A SiN-terview with Ritual Entertainment

FiringSquad has an interview with some members of Ritual Entertainment, the team bringing us the Steam-distributed SiN Episodes any day now...

Following the big Sony announcement at GDC, Nintendo's plans to offer downloadable games on the Revolution, and Microsoft's own prospering Xbox Live Marketplace, it's now crystal clear that digital distribution is the biggest thing since sliced bread 4x anti-aliasing. The guys from Ritual make a couple really cogent points; their Dickens analogy is particularly apt, discussing how the 19th century benefits of serial distribution are no different than many of the benefits the model aims to offer today's gaming audience.

Some choice quotes:

• "I believe we are going to see more and more high-quality game content being released digitally via services like Steam and the Xbox Live Marketplace. That is not to say that the traditional retail channel is going away, digital distribution is merely another avenue for developers to get their games out there...."
• "As a developer, making a game under the episodic model has been MUCH easier. This paradigm forces us to encapsulate our efforts into more manageable pieces, and to compartmentalize our development cycles."
• "We’re in talks with Microsoft about getting SiN Episodes on Xbox Live Marketplace, which is a really great outlet for the game. We’ll have more on that at a later time."

But what about the hard drive, man?