Digital Distribution and the Future
Some exciting things have happened on the digital distribution front in the last few days.First, DQ reader Eric Higgins-Freese let me know that beginning December 15, the brilliant game Darwinia will be available via Steam. I've written about Darwinia several times this year, but it is a stunningly distinct and beautiful game. One of the best PC games of the year, it just never found an audience in the U.S., and hopefully distribution via Steam gives it another chance.
Second, there was the announcement of some of the details of the Xbox Live Marketplace. Microsoft, at least conceptually, is doing a brilliant job with the concept of a marketplace. What they're doing, at least nominally, is combine the no hassle functionality of a console with the diverse range of content and one-offs that are traditionally associated with the PC.
I didn't quite understand what they were doing two months ago, didn't quite understand their vision. Now I do and let me say this: the vision kicks ass.
Here is a sampling of what you can download on day one:
--free game demos
--additional game content
--Xbox live arcade games, including classics (Joust, Robotron 2084, Smash TV and Gauntlet) as well as games from smaller independent developers (Wik: Fable of Souls, Outpost Kaloki, and Zuma among others). All Xbox live arcade games can be played via free trial before purchasing.
--HD music videos and film trailers
Game demos? That's fantastic. Classic Midway arcade games? Also fantastic. Games from smaller independent developers? Also also fantastic.
I didn't realize this fully until now, but Sony's absolute lack of a centralized online strategy is going to significantly hurt them in the U.S. Xbox Live might have been Microsoft's best executed strategy in the current generation, and Sony's refusal to counter is just going to let Microsoft widen the gap exponentially in the next generation. Big, big mistake.
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