Has digital distribution made games cheaper? Uh, no. But lots of people thought it would. That’s not the only myth surrounding the digital delivery of games: the idea persists that selling your games online will be a way to get around the dominance currently enjoyed by big publishers in the bricks-n-mortar retail sector. Well, according to Mark Rein, that’s all a load of codswallop: Digital distribution is not a replacement for a publisher…They’ll be paying for marketing just like they do for positioning in a store. The big publishers are going to own the front of those online stores.
Were I a small-time developer, that would be terribly depressing, but since I’m not, I will admit it does sound like a fairly predictable scenario.
The good news? If you’re American, Ubisoft have just made available another batch of classic titles on Valve’s Steam platform, headed by Beyond Good & Evil, Brothers in Arms and a couple of Rainbow Six titles (the excellent Rogue Spear and Lockdown). The bad news? If you’re from Mexico, Brazil, Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, Greece, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea (and hey, North Korea too, why not), Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and everywhere else on the entire planet, you can’t buy them. What gives, Ubisoft? You too good for 6.3 billion people’s money?
Ubisoft Still Hates Most Of The World [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
Several Gamecock titles will be available for digital download through PC download portal GamersGate, starting with Stronghold Crusader Extreme in May, Insecticide in June and Velvet Assassin to follow in Q3, the companies announced today.
Gamecock demoed its lineup in more detail earlier this year at its EIEIO press event in Austin, Texas, where amid burlesque dancing, truckloads of Corona and lots of talk about Rollergirls, the developer seemed to want to show off its progressive vibe. Given that many are looking to digital download platforms for the future of PC gaming, it seems a modern-minded move for Gamecock.
CNET.com.au has just put an article up summarising the issues with Steam, game pricing and importing in Australia. We’ve covered them piecemeal in the past, from Activision, to THQ, to 2K Games, but there’s nothing wrong with putting the puzzle pieces together and staring at the big picture… even if it’s ugly as all hell.
The article gives Ubisoft kudos for being reasonably transparent, a sentiment I agree with. It still needs to get Assassin’s Creed on the AU Steam though.
While there’s not a great deal of new information in the piece, it’s an excellent read if you want a straight-up explanation of the local situation. Hit it up if you feel like romanticising about how often we get screwed.
Getting Steamed: digital distribution for games isn’t there yet [CNET.com.au] More »
You know how Atari and Ubisoft recently put up a huge catalogue of their games on Steam? Well, they’re for the US to enjoy, and only the US. Be it licensing issues or the huge price disparity, Australia, as well as every other country that isn’t “glorious” enough to be the US, is missing out.
While there’s little we can do directly, don’t let that stop you from join the Rest of World, or RoW, group on Steam’s community site. Hopefully the publishers will learn basic mathematics, take the number of members in the group, times it by the average price of their games available on Steam, and realise just how much cash they’re not getting by being, well, dumb.
Steam Group – Rest of World (RoW) [Steam Community] More »
Wowzers. It’s only been three and a half years, but developer Valve has announced that its content delivery platform Steam has racked up 15 million subscribers. What’s more, Valve adds that Steam-based sales have jumped 158 percent over the holiday season compared to the previous one. Very impressive — and encouraging to see PC gaming’s still going strong. Well, for Valve at least. Steam Reaches 15 Mil [Game|Life]
Steel Penny Games, an Austin-based indie developer founded by Naughty Dog veterans Jason Hughes and Andrew Gilmour, have announced to the world their acceptance into Nintendo’s WiiWare developer program, and are hard at work in delivering an original IP title for release later this year. Game details are sketchy, other than the fact that it will “blends a challenging puzzle game with dramatic fantasy environments and appealing characters.” I am guessing it might have something to do with Bruiser & Scratch in Case of the Puzzling Paw, a causal game already announced on Steel Penny’s homepage, though the description lacks any mention of specific platform. The press release mentions creating a new IP to span a series of games, and the “in” portion of the game title seems to indicate multiple episodes. With the company aiming for a Summer 2008 release, I’m sure we’ll find out what they’ve got up their sleeve soon enough.
WildTangent is home not only to a games development studio, but an online publishing platform as well. Companies such as PopCap, Atari and Reflexive already enjoy the benefits of WildTangent’s Game Console, an application installed by end users that allows them to browse and download titles provided by WildTangent and its affiliates.
Gamasutra has just posted the results of a recent fat-chewing with WildTangent CEO Alex St. John. Of note is St. John’s talk of getting more “big-name developers” onboard to distribute their games first via WildTangent, followed by retail shelves:
You talked about working with Vivendi to bring some of their games to WildTangent, and you also talked about how this is somewhat of an alternative to traditional publishing, but have you been working with any developers of large-scale projects, to be able to deliver them?
AS: Yes. We’re talking with a number of what you would consider “famous, big-name developers” for taking their content online. I think you’re going to find some big-name titles released for pure online distribution — as well as boxed titles released very quickly — in the next year or so.
So you’re talking about games that have never come out before in a box on a shelf.
AS: That’s correct.
There’s no doubt that online distribution has come a long way since the days of a prepubescent Steam, and more support from big publishers is only going to help it prosper.
St. John has quite a bit more to say, and you can catch the whole interview over at Gamasutra.
Q&A: WildTangent’s St. John Talks PC Distribution’s Future [Gamasutra] More »
Because when it comes to ambition, there’s no point in going in all half-arsed. Speaking with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Valve’s Gabe Newell has said he doesn’t want just a few games on Steam. He doesn’t even want a lot of games. Nope. Guy wants all of them. Every PC game, ever made, on Steam: Oh yeah, I expect we’ll go back in time and eventually pretty much every game that’s ever been available will be on there 24/7.
Every game? Ever? Even Privateer? Even Colonisation? Why not. Think I just made it abundantly clear there’s an excitable market for that old junk.
RPS Exclusive: Gabe Newell Interview [Rock, Paper, Shotgun] More »
Okay, this is a little complicated, so bear with me. StreamMyGame is a plugin for your computer that allows you to play PC games one one computer on another computer over your home network. Say you have a PC capable of running BioShock, but you want to run it on your laptop in the living room while watching your soaps. Yes, you watch soaps. StreamMyGame encodes the gameplay into a video stream so you can view it as a movie on your lower end PC, while passing your keyboard and mouse commands back through the network to control the game. Since the game is converted into a video stream, it also allows you to record movies of your gameplay in MP4 format, sharing it with others on StreamMyGame.com or setting it to Slipknot music and uploading it to YouTube. More »
