Today’s gaming market is at the top of its ladder, with games such as Titanfall, Mario Kart 8, Watch Dogs.
But where did it all start…
So video games have been around for over 50 years now. Starting back with Ralph Baer making the Brown Box in the late 60’s, to Microsoft and Sony making the Xbox One and the PS4. People think video games will be an ‘only to buy online’ thing in ten years’ time, but I disagree. Why?
Most people think that because of the futuristic leap gaming has taken in the past year or 2 that everything will follow. I don’t think that games will ever be a strictly online thing. Well not anytime soon at least. Granted that most games are available for instant download now, but they still release games on disk I’m sure that 50 years ago, people were saying the same thing. People in the 60’s thought 2014 would have flying cars and super robots. So let’s jump back to the late 60’s…
The Late 60’s
The first look at Video Games.
In the late 60’s, a man named Ralph H. Baer made a home game console. This console was named ‘The Brown Box’. The Brown Box was the first gaming console the world had seen, and it took the world by storm. It could be programmed to play a variety of games, but was most famous for the game Ping Pong, which was multiplayer. It was later named the ‘Magnavox Odyssey’. Back then, the games industry had just begun so there wasn’t much distribution. The first games that came out were on cartridges. The Magnavox game with games programmed in, like pong and roulette. It even had a ‘light gun’ which was used to detect light on the screen. With games being already programmed onto the console, it was mentioned in the commercials. This continued throughout the seventies.
The 80’s
In the eighties, we saw the first digital distribution of games. The first dial-up games distribution was born, and it was called GameLine. It was only available for the Atari 2600, and made the distribution of games a lot quicker. They were notable for a very exclusive selection of games. It gave the users a special cartridge to hook up to the phone line, and allowed them to rent games from 5 to 10 days. When the video game crash of 1983 occurred, GameLine was terminated. In 1988, Nintendo introduced the Famicom Modem for the Family Computer. It allowed the user access to a server that provided game cheats, jokes, weather forecasts, and a small amount of downloadable content.
The 90’s
When the nineties hit, there was a few digital games distributors. Similar things to the Famicom Modem were released for the Super Nintendo and the Nintendo 64. Sega released the Sega Channel for the Sega Genesis in 1994, providing people with games on demand and other services. On PCs, digital distribution was becoming more and more popular, although there were no significant services for it. Only few examples existed, like ‘Cavedog’ who distributed additional content for real-time strategy computer game Total Annihilation as free downloads via the internet in 1997. People could also post user-created content online now, such as maps and mods. The nineties also saw the first game CD’s. With the Sega CD and the Sony PlayStation. CD’s had a lot more memory too them, so games were better.
The 2000’s
When the 2000’s came around, music went downhill, but games distribution was at a high. The internet was up and running smoothly and there seemed to be an online distributor everywhere.
The Consoles
Each key console has a distribution method now. PS3/4 has the PSN store. Xbox 360 and One have the Live Marketplace, and Wii has the Shop Channel. You can buy games and things from all the markets.
The PC Side
One of the PC distribution pioneers was a company called ‘Stardock’. Stardock started back in 1991, and helped develop operating system 2 for computers. Its still active now, but isn’t as popular as it was then. We soon saw bigger and better companies come along, like Drengin.net which let people pay for a years subscription to use. Then 2004 saw the release of TotalGaming.net which either let people pay individually for games or purchase tokens to then later pay for games at a discount price.
In 2008, Stardock announced ‘Impulse’, a third-generation digital distribution platform, which included independent third-party games and major publisher titles. Between the mid-2000’s and now saw the rise of many digital distribution services on PC, such as Amazon, Steam, GameStop, Games for Windows – Live, Origin, and several more.
Distribution Online
2004 saw the birth of one of the best digital distributors there is, Steam. The Valve Corporation released the Steam platform for Windows computers as a way to distribute Valve-developed video games. Steam has the speciality that customers don’t just buy games, but instead get the right to use games, which might be taken away if a violation of the End-user license agreement broken, or when a customer doesn’t accept the changes in the End-user license agreement. Steam began later to sell titles from independent developers and major distributors and has since become the largest PC digital distributor. By 2011, Steam has over 50-70% of the market for downloadable PC games, with a user base of about 40 million accounts.
2010
These next couple of years saw the birth of Mobile Gaming. Digital distribution is the dominant method of delivering content on mobile platforms such as iOS devices and Android phones. Lower barriers to entry has allowed more developers to create and distribute games on these platforms, with the mobile gaming industry growing considerably as a result.
The Comparisons
I’m going to be comparing the old cartridges for consoles, and new digital downloads from Steam. Cartridges were the first real games. Back with the first consoles, it was the only way to play games (minus pre-programmed games). The huge problem with these old games was that if there was a problem with in-game, the only way to fix this was to remake the whole game, and resell the whole game again. People either had to cope with the bugs, or wait till the next game came out, and prey it was perfect.
With games distribution being digital now, the bugs and things are easy to fix. Steam is the distribution method I’m looking at. Steam is software that uses the internet to sell games. Steam is always updating its self and is always updating its exclusive games. So when there is a problem with a game, or a DLC came out for it, it wouldn’t have to be remade, it would just have to be updated. This saves people money, and waiting for a new game. It also makes it easier on the developers.