One benefit of a medium like games, as opposed to movies, is that the method of delivery can be accomplished more independently. Anyone watching a movie, be it a new Disney release or a Sundance film, will probably want it on their TV, where they have limited walled-garden devices. Give them an MP4 file to download, and they might not even know how to quickly use it.
But some famous games like Factorio and Minecraft were first sold with independent download systems, because the game will at some point involve its own executable file; it doesn’t have to fit in some larger play framework. Launchers like Heroic let people set up their own system for downloading games from places less popular than Steam.
So, to conclude the tangent: Suppose in the future, Xbox has tripled its Game Pass offerings and other publishers have followed suit. Other indie developers spotting out the subscription frustration can still release their own games breaking from the formula. This isn’t a remedy for the major AAA games we’d like to preserve, but it does mean the worst case scenario isn’t as bad for games as it is for movies.
But some famous games like Factorio and Minecraft were first sold with independent download systems
Sure, the medium helps, but this was mostly because the creators went out of their way to take a stand against digital distribution platforms, including Gamers’ favorite corporate overlord : Steam (and in this process, got 30% more money on literal millions of sales. Okay, maybe more like 25% if you factor in the costs of doing this themselves). Minecraft even used to have a paragraph dedicated specifically to the decision of not distributing through Steam on their official website.
But try to criticize Steam in any way on basically any “gaming” forum and you’ll get crucified
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One benefit of a medium like games, as opposed to movies, is that the method of delivery can be accomplished more independently. Anyone watching a movie, be it a new Disney release or a Sundance film, will probably want it on their TV, where they have limited walled-garden devices. Give them an MP4 file to download, and they might not even know how to quickly use it.
But some famous games like Factorio and Minecraft were first sold with independent download systems, because the game will at some point involve its own executable file; it doesn’t have to fit in some larger play framework. Launchers like Heroic let people set up their own system for downloading games from places less popular than Steam.
So, to conclude the tangent: Suppose in the future, Xbox has tripled its Game Pass offerings and other publishers have followed suit. Other indie developers spotting out the subscription frustration can still release their own games breaking from the formula. This isn’t a remedy for the major AAA games we’d like to preserve, but it does mean the worst case scenario isn’t as bad for games as it is for movies.
Sure, the medium helps, but this was mostly because the creators went out of their way to take a stand against digital distribution platforms, including Gamers’ favorite corporate overlord : Steam (and in this process, got 30% more money on literal millions of sales. Okay, maybe more like 25% if you factor in the costs of doing this themselves). Minecraft even used to have a paragraph dedicated specifically to the decision of not distributing through Steam on their official website.
But try to criticize Steam in any way on basically any “gaming” forum and you’ll get crucified
The method of delivery for movies can be accomplished more independently too, if the movie studios hadn’t formed enormous cartels.