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Downloading Games Not Just For Pirates
1up is running a piece entitled Digital Delivery, which looks at alternate distribution models for new titles in the here-and-now of fast download speeds. They cover outfits like Steam and GameTap, in addition to the ever popular Xbox Live. From the article: "Steam's birth came with some controversy, though. It was only in late 2004 that this happened, but if you missed it, a brief explanation might be in order. When Valve decided to embrace digital distribution, they didn't do it in half measures. The retail version of the game that shipped to stores was more like a formality to appease Vivendi Universal Games, Valve's megalithic publisher: for $50, gamers got a box containing five discs inside a sleeve. If players wanted a manual, they had to refer to the PDF version on the disc, and the irritation at this was nothing compared to the real bombshell."
Oh, you mean how it took four fucking hours to register the damn game, AFTER 30 minutes of installing it? Yeah that was a damn lovely suprise. Bravo Valve, for leading the way on mass frustration of customers. I'm sure Blizzard wouldn't be nearly as good at it as they currently are, without Valve's trailblazing efforts. Now what was that comma... oh yeah: /golfclap
Here's hoping digital distribution gets 'figured out' before it gets 'fucked up' (again).