Buying games - Part 2

Applause goes to NCSoft which now sells City as Heroes and Lineage 2 directly as downloadable version over their website.

The catch is that it costs $50, so the downloadable version is in no way cheaper than buying the box. And you do not get a CD, nor a manual. So if you fail to make a backup of the downloaded client and the e-mail with the CD-key, and your computer crashes, you might be in trouble. Most people probably can live with that risk, especially if they live in a place where the box with the game is not easily available.

It would be easy to blame them for greed, charging $50 for the downloaded version. But the commercial reality is probably that they made a deal with the retailers: The retailers don't object to NCSoft offering a downloadable version, but the downloadable version may not be cheaper than the box, so nearly every customer who has the choice will use the retailer instead of the download.

The cheapest way for a European to get a US-only MMORPG is DVDboxoffice from Canada, because of their free worldwide shipping. There CoH costs 40 Euro ($48). So you save $2, and you get the box with everything, but you need to wait about 10 days for the shipment to arrive. Gamers are not well known for their patience, and there is a special feeling of urgency to play right from the start of a game, so that offer might not appeal to everybody. There are European importers like Importmadness, which ship slightly faster, but you still won't have your game on release day, and it costs 48 Euro ($58) plus shipping, with express shipping obviously costing a lot more.

So for Europeans the NCSoft offer is not such a bad deal. I'd be quite happy if all the other companies that don't do simultaneous world-wide releases would offer the same. Preferably announced BEFORE release day. NCSoft got the timing right with Lineage II, where they sent an e-mail with that offer to every participant of the open beta a week before release. But for City of Heroes somebody in the same company was not so quick, and the download was only announced and available a day after the game launched.
- posted by Tobold @ 3:56 PM Permanent Link