Sunday Supplement – 11th December

Comic courtesy of Fat Gamers.

Let’s take a walk along the Steam…

Surely it’s the way forward (and possibly the end for publishers and the high street). Everything points to digital distribution, and not just for games either. As Internet connection speeds go through the roof more and more people will download their evening’s entertainment instead of walking to the shop and picking it off the shelf.

This can only be a good thing. Distribution and packaging costs are saved, which hopefully means games will become cheaper (or more money will be pumped into development). Riskier, original IP has a greater chance of reaching an audience, since developers have a cheap and easily accessible distribution system.

Microsoft has certainly seen the light, a light reinforced by Valve’s sterling work with Steam. UK developers are making good use of the Xbox 360 Marketplace. Independent developers Stainless Games and Pompom Software have released modern-retro games on the service.

Patrick Buckland of Stainless Games said: “We’re investing heavily in Live Arcade, as we see this as a completely new channel to reach what has always been our core audience – hardcore gaming fanatics who know a good game when they see one.“

Pompom Software’s Miles Visman said: “Never before has a small development company like ours had the opportunity to make a launch title for such a major hardware release.“

Good stuff. How long before entire games are made available to download from the Marketplace? Could Halo 3 be the first? Unlikely, but a nice thought.

And Valve haven’t let up since Half Life 2 began whizzing down the Internet onto gamers’ hard drives. Specialist publisher Strategy First announced this week that it will distribute its titles over Steam. This complements Valve’s current work with the episodic SiN sequel.

Quite obviously others want to jump on this emergent bandwagon. The PS3 and the Revolution will all facilitate downloadable content. The PSP and the DS (in the forum of demos) are doing it already. iTunes makes HMV shops redundant, and soon many people will be watching television through their broadband pipe.

The news this week is just another step in the right direction. I don’t envisage the demise of the high street or the publisher just yet (people, after all, enjoy going out for the day to shop), but the gamer, the most tech-savvy consumer on the planet, will prefer it this way. Hopefully, intrinsically, it means better games.

Escapism, remember?

Interesting one this. Second Life, the MMO without any, well, gaming, has seen some users purchase a bit of land next to established shops and erect a billboard. Some make political statements (RESTORE US CREDIBILITY, IMPEACH BUSH) and some are ads. Seems to have caused quite a commotion.

Some players want Linden Labs, who run Second Life, to take them down. Others are just ignoring them. The game is supposed to allow users license to pretty much get on with it, which is why people are getting hot and bothered.

Either way, it highlights gaming gone mad. Gaming should be about leaving the real world behind, not bringing it with you. I don’t play games to be bombarded with advertising and moral crusaders hell bent on forcing their latest moral outrage upon me. I get enough of that from television. I play games to escape all of that, to be transported to another world full of fairies, power-ups and the odd crate or two.

I fully accept games that present an accurate and factual view of the real world. Indeed, historical first-person shooters (of which there are millions) are sold off the back of this hook. But the point is fun. It’s unlikely that, during a lull in the endless volley of bullets in Call of Duty 2, you’ll peek your head out over No Mans Land and see “DOWN WITH BUSH” plastered on a billboard.

Which brings me neatly onto the issue of advertising in games. To my mind, there’s only one instance where it should occur – and that’s in games that attempt to portray a realistic version of the present. Anywhere else and in-game advertising ruins everything, shattering the illusion of escapism.

So take down the billboards Linden Labs. Sure, Second Life is supposed to be a utopian paradise of endless possibilities, but when you give gamers the freedom to do what they want, all you end up with is chaos, just like real life.

At last, it’s there!

So, 360 shortages eh? Enough has been said already. But this week Microsoft offered an explanation: a lack of chips because of low yields. Hmm.

Satisfactory or not, it’s the first time anyone from the company has bothered to offer an explanation for the shortages. That’s all we can ask for really. I do believe Microsoft are doing all they can to replenish stocks (although indulging in the odd conspiracy theory is fun from time to time), but they could have done with offering the “low yield” “chip” story a while back. Not only would it have done much to pre-empt the admittedly sparse bad press, but it would have also kept me warmer while waiting for one outside GAME at midnight (I love chips). Actually, scrap that. Nothing could have stopped me freezing my nuts off. I am indeed, hardcore.

Second-hand information…

Do you buy pre-owned games? Most gamers do. Why wouldn’t you? They’re cheaper. If the disk is OK, the five pound I’ll save is OK. We’re certainly encouraged to do so by retailers. GAME’s pre-owned section is one of the most prominent they have. And it’s not rocket science to work out why. It’s all about the margins – big, juicy, fat margins. You sell a brand new game to GAME and you’ll be lucky to get a tenner for it. Come back the next day and it’ll be on sale for five pounds less than it costs brand new.

That gaping chasm is pure profit. But everyone involved in the transaction is happy. Consumers save (we’re not bothered if the loser who sold the game got ripped off, even though that loser has been or will probably be us one day) and retailer cash registers ring.

It’s not surprising then that publishers, who are the ones responsible for funding, marketing and manufacturing the games, hate pre-owned retail policies with a passion. Trade industry mag MCV reports this week that the publishers are considering going to the trade association ELSPA with a view to taking legal action if it continues. It seems the growing £100 million pre-owned market has become too green to ignore.

So, what do you think? Should we be allowed to buy pre-owned games, or should they be banned all together? In reality, it’s impossible to stop. All the retailers are doing is something millions do on eBay every night.

Some within the industry have called for a revenue share on profit made from selling pre-owned games. You pay a fiver less for a brand new game, and that huge margin is divided up between the retailer and the publisher. The publishers say this will result in cheaper games (I’ve heard that before).

The fact of the matter is pre-owned games are here to stay, so don’t worry if you prefer the scratchier side of the disk. It will be impossible to share profits from pre-owned games (especially from ancient ones published by now defunct companies). If they did come to some kind of ridiculous arrangement, the retailers would inevitably raise the price of pre-owned games to £2.50 less than brand new.

That kind of rubbish saving would then force consumers to sell and buy on eBay (when I worked in GAME, we used to put a pre-owned copy of a chart game next to the brand new copy to show just how much money could be saved. We would have been embarrassed to do so if the saving was a couple of quid). And there’s absolutely no way the publishers will get a share of the profits from eBay – if they did, the DVD publishers and the kettle publishers and the Siberian rug publishers would all start moaning.

So, a lot of hot air then. Anyone spotted a pre-owned 360 in a shop yet? Special prize goes to the first to supply picture evidence. For the rest of us, I guess it’s eBay then.

This week on Pro-G

Perfect Dark Zero (Xbox 360)

Peter Jackson’s King Kong (Xbox 360)

Project Gotham Racing 3 (Xbox 360)

Quake 4 (Xbox 360)

Need For Speed: Most Wanted (Xbox 360)

Call of Duty 2 (Xbox 360)

GUN (Xbox 360)

Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome (PS2)

This week’s new releases

As we near the end of 2005 the number of quality releases has dried up a little, but there are still a few games worth looking at this week. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is now available on Xbox, GameCube and PC, and after a disappointing chart entry for the PlayStation 2 version, Ubisoft will be hoping that this week’s sales will help the game rise up the chart.

The PSP receives a late flurry of releases, with Namco Museum: Battle Collection, Frantix and Championship Manager, while the DS gets its own Prince of Persia game in the shape of card battler Battles of Prince of Persia. Battalion Wars on the GameCube finally made its way to Europe this week and by all accounts should be worth checking out.

There’s a clear dud this week, with Burnout Legends on the Nintendo DS taking the crown. It has the pleasure of being the only poor Burnout game to be released in the series’ history and one of the worst DS games available.

• Battalion Wars (Cube)
• Battles of Prince of Persia (DS)
• Burnout Legends (DS)
• The Complete CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (PC)
• Championship Manager (PSP)
• Crazy Frog Racer (PS2 and PC)
• Diplomacy (PC)
• Dogz (GBA)
• Flow: Urban Dance Uprising (PS2)
• Frantix (PSP)
• James Pond Robocod (DS)
• Namco Museum: Battle Collection (PSP)
• Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker (PC)
• Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (Xbox, Cube, PC)
• Ski Racing 2006 (PS2)
• Super Rugby League 2 (PS2 and PC)

Next week on Pro-G

As 2005 starts to wind down we’ll be taking a look at recent releases that have passed us by and any Xbox 360 launch titles that we’ve yet to cast our critical eye over. So, expect reviews for Condemned, Amped 3, FIFA 06 Road to FIFA World Cup, Kameo, Sonic Rush, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones and more.