GamersGate The iTunes For Games

[MrKLM]

Digital distribution is great for publishers since they don't have to worry about physical copies, and now GamersGate is looking to offer publishers more freedom in controlling their own properties online with GameNerve. Check it out:

Digital distribution is certainly a hot topic in the gaming industry, on consoles and PC, so when GamersGate said that they had a "revolutionary" new digital publishing suite, we just had to know more about the Swedish company.

"It started as a project under the publishing house Paradox Interactive as a way of reaching customers worldwide," Theo Bergquist, CEO of GamersGate, told GameDaily BIZ. "It was called 'Paradox on Demand' and was designed for countries we would never reach with a boxed product. We launched in 2005 and soon other partners wanted to be in on it, so we launched GamersGate as a separate entity. Things have been going well for us; some months we've had over 100 percent growth and we now have over 500 titles online from both minor and major publishers. We describe GamersGate as the 'iTunes for games,' since you download a play center to centralize all your games."

Not satisfied with what the company has already accomplished, GamersGate will be launching a new product called GameNerve, GameDaily BIZ can exclusively reveal. This product, which is now live and available for free to publishing partners, allows digital publishers to upload demos and assets, change the price and have access to sales data, which is an almost unprecedented level of control. It potentially could allows publishers to monetize their entire back catalogs online. Read More...

You can read the rest of Gamedaily's article here.

[Dan2k3k4]

Re: GamersGate The iTunes For Games

This sounds good but one thing I don't like about Digital Distrubutions (well just from CoD4 experience) is that players have to wait a few days for the DD Patch, it would be nice if a DD game would basically be an exact copy of the 'boxed game' so you could install patches instantly but still have the DD Lock so you couldn't just 'share DD login info' and be able to install the game on multiple PCs over multiple IPs (as that would make piracy easy).

[MrKLM]

Re: GamersGate The iTunes For Games

I have only purchased one game ever through Digital Distribution and it was Day of Defeat Source on steam. I do not like digital distributions because of my slow internet speed. And I always want hard official copies of games.

[imported_Freakboy]

Re: GamersGate The iTunes For Games

So its Steam? But I agree with Manzi I like hard copies much much more.

[Delta1]

Re: GamersGate The iTunes For Games

I do not like digital distributions because of my slow internet speed. And I always want hard official copies of games.

Man, that is a really old school position. You are only 18 right? You grew up in the digital age. What is up with all the love for hard copies. Do you still buy CDs? Do you still take pictures with a film camera?

Technoloy changes, digital is the way of the future. :thumbsup:

[Dan2k3k4]

Re: GamersGate The iTunes For Games

I don't mind spending 5-6 hours downloading a full game, and if I really needed a hard copy there should be a feature to back it up onto a cd (which would either only work with required login through GamersGate, like steam, or create a type of cd key login when backing up the game) besides you can just leave your PC on over night or upgrade to fibre-optic cables (yes I know, not many people can do this... yet)

[MrKLM]

Re: GamersGate The iTunes For Games

Man, that is a really old school position. You are only 18 right? You grew up in the digital age. What is up with all the love for hard copies. Do you still buy CDs? Do you still take pictures with a film camera?

Technology changes, digital is the way of the future. :thumbsup:

I want hard copies of all my games. I have a slow internet because I live in a rural area. So downloading takes a long time.

And yes I still do buy CD's and DVD's to copy things as well as a jump drive.

I use a digital camera though.

[imported_Whiskey]

Re: GamersGate The iTunes For Games

Technoloy changes, digital is the way of the future.

Eventually, yes. But right now, it's still not reliable enough for most people. All you have to do is browse various gaming forums, and there are almost always more technical problems with digital versions, especially when it comes to patching.

Once we get to a point where Internet speeds are blazing fast (ie. you can download a game in less than 5 min), ISP's are more reliable and don't go down for hrs at a time, and e-retailers archive past versions so that you can always go back and re-download them again yrs later if you want, then it will be a more viable solution. As for right now, I prefer my hard copies as well (I like a hard-copy manual, I like being able to patch my game right away, I like not having to connect to Steam or whatever to start/install my games, I like being able to return it to the store I bought it from if there's a problem or for a trade-in, and I like being able to fire up an old game for nostalgia's sake and not have to worry about a link that is broken or has been taken down).

All that being said, I'll gladly switch to digital once it is fast, and 100% reliable, especially once anti-piracy and anti-cheating methods are incorporated and enforced.

[MrKLM]

Re: GamersGate The iTunes For Games

I agree with Whiskey 100%

(oh god we just gave the podcast team something to roundtable about...)

[imported_Stu]

Re: GamersGate The iTunes For Games

I agree with Whiskey 100%

(oh god we just gave the podcast team something to roundtable about...)

w00t !!