What was the first downloadable game you bought on PC?

An article on PC Gamer asking the question What was the first downloadable game you bought on PC? got me thinking about my first foray into downloading (bought) games rather than getting a physical copy.

The first downloadable game that I bought was Trine. I bought it while it was on sale on Steam. Looking at my Steam purchase history I see that that was back in June 2010 and the game cost me $4 which was probably around R30 at the exchange rate back then. I think this was when I got a bank card that could do online purchases.

What was the first downloadable game you bought on PC?

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For me I think it was Peggle/Zumas Revenge/Bejeweled etc on the Popcap games site.
Before I got onto steam.

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Well, Quake 2 seems to the first game I bought on my current Steam account back in June 2011.

I had to create a Steam account in 2004 when I bought Half Life 2, but couldn’t remember the details from back then, because the internet wasn’t really a thing for me back then. I think we still had dial-up.

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Seems for me it was Eve Online in 2012. I preferred physical discs for the longest time

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This is the first one I can remember but there might have been a game before this.

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It’s difficult to tell on my Steam purchase history, because I know I used to activate Steam keys before actually buying directly off Steam. My first purchase on Steam’s store was GTA IV: Complete Edition on 1 April 2013… I was a console gamer for quite some time before that after quitting gaming for several years during my studies.

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I’m not sure if this counts as a purchase, but I bought an ATI card back in 2004, and it came with Half-Life 2. But since it wasn’t released yet, they gave a copy of Half-Life as well. Both redeemed on Steam.

I signed up, and redeemed my codes, so I guess my answer would be Half-Life.

I remember thinking “I don’t want this crap! Just give me a disc!”

My how things have changed.

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I still had bloody dial-up and HL2 was pretty big, took me a couple of days to download.

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Mine was Shred! Downhill Mountainbiking on the 11th August 2015

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This. My brother and I got the boxed set in 2003 just after it released. We didn’t have internet at home and even though the game could be played offline, you had to activate it online, which meant taking the PC to an iCafe. Wow. Can’t believe that was 15 years ago…

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What a good topic, but I honestly cannot remember.

If DLCs count, I bought a bunch of PMDG add-ons and Panel Editor for MS Flight Simulator 2004.

I may be wrong, the the first full on game may have been Battlefield 4.

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According to steam “Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Retail”

Sounds about right, i remember having to have to go to an internet cafe to download it as we had capped internet at home at that time.

We bought the key retail, but was activated and downloaded via steam

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Remember when you locked the keys in the car :smiley:

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Mine was the Half-Life Complete pack back on 21 Dec 2011. This is also the reason I got steam. I was looking everywhere for hard-copies of the games, but just couldn’t find it, so as a last resort, I bought it on steam.
I wasn’t really keen on buying downloadable games, but I really wanted the Half-Life series.

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According to steam it was Magica in 2011, Somehow I doubt it tho. But I cant remember what it was. Might have been WoW of all things

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That’s a good point. I had Star Wars Galaxies in 2003. The initial install was off CDs, but it was constantly updating…

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Valve’s gamble of locking Half-life 2 to Steam definitely paid off.

I think I created my Steam account when I bought the Orange Box (physical copy).

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Papers please. 2014.

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I THINK, I might be wrong. But it was WoW when it was released and I bought the Box in France.
Or CS Source

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