Distribution Revolution Q&A: Game xStream

[Evil Avatar]

Gamecloud has posted the next part of their Q&A series (http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=495) on internet distrubition of PC games, talking with Royal O'Brian about Game xStream, the service 3D Realms will use to distribute Prey online.

Gamecloud: Many people are saying that PC gaming will become less of a force in retail stores, especially when the next generation of console games (PS3, Xbox 360) are released. Do you believe that Internet distribution will become a bigger force in selling PC games in the next few years, even for high profile titles?

Royal O'Brian: I do believe that Internet distribution will be a larger force in selling PC games. I also forsee that console games taking this route some time in the future as well. The faster the pipes are, the easier the distribution. There are no overstocks, or empty shelves due to inventory control problems in an online delivery system. Its a simple transaction and allows a greater return on profits. The brick and mortar retail outlets wont be going anywhere soon in the near future, but I wouldnt be surprised if you had seen some of them complement their retail sales with an online sales method as well.

[Qoz]

"When a copy of the game is tied to its purchaser, then that helps curb some of the piracy efforts since pirates. Purchasers do not want to be known, their #1 friend is the fact that they are anonymous, since its hard to catch a ghost."
Say what?

Good read. I like the guys from xStream (in a non-sexual way).
People being interviewed regarding new technology often use alot of confusing |337 buzzwords and claim the tech will make your life sooo much easier and have a HUGE impact on all facets of society. He simply explained the tech and realized that normal distribution isn't going away any time soon.

He sounds believeable and confident in the technology they have.
I'll buy Duke Nukem Forever because its powered by EXTREME xStream!!!11

[Evil Avatar]

This isn't new. Streaming game services have been around for a while and even at broadband speeds they are always a spectacular flop. No one wants to "wait" for a level to download before they can start playing a game and that is what Game xStream tries to do.

The Steam model is better, since it just dumps the whole thing onto your hard disk before you can start to play.

Of course, nothing beats an old fashioned CD or DVD, but that wasn't really an option with Half-Life 2 since you needed Steam to play the game no matter what.

[Chagrinful]

I'm not going to be buying Duke Nukem Forever if its on this Xstream bullshit, but wait what am I saying, by the time that comes out they'll have some crazy new way to play games like the media being streamed to your brain or something.

[Evil Avatar]

I'm not going to be buying Duke Nukem Forever if its on this Xstream bullshit, but wait what am I saying, by the time that comes out they'll have some crazy new way to play games like the media being streamed to your brain or something.

Yes, we should keep the discussion on games that are actually in development.

[Varsity]

No one wants to "wait" for a level to download before they can start playing a game and that is what Game xStream tries to do.xStream is designed for connections fast enough to avoid that. It might mean more buffering, but it's still faster than downloading it all.

[Abednigo]

Sorry, but any odd spelling of the word "extreme" for the "cool factor" just makes me want to vomit.

[kid cabelgo]

I'm VERY iffy about having a handful of gaming "clients" all loaded on startup using up memory.

One steam is bad enough.

[Oblivion]

don't forget that downloading in huge speeds also steals from your the raw power of your PC during gaming.

[RMan]

don't forget that downloading in huge speeds also steals from your the raw power of your PC during gaming.
While technically true, the effect would not be noticeable, downloading takes so little processing power on even remotely modern machines that this is hardly worth worrying about.

[Varsity]

I'm VERY iffy about having a handful of gaming "clients" all loaded on startup using up memory.
This one doesn't have to. If you only want the streaming, it loads and unloads with the game and takes (IIRC) around 1MB of memory.

[RMan]

Keep in mind, guys, that the system will assuredly cache the resources, so it's not like you're downloading a level each time you play it, just the first time. So, in the end the wait time between streaming and initial downloaded content is that the streaming system will not make you wait for all aspects of the game to download before letting you play. If well implimented, "streaming" methods are clearly supperior to standard downloading.