Downloading… 8% Complete
If you’ve been brave enough to forgo the frustration and figure out how to hook up your home console to the internet with one of those “oh, so simple” methods, I’m sure you must have experienced at least one of the many joys online console gaming can bring.
Whether it’s downloading add-on content for your latest disc-based game, getting sworn at by a bunch of immature kids in Halo 3, voice chatting with your friends or maybe just checking out the retro offerings in the online store, you’re never short of something to see, hear or play.
Speaking of downloading old favourites, there’s no shortage of classic games on the three major platform holders downloadable services. Commodore 64, Neo Geo, NES, SNES, N64, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, PlayStation – you name it, if it hasn’t appeared already then it probably will in the not too distant future. Their obvious convenience is undeniable. When you get that niggling feel to relive your Sonic 2 days of old, why go through all of the trouble of bring down your dusty Mega Drive from the loft when you could simply purchase it on XBLA for a few ‘Microsoft Points’ – sorry, I mean ‘quid’.
Given the success of these classics on XBLA, Virtual Console and PSN, it’s no surprise that publishers have been diligently pouring their resources into ‘e-distribution’. New original downloadable titles like Super Stardust HD, PixelJunk Monsters, Castle Crashers, LostWinds and World of Goo have been catching consumer attention in a big way. This comparatively risk-free outlet has given developers the opportunity to experiment with innovative new gameplay ideas and experiences that have you rethinking what it’s like to interactive with entertainment software.
The time-bending Braid and Sixaxis-justifying Flower are perfect examples of these new kinds of downloadable experiences – so ‘fresh’ in fact, that even rap-articulator Soulja Boy [link contains content that may offend] can’t get his head round them. Stranger still would be the substance-induced amoeboid delights of Noby Noby Boy and the £1.99 interactive art showcase, Linger in Shadows, both available from the PlayStation Store. And it not just small offerings either. Sony more than any other publisher has been spearheading the push for full downloadable games with full PS3 games, like Warhawk, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Siren Blood Curse and SOCOM: Confrontation on their service. EA has also utilised this wide-reaching business opportunity to bring titles Burnout Paradise and NFL Head Coach 09 to the store.
So, with so much of the focus heading towards online distribution, how long is it before we stop heading to our local retailer for games at all? I’m sure you must have had an unfavourable experience in a dedicated video game store at some point. While I don’t wish to undervalue the important role retail plays in the industry, I can see the appeal, both to publishers and consumers, for cutting out the middlemen. For the publisher there’s less chance of piracy and they can their product into thousands of consumers’ hands in moments. And for the consumer the experience of accessing the online store from the comfort of their own home is almost as hassle free as it gets.
However, there are a number of issues holding back this utopian digital world. For starters technical constraints like broadband speeds and hard drive space will have to be improved upon before any kind of major transition to e-distributed video games can be made. Although consumers love the ease of access, inconsistent pricing and no method of returning or reselling the product once they’ve bought it has been a subject of debate.
Is Britain ready for a download-only future? Not next week and maybe not for some time. For what’s it worth though, I hope things don’t get to that. People said vinyl would disappear entirely with the launch of the CD – they were wrong. I’m one of those people who still enjoy picking up most of my entertainment media in hand. It’s that feeling of adding something new to a collection, admiring the cover art, opening the manual six months later and reading the back-story you never knew was there. At any rate the retail landscape is rapidly changing. When we look back on this time in ten years or so it will likely seem remarkable how much has changed.
Aaron Lee
[Originally published on Saturday, 28 March 2009]
