The landscape has since undergone drastic changes, in the somewhere around 40 years of video game inception and initial distribution all the numbers have gone way up, for obvious reasons, which in turn has made sticking out of the crowd all the more difficult. Note that this is similar, but not identical to shareware from back in the day, where physical copies of games were distributed free of charge and even copying was encouraged, with the intent to cash in on player goodwill and creating a fanbase, which would make physical distribution through media outlets easier, since the demand would be heightened. Ease of access has also resulted in a “try before you buy” mentality, since the sheer multitude of available options within each genre has breached palatable thresholds i.e there’s more games of any one type than any single person could ever play, so to make themselves attractive to the user, who’s already paying for phone bandwith or WIFI, many developers pick the “free to play” route. The ability to acquire a game within minutes depending on the file size has lead to different business models, as the amount of copies delivered is no longer limited by the ability to stock physical shelves with cartridges or similarly shaped containers.
The times are changing now and digital has become the predominant sales channel for pretty much all media, including video games. Sometimes, the acquisition of these titles would be coupled with the bribery of an actual adult, such was the case with Killer Instinct for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the game came with a free bonus soundtrack on a physical CD.īack in the early days of the internet, with download speeds of up to 56kb/sec the thought of delivering games through these channels, not to mention DLC, was completely out of the question. Being of a slightly advanced age, my personal memory goes back to times when video games where delivered physically, on handsized grey cartridges.
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