Big Publishers to Distribute Online First, Ship to Shelves Second?

wtgamestudios.gifWildTangent 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]


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


One response to “Big Publishers to Distribute Online First, Ship to Shelves Second?”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *