Posts Tagged ‘digital distribution’
Modern Warfare 2 coming to Steam on Nov. 10th without a delay
Buzz had been circulating for some time now that had us wondering if Modern Warfare 2 would be hitting store shelves for the PC on the same day as the Xbox 360 and PS3. The fact that major retailers such as GameStop briefly had the PC title listed with a November 24th release date didn’t exactly sooth our wounds.
Luckily Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling has let us know via Twitter that there will in fact be no delay and the PC version will be hitting store shelves on the same day as the console versions.
Furthermore, he also let us know that Modern Warfare 2 will be coming to Valve’s digital distribution service Steam, if that’s your kind of thing.
GameStop launches Casual online store
GameStop has recently announced that their online Casual Store has gone live featuring digital downloads of just about every casual PC game you could think of. And, to celebrate its launch, GameStop is offering 50% off on select downloads with the full list made viewable, here.
Games featured in GameStop’s Casual store include Plants Vs. Zombies, Peggle, Roller Coaster Tycoon, etc. Additionally, GameStop will host over 800 casual game trials that you can download free of charge.
Digital distribution of PS3 gamers unlikely, unpractical
We learned back at E3 that Microsoft would be discontinuing their Xbox Originals service to make way for their all new Games on Demand service that would let gamers download full Xbox 360 titles. This led many gamers to turn their head towards Sony asking if they too would offer an extensive library of full retail games for digital deliver. I mean they already offer games like Warhawk and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, right?
Eric Lempel, an exec over at Sony, responded to the idea:
It’s not something we have planned, just because the size of the games is massive. With Blu-ray we can put up to 50 gigs on a dual-layer disc, while [Xbox 360] is still on a 9-gig media. So technically it’s possible, but I think the issue would be, ‘Do you want to download 40 gigs and keep that on your hard drive?
I’ll have to agree with Mr. Lempel, downloading a 40GB game and storing it on the PS3’s harddrive wouldn’t be my idea of a walk in the park. However, waht about the multiplatform games that only take up a fraction of a Blu-ray’s
Read (Kotaku)
Sony planned a UMD-less PSP from the beginning?
It’s no secret that the PSP’s UMD format was nothing less than an utter failure, hell even its creator Sony decided to ultimately give it the boot. But wait, was it declining UMD sales or an evil plot by Sony that caused UMD’s death. According to Naoya Matsui, a Sony exec, it was an evil plot:
“We’d planned to release a PSP model without a UMD drive since the very beginning. But if we’d simply released the hardware, there wouldn’t have been much for everyone to enjoy. We needed to prepare the right environment for it first – things like the transferral of content with the PS3 and PSN, and PC software to manage content like music and movies such as Media Go.”
Do you believe him? I mean, I guess it does make sense that they needed time to prepare their Playstation Network for total digital delivery but would they really put all the time and money into developing the UMD format if they were just going to kill it off?
Read (Edge)
Bethesda’s Morrowind and Oblivion coming to Steam?
If the above image is anything to go by the guys over at Steam seem to have uploaded said image clearly displaying Bethesda’s Morrowind and Oblivion before they were announced to hit the service.
The ad was displayed on the homepage for a brief period of time before it was taken down. However, you can still view the ad to verify its legitimacy here, which is clearly located on the Steam’s servers.
I think its safe to say that both of these games will in fact be hitting the service at some point in the very near future. I mean, Bethesda’s Fallout 3 is available from Steam, why not some of their back catalog too?
Read (Gamerlimit)
Tags: advertisement, bethesda, digital distribution, fallout 3, Leak, morrowind, Oblivion, steam, valve
Sony will digitize your old UMD games
If you’re an avid PSP user, when Sony announced the PSP Go you probably thought to yourself, “how am I going to play my old games on this new console?”
Well, Gizmodo recently caught up with Sony’s John Koller who explained that they will offer some sort of service that will allow gamers to obtain digitized versions of their old UMD games. Exactly how much this service will cost (if anything) and when it will go live, we don’t know, but we’ll keep you updated.
The PSP Go is set to drop on October 1st of this year for $249
PSP Go officially announced
Despite having everything from hardware specs to official press images leaked a few days ago, Sony has come forth at their E3 conference and taken the veil that was never really their off of the PSP Go.
Just like stated in the leaked specs, the PSP Go will include 16GB of internal storage, no UMD slot and a slideout control panel. Of course, no UMD slot means a 100% digital library of games which is certainly a step towards the future.
Something we didn’t know from the leaked documents was the price and relesae date which were also revealed during the E3 conference. The PSP Go will sell for $249 and hit store shelves in the United States this October.
Read (Yahoo!)
PSN exclusive PSP title Patapon 2 launches
Remember Patapon 2, the game we told you about a while back that will be exclusively available as a digital download from the PSN? Okay good — SCEA recently released a statement detailing the game’s official launch.
Available for $19.99, you can purchase Patapon 2 straight from the PSN or head to your favorite retailer and pick up a redeemable voucher card.
If you aren’t familiar with the Patapon series hit the read link for the official press release. More »
Sony Confirms Patapon 2 Digital Rumors
Though digital distribution isn’t catching on as quickly as some had hoped with the general public the commonly tech-friendly (or tech-obsessed) gaming crowd are embracing it happily. Yesterday rumors were circulating that Patapon 2, the follow-up to the rhythm/action/strategy hybrid would be available only as a digital download. You could still purchase it in a physical store if you were hoping to gift it to a friend/family member since word was that conventional stores would be carrying download vouchers.
Today Sony has come out and confirmed these rumors. Patrick Seybold, Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Sony Computer Entertainment has said that this is simply a test to see how consumers will take to the digital-only distribution method. They’re reportedly exploring what people will want more, and with Patapon 2 being a somewhat anticipated title it’s certainly a good game to test the waters with.
Rumor: No physical version of Patapon 2?
We learned back in February that PSP title, Patapon 2, would be making it’s North American debut sometime this year which was later honed down to May 5th.
However, if rumors are to be believed, Patapon 2 won’t ever be making it’s physical debut. Instead, speculation suggests that the game will intead be a digital title only with vouchers being sold at retailers instead of the actual game.
Even stranger is the fact that Patapon 2, when downloaded from PSN with no voucher, will cost just $15.99 but the actual voucher will cost $19.99.
Again, this is just a rumor so we’ll have to wait and see how this unfolds.
Read (Destructoid)
Blockbuster Facing Grim Future
We’re a long ways away from digital distribution being the commonly accepted method of media consumption but it seems that an icon of the movie-watching ways of the past may soon be nothing more than dusty history. Investors in movie and game rental chain Blockbuster have been warned that the business might be doomed. Currently they’re trying to stay afloat despite a considerable load of debt, $781 million of it to be precise.
The launch of rental service Netflix was a huge blow to Blockbuster and they responded by abolishing late fees, but it seems that all their efforts might have been in vain. The ability to stream films directly to your computer, dedicated device or Xbox 360 put another nail in the rental company’s coffin. The ease of downloading films via digital cable or a console or other device at equivalent prices erased the appeal of having a local Blockbuster store.
If the rumors are true and Netflix will soon be streamable for the PS3 and Wii as well as the Xbox 360 it seems unlikely there’ll be anything that can save the company.
Capcom: Digital Distribution Important to Us
Acknowleding the advent of digital distribution, Capcom vice president of strategic planning Christian Svensson has said that PC digital distribution is now more important to the company than retail sales.
"No question in my mind. digital distribution on PC ties directly into our strategy," said Svensson. "We will probably do as much digital selling as retail in the current climate."
Svensson added that Capcom is currently one of the leaders in console digital distribution as well. He explained that, much like Valve, the company is taking a global view on the PC in order to maximize its distribution opportunities.
Amazon Moving into Online Distribution
Having started its way with books and then moving on to everything else, online retailer Amazon is looking to expand into digital distribution of PC games. The company has acquired casual game developer and distributor Reflexive Entertainment, which developed the GameCenterSolution program.
"We’ll be able to expand our distribution network to include Amazon’s amazing distribution channel," wrote the company CEO in a blog post. He added that the move will bring a “huge new group of customers into play” and that they are committing to “provide the best distribution platform anywhere.”
Nintendo Prez: Digital Distro Not Replacing Retail
Echoing the sentiment of many in the industry, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has said that while the market for digital distribution is increasing (and will keep on increasing), there will always be a need for the extra memory storage that retail games offer.
"[Digital distribution is] a nice added business model, but it’s not something that’s going to take over retail game sales," he said.
"We’ll be able to see the sales growth and plan for [digital download]," added Fils-Aime. "But I guess similar to home consoles, the consumer will want an experience that’s best delivered through physical goods, simply because of the memory size required. There will always be those opportunities for big, in-depth games on retail products."
Digital distribution platforms and websites such as Steam and Direc2Drive have made inroads into gamers’ computers in the recent years. However, retail still forms a major part of the publisher’s sales. What do you think?
id: Rage Could Get Digital Distribution
Digital distribution is all the rage these days, and id Software doesn’t want to be left out of it, too. Company creative director Tim Willits has gone on record to say that Rage just might head to online distribution platforms, despite the game’s large reported size.
"We have not written off digital distribution for Rage," he said. "We haven’t figured out what we want to do yet. But I do want to fix the fact that John [Carmack] said [digital distribution is] not going to happen. What I’m saying is that’s not true."
He explained that the confusion stemmed from the game’s final form on disc.
"John Carmack made a comment about the media size, which unfortunately wasn’t exactly correct because we haven’t crossed that bridge yet. He said it was going to be too large to download, and I was thinking to myself, ‘You know, uhhhhh, people can do lots of things.’"
The game is due out next year on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.