Slashdot Mirror
ESA Pushes Broadband Adoption
A story at CongressDaily points out that the Entertainment Software Alliance (ESA) is busily lobbying for policies to spur broadband adoption across the country. "Opportunities to play games online and download games and game-related content from a range of legitimate download services help drive demand for broadband, the Entertainment Software Association said in a briefing paper sent to President Obama's transition team. 'We're the only form of entertainment online that's interactive — movies and music are linear.' Gallagher told CongressDaily. 'We're very pleased with the president's strong embracing of broadband deployment as a high value goal for our country.' The $6 billion-plus in broadband funds in Obama's economic stimulus package was a good start, he added. Gallagher's group also supports efforts to free up wireless spectrum as gaming moves from PCs and plasma screens to handheld devices."
'We're the only form of entertainment online that's interactive â" movies and music are linear.'
Reading slashdot is a form of entertainment, that's online, and interactive. But it's not a game. Right? Right???
Online distribution, like Steam, is only feasible with large transfer pipes.
Clients do not want to wait to get their games, and when you have 10 GB of data to download (as it was the case for the Orange Box), it is only practical with a high-speed broadband connection.
Given all advantages of online distribution for game producers (prevents resale, lower distributor margin compared to physical sale, no need to manage inventory, etc.), it is easy to understand that they want a favorable environment for it.