digital game distribution
OnLive Release Date & Price Announced
March 11, 2010
Remember the online gaming service we covered a few months ago called OnLive that moves your gaming to the cloud? Well it just got real. In case you missed it, OnLive aims to deliver over the air gaming to users in a similar way to general cloud computing.
Data and games are stored on OnLive servers and the images are beamed to gamers around the world who compete in an online environment. The Beta went up quite a while ago and it seems the waiting is almost at an end for US gamers, as the official OnLive launch date has been announced as 17th June 2010.
For $15 a month users will be able to access the OnLive community, however games themselves will cost that little bit extra which is a given considering developers are still going to want their money’s worth out of their games. However this does raise some concerns with potential gamers.
Continue reading »Steam Coming To Mac OS X (Digital Games Distribution)
March 9, 2010
I know, I know, Christmas happened way back in December, but presents are better late than never! In case any of you Apple fanboys out there missed the news, Steam announced yesterday morning that they’re bringing their service to the Mac along with a great library of games which will be available to purchase like PC users running Steam.
In case you’ve not used used it before, Steam is probably the best digital games distribution platform out there, which most of the big and small games publishers are now using to cut out the need for physical media distribution for games. Not only are publishers using it to release new games, but also to find a market for their older games, for example Lucasarts re-released some of their older classic titles. It’s fair to say that we’re big fans of it here at Zath.
Continue reading »Tomb Raider: Lara Croft & The Guardian Of Light Screenshots
March 8, 2010
Last week we mentioned that Crystal Dynamics were set to release a brand new downloadable Tomb Raider game titled Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light. At the time, there weren’t any screenshots to show you, but some have just surfaced and upon my first look, it made me wince.
It looks more like a platform puzzle game compared to what we’re used to seeing Lara Croft doing. The camera is very Alien Breed-esque which, for a Lara Croft game, doesn’t bode well in my opinion.
Continue reading »New Tomb Raider Game – Download Only
March 4, 2010
A brand new Tomb Raider is on its way which is to be called ‘Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light’.
Crystal Dynamics who have been responsible for the last three Tomb Raider outings which include the only next gen Tomb Raider, ‘Tomb Raider Underworld’ are set to make the next instalment in the popular franchise starring Lara Croft.
However this time around, Lara Croft is going to be turning up as a digital download-only game title sometime this year. There’s no word on which console(s) this will appear on, but my bet is it will appear on both PS3 and Xbox 360 with the possibility of a PC release and maybe even as a WiiWare game.
Continue reading »OnLive Mobile Phone Demo Of Cloud Gaming
November 16, 2009
A few weeks ago you may have read my article on ‘OnLive’ moving gaming into ‘the cloud’. The global gaming network played via the internet eliminating the need for exceptional hardware spec to play the latest modern games. If you didn’t then I recommend reading that before this revolutionary announcement.
Today, founder and CEO of the company Steve Perlman, announced and demonstrated the OnLive service, not only on a regular PC but on the iPhone too. This extends the service from the current TV or PC/Mac platforms to gaming on the go too, not only on the iPhone but also on a number of regular mobile phones which have yet to be announced.
Continue reading »OnLive – Video Gaming Moving Forward Into The Cloud?
October 8, 2009
At the game developers conference this year, we learned about a revolutionarly video gaming service called OnLive which could provide games on demand. Created by Steve Perlman, mainly recognised as being the creator of Quicktime, comes a service backed my gaming giants such as Electronic Arts, THQ, Eidos, Ubisoft and Codemasters.
In essence, OnLive is an online game streaming service. The hardware itself is still in Beta testing and consists of a pretty small box unit and wireless controller.
They say that to play the highest quality games, users will require download speeds of around 5mbps or more, which is fairly reasonable as by the time the product is released, that will be a very modest connection indeed for any serious gamers.
Continue reading »LucasArts Announce Classic Game Re-Releases Via Steam
July 7, 2009
As you can probably tell from reading the Tales of Monkey Island preview I wrote the other day, I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the first chapter/episode of this five part series of Monkey Island goodness, and then this morning I read about how and when we can expect to see the Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition released – oh yeah and just a bunch of other games too!
OnLive Games on Demand! – Digital Game Distribution System
March 25, 2009
Over the last seven years this little project has been sitting in Silicon Valley undetected and undisturbed working away at something that hopes to revolutionise the way in which we play video games and change the hardware that we have in our homes, and at the Gaming Developers Conference we finally got a good look at what it is.
The basic idea behind OnLive is that you will be able to essentially get on demand video games through the ‘cloud’ and onto your Mac, PC or even TV. By instantly streaming compressed video you will be able to play it ‘almost instantaneously’ giving the same experience that you would have if you were playing it locally – truly digital game distribution!
But the real genius behind this is that it relies on the video compression and broadband streaming (along with the cloud), and not on the actual hardware on the computer which will mean that even low end machines will be able to benefit from high quality gaming.
Continue reading »‘Affordable’ Video Games Console Launches In Brazil
March 25, 2009
A couple of things in that title are likely to have raised a few eyebrows: firstly the term ‘affordable console’, something we don’t often associate with names like Microsoft and Sony so it must be something new. Secondly the fact that it’s launched in Brazil; when was the last time that a new console was launched in Brazil first?
Well this is a very different type on console, and something that we haven’t really seen before. It’s called the Zeebo and it has been made by Brazilian manufacturer Tectoy and it aims to bring seventh generation gaming into the developing emerging countries (notably Brazil, Russia, India and China [or BRIC] ).
Continue reading »Digital Game Distribution (Games Blog Banter)
June 21, 2008
“Welcome, welcome to the 6th instalment of Blog Banter, the monthly blogging extravaganza headed by bs angel! Blog Banter involves our cozy community of enthusiastic gaming bloggers, a common topic, and a week to post articles pertaining to said topic. The results are quite entertaining and can range from deep insight to ROFLMAO. Any questions about Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!”
I recently tried and failed to buy Grand Theft Auto 4 in local stores around the day of release – yeah I know I should pre-ordered it a long time ago, but what can I say, every other GTA game I’ve played has been on the PC, so I’ve never experienced places having no stocks, plus I’m used to waiting at least 6 months anyway!
Continue reading »
