Rock, Paper, Shotgun- The Steamy Issue Of Digital Distribution.
Of course, if Steam were the only viable digital distribution platform
(let’s say that Valve had patented the system, and no one else could
compete) then this could clearly be an enormous issue. It would be a
monopoly. But of course it’s not – there’s many others from the indie
systems like GoG to IGN’s (and therefore News International’s) Direct2Drive.
There’s GamersGate, Impulse and there’s Metaboli. Major publishers have
their own online distribution services. The question is, how much of this
market does Steam dominate? Is it viable for a developer or publisher to
refuse their game on Steam?
PlayStation University - Electronic Arts No Longer the Evil Empire of
Gaming. Who is?
What really throws me off is that Kotick isn’t even happy the price hike
as is, he’s been quoted as saying “And Tony, you know if it was left to me,
I would raise the prices even further.” Seriously? You’d hike the prices up
even further, diminishing the respect that your user base has for the
company as a whole? Don’t worry – We’re sure that Guitar Hero 12 will recoup
all of those fans lost in the quest for money. Which brings me to my next
point; what ever happened to Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend being published
by Activision? Don’t worry – the answer is simple. Kotick only wants the
company to deliver titles that they can exploit the gamer with through
yearly releases, you know, like Guitar Hero and Call of Duty (though
developed by different teams).
Gamesindustry.biz - Disorderly Queue.
When the uptake of the game is higher than anticipated, companies can
respond to the demand by opening new servers - but this is a blunt,
unfocused tool at best, and in many cases, is utterly useless as a solution.
Players who have already invested time in a character don't want to start
afresh on a new server. More importantly, players who have started the game
with a group of their friends will find it very difficult to move en-masse
to a new server. Instead, you see the spectacle of a game with a cluster of
servers afflicted by huge queues, while new servers sit half-empty.