Atari selling new game via peer-2-peer software Kazaa

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#1

I just posted the article Atari selling new game via peer-2-peer software Kazaa.

Besides all the negative news around peer-2-peer
software Kazaa there is also some positive news. Game maker Atari is
going to sell their latest RPG game, entitled "The…

Read the full article here:  [http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/6697-Atari-selling-new-game-via-peer-2-peer-software-Kazaa.html](http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/6697-Atari-selling-new-game-via-peer-2-peer-software-Kazaa.html)

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#2

Let’s say a company sells a game for $ 30 at a store, say 10 went to distribution (warehouse and shipping), 10 to the retail store and the company keeps 10, when you move the game out of retail and distribution the game should only cost $10. There is NO reason for someone to download a game and pay retail prices; anyone who pays retail for a download is a retard.

#3

Hmm…they’re distributing essentially SHAREWARE via Kazaa? Gee, how original. I must say I’m underwhelmed.

#4

There is going to be a small distribution cost at first, their serving pc’s, but after it spreads then the cost is past onto the owner who’s sharing themselves.

#5

Who would want to download 843 meg to only be able to play it for six hours. It would take most people longer to download it then they would be able to play it. The problem here is even if you don’t buy it, since it’s unlockable you have to download the entire game but you only get to play a small portion. It would have been better to have a smaller file for the shareware then if you decide to buy download the rest. Which would have been better for the company too cause someone will probably hack it and get the full version without paying. You can’t hack something that isn’t there. And paying full price for something that isn’t packaged is sort of off. I mean for years they’ve been saying the packaging of the product is what costs so much. Now there’s no packaging and they want the same price. That’s not right.
[edited by chsbiking on 20.09.2003 03:50]

#6

Using a peer-2-peer (P2P) network is not very wise for sharing a time restricted game. Atari are probably doing this, so people would be downloading from other usres instead solely downloading from Atari servers. While they may save them bandwidth costs by allowing its consumers to freely ‘host’ their huge game, they may find themselves in trouble should user search results start returning hacks or serials along with their search results.
[edited by seanbyrne on 20.09.2003 12:06]

#7

Just to clear up the money issue here, retailers buy games for 50% of their retail value, so your local store pays 25 for a game that sells for 50. Then when you add in shipping cost, pressing of the cd, manuals, etc I actually feel very sorry for software companies who seem to make less money than everybody else and do all the work. Now you understand why even successfull game companies fail (ex: the company who made Thief & Thief 2) I do agree that is expensive considering the return Atari gets but I do think they deserver the money they never got in the first place. If you ask me, - is more than fair, especially when you ARE NOT getting printed manuals and CDs. Kazaa is not a very secure way to distribute this game (can anybody say virus/trojan insert and then make the tainted copy available on Kazaa?) The smartest way to distribute this game online without hogging Atari’s bandwidth is via Bit Torrent, as it’s a form of peer 2 peer sharing where only a specific copy of the game is distributed so it cannot get infected and unlike Kazaa where the more ppl that get a file, the slower it is, Bit Torrent is the exact opposite as the more people get the same file, the faster it is.
[edited by Rhelic on 22.09.2003 21:05]