Game Distributed Online Forgoes Publishers

KrackHouse writes "A group of developers from Black & White got together and used their bonuses to fund a project called Live For Speed. This online racing simulator uses the Internet as its distribution channel exclusively. No retail stores carry LFS and you need to use PayPal or a credit card to buy it.vIf this is successful will game publishers go the way of the RIAA and face irrelevance? LFS is much less expensive than a typical boxed title and if it ends up becoming a profitable venture more devs will surely jump on the solo bandwagon." It'll be a long time until this sort of thing becomes more common, and there's still a lot of consumer reassurance that comes from buying something in a box and having the disc laying around. It's a nice case study for what will inevitably become the way things are done, though.

Comments

This is nothing new

[Tuxinatorium]

Ambrosia Software, Inc. has been exclusively using this distribution model for its excellent line of mac shareware for 10 years, (somewhat) successfully. They're not exactly becoming the next microsoft, but they're not going out of business either

hmmm

[i8urtaco]

I don't know about everyone else, but I like having my install CDs available. I'm the type of guy that has reinstalled Windows a bunch of times for one reason or another (mainly becuase I'm anal retentive about my system), and I hate having to enter the Product ID for each game on every reinstall, let alone having to download a mega-huge file and having the publisher have a shifty eye pointed at me because I do a complete overhaul every 6 months or so.
And yeah, yeah.... I know... I'm planning on eventually doing a Ghost image of my machine so I don't have to do this every time.... it's just going to take a huge number of CD-RWs...

What matters most: PRICE

[MBraynard]

Typical Price of a new game: $50
Price of this game: 12 lbs (~$18?)

Assuming this isn't a crap game (and often enough those $50 games are), this is the price you can expect to pay when you wipe out all the expenses of the box, the disc and jewel case, the instruction booklet, and the cut that everyone along the way gets.

So that means that even with the developer making a profit along withthe distribution bandwidth, they cut the price of a game by +60%.

Given how many stupid Xbox games I've bought, I hope that Phantom is able to have games similarly cheaply distributed using this same model. And considering it's a closed system, maybe it's the only fool-proof way to distrubute games this way.

put under the xmas tree?

[Splork]

how do you put this under the xmas tree, wrap as a birthday present or give to someone without good internet access?

all of those are reasons for retail boxes. if a publisher would wake up and not demand exclusive rights, they could sell a happy retail box of this for $10 more than the online version.

Re:put under the xmas tree?

[The_Listener_1985]

you could always burn it to a disk and put it into a CD case, but then again, that seems like the definition of "Tacky". Good point.

Comparing Game Publishers to the RIAA is silly.

[Elwood P Dowd]

See subject.

Sure, they finance and ensure the marketability of a product, but they're occasionally cabable of quality and innovation. They haven't tried to arrest the majority of their customers yet, either.

Making games cost money. Game publishers have money. They'll be around for a while.

Huh?

[OneFix]

Next thing you know they'll be telling about this "new thing" called the GPL... It's Shareware, and it's been around a lot longer than the internet.

See there used to be this thing called Mail (No E at the beginning) and when ppl used floppies (that's the slot in your PeeCee that you never use) they had Public Domain collections (Like Fred Fish for the Amiga). And some were freeware and others were shareware...like, oh Castle Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, etc (ID Software distributed via shareware for a long time)...

And why this game? There 's a much better Open Sourced game called Racer...and unlike this game, it's available for Linux...

My guess is this KrackHouse guy probably has a stake in the company...

Honestly, Racer just looks better than this...

Re:Huh?

[paulcammish]

And why this game? There 's a much better Open Sourced game called Racer...

Possibly because with LFS if you go flat out down the road, and crash into the wall, you don't go flying into the air, thru the scenery, and then thru the floor into a void..?

Or maybe beacause theres opponents to race against, either AI or on servers the game can find for you?

Or it might be that the keyboard controls (once you work out how to use they keyboard) arent entirely digital, so when you press the left cursor to turn, you dont instantly get full left lock, generating wheelspin and smoke..?

Or maybe just because the car doesnt handle like the road is made entirely from marbles..?

Honestly, Racer just looks better than this...

Yes. That would be with Super-Open-Source-O-Vision(TM) then? Because its free, it must be better.

Well, ive just tried both, and where Racer may look very slightly better with the single bland car and sparse track, LFS actually has some detail in its surroundings and cars. Maybe the cars have fewer polys, but the game looks better as a whole.

Racer is a good start, it looks rather good, but isnt fun, and thats what games are supposed to be. As a simulation, it doesnt cut it - dodgy handling, bad controls and some very suspect physics.

A good start, tho - let me know when its finished. Ill be paying my £12 for a finished game until then.

Yes, £12 (US$20) Not that much, is it?

No publishers?

[Mike Hawk]

Thats a laugh.

Who do you think pays the developers while they make the game? Very few developers are in a position to publish a game without any outside funding. Web-based games are cheap to make, but does the world really need another Bejeweled rip-off? Who is going to pay for the 3 year development of a game and the engine license in the first place?

Then lets talk quality control. Its the publisher who does the QA. Now I know we all have different opinions about how well that works, but it is something. Along with quality control goes support. Who is to say there would even be a serious customer support webpage, let alone a call and email center?

Patches? See above for cash. Once the game is out the amount of money earned is basically set. The chance of extended support with patches is even more unlikely.

Broadband support is not ready. If you don't believe me, look how the Counter-strike population shot up once it became a retail product. That was a free game in the first place, but since it was a huge download it didn't REALLY blow up until someone could walk into a store and buy it at retail. Broadband is spreading but its just not there yet. Is a couple thousand units sold enough to justify making a top quality game in the first place? Enemy Territory was recently released and even at the delicious price of 0 it only has less than 8000 users online at a time. Assuming TEN times that many have downloaded it, that is eighty thousand units. 80k units at $50 each (yeah right for an online buy) = 4 Large. Blizzard (chosen because I could easily find the info) has about 150 employees. The sales from that game would earn each employee an average of 27k per year. For exactly one year. They definitely need a larger base than that, even given the well rounded up and generous numbers.

Then there is the physical product itself. There are so many questions there. Sure, I can make a backup copy once it is downloaded, but what if there is a problem with the download? Can I download it again for free? Do I have to buy it again because there was connection trouble. Don't have to worry about that if I walk into Best Buy. If the CD is defective they will exchange it for the same title. No thanks, I'll take the box, jewel case, and paper manual any day.

Don't even think about publishers going away just yet. Wallstreet analysts will be the first to correctly predict that one.

Re:No publishers?

[Torvo]

Besides all the points Mike Hawk brings up, there are also the issues of end-user documentation and licensing. First the documentation. A lot of developers I've dealt with in seven years of being in the industry, have an incomplete understanding of end-user psychology, user interfaces and cognitive sciences. Usually, a developer's idea of "intuitive" works great if one is a programmer or an artist. Most people, however, are not. The docs -- user manual, read me file, whatever, is usually composed by someone not dedicated to the development cycle, but who understands the demographic from the marketing standpoint and the needs of that consumer. The American consumer, Joe Gameplayer in middle America is not as bright as most people would like to think. Make it easy for him to get the game, but someone has to make it easy for him to play it, too.

The second issue is that of licensing. In this racing game, or any other sports sim, the players who'll be interested in playing are usually also interested in some connection to reality. They want to race the cars they see on the streets, in the showrooms or on the NASCAR tracks. Are the developers also going to track the bureaucratic hassle of getting the images and names of all the licensors correct? My experience says not, but I am willing to be surprised.

Unless the developer groups want to take on these two issues, as well as the other ancillary bureaucratic ugliness that publishers take care of, don't count on the publishers disappearing anytime soon.

Re:product activation... (and other things)

[NetDanzr]

According to their FAQ, you need to be connected to the Internet when you try to activate the product, and you can get the activation code only from within the game. I guess it works on a similar principle as the new Microsoft activation codes.

That said, I'd like to point out that selling games on-line is nothing new. Wargames, my favorite genre, are now sold almost exclusivelly on-line, and there's lots of other independent games as well.

However, what most of the other games have in common is a well-designed Web site. Here, I can see about two thirds of the main frame, and there's no scroll bars for me to see the rest. If the development team is unable to do such a simple task as designing a user-friendly Web site, I'm a little sceptical about the quality of their game.

I've played it, it's good!!!!

[e2mtt]

All the comments about open-source, business models, etc, and no reviews? I downloaded the final beta bit ago- it is a very good racing game. You race street type sports cars, they handle very realistically, the online racing is quite good, the cars are customizable, there is a strong online community, and the whole game can be modded rather easily. If you like sports cars, this gives you a very good approximation of actually racing street-legal real cars. http://lfs.racesimcentral.com/ is the URL

Steam

[Pvt_Waldo]

http://www.steampowered.com

This is Valve's technology to perform this kind of function. Not only can it perform a licensing function beyond being a point of purchase, it has the advantages of being an automatic updating/patching system. Because it manages licensing it could be used for "trial" play of a game. Pay $1 to play for a week. Decide if you like it. Pay the difference to buy it forever else your license expires. A risky proposition - but only for those that make crappy games.

Valve

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

Valve (creators of Half Life et al) is doing something similar. Theyre currently testing something called Steam.

Steam lets you download a game you have access to(meaning, subscribed to from steam once the test ends. currently its all free) and play it on the fly. You only download the sounds/maps/textures that are about to be used, so the download time isnt too bad. It caches also, so after the first time you dont notice it as much. This is helping them betatest the new version of Counterstrike much easier, as they can push updates whenever they want and fix minor things without having to wait a few months to release another patch.

While the Steam system works great, Its scarey to think it will enable pay as you play style billing. Who really wants to pay $.50/min to play counterstrike? (example figure, again its currently all free, and in the future they'll start it with comparable prices as a one time fee, but you have no garuntee thats all they'll use it for).

The upside is of course Valve no longer needs a distributer so being bought out would be up to them. This is nice in the face of all the vivendi buyout rumours you see every few months.

Re:product activation... (and other things)

[Frac]

If the development team is unable to do such a simple task as designing a user-friendly Web site, I'm a little sceptical about the quality of their game.

Yeah.. there's this open-sourced kernel called "Linux", and I heard the developers don't even maintain an official website. I bet the quality is even worse... [/sarcasm]

Works with Winex 3.1-1

[Zemrec]

It works great using Winex 3.1-1 on Gentoo Linux 2.4.20 and Nvidia 43.63 drivers. Just thought you'd like to know. The only glitch is some weird transparency issue when shadows are enabled where the wheels can be seen through the car, and the track is transparent in the rear view mirrors. You can disable those options though.

Very cool, I might just buy it.