, I love Steam. It was the only way I could get Civ IV Beyond the Sword the day it released.

I used to buy games for the manuals, but now-a-days I only get collector's edition of a game that I want if I found out that it actually got good additional contents in it.

As for digital distribution the ones that I really trust and use are Stardock's Totalgaming Network, Steam, and Gamersgate. I tried EA's offering, but paying extra for the "privilege" to download the game after 6 month of the initial purchase didn't sit too well for me. As for the rest, I avoid like a plague because of the DRM schemes that they use...

I use virtual drives for my physical games that require disks, it makes things insanely easier.
The boxes are lined up in my dorm room where they sit as an homage to largest money suck of my life behind booze, games.

The Witcher download

This product is only available for purchase in North America.

I can't

I TOTALLY missed them doing that, I last purchased Battlefield 2142 from them and they didn't have that restriction

Same here.

If you buy something over EA link, it just downloads the same installer that you get on the DVD. Once it decrypts the downloaded file, you can go into its cache and burn it to a disk. Unfortunately you don't get a CD key, so the only way to reinstall is to copy the files you burned from the disk back into it's cache, and run the installer through EA Link. It's annoying, but it works just fine and it means you don't ever have to worry about their 6-month download restriction.

This brings up my biggest worry with digital distribution - completely losing my games because some obscure DRM company has gone under. Even if a disc has its own DRM scheme, it's still more likely to work than a game that has to post back to some distant server that no longer exists to verify that a digital download is valid - not to mention that if you happen to format your hard drive without backing up that digital copy after the company has gone under, that's curtains for that game.

I don't understand how anyone can be paranoid about that stuff anyways. Chances of a download service going under and there being no workaround are pretty slim, in my opinion.

Back in the olden tymes the only way in my country to play great games was by pirating. I'm in the habit of buying the games I liked back then partially as an atonement and also as a collector's items - I love the old games with thick manuals. Nowadays, only few games really have astonishing packaging, so I'm willing to go the way of digital download. I buy PC games only when there is no digital alternative or they are quite old and not available online. Also, some great games are download-only: expansions for EU III, Hearts of Iron 2, many great indies (Democracy 2, Steam Brigade), Gemoetry Wars etc.
That said, I still love game boxes, quality manuals, but they are rarely produced nowadays like they used to be. And I'm willing to buy only so many collector's editions a year to satisfy my hunger. Last time it was Dreamfall, boxed together with Longest Journey and an artbook. Nice pack, great games.

Yes, but I've read some comments and it's not a very good service.

I love Steam, even if the game selection sucks. Oh, and pray you never have a technical problem because good luck finding an official rep to help you.

I don't mind the "I can't sell my games" thing. If I really need to, I suppose I can sell my account.

I like seeing the little box sitting nicely on my shelf next to my other games. I think having nothing but used hard drive space to show for $50 hurts the wallet more.

Honestly that's one of my biggest complaints about steam, I wish it didn't force you to install on the same hard drive but it does so it just really sucks if you are running out of room on one hard drive and want to install the game on the other hard drive

o well though I hope that's one thing that they let you do eventually.