NOTE: I wrote this back in May for The Escapist, but I just got my decline e-mail for the article pitch, so I'm sharing it with Destructoid on the rebound. Some of the content is outdated, because it was written before E3 so things like downloading full 360 games on your console aren't included in the article, but I acknowledge it personally.


When Nintendo initially announced the features of the Wii (formerly the Revolution) the one feature I was most excited for was the Virtual Console, which would allow users to download old Nintendo games from the NES, SNES, and N64. As a gamer whose favorite games of all time reside in the 16-bit era of the SNES, I was excited to have access to classic titles from a single medium, despite I still have my old consoles plugged in at my parents’ house. Without realizing it, I knew that downloading games to the internal memory of a console would become the future for video game distribution.

As excited as I was for the Virtual Console, it took well over a year before the service would gain momentum, and even then, none of my favorite titles were to be found. The problem was my favorite games were RPG’s from Square Enix, who was slowly returning support to Nintendo, when they weren’t whoring out Final Fantasy VII or re-releasing their backlog in $40 packages. I eventually lost hope for the Virtual Console, but was still content with the retail games Nintendo put out. After the epic fail that was Nintendo’s E3 2008 Press Conference, I lost hope for Nintendo and promptly jumped ship to the Xbox 360, and by promptly I mean as soon as I acquired the adequate funds for a 360.



There were multiple reasons for why I picked up a 360. The large quantity of RPG’s was a huge one, but the urgency came from the release of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts that included a download code for the N64 original Banjo-Kazooie for Xbox Live Arcade upon reservation of the game. Banjo-Kazooie was another classic title I hold near and dear to my heart and also wouldn’t be on Nintendo’s Virtual Console because the game’s developer, Rare, was purchased by Microsoft. While I bought Nuts & Bolts solely for the Banjo-Kazooie download code, the actual game turned out to be pretty fun especially at a $40 price.

Like the Virtual Console and WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcade features both classic and small, independently developed titles. Classic titles from older systems such as Ikaruga, Rez HD, the arcade version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, could be downloaded. It’s also here where I was exposed to great, original games such as the two Penny Arcade Adventures episodes, Braid, Geometry Wars 1 and 2, Mega Man 9, Castle Crashers, and most importantly UNO. These titles have either too small of a budget or are too small in content to warrant a retail release and a $60 price tag, so they’re released digitally for prices ranging from 400-1600 Microsoft Points, which equates to $5-20 in real money; further proving that Microsoft’s form of currency is even more valuable than the dollar.



Another trend in the digital market also comes in the form of game add-ons and digital expansions to retail games, collectively called downloadable content or DLC. Fallout 3’s DLC packages of Operation: Anchorage, The Pitt, and Broken Steel and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and the Damned are all examples of adding a few more hours of content for about $15-20 each.



This also goes for online multiplayer games such as the extra map packs for Halo 3 and Gears of War. These digital add-ons allow for continuous play of online games several months or even years after their initial release. There are occasions where the developer allegedly locks content away on the disc, and it’ll be unlocked for you when you purchase the “DLC” for the game. A fairly recent example is the multiplayer mode for Resident Evil 5. While the mode wasn’t that great, it was still a dirty tactic to get my $5. On the other side of the spectrum, Valve released the previously unavailable campaigns to be playable in “Versus mode” as well as the new “Survivor mode” for Left 4 Dead on both PC and Xbox 360 for free.

Micro-transactions for extra content are another aspect of digital distribution. Like map packs, these downloads vary from purchasing mundane upgrades such as armor for your horse in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to buying levels and money with real money in Tales of Vesperia. Probably the best use of micro-transactions in recent gaming is purchasing new songs to beef up your music library in games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour. There are several hundred songs to be purchased and new ones release each week for miniscule amounts of money that will eventually add up in the end. Fun fact: downloading just about every song on Rock Band will cost you well over $1,000. However, if you’re a hardcore music fan and love Rock Band, you can simply just be good with Rock Band and keep downloading new songs until the music game fad inevitably dies.



After discussing all of this background information on digital distribution, I feel now I must give my stance on the topic. Simply put, I am for digital distribution and whole-heartedly embrace it taking over the market as the de facto method for acquiring games. I’m a lazy person, and going through the hassle of driving (or taking the bus) to Gamestop only to discover that today was the release date and not the ship date for a new game is not my idea of a fun activity. With digital distribution, I don’t have to go through that ordeal and potential disappointment, because the Xbox Live Marketplace or PlayStation Store will inform me when a game is available for download.

Collectors may have an issue with digital distribution because they enjoy having a physical copy of a game and lining up the cases together on their shelves for them and others to admire. I admit, I do fancy looking at my collection of 3,371 games (if I actually had that many) and there is a sentimental value in looking at those game cases and boxes, as is the task of successfully removing the shrink-wrap from a game case.

Another group that would oppose digital distribution would be retailers that specialize in gaming such as Gamestop. Other retailers would also take a hit from the movement considering the video game industry is worth over $21.3 billion. This would also severely damage the used game market, which retailers like Gamestop thrive off of. When a game is sold back to a retailer for a fraction of the cost of a new game, it’s then sold back to consumers at a “discounted” price in which Gamestop receives all of the profit and the game developers see none of it. Digital distribution would allow game makers to receive all of the revenue on their games and they couldn’t be resold to third parties.



Like video rental stores, gaming rentals would also decline. Netflix has implemented a service that allows users to stream the movies they have rented to their computer, and even their Xbox 360’s. This method of downloading movies is killing the rental industry and a portion of gaming rentals would be ruined if Sony actually went through with their plans for PS3 games. Prior to the PS3’s launch, some documentation on the PS3’s hardware leaked that revealed that PS3 game discs would include a code that when accessed from a PS3, that game could only be played on that PS3. There was much backlash with that idea, which is why it never saw the light of day.



Not all forms of digital distribution are perfect either. A poor example of digital rights management (DRM) arose with EA’s Spore last year. Consumers who purchased the title were only permitted to install the game three times. This was implemented to prevent the amount of piracy for the game, which is highly prevalent for PC games and PSP games. Many users admitted that they would rather pirate a game than purchase a game that utilized a DRM service. Sony made the decision to release Patapon 2 for the PSP exclusively via download. They do have retail cases that include the download code for the game when purchased, but no UMD.

As with the Virtual Console, I enjoy having all of my games available to me from a single source, not to mention I don’t have to hassle with blowing into cartridges or scratching discs. I’m also guaranteed that a game will always be in stock and are sold at arguably reasonable prices. Also, if there happens to be a situation where you need to free up some space on your hard drive or your system fails, these services usually allow you re-download games you previously owned at no additional cost.

Going back to Valve who seems to know how to handle digital distribution adequately with their DRM service called Steam. Steam features over 600 games available to download that range from independent ventures, to best selling popular titles. While the focus is mainly on Valve’s titles such as the Half-Life games and Counter-Strike, EA has even included some of their games to Steam’s library. Steam is also focused on the community aspect with gamers. Matchmaking services for multiplayer games are provided as well as an intricate modding community for those who enjoy playing around with level creation and physics tools found within the games.

In closing, with services such as Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Store, Steam, and many others, I fully embrace the idea of gaming going mostly if not completely digital. Considering downloadable games are more cost efficient to both developers and consumers, it would be foolish to think otherwise.