Apple »

Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

February 20, 2012 – 12:39 pm | 3 Comments

Tiny Diggers has just been released on the iPad and soon the Mac computer. Here’s the details on this fun, educational game from TouchTilt Games.
Tiny Diggers Delivers Learning With Construction Trucks For Kids on the …

Read the full story »
Home » Articles

The dark side of digital distribution

Submitted by on February 15, 2007 – 10:00 am5 Comments

manifesto.jpgWe’ve heard a lot of theories that the next consoles will not use discs or cartridges, instead opting for download-only options. It’s especially relevant considering the distribution system that Virgin is creating. Manifesto has an article discussing the cons of the digital distribution.

Currently, each of the major consoles has an online shop available, but they’re limited to smaller games and add-on content, with the “real” games only being available at retail. But if digital distribution becomes the norm, companies will be able to keep more of the sales money for themselves. Retailers won’t get a cut, and it would also eliminate the costs of storage, manufacturing, shipping, and packaging.


Currently, everyone involved in game sales – retailers, publishers, console manufacturers, and developers – have some say in the process. But to cut out retailers would skew the system somewhat – to quote the article, “The publishers may depend on the manufacturers’ approval to get their games to market, but the manufacturers also know they need support from the publishers to ensure that there are enough good games for their platform to make it a success. In other words, the publishers, manufacturers, and retailers jockey with each other for a degree of control, and that kind of contention is what makes for a reasonably free and open market (if not as free and open as I would like).”

“What we’re talking about, in essence, is vastly increasing the negotiating leverage of the console manufacturers–in the first instance at the expense of the retailers (by eliminating them), and in the second instance at the expense of publishers. If publishers depend on manufacturers not only for dev kits and product approval, but also for access to the only path to market for a particular console–their negotiating leverage is vastly diminished.”

So instead of freeing us from the retail market, it would make the game industry more powerful, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. As the quote from the article above shows, it would reduce the free market somewhat.

And we can’t forget the most common arguments against digital distribution – will hard drives develop sufficiently large storage sizes, fast enough to store all our games? Even on broadband, games can take hours to download. Many of us are proud of our shelves of games with nice boxes and a bit of art in the manuals. Digital games can’t be sold used or traded in, and usually, download-only games never go down in price. I am happy with the way it is right now… just develop larger-capacity discs and maybe figure out some scratch-proofing.

  • http://www.farbot.com/ Paul

    This is an angle I don’t see often. I forget that the publishers can dictate content to some degree.

    The darkest side of digital distribution for the consumer is no retail price competition and no used game sales.

    When you can only get it from the console online store, you must pay their price. No Wal-Mart sale, no Target sale, no Circuit City sale, no Best Buy sale will let you get it for less, period.

  • Goose

    Sure, used game sales will no longer be viable, but do you really think there won’t be any more 20%-off sales? I’d tend to disagree. If you envision a game market wherein everything is online, you’re going to have console makers all trying to scoop each other on prices to make people more likely to buy their consoles.

    Just look at Steam. They have sales every now and then, titles get cheaper over time, and they pop up new bundles for older titles whose sales have slowed. So, there will still be price fluctuations and incentives to get you to buy, but they’ll be in a different form, because the market will be in a different form.

    At least the games industry is attempting to embrace the online age, instead of fighting tooth-and-nail against their customers in order to maintain their existing business model (hi music and movies).

  • http://www.cephyn.com cephyn

    “And we can’t forget the most common arguments against digital distribution – will hard drives develop sufficiently large storage sizes, fast enough to store all our games? Even on broadband, games can take hours to download. Many of us are proud of our shelves of games with nice boxes and a bit of art in the manuals. Digital games can’t be sold used or traded in, and usually, download-only games never go down in price. I am happy with the way it is right now… just develop larger-capacity discs and maybe figure out some scratch-proofing.”

    Where do I start?
    1) need HD space? Burn off your game.
    2) Yeah it takes a long time to download. Then again, if you’re re-downloading, you should have burned your game to cd/dvd. if not, how long does it take you to go to the store to buy the game and grab a bite to eat? it’s really not that much different. just set your computer to download overnight, or while you’re out doing something else….you do go out and do other things, right?
    3) nice manuals can be in PDF format. You want it on paper? go print it at kinkos. yes it costs money – but hopefully you saved some $ in the first place by digital download. and if you order things online, you saved on s&h.
    4)you’re right, no nice boxes. point for you. then again, i keep books and dvds on shelves – not game boxes.
    5)download only games do go down in price, especially if an expansion is released.
    6) yes we need better scratch proofing. but if worse comes to worse, you can just re-download the game. If i scratch my cd that came in a box – then what do i do? seems to be scratching problems are a digital download advantage…

  • http://www.farbot.com/ Paul

    cephyn wrote:
    “6) yes we need better scratch proofing. but if worse comes to worse, you can just re-download the game. If i scratch my cd that came in a box – then what do i do? seems to be scratching problems are a digital download advantage…”

    At some point your access to the title will be revoked. Case in point? I recently bought the latest update to my antivirus system online and the digital distribution company asked to tack on five bucks as protection money, as in “Dis is a nice download. I’d hate ta see sumtin happen to it.” protection money.

    You see you can download the program for I think it was 30 days, but if you want to get it again after that, you’re out of luck and will need to buy it all over again. Unless ya pay de five measly bucks for some peace of mind. Then you can get it for I think a year. (Which for antivirus is fine.)

    Now revocation of license could happen sooner, say, for titles that won’t play without online license authentication every time you want to play them online or offline. Remember that time Xbox Live stopped letting people play Gears for a few hours?

  • http://www.consolecolors.com Kat

    Cephyn-

    1) That’s assuming there is no copy protection that restricts you from burning the game. And game consoles don’t come with burners yet.
    2) Again, see number one. Also, downloads can get corrupted, or if something happens (the power goes out, your Wifi dies) you have to restart the download from the beginning.
    3) The point here is having something tangible.
    4) So you collect books and DVDs… some of us are proud of our game collections sitting on the shelves. Again, it’s tangibility.
    5) Yes, but not all games go down in price, which stinks.
    6) This was just me saying I was happy with how it is. It wasn’t a point towards the article.