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It was here, but it seems to just have a "Coming Soon" message up.

Into Networks has developed technology similar to what Valve is doing, and has been selling it for a while. A few sites offer software streaming using Into's technology; the offerings at EB1, Disney, and RealArcade are powered this way. In fact, when EB1 rolled out their site a year or so ago, it got a story on Slashdot (though I can't find the link to it at the moment)

and they have been for nearly a year now.


http://www.eb1.com

This looks very similar to the streaming software technology developed by IntoCenter earlier this year. Electronic Boutique has made some interesting titles available through the IntoPlayer. I gave it a try a couple of months ago and it seemed to work quite well - although it only works on Windows 95/98/Me. The other odd thing is that it installs a SCSI controller into your hardware configuration; I suppose that is how they create an encrypted file system.

Personally, I think this concept is great - there's nothing I hate more than spending $60+ on a game and finding out that it sucks. However, I wonder how long it will be before someone cracks the encryption?

>>One thing about obvious solutions is that if they're so obvious to you then they were probably obvious to others. Once you consider that you have to think about -why- they didn't use such an obvious solution.

After posting, I discovered that Into Networks (the provider of EB's streaming technology) certainly appears to be using this obvious solution:
"To enable you to play the latest graphic- and video-rich software titles without interruption, EB1 buffers bandwidth-sensitive data before launch."

>>In this case the reason why not is obvious, too.

You're not very polite for someone who seems to be wrong. (Sorry, couldn't resist saying that.)

>>Now, consider how much processor time it takes to run a game with it's AI and all that craziness. The load on the servers would be terrible if they had to run those parts of the game onserver all the time!

This statement is wrong for at least two reasons:
[1] You are assuming that Into Networks is making extremely bad decisions about which code to buffer (which I doubt, since buffering is their business). Basically any function that doesn't run frequently or require extremely low latency could be executed by the server. For example, the specific movements of Unreal bots would be determined on the client, while their long-term strategy could be calculated on the server. Anyone attempting to crack UT would need to reverse engineer the bots' decision-making through observation alone.
[2] You are severely underestimating how powerful servers can be. There are already websites that carry out extremely complex algorithms in real time for each and every visitor they receive. For example, Amazon uses pattern matching to produce individualized buying recommendations. MapQuest calculates complex driving directions (and creates custom maps) in a matter of milliseconds. Secure online transaction processing is extremely CPU intensive, yet e-commerce sites can handle thousands of transactions per second. Thanks to clustering technology and SMP, it seems that anything is possible.