@coolboymew
Target has a similar policy right?

@Monadwill no idea, we only had Target in Canada for like a year or two max, also never worked in any of these

@coolboymew as a side note, I think it's interesting how some stores will open up in America and then close down and will only be around in Canada or vice-versa. I know that's what happened with Toys-R-Us

@Monadwill apparently Toys R Us is doing ok in Canada, strangely enough

But yeah, Target was a massive failure apparently, which I'm kinda pissed at because it was the first video games "buy 2 get 1 free" deal we've ever had here

Otherwise, honestly, it was just an unremarkable Wal-Mart

@coolboymew @Monadwill The one thing that Target had over Wal-Mart was that they had a much better PC game selection. Wal-Mart usually only had the bargain-bin, jewel case only, shovelware crap.

@xianc78 @Monadwill PC games in store are somewhat dead here

I don't see them in EBGames (Yes, they aren't Gamestop), I don't see them in Wal-Mart either. I think only Best Buy (and FutureShop in the past) and Bureau En Gros/Staples has them

Altho', I remember wanting a legit copy of Incredible Machines: Contraption in store, as my parents did not want to order online, and never finding it, so I had to go ahead and pirate instead

@coolboymew @Monadwill I was talking about back before digital distribution. Physical copies of PC games are dead everywhere outside of collector's editions and usually only indies bother with them.

Back when physical copies were still relevant, the big boxed games were usually sold in either higher-end stores like Target or electronic stores like Best Buy. Stores like Wal-Mart had a bunch of bargain-bin crap. Usually, they were full versions of WildTangent games, but if you were lucky, there will sometimes be a budget, jew-case only re-release of a AA or AAA game much like how Nintendo had their Player's Choice program.

Eventually, publishers decided to forgo big box PC games entirely and resorted to using standard DVD cases (or in EA's case big DVD cases) just like with console games. I guess they did it so stores like Wal-Mart would sell them at a much affordable price.

Looking back on it. This was all because PC gaming was always a niche market up until the release of Steam and it was not guaranteed that the game you purchased would work on your computer and stores would probably be bombarded by tech-illiterate parents demanding refunds. That also probably explains why these budget title games had both Windows and Mac OS binaries on the same disc. Hell, the first time I ever heard about Linux was from one of these games because it also had a Linux binary on the disc.