If this also counts, for the pretty brief period I had a NES clone and/or (not sure of the overlap anymore) a ZX Spectrum clone, before the first computer, there was one cardridge (Road Fighter) and a few tapes dad got, but I had no say in it and no idea where he got them from or how.
Then, since I think all the other games received around that time were just floppies copied or loaned from others, nothing paid even to a "pirate", the first money spent on games were to a guy with a tiny shop under some stairs somewhere, selling Epic shareware for the price of the floppies.
Then came the period of paying a "pirate" dad knew. When my parents would be all right with getting me another game, he'd ask that guy for a list of what he had, I'd pick and he'd buy it from him. I (well, dad) did get Arcanum on that guy's recommendation though, not something I picked myself, and can only thank him for it.
Then, the first legal purchase was Heroes of Might and Magic 4, in 2002. Though it wasn't actually money spent, since the store I had ordered components from had delayed sending them for 2 months due to not having the CPU, and by the time they did have them the prices had dropped significantly, yet the invoice was still for the initial value, so after letting them know we were quite aware of the difference they agreed to add more products to the order, with a total value equal to the difference (well, it was a bit more, and that extra was paid on top of the invoice value), and the game was among those products. Was the only way I could get my parents to agree to a legal purchase anyway, and at least my mother continued to be baffled by this strange concept of paying for something you could get even for free (warez sites and even file sharing was starting to be a thing, albeit on dial up speeds it took a looooong time), or at least for little more than the price of the CD(s) from said "pirate", repeatedly told me she won't get why I'd want that.
Then it was only in 2007 that I next (or in fact I first, actually) purchased some more games legally, also retail copies of Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights: Diamond, and the Planescape: Torment and Soulbringer bundle (only way I could find PS:T). The order also included Wizards & Warriors but the store said they didn't have it, saying as if it was a normal thing that they can't be expected to have everything they list on their site as available...
Then, still retail, Risen in 2011 (added to an order for an UPS, seeing that it was just the amount needed for free shipping). And the last retail ones, Fate of the World: Tipping Point (from a hypermarket) and the Divinity Anthology (from a game store with a physical location - made the order on-line, they had advertised free shipping as a Black Friday deal, but then said shipping will be added after all, and it wasn't even too far, so I decided not to argue and just go there and pick it up myself), in 2012.
This doesn't count a few editions of a gaming magazine which I picked up over the years, before they went out of print, just for the included full game.
Since then, from the end of 2013, when they introduced Paysafecard support and I could actually get something from here, it's been GOG alone. Increasingly bitter over it starting shortly after I could start purchasing, with the "good news" of Feb 2014, but... Definitely won't be touching any on-line stores with DRM (or mandatory clients, for those who bafflingly insist on saying that's something different), and the other DRM-free ones sadly don't support PSC or offer any other method I can as readily (or at all, really) use without cards, bank accounts or giving personal payment information.

I'd say that my biggest total spending over the years I've been buying games is still retail games. I still occasionally buy them but the well has been drying out slowly but surely.

Then it would definitely be GOG. Although I already own most of what I'd want from the catalogue so it's now mostly just potential new releases or a big discount on something.

I've never spent a cent in any other digital store directly (don't even have a payment method set up) and yet, I have 89 games registered on Steam (boxes that required registration with a couple of free ones).

A few on Origin too, but those are mostly free games from the time they still had their "On the House" thing going on.

Same with Epic, free games only.

-- Physical new but not for many years now.
-- Physical used in 2nd hand shops but you must take care that they are not tied to a service as the discs are then useless.
--GOG.com

Nowhere else, nothing else*. The very few games I have on Steam, that I have paid for, I bought as 'physical' in shops.
I have considered buying some games straight from the various independent developers' own websites but I cannot remember having ever actually done so.

* Oh, I forgot: I used to pay for RuneScape straight to the developers when the original owners still had it. I quit paying ten years ago and made an account here... :-)

Germany has always been a large market for games, and it has a long tradition of dubbing movies and TV shows (and in international comparison, at a very high level). So there is little acceptance for watching/playing stuff in "foreign" languages. Kind of sad.

Foreign language skills are also (and probably because of that) rather weak in Germany in general, if compared to our direct neighbours like Denmark, Switzerland, Poland.... A vicious circle. People don't watch/play in English, so it get Germanised (because the market is big enough), people learn less English, because - what for?

Actually Netflix and the pandemic are things that may bring some change, because dubbing work has been delayed, and people are forced to watch stuff in the original languages with subtitles - or wait.

So when I first started getting games I was young and naive and this was pre internet. There was this flea market store full of boxes of 3 1/4 floppies for a buck each.. now I know they were pretty much all shareware.. so commander keen etc... also got a little disk that was called a demo which I thought was for a upcoming game.. nah it was demoscene.. still freakin' awesome.. crystal dream 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLMUfBikxTY so yeah 1993 I was 10 and now I feel old.. nowadays it's mostly steam or gog if available.. of course gog connect has been quiet of late....

But this makes learners of German happy! :)
At some point all games started being localized in Italy. I played LOOM in English, dictionary by my side, and could not understand a word from the tape with the story drama. Following that, Monkey Island translation (text only) was very good. Things were fine until the CD-ROM format forced to add mostly very bad Italian dub to games. Sam & Max Hit the Road had funny voices that were enjoyable, but I could not stand the DotT dub to the point I had to mute it. I remember Blade Runner having a good Italian dub!
My main problem with that is that you couldn't choose the language, you were forced to Italian.

I started buying games on floppy and later on CD, then DVD. Until the Steam malady crept in and most hard-copy games sold were infected with Steam DRM. That led to a drastic reduction in the number of my game purchases. Since I only buy DRM-free games.

Then I discovered GOG and my purchases increased a lot. I bought a lot more games than I can play here, just to support the movement. Well, now that that is over, I'll get my games on zoom-platform, itch, gamejolt and occasionally humble. Or sometimes directly from the devs, either by buying directly from them, if that's possible, or by backing interesting Kickstarter campaigns - if they release their game DRM-free.

I had a Playstion 2 by the time I purchased my own games. Due to the PS2's backwards compatibility (my PS1 also stopped working), I also bought PS1 while it was still in circulation. I often by from retailers and occasionally from online sellers. I prefer physical copies whenever possible. My interest in mainstream games have waned over the years, thus my collection got smaller with each console generation.

I only bought a handful of PC game discs. My PC at the time could barely run anything. By the time I built my new PC, all my purchases have been digital. GOG is primary source, but I also have games on itch.io. Killer Instinct is the own only game I bought from the Microsoft store thus far.

I'm looking into for more digitial distribution sites, but it seems like slim pickings if I want to minimize DRM.

My parents had a NES clone console, so that's where I started. My childhood console was the SNES. I got a N64 after that but didn't like it very much. That's when consoles sort of lost me. When the PS2 launched I got a PS1 used. Then bought a PS2 when the PS3 launched and then stopped buying consoles altogether.

My earliest PC gaming experiences were in the mid 90s. I believe the first PC game I bought was Day of the Tentacle, the floppy version. Played a lot more demos and shareware versions than full games back then.

In the 90s Brazil had companies like Brasoft, who would localize and launch PC games here. They didn't do any dubbing that I know of, just translated in-game texts and manuals. Nowadays, these companies don't exist anymore.

The first digital PC game I every bought was Fifa 12 on Origin. It may sound crazy, but Origin was selling games in local currency years before Steam and GOG. Then I began to play some games on Steam and when Fallout was given away in 2012 I joined GOG too.

I mostly use GOG and I prefer it because I like DRM-free, I like booting the game from the Start menu, not using any client, backing up installers, etc., but if I want to play a game and it looks like it isn't going to be available here I'll get it elsewhere. Like Dark Souls, for example.

That's my story.

to upgrade your account

Yes. ;)


EDIT: It looks like I got necro-tricked.

I remember GOG has recruited a cleric to banish all necromancers. He should show up soon and lock this thread. Until then, here is a temporary dispel spell you can cast on any undead posts.