Eurogamer Launches Digital Games Distribution Arm | |
Eurogamer Launches Digital Games Distribution Arm  Hoping to snatch a chunk of that sweet digital games distribution pie, British gaming site Eurogamer has launched the appropriately titled "Get Games" service. Aimed specifically at PC games, the service will "offer new releases, independent and classic titles as well as free-to play games," according to GamesIndustry.biz. If that mission statement seems at all familiar to you, that may be because it's essentially the same concept behind Steam, Direct2Drive and every other digital distribution platform in existence. For that matter, it also describes console-specific platforms like the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network. Being an organization best known for games journalism, Eurogamer is well aware of this fact, so why would the company suddenly opt to dive into such a hotly contested marketplace? To put it simply, they were asked politely. "We are often approached by indie developers who want us to help them market and sell their games," said Eurogamer co-founder Rupert Loman. "With this new service we can put fantastic content in front of our large audience of games enthusiasts." I'm of a mixed mind on this venture. On the one hand, the hyper-American, capitalist side of my personality is cheering Mr. Loman on while screaming terribly context sensitive corporate slogans like "Just do it," and "What can brown do for you?" On the other I'm wondering how exactly Loman thinks he can compete with established digital distribution behemoths -- specifically Valve's Steam service. Maybe he knows something no one else does, or maybe Get Games only caters to the British, but it looks like Loman's firm has a lot of work to do lest the firm be trampled by the giants of digital distribution. ()Image) | |
Question. oh, and this new service idea sounds interesting. maybe they'll get some real gems on there. | |
Indie games? This can only end well. | |
He already said they would offer free-to-play games to draw people in. Steam does not do that. And if we want to speculate, then there are very obvious ways to trump Steam. One such way is using no DRM. Another way would be to go multiplatform and offer OS X and Linux games. Both are more feasible with indie developers. | |
I'm not 100 percent sure, but I believe it's either apple and chocolate or pumpkin and chocolate. | |
Don't developers decide if DRM is in their game? Not the distributors? | |
...It looks like it was baked in the ovens of Valhalla. | |
There are chocolate pies? Why was I not informed of this? I'm not sure what to think of this though, I don't play indie games so much, and prefer to have a hard copy, so I guess it doesn't effect me. | |
Every game GoG distributes is DRM free. They do not wrap what they sell in DRM, and will not distribute your game if it has any of its own. Steam, Impulse and the like wrap everything in their own DRM by default. If you don't want that, they can choose to not distribute your game. They do allow you to put your own DRM there in addition. These are obviously decisions that the distributor makes. | |
All I got from this was that pie is, and will always be, the ultimate attention capturing device. Oh, yeah, and something about digital distribution. Mmm, pie... | |
...pumpkin and chocolate? is that even possible? | |
Triple Layer Chocolate Pumpkin Pie- popcap games are free to play demos that you can buy to unlock the full game... it sounds like a good idea and I hope they are successful in their venture. | |
That's one fine looking pie, but someone should be fired for the sauce; I mean they missed the pie completely. | |