GDC: Digital distribution can compliment retail sales

The introduction of online-ready next-generation consoles and a renewed focus on digital distribution channels will compliment, rather than replace traditional retails sales, GDC panel experts suggest.

The Game Developers Conference panel entitled "What's Next in Digital Distribution and Mainstream Games" included Xbox Live Arcade manager Greg Canessa, BioWare's Ray Muzyka, Valve founder Gabe Newell, Introversion Software co-founder Thomas Arundel, VP of Ritual Entertainment Tom Mustaine and Reflexive Entertainment's CEO Lars Brubaker.

Discussing the breadth of opportunity presented by digital distribution methods, Valve's Gabe Newell talked about the company's recent promotion which allowed gamers to download and play Day of Defeat: Source for a free weekend, which resulted in double the sales at retail than through digital downloads.

"That was totally surprising to us that the capabilities and flexibilities you get when you have this end to end connection with your customers not only gives us those perceived benefits, but they also give us the surprising benefit of a much more effective promotional tool for driving retail sales than we've ever had before."

Echoing the suggestion that digital distribution, in its current state, can serve as a complimentary rather than a conflicting sales method, BioWare's Ray Muzyka commented: "You really need to have both forms of distribution to be successful, and I think that's going to happen for many years."

The BioWare CEO suggested that the availability of content downloads, micro-payments and episodic content should support and not replace retail distribution, complimenting it instead through fresh content and gameplay enhancements that add value for the consumer.

Despite the current success of its Xbox Live Arcade service, which focuses on "quick fun smaller in scope downloadable experiences", Microsoft reiterated its intention to drive traditional retail sales with its Xbox Live Marketplace service, by offering demos, trailers, behind-the-scene exclusives and in-game supporting items.

In a concluding Q&A session, the panel agreed that whilst digital distribution is becoming a much more significant and high profile focus for game developers and publishers, it will be at least a year before the industry truly gets to grips with the opportunities and possibilities it may present.

Ritual entertainment VP, Tom Mustaine, stated: "I would fully expect that next year's GDC you're going to see a whole lot more about this. We're in a bit of a ramping up phase, an experimental phase. A lot of people have been doing this in the casual games space, but as far as AAA episodic, it's right around the corner and next year I expect to see a number of talks about the quality of life changes and the kinds of benefits we can get from this. It's amazing stuff."