Digital Distribution Comes Home

When Microsoft launched Live Arcade on Xbox 360, it initially appeared as a bit of a mystery. Cheap, downloadable games that could be stored on your hard drive certainly appeared to be a nice and convenient way of doing things, with the service boasting a mix of retro remakes and new, innovative titles. Hours could be wasted playing simple puzzle games you could pick up for a mere fiver. Had old-school gaming reached the renaissance it so dearly needed?

Soon enough, the Wii hit the scene with its Virtual Console, giving gamers access to loads of classic titles, without having to scour the depths of eBay, and the PS3 arrived late to the party, giving us the nevertheless awesome Playstation Store.

All three services proved to be fun and reliable, with secure credit card options and points systems (except Playstation Store) that meant anyone could buy a game from the comfort of their armchair with relative ease.

So now the focus is once again on original content as all of these manufacturers offer download services for new games. Nintendo have added WiiWare as a ‘ying' to Virtual Console's ‘yang', offering ‘original and exclusive' titles.

Microsoft are now well-versed in their Live Arcade service, following their superb ‘Summer of Arcade' promotion, which featured one top quality title a week during the month of August. These include Geometry Wars 2, Braid, Castle Crashers, Galaga Legions and Bionic Commando: Rearmed. Each of these games were highly impressive and injected some life into what some critics regarded as a failing format, naysayers be damned!

The Playstation Network is building up a great catalogue of games too. Perhaps most notable are the offerings from developer PIXELJUNK, who constantly release insanely addictive and sensibly-priced games for your pleasure. Sony have gone one step further here, however, as they continue to release full next-generation titles for download. Recently, they have begun releasing episodic games, with new chapters coming out each week in the form of new levels. Each instalment is cheap and keeps you on your toes as to what will happen next.

Through digital distribution, developers have finally found the perfect method of keeping retro games accessible. The Wii's Virtual Console boasts over two hundred games from eight platforms, including Super Nintendo, Mega Drive, Commodore 64 and even the Japan and US-only Neo Geo console. Sony and Microsoft have jumped on this idea too and in addition to retro titles, offer games from Playstation One, Two and the original Xbox respectively - all at rock-bottom prices.

Something interesting has happened in today's market. Suddenly what was once old is fresh and interesting again, as young and veteran gamers alike have fun playing these once tired or forgotten relics.

It's not just consoles either, as the number of digital distribution services available on PCs continues to grow. Perhaps most notable is VALVE's Steam service, which offers everything from simple puzzle games to full-blown retail releases.

It was originally hoped that the lower production and reasonable, but still not cheap, distribution fees of these games would bring about a return to the bedroom coder days of the eighties. This golden age saw talented people make great games at home and sell them to mates or anyone else willing to pick up a copy. However, that dream seems pretty far-fetched as the only people making these games at present tend to be smaller teams within big developers.

However, never say never, as developers are coming round to the reality that these services allow teams to make low-investment, low-risk titles, which grants their creative minds the freedom to wander as they see fit, without worrying about whether or not their game will make a lot of money. A punk approach to games-authoring might be just what the public are craving.