In todays world there are plenty of ways to get games (and other media) from the developer to you. You can go to a shop and pick it up, or go order a copy off the Internet or even get it digitally via the wonder of the online space. Right.. So. What is the future of game distribution and how will it affect and effect our way of getting them, keeping them and playing them?
The old way.
You go and buy a game with box and a manual and everything else that might ship with it. You know like special editions or pre-order bonuses or whatever. The game is now yours. You can keep it forever and play it forever provided your console/PC (as with OS'es progressing and making old games hard to either run or install and those kind of problems) don't die on you or you fuck up the disc or whatever media they use in the future. So far so good right?
The new way (sort of).
You get your game through a download service such as PSN, XBL, Steam, GOG and whomever else does digital distribution. You put in your details and that and hey presto a little while after you're playing you newly acquired game without even so much as farting in physical effort. In other words, It's brilliant!
So far so good. Choices! Options!
Now I'm going to argue the pros and the cons of both these forms of getting your gaming needs met and a pondering of the future of such distribution.
Buying on physical media:
Aright, you go buy your game at a proper shop, you know one within a building and with clerks and everything. You pay your money (usually 40-60$/399-599NOK/30-50€) and in return you get the game you want. In a nice little box with the extra stuff the publisher put in with it. Great! It's yours forever and you can play this thing til you die an old man or woman if you so desire. And you can show it off, take it with you to friends places and give them away or trade them(though that's a total rip-off if you ask me) in for other games.
So far all is good. But wait! this also means that there is extra cost involved in getting this game to you. Cost that could go to making gaming better and might lead to more game developing companies surviving. And also costs that keeps games expensive to you the consumer.
Buying digitally:
Now you go into the online space to get your game. You put in you personal details and payment option and make an account and all that jazz to prepare for shopping. You find your game, pay, download and Todd's your uncle. You didn't spend money on transport to get you to a from the shop, all you did was sit comfortably at home (some other location) and got the game delivered to you directly and stored on your media of choice (memory stick, harddrive, solid state drive, phone etc.) and you're playing and having fun. And you probably saved money too. (10-15$/50-100NOK/8-13€).
Good stuff right. Publisher don't have to pay for replication, disc and manual (and extras) manufacturing and and the money can instead go to the licence fees and such and then more money goes back to the developers and you know everyone wins right? Well not so fast! What about owning your game you payed for. So far digital distribution isn't full ownership. Why you ask? Well here are a few reasons why. First of all you can't take this copy over to a friends house and do what you like with it, no more trade-in and having a collection to show off. Secondly you are at the mercy of these distribution companies to have access to it in case of corruption of you games, your PC needs reintalling or you change PC and such, you know bad luck. And what about the future, you might want to go back and revisit your old games but holy crap! The service went down and you can no longer access it. In essence until these distribution companies can guarantee you lifetime access to your games you bought, you're just leasing them for a unknown time-frame, might be 2 years it might be 10 or such.
The way I see it, if full digital distribution is the future, then new standards in storing and accessing your purchases must be established.
1) Price of games must drop along with other DLC (read:addons) 2) Storage must be a lot cheaper 3) Distributors service/servers maintained forever. to ensure you access to your purchases for a lifetime. (you bought it you own it so only fair) 4) In case of distributor going bankrupt or discontinuing their services the prior customer base must be sold off (with proper protection of personal information and that end of the business) to a new one to maintain proper ownership. 5) a swap-games option must be enabled to be able to gift someone a game or simply swap games to have more games played (and this would also eliminate piracy a lot as people could just swap games between them on the fly). 6) country borders and treating different regions differently must die a horrible death.
These are my thoughts on the matter.
Curious to hear your thoughts.
