Gamasutra’s reporting that SquareEnix has decided to start supporting Steam with it’s new releases in North America and Europe. While I don’t recall ever buying a SquareEnix game (at least for PC), I’m taking this as yet another sign that digital distribution is maturing into a standard outlet for developers. I can’t speak to Valve’s selection criteria but given the lower cost of doing business, I can imagine it would be easier for a smaller developer to get their indie title up and out to the publich without being hampered by costly distribution deals with established players in the boxed retail channels. Not to say boxed retail is a dying breed (I do like getting my hands on software) but I think we’re nearing the hump where we could see some serious pain for retail outlets as they see game sales decline in favor of instant gratification (lazy) deliveries of games via network fiber. Plus, with networks getting faster and bandwidth availability high, there are few limitations for digital download (except for, maybe, power for those data centers).
In other news, it turns out InstantAction decided to throw the switch and take down the beta sign. Another outlet for indie game developers, Garage Games has been doing it’s Torque thing for a few years now. Better still, they’ve been improving that sucker for those years and barely increased the price (up from $100 to $295) for an indie license. I played around with it ages ago and it’s pretty solid for most single player and non-massively multiplayer games. I’m sure someone could take a look at the netcode and figure out a way to make it MMOG-capable, if they haven’t already. The only downside is the same downside of anyone selecting a platform they haven’t developed for in the past: ramp-up time.
InstantAction is built upon a new Web-based engine that relies on Flash but integrated well with the IA site. It definitely proves that you can offer a boxed retail experience via the Web but it turns out the Web’s “everything must be free” mentality is also a carry over. Hard to say, though, if a certain standard is set or if a method of peer-rating is implemented so that the gamers can self-police the games out there, that a game offered for a fee might still be successful. Still, you’ve gotta love all the options out there for game devs now…lots of room for creativity.
kn