Topic: Atari to drop nearly all of its retail games.

[Spinnzilla]

http://news.bigdownload.com/2008/09/19/atari-infogrames-to-get-rid-of-most-retail-box-games-within-five/


With in 5 years, 90% of what atari release will be in the downloadable area.  This is understandable, as the company has been struggling for quite a while.  The company was bought for a measly 21 million, wasn't it?

I imagine the only real games it will be keeping is perhaps the DBZ series, that's what's driving their profit right.  I hope they'll fork over the Godzilla license to someone else, as the games have taken such a hit quality wise. 

[Morari]

I didn't realize the Godzilla games were ever decent enough to have taken a hit quality wise...

[Spinnzilla]

I didn't realize the Godzilla games were ever decent enough to have taken a hit quality wise...

Godzilla: Destroy All Monster Melee was really fun.  Save the Earth turned into a button masher and Unleashed give it unresponsive controls.

[UltimatePartyBear]

This is funny news to read right after ordering my first Atari-published game in a long time (N+, the most search-confusingest game title ever conceived).

[NWR_Lindy]

But wait, the Gamestop CEO says:

"Aside from the games, the bandwidth, etc., our studies have concluded that the network won't be in place to do digital distribution of full games until 2020 to 2025."

Bwahahaha what a moron.

[KDR_11k]

Depends on how the term "full games" evolves. A 3 BRD spanning epic RPG? Sure, that'll be problematic. A game designed to be downloaded? Well, that's easy.

[NWR_Lindy]

You can already download Warhawk, Gran Turismo Prologue, and Burnout Paradise off of PSN.  Those are full, retail games.

Furthermore, look at Steam.  All full games.

Yeah, maybe not FFXIII, but that's an exception.

[ShyGuy]

Phil is changing the paradigms!

[NWR_Lindy]

More like "Atari has nothing left to lose!"

[KDR_11k]

You can already download Warhawk, Gran Turismo Prologue, and Burnout Paradise off of PSN.  Those are full, retail games.

I think the issue is how much those actually sell. Sure, you can release a game online but is it a good idea to go online only?

[Infernal Monkey]

With in 5 years, 90% of what atari release will be in the downloadable area. 

Where they'll make even less money! Hurray!

Seriously, just bloody die Atari; stop dragging it out. It was funny years ago, now it's just awkward.

[animecyberrat]

If they would bring back Asteroids, and Pong they wouldn't be in this mess.

[NWR_Lindy]

Not yet, no.  But that GameStop guy is saying 12-17 years before it's viable?  Come on.  Some of these XBLA and PSN games are selling thousands of copies.  I think Bionic Commando has already sold 140K or something, and that's money that's going straight to the console maker and publisher.

[Bill Aurion]

Not yet, no.  But that GameStop guy is saying 12-17 years before it's viable?  Come on.  Some of these XBLA and PSN games are selling thousands of copies.  I think Bionic Commando has already sold 140K or something, and that's money that's going straight to the console maker and publisher.

Haha, well, 35% of that money is going to the actual developer/publisher themselves on XBLA...Not sure what the royalty rates on PSN are...

Back on the subject, small games distributed online is a great idea for small independent developers, but I do NOT want to see FULL RETAIL GAMES...Why anyone would want to pay the same price for a game when you don't have a hard copy is beyond me...

[NWR_Lindy]

If you're allowed to just download another copy if your hard drive dies, what's the difference?  I wouldn't mind having less game cases/discs lying around my house.  Once you get a big collection that stuff starts to take up a lot of space, and when you move it's a pain in the butt to bring your whole game catalog with you.  On top of that, game discs can get scratched.

[NWR_insanolord]

Digital distribution's not going to be a major factor until about then. Console after next for Sony and Microsoft will probably have more or less every game available via digital distribution but discs will still be the majority for a while after that.

[Bill Aurion]

If you're allowed to just download another copy if your hard drive dies, what's the difference?  I wouldn't mind having less game cases/discs lying around my house.  Once you get a big collection that stuff starts to take up a lot of space, and when you move it's a pain in the butt to bring your whole game catalog with you.  On top of that, game discs can get scratched.

The thing is, what happens to those games when the company stops distributing it? (say, 10 years or so down the line when you want to go back and play an old game)  Sure you could say the same risk applies to discs in that they could break/get scratched, but I have more faith in my ability to take care of my belongings than I do in a hard drive functioning properly a lengthy amount of time...

[animecyberrat]

It's the same old endless debate on if digital distribution is going to take over the world, this is Atari people,nobody cares what they do and nobody is going to follow suit.

[NWR_Lindy]

As more stable and reliable non-volatile memory types (like SD Cards) become cheaper and cheaper, hard drives are going to disappear completely.  I was reading that the new BlackBerry Bold accepts memory cards up to 16GB in size, meaning that there are 16GB Mini-SD cards on the horizon (and they're the size of a fingernail).  That's enough room to contain some retail PS3 games, I'd bet.

[nickmitch]

But will you wait while they download?

[NWR_Lindy]

I don't buy that argument.  People don't seem to have a problem with waiting days for pirated games to download off of BitTorrent.  Those are free games, but with a dedicated server you could serve people games in a few hours.

I've always wondered why game companies don't have client/server setups that let people pre-order games for digital download.  The download could automatically start at midnight of the game's release date (according to your time zone), and you'd have it when you woke up in the morning.  As long as you get the game on release day, what's the difference?  There seems to be some perception that anything more than a 10-minute download is a total failure.

[animecyberrat]

not if they start charging for usage they some states are now requiring. If you have to pay for your time online you won't be wanting to spend it downloading games.

[KDR_11k]

I don't buy that argument.  People don't seem to have a problem with waiting days for pirated games to download off of BitTorrent.  Those are free games, but with a dedicated server you could serve people games in a few hours.

In my experience professional download services are much slower than amateur jobs.

Also flash memory is still slow as molasses.

[Infernal Monkey]

Back on the subject, small games distributed online is a great idea for small independent developers, but I do NOT want to see FULL RETAIL GAMES...Why anyone would want to pay the same price for a game when you don't have a hard copy is beyond me...

The previously download-only Ratchet and Clank: Quest For Booty game for PS3 was given a physical retail release in PAL regions the other day due to the pathetic state of broadband. I don't know what it's like elsewhere, but with store sales here, it's cheaper to buy the game on disc than to download it. 

[Flames_of_chaos]

Well Digital Distribution is still a long ways to be viable as the only form of purchasing like ferny said not every country has broadband internet widely available hell even some parts of America doesn't have it available.

A few years down the line I suspect each console will have a harddrive similar to Wii's which is a solid state hard drive by the next console cycle 32 - 64GB solid state harddrive should be cheap enough for mass production. They are attractive because they are less prone to breakdown. Hopefully Microsoft wont be anal with proprietary memory cards considering that Nintendo and Sony went with standardized memory cards.