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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?"

10 of 39 comments (clear)

  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. --
  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...
  4. 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'?

  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..

  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'...

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    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.

  9. 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