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Atari, ToEE, And P2P Distribution For Games?

Posted by simoniker on from the try-before-you-buy dept.

Txiasaeia writes "In a very strange turn of events, it seems as if Kazaa (and only the 'official' Kazaa, not any of its non-spyware derivatives) is offering a copy of Atari's new PC RPG, Temple of Elemental Evil for download. What makes this particular case unusual is the fact that, once you download the 6-hour time-limited 'demo', you can unlock the full game for $49.95. While Steam has been doing this with Counterstrike, Kazaa is footing the bill for the bandwidth for ToEE, which makes it one of the first times that a major game publishing house has embraced a P2P client as part of its official distribution network. Is this latest move by Atari an attempt to garner media attention (especially with the RIAA and Kazaa in the news), or are they seriously embracing P2P as a legitimate source for game distribution?"

39 comments

  1. Sweet! by MImeKillEr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's based on TSR's old module by the same name.

    --
    Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
  2. The torrent by Apreche · · Score: 4, Informative

    The bit torrent is 10,000 times better for this sort of thing. Nobody who knows better will go download the spyware laden official kazaa just to get this demo. But just about anybody will get the torrent if they don't already have it. And the torrent works better for this sort of thing, since it is a one time extreme popularity explosion.

    --
    The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
    1. Re:The torrent by torpor · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I admire bittorrent, but I have such a very difficult time ever *finding* anything on that network.

      How do you handle this? Surely a 'google of torrent' application would be *The* next killer Internet thing?

      Also - I'm a DSL user, can I become a bit-torrent node easily enough? I'll run whatever OS I need to be able to serve my own bittorrent stuff ... as an artist, nothing could be better or more worth the effort!

      --
      ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
    2. Re:The torrent by Dot.Com.CEO · · Score: 1

      There are A LOT of sites out there with bittorrent links. Search google. I don't really like BT,it totally saturates my bandwidth since I have a very asymetric connection...

      --
      Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
    3. Re:The torrent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try out Bit Torrent Experimental. It lets you control how much bandwidth you want to devote to transfers. That's something I really wish the standard BT client would adopt. I appreciate that they want to help distribute files, but I need to use my internet connection for other purposes as well.

    4. Re:The torrent by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 1

      BitTorrent isn't a network; that's why the concept of searching it doesn't make sense.

      The Google of BitTorrent is Google. Of course, sites serving illegal content via BT may not want to be indexed by Google.

  3. Not a bad idea... by bjb · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Frankly, this is good not only for P2P by showing a legitimate use, but also for the company distributing the software. First, the company can host it in one place and foots the bill for the bandwidth doing that. Next, someone downloads it to their machine. As long as the consumer keeps the download on their machine (which probably happens more than expected), future downloads can be made from that person's machine, using that person's bandwidth instead of the company's. Quite a good plan, actually. If anything, the company at least saves some percentage of download bandwidth, since at least a handful of them will not be on their bill.

    If this proves successful, it will only help keep P2P around for a lot longer than the RIAA could hope.

    --
    Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
    1. Re:Not a bad idea... by Roshin · · Score: 1

      A good idea in theory, I suppose, but let's see how long it will be before the unlocked version of the game pops up on Kazaa...

  4. How is it locked? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gotta be a file or regkey or something.

    WindowsWasher should be able to find the difference.

    1. Re:How is it locked? by Jiles · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Apparently it also lacks some resources, such as movies and music and buying it gives you access to the rest of the resources.

      Is it just me, or does it seem a bit odd that Atari are charging full price? Surely they'd be able to pass on the savings they're making on the packaging to us. (Good god, what an awful sentence). *shrugs* I guess at least you won't have to deal with the SecuRom problems that some folks have been having. More than likely Atari trying to shaft the consumer again, can anyone spell 'paper-fucking-CD-sleaves'?

    2. Re:How is it locked? by Snowspinner · · Score: 1

      can anyone spell 'paper-fucking-CD-sleaves'

      Apparently not. =)

      I've got to wonder about this, though... did people learn nothing from id's putting their entire catalogue on the Quake 1 discs?

      --
      Philip Sandifer's academic website
    3. Re:How is it locked? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I learned something! Now I can use QCrack. I'm 1337.

    4. Re:How is it locked? by ymgve · · Score: 1

      You must have another version of Quake than me. My CD contains only Quake and nothing else..

    5. Re:How is it locked? by Snowspinner · · Score: 2, Informative

      The original shareware Quake 1 CDs had the full version of Quake, the full versions of Doom, Doom 2, and both of the id-made wads of Doom 2, and I think it had all the Wolf 3D stuff as well. You were supposed to buy access codes from id via the phone to unlock any of this.

      Needless to say, the effect was to make easy-to-pirate versions of their entire back catalogue - instead of downloading the whole program and disc images and the like, you had to download a much smaller cracking program. =)

      --
      Philip Sandifer's academic website
    6. Re:How is it locked? by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 1
      Apparently it also lacks some resources, such as movies and music and buying it gives you access to the rest of the resources

      Secondhand knowledge, but if you purchase it, the email you are sent gives a link to download the music and videos as a separate file from (afaict) Atari's servers direct.

      Presumably you'll need a confirmation key to install that stuff into the other downloadable one.

    7. Re:How is it locked? by DarkZero · · Score: 1

      Is it just me, or does it seem a bit odd that Atari are charging full price? Surely they'd be able to pass on the savings they're making on the packaging to us. (Good god, what an awful sentence). *shrugs* I guess at least you won't have to deal with the SecuRom problems that some folks have been having. More than likely Atari trying to shaft the consumer again, can anyone spell 'paper-fucking-CD-sleaves'?

      That right there is the greatest argument against the digital distribution of retail games. Unless there's a significant drop in price, there's no reason for me to waste my time and bandwidth downloading the game for a few hours and then risk losing my $50 game in a hard drive crash instead of just driving down to Electronics Boutique to get a physical copy of the game. Most gamers that aren't (and don't have) children rarely lose game CDs. You just put them on your shelf and they're there waiting to be reloaded unless you have a fire, which occurs far less frequently than a hard drive crash or worm infection.

      Until somebody offers their brand new game over a P2P service for $15 less than Best Buy's and EB's prices for the physical copy, I'm sticking with the physical copy.

  5. 1 2 3 profit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    1. Download game
    2. play for 6-hours, set clock back 6-hours
    3. PROFIT!

  6. Correction by emj · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Steam is not a P2P application, it is a way for Valve to control which game you have installed and which games you are allowed to play on the internet with. When SteamBeta was released the first time (~ yr ago) it maxed out the 700Mbps it had allocated, and now when stable they maxed out yet again. Compare this to f.scarywaters.com statistics where the slashdot crowd alone managed to get it to 1.4Gbps (the double) in less than 3hrs... Now P2P certainly isn't the solution for commercial vendors, but for amatuers sure..

    1. Re:Correction by G1ZM0 · · Score: 1
      Not yet anyway

      FISKER_Q: you've said you wanted P2P in the steam, is that going to be a reality?

      greg_coomer: Right now we're wishing it already was a reality... down the road it probably will be.

      halflife2.net

      BT is the way to go. Check out transfer on the full installer 1+TB

      gametab

    2. Re:Correction by emj · · Score: 1

      Yeah but seeing how little steam they are putting behind this application, it will take a REALLY long while for us to reach that milestone. They should just use BT, that would be wonderfull.

  7. New? by Rutje · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Isn't this what we've been calling shareware for the last decade??
    Nothing new under the sun...
    Hence it must be a commercial marketing 'jump on the RIAA/Kazaa/P2P shady legal bandwagon'...

    --

    I want my karma, and I want it now!
  8. KaZaA is a P2P program... by JonoPlop · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "KaZaA will foot the bill for bandwidth?" It's a peer-to-peer program; the users supply the files over their own bandwidth. KaZaA pays nothing.

    1. Re:KaZaA is a P2P program... by Txiasaeia · · Score: 1

      How do you explain, then, that you can ONLY get this file from Kazaa, and not Kazaa K++, Lite, or any of the other variations? It's because you're downloading from Kazaa servers -- believe it or not, they exist!

      --
      Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
    2. Re:KaZaA is a P2P program... by JonoPlop · · Score: 1
      How do you explain, then, that you can ONLY get this file from Kazaa, and not Kazaa K++, Lite, or any of the other variations? It's because you're downloading from Kazaa servers -- believe it or not, they exist!/blockquote It's really only available from the official KaZaA? If you want to distribute a file, why not make it as available as possible? And also, if there are official KaZaA servers, KaZaA / Sharman Networks must have agreed to put files on there in the first place, right?
  9. why Kazaa? by MORTAR_COMBAT! · · Score: 1

    Why not BitTorrent? If you want to offer up one large file for download, that would be my choice.

    --
    MORTAR COMBAT!
  10. I look at all these high bandwidth... by tmork · · Score: 1
    ... special releases of games recently, and I think.. "Uh, not everyone has broadband!" What about the rest of us who don't have the ablity to get a high speed connection at home?

    Dialup's painful enough, but add the fact that we're being teased by all these special promos and releases? I'm going to go find a sword to fall on now!

    1. Re:I look at all these high bandwidth... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I did it for the pr0n. promos and releases are just "valu add".

  11. Not that new by bfandreas · · Score: 1

    The idea for distributing the trial version of a game via P2P isn't that new. Actually ID did this with DOOM back in the old days. Then it was via the usual shareware channels but ultimately by swapping floppies. Only difference now is that we have an application layer protocoll for it. Way to go! It sure as hell worked in 1996!

    --
    20 minutes into the future
    1. Re:Not that new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's the most stupid thing I've read today. Heh.

    2. Re:Not that new by -Harlequin- · · Score: 1

      Possible correction: Doom was released Christmas of 1993.

  12. Only the 'official' Kazaa? by jafuser · · Score: 1

    and only the 'official' Kazaa, not any of its non-spyware derivatives

    I don't understand how they can limit it to only the 'official' Kazaa, since the non-spyware versions are just as much a P2P app as the official one?

    Either the parenthetical is irrelevant or the program isn't really being distributed by means of P2P.

    --
    Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
    1. Re:Only the 'official' Kazaa? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know Kazaa Lite removes the gold-colored DRM-enabled files from the file searches you run, so if the demo is one of those (which is likely), it will require the original Kazaa to download.

    2. Re:Only the 'official' Kazaa? by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 1
      Well regardless, people have been saying they can't find it on Kazaa Lite, even knowing the exact file name.

      The link in Kazaa proper is on the Kazaa front page, which is usually redirected to somewhere else in the variants.

      And if reading the forums is an indication, yes people are downloading Kazaa, downloading ToEE, uninstalling Kazaa, and running AdAware. But mostly it's the Euro crowd that won't get the game for another few weeks by normal means.

    3. Re:Only the 'official' Kazaa? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      wouldn't you figgure that a kazaa lite user could launch kazaa(normal) and get it and share over kazaa lite? thus giving it to everyone else?

  13. Try experimental client by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 1

    Do a search for the Experimental client, it has bandwidth limiting stuff if you so desire. Limiting your upstream will affect your downstream, but if it's killing your net one way or the other then whatever works :P

  14. Kazaa Lite K++ by Gunslinger47 · · Score: 1

    I downloaded it using Kazaa Lite. My friend gave me the URL that the official version uses for its homepage. I then took that and made it the default webpage of my Kazaa. I followed the link from the resulting page and the file began downloading. I'd like to note, however, that it took me nine hours to download a six hour demo. o_0

    1. Re:Kazaa Lite K++ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm still in the process of downloading, so i can't guarentee it works, but I opened the link from the post in kazaa lite k++, which caused it to start downloading. Didn't have to change webpage or anything, and I didn't have to install the spyware version either.

  15. Two Degrees... by failrate · · Score: 1

    Yeah, well http://www.two-degrees.com/ is a product I checked out at the Austin Game Conference and convinced my company to license for distributing large game files. While it won't allow people to share non-approved files, it does provide really fast and easy downloads of legitimate releases. It's supposed to be even better than BitTorrent, but we'll see about that when we actually begin distributing through it in October.

    --
    Voodoo Girl is the bomb!
  16. Super Mario Bros 3 Superplay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.emptylogic.com/suprnova/torrents/299/sm b3.torrent Bittorrent file for an amazing video of Super Mario Bros 3. It's pretty sweet, I'm spreading the .torrent link everywhere that I can.