The Nuclear Approach

My previous entries have reflected on the issue of having too much of the same thing in a single format. This leaves you open to shelves of what becomes clutter if the standard changes later, like VHS to DVD to whichever format wins the next war. Some companies, notably Valve and Introversion, have their own method of resolving this question.

Valve's Steam requires the user to make their own backup of their games including saves and further updates from the box. The crash in the price of blank DVD media has made this option simple and affordable. Generally this approach is best executed with the episodic, single-player experience of Half-Life 2 than the pick-up-and-play multiplayer twitch gaming that is Counter-Strike Source.

When using Introversion's own downloading system, the demo can sometimes carry all the elements of the full game but you can subsequently purchase a key to unlock the full content - and they'll still send you the game on a CD. However, you can get playing straight after downloading, which is especially handy when a postal strike is approaching and the solid media will be delayed.

When the backups have been completed by the user, the discs in their boxes are not coasters but (just like mainstream backups) allow you to reinstall much more quickly. Conveniently, your savegames up to a certain point will remain when you reload.

It's good to see Steam increasing in reliability (or maybe, British broadband connections increasing in speed) to the point where Valve can strike deals with other publishers and allow a large variety of games onto the distribution platform. Clearly, games publishers have seen the value in redirecting the midprice-to-budget market for back catalouges of PC games, to this model, where the customer uses their own media to legitimately back up the old games they buy - cutting out reprinting and re-advertising costs for the company.

In the case of THQ and Supreme Commander, which only released in March 2007, the games are sometimes recent but set to be replaced by a standalone follow-up within the year.
My friends and I are big fans of Sup Com as it's known to fans, so we just bought it. It's another method of swaying undecided buyers if the game you're enthusing about can be downloaded at less than box price. Everybody Wins. Or in the case of Defcon, which someone bought me as a surprise gift today (cheers Hyssy!), Everybody Dies...