Microsoft to offer PC games on demand

[Everlost_MI]

Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/) has signed with Exent Technologies (http://www.exent.com/index.asp) to offer Microsoft PC games on demand. Exent is already providing on the games-on-demand service for Yahoo, Comcast and Atari to name just a few companies. The entire press release (http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050815/155707.html?.v=1) can be read here at Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/), but here is the meat of the story.

Microsoft has granted Exent the right to aggregate and distribute Microsoft PC games, including titles from the popular Age of Empires®, Age of Mythology®, Dungeon Siege®, Mechwarrior®, Rise of Nations® and Zoo Tycoon® product lines, making some of the most popular game properties available worldwide for the first time over broadband through Exent's network of Games-on-Demand service providers.
Thanks to Shacknews (http://www.shacknews.com/) for the tip.

Your thoughts?

[MajSheppard]

Soundss like a good step forward, although I od not personally care for any of these games. Well at least anymore.

[bean19]

Please refer back to the PC vs. console thread to appreciate my following comments:

I told you so!
I told you so!
I told you so!

:)

[Acidpoptart]

As long as these versions are cheaper than the store versions, this is a good move. I am not too happy about seeing digital versions of software for the same cost as the retail version. The software is the same, but in the retail version costs of printing and shipping should also be considered. If I download a version that costs the company less to distribute, I want to see a discount.

[Kefkataran]

Very interesting. Nice step, I say. Props to them.

[bean19]

As long as these versions are cheaper than the store versions, this is a good move. I am not too happy about seeing digital versions of software for the same cost as the retail version. The software is the same, but in the retail version costs of printing and shipping should also be considered. If I download a version that costs the company less to distribute, I want to see a discount.

Bandwidth costs. . . they have to give you the download for every system you install it on, and for every reinstall.

Where they are making their money is in side-stepping the retailer, not in production, so I'm arguing over your reasoning rather than your statement. However, I think they'll keep identical prices so they don't undercut retailers and so that they can cash in. For some people, this is a great service. It gets the product to the customer right when they want it, and saves shipping costs to them if they do not live near a local retailer.

[Dirty Harry]

OKay, why is steam such a bastard yet microsofts service is just a-okay?. Hypocritical liars more like.

[bean19]

OKay, why is steam such a bastard yet microsofts service is just a-okay?. Hypocritical liars more like.

I think you've only heard from the pro-Steam folks so far DirtyHarry. Never fear, the "Steam sucks" crowd will chime in quickly enough and will almost definitely explain away the advantages and progression of online distribution with verbal syllogism applied like dog spittle as an inadequate salve to their wounds.

[motor]

As long as these versions are cheaper than the store versions, this is a good move. I am not too happy about seeing digital versions of software for the same cost as the retail version. The software is the same, but in the retail version costs of printing and shipping should also be considered. If I download a version that costs the company less to distribute, I want to see a discount.

As long as retailers still sell a majority of games, they (the retailers) will dictate that the publishers have to match price. I know it sucks, but you should still try to support steps like this. Eventually the worm will turn and then their will be a price difference. I always try to buy my stuff through digital distribution if possible. Retail really is a parasite on the industry.

[Rafer]

As long as these versions are cheaper than the store versions, this is a good move. I am not too happy about seeing digital versions of software for the same cost as the retail version. The software is the same, but in the retail version costs of printing and shipping should also be considered. If I download a version that costs the company less to distribute, I want to see a discount.

Valve couldn't sell HL2 for cheaper under Steam because of an agreement with their publisher Vivendi. Anyway, regardless of how much cheaper digital distribution is for companies they are going to charge whatever the market will bear. On the plus side, the more money the game industry makes means more big budget games.

[B_Money]

Valve couldn't sell HL2 for cheaper under Steam because of an agreement with their publisher Vivendi. Anyway, regardless of how much cheaper digital distribution is for companies they are going to charge whatever the market will bear. On the plus side, the more money the game industry makes means more big budget games.

Mcrosoft won't have that problem, because they are the publisher. Of course, when was the last time Microsoft sold something cheaper just because they could?

[Klade]

Bandwidth costs. . . they have to give you the download for every system you install it on, and for every reinstall.

Don't kid yourself. At retail I can host my website on OC3 servers with 25gigs of traffic for 10$ a month. If each game is 2.5 gigs of transfer then cost is 1$ per game. And we all know that this price is hugely inflated. Bandwidth cost is much less then printing and packaging.

This is another reason why phantom can't work (as if there needed to be more). People are already doing content delivery and theres no cost of an expensive box and service.

On a more direct note none of these games interest me all that much.

[Dirty Harry]

I think you've only heard from the pro-Steam folks so far DirtyHarry. Never fear, the "Steam sucks" crowd will chime in quickly enough and will almost definitely explain away the advantages and progression of online distribution with verbal syllogism applied like dog spittle as an inadequate salve to their wounds.
Actually im a steam forum member, i keep up with all aspects of steam. I understand some peoples disappointment, but me and my friends have had great experiences. With the exception of Steam friends, steam is pretty damn good.

[Steve_Erhardt]

Mechwarrior, eh? Well hopefully this will re-ignite general interest in the property and Microsoft gets off their fat asses and cranks out a new game instead of sitting on it with their thumbs up their asses. We are WAY fucking overdue for some fresh mech-y goodness on the PC. The mechwarrior community has done miracles (mektek and their mech paks, Mechstorm and the High Definition Patch, two prime examples), but at this point even the die-hard crowd is beggining to thin out.

[Kefkataran]

OKay, why is steam such a bastard yet microsofts service is just a-okay?.

I'm fine with Steam. In fact I like it at least 95% of the time.

[RMan]

OKay, why is steam such a bastard yet microsofts service is just a-okay?
Why is one game good while another is bad? Because implementation DOES make a difference, you know (BTW, my steam experience was surprisingly good).

[Royal Fool]

Mechwarrior, eh? Well hopefully this will re-ignite general interest in the property and Microsoft gets off their fat asses and cranks out a new game instead of sitting on it with their thumbs up their asses.

Agreed! Those MechAssault games don't hold a candle to the more detailed and intricate MechWarrior series, IMO.

Although MW4 wasn't exactly perfect, I'd be very happy if Microsoft did a new MW game that would play more like MW2 and MW3...

[murpes]

OKay, why is steam such a bastard yet microsofts service is just a-okay?. Hypocritical liars more like.

Steam does suck. But poor execution of the software itself nonwithstanding, this is the beginning of a process which Valve kicked off. You need to have Steam installed to play Valve Games. And you'll need some app installed to play Microsoft games. And some other crummy app to play Edios games. And no doubt EA will make some obtrusive app that doesn't work to play their games. Meanwhile the Bioware app delivery will be removed from NWN and be a stand-alone client.

Every publisher is going to have their own crappy stand-alone content delivery system and your computer will be loaded up with more and more crap. They'll all want to be in your startup menu and eventually some publisher will start to add "features" to their conent delivery app, so you'll be frequently and subtly reminded to buy their new games. Then all these apps will be fighting over which one gets to play your mp3s and does IMing and server browsing and whatnot.

It'll be like having 25 different versions of Apple's Quick Time software, also trying to sell games to you.

It's a ugly, dangerous, and inevitable change that's happening. I'm all for broadband content delivery, but I wish it would all be done through one centralized app.

[Zeal]

I believe most games will eventually be downloadable through the 360, just like this.

[Dirty Harry]

I'm fine with Steam. In fact I like it at least 95% of the time.
I think people misunderstood what i was saying, alot of people complain about steam, ALOT OF PEOPLE. Everyone here seems to think well shit this is just great. I agree that steam has had its own problems mostly the biggest ones were in the beta testing days. I also like steam a whole lot aswell, i think it manages my games and gives me access to a quick server browser with all the filters one really needs. It also lets the actual devs keep in contact with the userbase and such, just like the gearblog i think. Anyways, im just saying why is everyone so damn gungho about this when steam in the past which this new service is a clone of has ran like crap.

[Frogleg Special]

Microsoft, do you want to give us PC game on demand? Give us Mechwarrior V.

[Wonka]

I believe most games will eventually be downloadable through the 360, just like this.

I think thats an interesting idea, but I don't think that MS is planning that for the X360. At least not right away. I think that for the X360 they are seeing the HDD as a way to sell you add on content OR extensible episodic content. I think that MS is still planning to have most (and likely all) Xbox games at least start as a retail purchase. I think that the PC with its much larger HDDs is going to be the place where games go totally virtual. At least initially. For the Xbox, I suspect that MS will be more dipping their toe in the water for the next few years. It would be cool if I was wrong about this though. It would be really cool if MS already had a plan for selling stuff online that would allow a guarantee that an account could always have access to that content once it was purchased. What I fear is that instead they have no such plan and are instead going to just try to sell people "throwaway" quality content. That would be dissapointing but it would be in league with what has been done on the Xbox so far... And for those of you always looking for a reason to bitch about MS (I know you are out there reading this), this is my one real gripe about LIVE!: that is their paid content offers no guarantee that you really get to keep what you paid for. You cannot burn a copy, and they don't give you any kind of reciept or ID for what you purchase. If your HDD dies, you're simply screwed out of what you bought. Its like whoops! Too bad for you! It's as if their goal was to actively train people to NOT buy online content from them. Really really really bad.

I understand that Steam does not have this problem and I think THAT is exemplary.

[Steve_Erhardt]

Good to see I'm not alone in wanting Mechwarrior V. =)

And yeah, gameplay/sim/mech modding aspects more along the lines of 2 and 3 are preferred over 4/Mercs (though I did come to like how 4/Mercs handled things, I still prefer the "truer to Battletech" aspects of 2 and 3).

[RandomViolence]

Mech 5 for the win! Gimme gimme gimme...

[51|RandoM]

Most people who complain about steam

a) haven't tried it lately, and/or
b) are against the distribution method, so are against steam, regardless of how it works and/or
c) got banned by VAC, lol

Steam works just peachy now, and I'd buy all my pc games through it if I could. The Internet is the best manual for most games anyways, I don't need any of the other crap that comes along with the media from a traditional purpose.

[bean19]

I haven't really looked into it, but don't people who cheat still get access to non VAC-secured servers?

Also, do you know if the cheating is account-wide? For instance, if someone cheats on a Counter-Strike game are they banned from all VAC-secured Steam games?

I have noticed my kill/death ratio in CS go up since VAC was introduced, so I'm willing to beleive it is working.