Rant - Digital Distribution Done Wrong

Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, EA, and tons of other game publishers have failed to making into the space of online commerce much in the same way that Valve's Steam has. When you look at thier services the chooice is clear as to why.

Steam Services

• Cloud Storage for featured games
• Achievements
• Cheaper base prices
• Allows mods
• Free patches (unlike others that want you to buy it or not update at all)
• Free to play games (free to download, free to play online)
• Trading (coupons, games, in-game items can all be traded for each other, as well as the abilty to trade items across different games.)
• Demos of almost every game
• Text and voice chat (using skype technology)

All of this is free! Only some of these feature are on one console or another, and none have them all. Mainly the thing that makes people want to buy things from Steam is... THE SALES. That's right. In a place designed to sell you things, sales are the best way to move your inventory. Steam has announced that not only does it boost income during the sale, it also continues to sell at the same rate for a week or so after it's gone back to it's normal price.

Turns out that if you are not stiffing your customers with add-ons and online modes that you get more money out of them. Odd.