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drmlessgames: I've heard that Europe is the big pc game market nowadays, both for pc game owners and studios.

Confirmed, at least for the German-speaking area, and has been like that ever since I'm playing PC games (around '93, '94), Although in general, game shelf space for both consoles and computers was reduced drastically. Some large general retailers and electronics stores in Switzerland have removed games altogether or reduced space, any over the last couple of years a lot of game stores closed down. But where games in general are still being sold, the PC usually has more shelf space than any other system (bigger boxes, wider range of genres, many budget releases, compilations, ...)
Browsing and spontaneous purchases are still possible here. Although I'm sure on-line shopping is making it very hard for retailers. Not just because of the ease and comfort, but also because of the prices. If I want to buy a new PC game release, I often save about 50% when buying from Amazon UK instead of a local store.
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drmlessgames: I've heard that Europe is the big pc game market nowadays, both for pc game owners and studios.

That might be true, but it doesn't really change the nature of retail outlets in this country. TheJoe summed that up nicely.
Even in the USA PCs is dead in retail, I stoped long ago going to stores, I just buy my PC games online from Amazon.com or Gog and Steam.
The last time I went to Gamestop here they had a SMALL RACK of PC games, they werent even the latest releases. However unsurprisingly despite being 1 year or 2 old, those PC Games were still Full Price. I couldnt help but laugh, I can get most PC games that are a year or two old for almost 60% off online. I think Retail stores purposely kill off their PC Gaming sections.
This is how all the boutiques are now it seems. One dusty shelf featuring games from five years ago. At Xmas when I need buy gifts, I'll do the boutique shop and trade in some used for a discount on new Wii games for the chi'ren. For Games for Windows for the adults I must go to the bigger department store for they never have the current games at the Gamestops, etc. for PC.
Those shops are silly. They might stock an obscure Atlus title or something for the console, but when you ask for it everyone in the store has been playing your game, so you're buying it used at full price. And when you go there to pick up the mainstream game on the release date they look at you like "It's SOLD OUT you didn't reserve it?!?!" all while the Department store in the same plaza has hundreds of copies, while their shop orders to their tastes but they push them like its the standard.
"Specialised" gaming stores are no longer the place to find PC games.
If you go to an EB Games here in New Zealand you'll be lucky to find a handful of PC games shoved into a corner (mostly MMOs and old Blizzard compilations), but if you head over to Dick Smith (a general-purpose electronics chain) the PC games have a huge shelf presence--similar to the Xbox 360's--with what seems like most noteworthy releases from about Civilization IV onwards, as well as shovelware compilations in rotating racks nearby. Their online selection is even better, still listing the likes of Age of Empires III and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
It baffles me that a general electronics store or department store can have a better selection than a dedicated gaming store, but that's the way it is.
It's like that with the game speciality stores I've seen here in Australia. A few random kids games and various WW1/2 genre shooters dumped in a corner. Over time, the amount of shelf space is getting less and less.
Oddly, Harvey Norman has a decent collection of old & New stuff, with the same amount of space as the various console systems.
I've not purchased, at retail, a PC game since 2007. Between various DD services and a few online shops, it is just not worth bothering with anymore.
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Navagon: Or you could buy it online...
Retail is dead. Apart from the occasional 2nd hand bargain, the only way to get anything gaming related at a reasonable price is to buy it online.
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Rondel: Well, it's not dead in Poland (and probably other central Europe countries + Russia).

Was going to post the same thing. Retail here is still a lot cheaper then digital downloads.
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Arkose: "Specialised" gaming stores are no longer the place to find PC games.
If you go to an EB Games here in New Zealand you'll be lucky to find a handful of PC games shoved into a corner (mostly MMOs and old Blizzard compilations), but if you head over to Dick Smith (a general-purpose electronics chain) the PC games have a huge shelf presence--similar to the Xbox 360's--with what seems like most noteworthy releases from about Civilization IV onwards, as well as shovelware compilations in rotating racks nearby. Their online selection is even better, still listing the likes of Age of Empires III and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
It baffles me that a general electronics store or department store can have a better selection than a dedicated gaming store, but that's the way it is.

It's because Gamestop makes all their money on used sales, and there are no PC game used sales, so they shun the platform.
Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart in the US all have good sized PC sections. That said, I buy all my games from amazon.
Oddly it's these same brick and mortar stores that seem to have little to no interest in the PC market that publishers blame for enforcing high digital prices.
I don't buy PC games in stores anymore, even though there's a well-stocked shop in the city I live in. I buy everything digitally; Steam & GoG completely covers my PC gaming needs. The only exceptions right now are CEs, in fact mainly Blizzard CEs.
I do however buy console games almost exclusively in stores.
So that probably means I'm part of the problem.
Retail in general is all kinds of pathetic here in Dublin. Things you'd think wouldn't be so unusual turn out to be totally unobtainable, except for maybe two shops an hour and a half drive out of town in either direction that *might* have what you need, but might not - but you'll never know without actually driving down and rooting through the shelves yourself, because even if the phone number works, the shop assistant will just tell you whatever they think it will take to get you off the phone so he/she can get back to counting ceiling tiles. Oh, and they're only open until 5p.m. on weekdays.
That was a fun rant. :-P
Anyway, yeah. I stopped even bothering to check retail shops for PC games years ago.
To be honest, I still prefer retail versions of games, I still want physical objects rather than digital versions for just some bucks less.
That said, retail PC games are dying, but not because people don't want them anymore, but because companies want it, because they can make a lot more money with it.
Difficulties to find second hand retail PC games? I don't think it the store's fault, I mean a lot of retail games you buy now are to be tied with a serial number, or a platform as Steam, directly when you use it, and so can not have a second life after that.
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DarthKaal: Difficulties to find second hand retail PC games? I don't think it the store's fault, I mean a lot of retail games you buy now are to be tied with a serial number, or a platform as Steam, directly when you use it, and so can not have a second life after that.

The death of retail PC games can be tied in directly to publisher use of DRM. Game stores make huge profits on second-hand games but with the PC the second-hand market is non-existent in most countries so it's in the retail store's interest to promote software that will be sold back to them which they can resell for higher profits. While the blame is often thrown at game retailers they are simply following good business sense. It's the publishers that have forced their hand by destroying the second-hand PC market.
Weird thing is that the EB games here is actually pretty good for PC games, not the largest selection but a good half or 2/3 of the number of console games and pretty up to date
Odd thing is I'm the opposite of stonebro, I buy PC games locally (when not online) and console games from a good english place on ebay since even with a poor exchange rate and shipping costs its still cheaper than buying locally
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Summit: Was going to post the same thing. Retail here is still a lot cheaper then digital downloads.

What about online stores shipping retail copies of games?