The Wester Front
11/29/2010

The Digital Distribution bandwagon

Nothing changes, everything is new

As we enter Cyber Monday – the day our industry has adopted as it's own “Black Friday”, I felt the need to muse a bit about the state of purchase patterns in the industry.*

Yet to be confirmed by Valve, a research firm concluded the other day that Steam grossed $73.1 million in October alone. When speaking to an industry colleague who stated that, “when digital distribution takes off we will see a totally different market structure,” I must ask whether you must have been living under a rock for the past two years to miss that the change has already happened. We aren't expecting a revolution; we're living in the middle of it! Adding new platforms to the mix (tablet PCs, smartphones, Facebook and more) means we’re in for some exciting times, indeed.

In brief, I would attribute the success of PC digital distribution to the following:

  • The willingness of publishers to sell all games (Triple A as well as indie) day and date with retail release, as opposed to console who have capped both game size and prices online
  • Superior catalog compared to consoles
  • Flexible pricing opportunities
  • Direct feedback between gamers and between download sites and their community

Adding to this, the big PC digital distribution platforms are owned by independent companies who can make decisions with a different agenda than the big corporations.

The “giants” are, as always a bit late to the show. GameStop claims “the first ever pre-order exclusive bonus item” for the upcoming Halo: Reach DLC release. To be accurate, it should say “the first ever pre-order exclusive bonus item for downloadable content from GameStop”. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but doesn't it seem a bit desperate that the President of the company is commenting on a pre-order bonus item... for a piece of DLC, no less?

You do still have advocates of traditional retail, such as industry analysts Interpret who claim that the “Game Industry Shouldn't 'Overreact' To Digital's Retail Threat.” While the analysis might be correct in itself, the only thing keeping the retail sales numbers at current levels are the lack of Triple-A titles on PSN, WiiWare and XBLA.

Anyone else hear the clock ticking?

Fred

 

PS 1: Don't miss some of the great offers on Paradox games this Cyber Monday/Week on various platforms.

PS 2: Playing Majesty 2: Monster Kingdom this week. These Ratman heroes are great! And yes, I'm still on the 22nd Siege server in M&B Warband every now and then under the nick “Skinngubben.” Watch out for a Nord Archer with a bad attitude.