It was announced yesterday that the upcoming MMORPG Alganon, which is set for release on Oct 31st, will be available only through IGN’s gaming service Direct2Drive.
Players will be able to pre-order Alganon before the October 31, 2009 launch through Direct2Drive, and also through the Alganon website, giving access to the exclusive beta and bonus features which will not be available after launch.
Personally I don’t get why any game, yet alone a MMO, would ever want to restrict their release by only allowing one source to sell their game. The most recent MMO to do this was CrimeCraft who had an exclusive agreement with BestBuy for their release. I recently commented on the troubles Crimecraft was having because of this when they announce they were switching to a free2play model.
Now Alganon is following suit and I have no doubt will face the same troubles because of it. While great for IGN I’m sure, it’s not so great for Alganon. MMO’s live and die on subscription numbers and if there’s only one place your selling your game at, you’re going to be in trouble.
Not exactly true, especially for small indie titles. I’m sure services like Steam take a cut of each sale (plus some upfront cost just to get your title on the service), and certainly brick-and-mortar stores have a stocking fee, costs that small studios might not be able to afford. When you are going for a smaller audience, one that is likely already following your title, paying for mass distribution might not make the most business sense.
Titles like DarkFall for instance are ONLY available through the companies own website, no doubt in part to avoid paying said fees. Perhaps once a title has established its base and is looking to expand (assuming they are successful enough to do so), they then can pay the fees and get wider distribution. A game like Crimecraft going F2P has more to do with the title itself being weak than the fact that it’s only sold at Best Buy.
The game is also available as a digital download at the Alganon website, or it will be when it is released.
You don’t have to go to D2D to get it.
Pre-orders only at the moment.