DigitalDistribution
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The Bourne Ultimatum simultaneously launching in HD on VUDU
For Bourne fans the world over, you're well aware of what tomorrow is. December 11th, of course, is the day that The Bourne Ultimatum will be landing on DVD / HD DVD, but what you may not realize is that it will also be launching on VUDU. Granted, we've seen simultaneous launches before, but this is quite an eventful way for VUDU to get the ball rolling on its HD movie releases. We already knew the firm was aiming to release HD flicks before the holidays, and just recently it announced that a number of studios had already signed on. Universal Pictures, however, is going the extra mile by being the first to unveil a downloadable HD version of a major motion picture on the same day the actual disc hits shelves. Notably, The Bourne Ultimatum won't be available as a rental (purchase only), and while it appears that it'll run users $24.99, it sure sounds like the previous two Bourne films will be available "for free during the holiday season."
Online gaming outsells video and music
According to a new report by Strategy Analytics, gaming is outselling video and music in the online market. Online sales allegedly account for 33% of all software revenue in the industry at this point with $3.8 billion worth of revenue in '06. They expect online gaming to generate $11.8 billion by 2011.The report says the thing driving the market is the continued growth of broadband services and opportunities in the MMO genre. It's pretty easy to see how this could be lucrative, just in the last two years we've seen the explosion of Xbox Live Arcade and Marketplace, along with MMOs like WoW and LoTRO. For all we know they might be setting the bar too low with the $11.8 billion estimate if things keep moving toward digital distribution.
Sony cans Connect, pumps up PlayStation
Literally dozens of loyal Sony Connect users were sent into mourning yesterday by a PaidContent.org story announcing the proprietary music and video download service will be shut down in the coming months. The staff of 80 behind the online store will be transferred over to the PlayStation side of the company, a rather convenient move considering Sony is preparing to launch a new PSP Store later this year.We know what you're thinking, but don't worry, the eBook division of the service will stay up for those of you who prefer reading books on an LCD screen.[Via PSPFanboy]
SanDisk pulls a 180, applauds Amazon's DRM-free music store
We've seen companies hop the fence on occasion before, but SanDisk is making absolutely sure that we all know that it's seriously changing its tune (ahem) on this one. In a bizarre statement that proudly "applauds Amazon and EMI on the launch of its newfangled unprotected music store," the company goes out of its way to proclaim its "excitement for Amazon's DRM-free music download portal," and moreover, cranks up the contradiction further by stating that the firm is a "consistent advocate of consumer choice that believes this launch is an important step forward." While we try not to read too much into that, there's a pretty stark difference between these adoring comments and the ones just months ago that aimed to "protect content creators and the long-term health of the industry" by utilizing DRM on digital downloads. Regardless, it has become fairly clear that SanDisk probably just goes with the flow and hopes to put blinders on everyone else rather than actually saying what it means, but as of this moment, we're felicitous that SanDisk is seeing the light.[Via Electronista]
Wii to get original downloadable titles, 'Game Channel' possible
Remarks made by Hudson Entertainment director of marketing John Lee, during an interview with Game Informer, have sparked rumor that a 'Game Channel,' dealing in original downloadable titles, could be headed to Wii. Lee didn't make any specific implications, but did cleverly acknowledge that Nintendo had plans to distribute original downloadable games. When asked if Hudson had plans to do so, Lee claimed, "No," but added, "However, in the future, you should rephrase that question to: Are there any plans to launch original content on some downloadable service on the Wii, and you might get a different answer."CVG brought the issue up with Nintendo, which responded, "We cannot confirm at this time in what format the new content will be delivered, but in the future there will be original games available for download through the Wii Shop." While still unconfirmed, it's likely that Nintendo could launch a new Channel to further separate original games, once purchased from Wii Shop Channel, from Virtual Console fare. We also suspect that most of these new offerings will utilize the Wiimote (and Nunchuk) instead of the Classic Controller.
Aspyr Media updates, digital distribution plans (Macworld Expo)
Mac games mainstay, Aspyr Media is showing of its latest and upcoming titles at the Macworld Expo. Easily the company with the most Mac game releases in recent years, Aspyr will ship the Mac version of its Best in Show, Prey to retailers next week, with Star Wars: Empire At War next on the company's Mac list. Aspyr also reminded us its PC and PS2 title, The Shield, will also ship to stores next week.In addition to upcoming games, we learned more about the company's Game Agent digital distribution service for Mac gamers. Currently a method of testing Mac hardware to see if new games will run, Game Agent will be relaunched this year to offer a back catalog of Aspyr titles that don't fit on retail shelves.The Mac-only service -- at least initially -- will sell older titles mostly as-is, although some may be updated to work better with the latest version of OS X on a case-by-case basis. OS 9 games, however, will be unlikely to be updated to Mac OS X versions, and Aspyr may not offer those games at all.Aspyr wants to include as many games as possible, but it needs to clear the rights for its older Mac titles, most of which were PC ports. We asked about the potential for small Mac developers to sell games though the service, and we were told that may happen, but that's not the focus. Instead, marketing director, Leah Heck told us Aspyr first wants to "give people access to the back catalog and make it easy to play."
Seagate - the answer to digital distribution?
When thinking of gaming, the companies that make the storage medium are rarely thought of. Seagate, however, is offering up an interesting view of the future; a future that could effect the way we buy our games. According to Seagate, they are working on a technology that will drastically increase the amount of data we store on hard drives. Using a technology called heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), the company expects to be able to shove 50 TB of information into a single square inch of drive space, or around 300 TB of information on a standard 3.5" drive. With that kind of space, the entire Library of Congress can be stored ... without any compression. The technology is expected to become commercially viable in a scant three years, by 2010. This means we may be seeing the Xbox 720 and PS4 being entirely based around digital distribution or fully installed console games, mostly eliminating ugly load times and noisy disk drives. With that kind of space, we may never have to worry about filling it up; 300 TB can hold around 6,144 50 GB Blu-ray disks (or the entire Library of PS through PS3 games that could ever be created with room to spare).
Superman Returns now on Xbox Live Video Marketplace
We were wondering how long it would take to get a high definition blockbuster movie onto Xbox Live Video Marketplace, and it looks like Microsoft and Major Nelson just got in under the wire for 2006, adding Superman Returns yesterday. Weighing in at 7 GB for the 720p HD version (2 GB in 480p SD... for the masochists out there) for the 154 minute movie, it's finally time to clear off some of the Xbox 360 demos we downloaded and see if digital distribution works better in 2007 than it did last year. We'll be back with our impressions of the service, now that they've posted something we want to watch on our HDTVs.
On declining iTunes Store sales
The Register rang the town bell this week, pouncing on a report from Forrester Research which declared that iTunes Store sales are on the decline. Forrester analyzed 27 months of credit card transactions to conclude that revenue has fallen 65 percent since January 2006, and the size of the average transaction has dropped 17 percent. These numbers, however, don't take into account transactions like gift cards and gifted music, and I have a sneaking suspicion they might also have omitted other popular services like PayPal, which can be tied directly to a customer's banking account, bypassing credit cards altogether.Apple is notoriously tight-lipped about the performance of their 800 lb gorilla iTS, but MacNN notes that Apple reported 'above-break-even' profits for the store during last September's earnings conference call. Considering the iTS has long been known as a paper-thin profit loss-leader to sell iPods, as well as the possibility that the neglected portions of iTS transactions could shift Forrester's findings, I'm a bit skeptical of these reports. Of course, The Macalope asks 'who cares?' to all this worry of how the iTS is doing, but Geoff Duncan at Digital Trends reminds us of some interesting potential shifts in the digital distribution model that could depend directly on how well present offerings fair. Microsoft opened a Pandora's box by agreeing to pay the labels $1 for each Zune sold, and there are rumors that the jackass labels might be using this to pressure Apple into a similar deal. On an even broader scale though, Geoff also mentions something called 'blanket licensing' where said jackass labels could apply a tax to broadband subscriptions, allowing users to continue to freely download content over any network or service they use.We will undoubtedly receive an updated performance report on the iTunes Store from Stevie at next month's Macworld. If anything, Forrester's report and the resulting discussion might signify a new wave of interestingness in the sea of DRM and digital distribution. Stay tuned.
Blockbuster exec: High def movie downloads not ready yet
Blockbuster Chief Executive John Antioco said as much at the Reuters Media summit recently, indicating that packaged media is going to remain the best way to get movies, especially in high definition, for a long time. He anticipates DVDs will remain the best way for studios to profit from their releases and high definition formats will increase that over the next few years. Given recent events, we can't argue that digital distribution might not be fully baked just yet; but the ongoing format war makes us think the possibility of downloadable HDTV content catching up before consumers get comfortable with either Blu-ray or HD DVD is a bit higher than Antioco lets on. He did note that Blockbuster would be getting into the download business, possibly as early as next year.
HD Movies on Marketplace? It could happen
Nothing like a nice juicy rumor to keep you going through the weekend. This week's rumor is a doozy. Originating on an obscure blog called, ahem, Shsibae, the rumor goes a little something like-a this: Microsoft will soon be offering full-length high definition movies over the 360 Marketplace. Rentals would supposedly cost $4. Buying them outright is a possibility too, though the price is undetermined. The service would launch with over 1000+ hours of available video. For the uninitiated, 1000 hours is a lot of hours.Now, the idea of downloadable movies on 360 is nothing new. In fact, we've been downloading high def clips ever since the console launched. Still, we've heard rumors of more substantial downloads for a long time. Die-hard 360 fanboys will recall the rumors of a DirecTV blade being added to the dash and another rumor of IPTV support. So, what makes this rumor different? One, Bill Gates thinks digital distribution is the future, even saying that HD DVDs and Blu-Ray will be the last generation of physical media. Two, that mysterious Video Marketplace button that was added in the Fall dash update might be more than we thought.Of course, there are plenty of reasons why it won't work, with the most obvious being the 360's 20 gig hard drive. 20 gigs just isn't enough space for a collection of HD movies and all game related data. Unless Microsoft was lying when they denied the existence of a 100 gig hard drive, or they have some sort of streaming solution planned, the 360 really isn't the best place to keep your movies.Still, from a business standpoint, it makes sense. Sony is offering similar services, and Microsoft has been quick to update the 360 in order to compete (1080p anyone?). And there is one more thing that adds credence to this obscure rumor: it's not there anymore. The rumor has been removed from Shsibae. Did MS ask them to take down the news, or did Shsibae know the internet would jump all over it? Only time will tell.[Via Joystiq]
What Dave Perry wants from a PSP redesign
Dave Perry, the respected creator of games like Earthworm Jim, recently went on record to SPOnG about what he'd like in a potential PSP redesign. He starts by describing the system as "a great little machine, but the price is a major barrier. The American public like $149 to $99 for handhelds." Lowering the price would be substantial in getting more PSPs out there. Mr. Perry has a lot of ideas, some great, and some not-so-much: He proclaims Sony should "make the PSP with a clamshell design, to protect that lovely screen, and they should have made the screen at least DVD resolution." A screen that's 480p would certainly be far pricier to manufacture than Sony's current screen, no? "I would also kill off the UMD disc, remove it entirely and shrink the device size." But that would get rid of compatibility with old PSP games. Maybe for PSP2? Mr. Perry gets a boner for digital distribution, and for good reason: "Embracing digital distribution... would bring movies and games back to the PSP in a sensible way. Then I can buy movies or games for less (ZERO cost of goods), keeping the library safely stored on my PC, picking the ones I want to watch next, and all I have to do is sync. If they wanted to be forward thinking, they could offer modern features like game demos, trial music from new artists, item sales, vast customization of items, characters and in-game objects from databases too vast to store on the PSP." As seen by the popularity of downloadable demos, it's clear that PSP owners want to download games to boot from Memory Stick. The eventual popularity of PSone game downloads may lead Sony to start thinking about offering full PSP titles digitally, saving gamers from UMD costs, and UMD loading times. Homebrew can actually help Sony, according to Mr. Perry: "Did user-created content hurt YouTube? Why not open the PSP? Welcome indie games, welcome development, get the users promoting the device... I bet Sony tries to tell you it doesn't matter. Well, if you type "Sony PSP hack" into Google, there are now 8.6 MILLION pages dedicated to the subject." I completely agree that Sony should be supporting homebrew developers on the platform. In fact, embracing the development community might've prevented the popularity of illegal emulators and ISO programs. Sony could've kept a watchful eye, instead of dividing the community between those that actually play new games, and those that pirate games. One of the greatest attributes of the PSP is that it can connect to a PC, and you can move files between them both. Digital distribution of more demos and games will be key for all PSP owners, and I hope Sony gets working on it.[Via kikizo]
Triton users to get replacement copy of Prey
With digital distributor Triton now six feet under, those who purchased Prey are now unable to use their copies. Fortunately, 3D Realms has already set into motion a solution: by sending the disenfranchised boxed copies of Prey to their credit card addresses. Furthermore, Triton staff member OBWANDO promised that they're trying to get a patch through that removes the downloaded copy's dependency on Triton. Tipster James raises an interesting question: what would happen if Steam shut down? Presumably, Valve would give enough of a warning to distribute patches that allow the games to work without Steam, but the Triton incident reveals some unintended ramifications of digital distribution.[Thanks, James]
RoboBlitz hitting Steam
The proficient program plumbers at Valve have issued a press release announcing the imminent arrival of RoboBlitz on their digital distribution network, Steam. Developed by Naked Sky Entertainment and powered by Unreal Engine 3, the action game is largely comprised of physics, explosions, robots and maladjusted space pirates (it says here). Tian Mu, CEO of Naked Sky, explains that after realizing how hot Steam was, he simply needed to have his game all over it."Steam is an attractive platform for the release of RoboBlitz. We're looking forward to being able to release to Steam's huge PC audience. Additionally, we have long-term plans to expand RoboBlitz with new content. Through Steam, we have a great avenue for delivering the game and updates directly to over 10 million gamers' PCs."RoboBlitz will see release in the "coming weeks," most likely alongside the previously announced Xbox Live Arcade version. The game is priced at $14.99 on Steam -- that roughly translates to 1200 MS Points on the Xbox 360, should the price remain the same on both platforms. Check out the (fairly old) trailer after the break.
New tech puts the squeeze on texture files
A company called Allegorithmic recently held a presentation at London's Game Developers Conference and briefly talked about their advanced texture compression technology. The uninterestingly named ProFX and MaP Zone 2 programs aim to reduce the size of in-game texture files by up to 70% -- with no image quality lost. One of the games utilizing the technology turns out to be Roboblitz which, like every other Xbox Live Arcade game, is expected to come in at under 50MB. Allegorithmic's software supposedly reduced the entire game's collection of textures to a size less than 280KB. Efficient compression techniques, if implemented correctly, could easily be seen as a way to obviate the initial need for new storage mediums such as HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. However, the Bit-Tech article points out that designers are just as likely to fill the extra space to create even more rich and varied textures. Instead, the biggest winnner would be the world of digital distribution. Though broadband speeds are constantly increasing, nobody likes waiting for a progress bar to fill. Casual or arcade games could certainly benefit greatly from smaller overall file sizes as they vie for your limited time and attention. [Via PS3 Fanboy, thanks to everyone that sent this in.]
The economics of Live Arcade development
Proponents of digital distribution have long argued that cutting out the retail middleman would allow more money to go directly to a game's developer, letting lower-budget games thrive. Now that Xbox Live Arcade is approaching its first anniversary, how are developers of top-selling games like Marble Blast Ultra making out?Not horribly, but not amazingly either, according to GarageGames' Jeff Tunnel In a post on his Making It Big in Games blog, Tunnel breaks down the publicly available information on game budgets, Microsoft's distribution fees and game sales to come up with a rough estimate of a $780,000 net for a game like Marble Blast Ultra. As Tunnel puts it "if you are a starving Indie developer this sounds like an infinite amount of money. But, in the world of publishers, this is not considered a big hit."Tunnel also mentions that XBLA development budgets are expanding quickly, following a trend in traditionally distributed games. Soon, Tunnel predicts, a $300,000 budget will be considered cheap for a Live Arcade game -- food for thought for anyone hoping to jump into 360 development with nothing but a $99 XNA license and a dream.[Via Edge Online]
Sony says: PSP will become a virtual PS3
Sony Computer Entertainment corporate executive Izumi Kawanishi shared some insights today in a report titled "PSP will become a virtual PS3." The article goes over emulating PS1 games on the handheld, and the obvious difficulties in translating some games that involve using more than one analog stick and use more shoulder buttons. According to Sony, emulation was always technically possible, but only now is the broadband penetration high enough to warrant 600MB downloads for players. "We felt that there was now an environment where true e-Distribution could be realized."It appears that e-distribution of games is a high-priority for Sony. Services like Steam (PC) are becoming more and more popular with users and publishers, and Sony understands the appeal for many of us. Downloadable demos will be a continued trend for all kinds of games: PS3, PSP and PS1. Also, it was confirmed that you will not need a PS3 to download content to your PSP (for those that were worried).But the future of digital distribution doesn't stop there:
Ubisoft shares Dark Messiah of M&M with Steam
Valve has been busy piling up games with hearts of gold in their increasingly popular, and increasingly cramped, Steam bordello. With the recent additions of Introversion's DEFCON and seventeen members of the burgeoning PopCap clan, Steam is really (steaming up/under pressure/on fire). Sure, a little service called Xbox Live ain't doing so poorly, but they're not delivering highly anticipated AAA retail titles yet, so there. Today, Valve announced a deal with Ubisoft to distribute their Source-based, first-person RPG, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic over Steam. More importantly, the release will be simultaneous with the retail release this October. Unlike Half-Life 2, which is distributed digitally over Steam and in stores by EA, Valve does not own this property, they're just the messengers. Ubisoft is acknowledging the demand for digitally distributed AAA content and using the largest platform they can find to promote it. We're still waiting on governement-distributed protein pills and personal submarines, but the third pillar of our future vision is now realized.Check out a video of Dark Messiah, and today's press release, after the break.
Battlestar Galactica on Xbox Live: Not HD, not widescreen, not at all satisfying
The recap episode of Battlestar Galactica was posted on Xbox Live Marketplace yesterday and we regret to inform you it was not high definition. We're not entirely surprised at the resolution, a 720p-encoded file would have been a long download, not to mention the Xbox 360's smallish 20GB hard drive. Unfortunately it gets worse, the presentation was in widescreen, but with included bars at the top and bottom as though it were intended only for 4x3 SDTVs. Why they opted for a version that looks like it was taped off of Sci-fi network onto someone's VHS we will never know, but with the artifacting and low quality of the file we cannot recommend this to anyone in good faith. Hopefully they will do better when the episode is aired on Universal HD in September and it will be presented natively in widescreen. Oddly, despite the low quality of this file, you can download two HD clips of upcoming kids show Viva Piñata that look fantastic; hopefully future downloads will follow their lead instead of the quick and dirty approach apparently used on BSG.[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
Activision CEO plays down potential of online distribution [update 1]
Bobby Kotick, the chief executive officer of Activision, stated that he believes digital distribution of full games is "so far in the future that it's almost incomprehensible as an opportunity" in the New York Times article we reported on the other day. He cites the current limits of consumer internet bandwidth and the size of hard drives as the primary concern. However, Mr. Kotick believes that there is a great opportunity for purchasing and downloading smaller add-on content like "characters, new weapons, new missions or auctioning off places".We mainly agree with Mr. Kotick's thoughts regarding the adoption of mainstream digital distribution being a while off. Even though broadband adoption and availability numbers (soon, 99.6% of the UK will have access to 4-8Mbps DSL) are increasing, figures from December 2005 suggest that only 15-20% of Japanese, American and British people actually own a high speed internet line. Those numbers need to be closer to the level that television enjoys if mainstream on-demand digital distribution is to work.However, the market for smaller games and episodes of larger commercial games which can be distributed entirely over the internet is on the verge of exploding; Half-Life: Episodes and Geometry Wars being the early signs. Writing off the internet as a medium for distributing games would be a bad move for many publishers, after all, the early bird gets the loyal customer! Services like Steam, GameTap and Xbox Live Arcade are already beginning to capture the mindshare of savvy gamers (i.e. gamers that are too lazy to walk to the store, lol, jk!), so if publishers want to maintain control of what they do best (publishing games), then surely they should be doing everything they can to get in first before the bogeyman middleman does.[Image credit: Gamasutra]Update: clarified statement regarding adoption of broadband by consumers.
