Has digital distribution finally reached a point where it can be deemed a viable business model? It would appear so, as both downloadable content for exisiting titles and ‘arcade games’ on the Xbox Live service appear to be thriving.
Activision recently announced that they made $1 million USD on selling new content over the Xbox Live Marketplace for the popular Call of Duty 2. Meanwhile Capcom’s first foray into the Xbox Live Arcade scene made a big splash becoming the fastest selling title in the service’s short history.
These come at a good time as game budgets continue to spiral upwards (some would say out of control), and claims that the existing business model doesn’t work. Both of these avenues provide developers with new revenue streams by either off-setting the cost of development or giving smaller indie projects a chance to get off the ground.
While things seem to be progressing from strength to strength, I do have some concerns about the future. Right now, consumers are enjoying the ‘novelty period’ of it all and are buying everything that lands on Marketplace as it slowly trickles through, but as this novelty wears off and the place starts to become saturated then I worry that this initial success may become short lived. Fortunately, there are no signs of this happening just yet; Microsoft has been smart, drip feeding the content to the consumers so they are hungry for each release, whilst being varied enough to cater for all tastes. Lets hope both Sony & Nintendo can achieve similar success in the future.
