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Last week we looked at the lack of party cRPGs and the poll results seem pretty clear: we like a party! 43% of respondents liked recruiting characters, 31% wanted to create a party from scratch while 12.9% liked Fallout-style followers - all up that's around 88% that preferred a party, which speaks for itself. This week we take a look at the deficiences of retail distribution versus the drawbacks of digital distribution.
 | | Publishers often indifferent |
I love Steam. On the release day for Half Life 2 I fired up my PC, waited around ten minutes for Steam to do its thing and was off fighting aliens and Combine soldiers. To be fair, part of my appreciation comes from living in the antipodes, which combines great weather and easy-going people with game store shelves that lack a bunch of interesting titles. The idea of instant accessibility without leaving my chair is very appealing.
While Half Life 2 was widely distributed and purchasing online was a mere convenience, an alternative delivery mechanism for 2nd-tier titles is fast becoming a necessity. The current publisher-retailer paradigm just doesn’t reliably get niche titles on the shelves with good support: major publishers are increasingly hit-driven and retailers are (understandably) only interested in maximising the return on their floor space, compounded by policies where the only copies ordered are to cover pre-orders. As the flow of major cRPG titles sputters, RPG fans will increasingly have to look to indie and European titles for new entertainment.
Unfortunately, when these 2nd-tier titles are picked up in the English markets, they’re often handled indifferently. For example, most reviews of Boiling Point: Road to Hell noted some real potential, stifled by a lack of development time. On top of that obvious complaint, Atari did little marketing, didn’t have an official forum for some time and pulled the first US patch without any explanation at all. Rumours circulated the ‘net that EB Games had pulled the title because of problems – I am told this isn’t true but how many potential purchasers were scared away? Atari didn’t seem to care. Looking forward, the next Euro RPG to hit should be Metal Heart: Replicants Rampage, which Dreamcatcher recently picked up. During the week DC told me there would be no preview or review material sent out and most retailers I checked didn’t list it despite the impending release date – you have to wonder if it will even have a chance to register with gamers, regardless of whether it’s a good title or not.
Of course, it’s not as simple as sticking a finished title on the web – retailers act as a marketing mechanism by putting games in front of interested purchasers and publishers often finance games. What’s needed is a prominent internet publishing and delivery system that works and gamers are prepared to use – but we’re a long way from that, despite some inroads from Steam. There’s also that difficult hurdle of copy protection, with many gamers wary of authentication and Digital Rights Management issues.
Have you embraced digital delivery? Waiting for a better system or less draconian DRM? Happy with game retailers or prefer a boxed copy? Hit the poll on the left and we’d love to hear what you think about the future of game distribution. |
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Side Quest: Are we ready for digital distribution?
