GalCiv's d/l model for rest of industry?

I firmly believe that you're going to see more and more games, applications, and other content available this way.

Some of the difficulties are that for a Blizzard or an EA, its not problem to have their products in every shop known to mankind. So the need to be able to provide delivery-on-demand of the base content is more of a nice extra for them.

The smaller you are, the more the logistics are a problem as well. It's our years of experience with Object Desktop (and to a lesser extent Drengin.net) in this venue that allow us to have the infrastructure for this approach.

VALVE is doing this withe their "Steam Techbology" that is in beta right now... (VALVE poduces Half-Life/Counter-Strike and a few other mods or something...)

I feal like I am advertising a diffrent game on the galciv forums so I will shut up now.

~SDC~

Nah, it's fine to talk about other games. I think what Valve is doing is exceptionally cool.

Yes, definitely, I think you'll see more and more games be electronic. But nothing will replace retail any time soon. Rather, this is just an additional channel for those where retail isn't really viable. It's a great equalizer I think.

~SDC~

I agree, it also gives software a much wider exposure to overseas markets, where a distributor might be hard to fine.

~SDC~

i think it will occur more also, especially with the internet connection speeds increasing which allows people to download larger files and information whereas a few years back it would not have been possible due to the lack of bandwidth needed to transfer really large programs.

heh, it has already happened....illegally anyway. The warez scene is booming because of the heeee-uge access to phat pipes on the "consumer" and "distributor" end.

All that needs to happen now is for the legit companies to see it as a viable means of distributing 500-1000Mb Games.

Plus things like copy protection (not that they work but management in big companies like to think they do) are harder to do if distributed electronically. And big companies are stuck in teh mind frame that "All ppl will steal if they can" which while usually true I think won't be for galciv because of the loyal fanbase and the interesting idea of bonus packs.

I bought a pretty cool Pool game from a Russion publisher. They had no retail arrangements yet. It was only available on line. Shareware. And the game was well worth the money. Although I now own Virtual Pool 3 and prefer it. I really dig the option to purchase online. Due to financial problems I will be without Internet at home though so retail is also still important to me. (Currently living on social security disability, 792 a month.)

~SDC~

2 of my favorite games also only existed online when I bought them. Laser Squad Nemesis (everyone get this NOW) and Uplink (not for everyone, but cool for me). They both make healthy livings only on the online market.

Also, the Linux game market (yes, there is one), due to MUCH harder retail penetration, also lives online for quite a while now. Not exacly downloads, tho, more online shops like tuxgames.

Astro

I believe there is an Uplink Elite, now, and you can find it at CompUsa too.


~SDC~

I buy OOTP5 (great baseball text-based sim) online
and did the same with the previous version; its a great way for small publishers and independent organizations to sell their game...

There could something like a distribution company that makes exactly the kind of distribution GalCiv has. From there, Blizzard or any game could pass their games.

I was thinking tonight that the 'value added' distribution model might be good for the music industry in general. I mean you put your 'A' content on a cd in the stores, but you provide 'B' and 'C' content that wouldn't normally make the cd on an online service where people could pay a monthly or yearly fee to d/l them.

This is stuff that these artists wouldn't put on a cd, but stuff that perhaps they were tinkering and playing with and they just put it up there for people to hear. Some artists are good enough that I would pay to hear their practice B-class stuff!

You get about 50-200 artist together, putting out whatever 'leftovers' they've got and charge 120.00/yr. A lot of people would pay for that instead of the 18.00 CD. The beauty of it is that people WOULD pirate them...but hey, you weren't going to make money off that anyway.....

Online distribution is realy greate for smaller games.
if not for smaller games i whould never have found the Greate Combat mission series..

~SDC~