Reimagining Digital Distribution

By Jonas Jurgens / July 1, 2011 / Feature, Opinion / No Comments
    For many frequenters of gaming sites the topic in question is one that has been brought up many times: Is digital distribution the salvation of PC games? Probably, yes, but could digital distribution be taken even further? But in case you, dear reader, have just awoken from a decade-long cryostasis, here’s a recap of why such a preposterous claim can be made.It wasn’t written in the stars that fabled developer Valve’s digital game distribution service, Steam, would come to dominate the PC gaming market, with over 70% of digital sales, although it has lost some of its market share in the last year, according to a study by deals4download. It had a fairly modest library of games, suffered from some technical problems, in addition to being perceived as intrusive. Over the years the library grew, and now features most major new releases as well games from smaller developers. Other similar sites, such as Impulse, Direct2Drive and GamersGate have not received the same success, although a service such as GoodOldGames has managed to acquire some success on an otherwise merciless market by finding their own niche. 

    The key to Steam’s success and popularity can be found in four major factors. Firstly, it is an easy and manageable way to keep an overview of your game collection, which also prevents the annoyance one would feel if a game disc were to disappear. Secondly, it’s easier for the buyer to simply enter his credit card information and press purchase, than it is to go down to the nearest video game store and find a physical copy. Thirdly, there are regularly enormous sales on new games, making it more attractive for the consumer to purchase digitally than in physical shops where such sales are a rarity, This, according to Valve founder Gabe Newell, actually leads to increased sales, claiming that if they reduce the price of a game with 75%, their gross revenue would be increased “by a factor of 40”. Fourth, Steam was simply one of the first on the market and thus managed to catch many gamers early on, before the digital gaming craze began, partly because of them requiring Steam to register Valve games, thus reaping in a rather large crowd. In addition, it gives independent developers a platform to reach a broader audience side by side with major titles. An opportunity they would not have if they had to go through regular publishers and retailers. But while Steam is undeniable a great addition for the PC market, the film market has long been graced with the presence of an interesting service that ambitious newcomers to digital distribution should study if they wish to break the near-monopoly Steam has.

    You lucky Americans and Canadians have access to one of the most successful digital film distribution networks. Netflix. In 2009 it passed 10 million subscribers and according to the latest figures, 61% of all streamed films are streamed through Netflix, placing it far ahead of Comcast, with a mere 8%. Netflix works in a subscription-based manner, in which the viewer pays a fairly small fee each month and in return receives access to a large library of films. That sounds terribly nice, doesn’t it? Could such things exist in the world PC gaming? Video game rentals are nothing new, with a service such as Gamefly being quite well-known, although it only deals with console games, but nothing entirely similar to Gamefly and Netflix has ever existed for PC gaming. Wait, there is?

     

    Gametap was launched in 2005, and offers a wide range of games, from fairly new and of fair quality games to the downright cringe-worthy. Like Netflix it is subscription-based service, and gives the user access to hundreds of games, all for a relatively modest amount of money. Doesn’t it sound grand? Like a gift to the consumer? Then why aren’t we all using it right now? I wish I could attribute it solely to obscurity, but my trial period at Gametap was one of silent frustration. The menus were hard to navigate, slow to respond and the interface just seemed clunky and not very user-friendly, plus the amount of awful games was staggering. Also, I often experienced strange problems when downloading games, such as games simply disappearing from my download queue. That said, the games usually ran quite well once they were downloaded. When I tried to cancel my subscription, as you have to subscribe before you receive a free trial, it was agonizingly annoying and needlessly demanding way of doing so, that instead prompted me to just contact them directly through email, rather than a simple “end the pain!”-button. In my quest for cheaper gaming experiences I also tried Metaboli, a similar service which actually owns Gametap, and experienced the same trials. I suppose they were a bad influence.

    In addition, the economical benefits for the developers/publishers are unclear, but they must be big enough to make large publishers like Ubisoft bother making their games available to the service. But that may explain one of the biggest weaknesses of Gametap, namely that it mainly features somewhat older games, making them available only many years after their original release. Only when publishers are assured that they cannot sell more copies of the game in regular stores do they let services like Gametap feast on the carrion. This is also evident from the Download to Own section that Gametap offers, which looks exactly like any other digital distribution site without the added benefit of sleekness and ease of management.

    As long as it is economically unfeasible for publishers to let services like these have access to their games, we will never get a Steam-worthy library of games available to us in a Netflix-like service. But could such a service be devised? I’m not sure, but here’s an idea: The publisher could be paid on a per-download basis, meaning that every time a subscriber downloads a game, the developer receives a certain amount of money, depending on the age of the game and so on. I suspect that’s how it functions at the moment, but evidently it must be done in such a way that it doesn’t pay off for the developers to release fairly new games on Gametap that still stand a chance of selling in stores. The benefits of a service like the one described are many: the consumer would be content that he/she could download the latest blockbuster game close to the day of its release for a fraction of the money they’d otherwise spend, and the developer could rejoice in knowing that they would get roughly the same money as they would by selling it retail, and possibly more as an increased number of people would download it on release day.. In addition, more obscure games would have a higher chances of being played as gamers would be more liable to take chances. The real loser in such a scenario is the owner of the download service. How exactly would they pay for all those downloads? The only ways I imagine they could be able to pay for it, would be to limit every user to a certain amount of downloads per month, base it on some form of credit system, or increase subscription fees. All three could possibly scare away potential customers.

    Ultimately, it’s an extremely complex case with countless variables and specifics that are not immediately visible in a solely hypothetical scenario such as the above. Do you have any ideas on the subject? Then, by all means, post them in the comments below!

    Although I do love all the benefits that digital distribution grants the consumer, there is one minor thing that bothers me about the age of digital gaming. The lack of game cases. I suppose I just love collecting things, love putting things on a shelf and recall the many fond experiences when I gaze upon them. There’s something oddly satisfying about finishing a game, putting the disc back in the case and placing on the shelf. However, there doesn’t seem to be any doubt that digital gaming is the future of the PC, and ultimately I’d rather see newer, fresher, better experiences in the world of games than wallow in nostalgia.

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