Sega to start online distribution of software

[Melf]

From Next Generation:


Digital River built and recently launched Sega's online store. Games including The House of the Dead 2 and Virtua Squad 1 and 2, among others, also will be available for sale and download through Digital River's oneNetwork online sales channel.

"Online distribution presents growth opportunities for Sega and we are poised to bring leading-edge games into that channel," said Chris Olson, director of Web for Sega. "Digital River's oneNetwork will allow us to quickly and easily expose our games to a very large audience of consumers that shop on popular, high-traffic online retail sites."

"With more than 10 years of experience, we have developed e-commerce best practices to successfully grow an online business," said Joel Ronning, Digital River's CEO. "Taking a multi-channel approach to online selling is one of the most effective strategies a company can use to build its e-commerce business and increase market exposure for its software products. By selling software through branded online stores and our oneNetwork online sales channel, our clients can maximize their market and revenue opportunities."

Sounds solid enough. I wonder how long it will take for this sort of thing to actually take off.

[j_factor]

Is this the same thing that they did in Japan like two years ago and went nowhere with?

[lordofduct]

Anyone who is going to be hardcore enough gamer to even hear about this let alone want to spend the time downloading anything isn't going to spend money on it as they also would be hardcore enough to know where to get it free.

The only pleasure I notice people getting out of paying money for older games is that they get to own the actual game disk and manual and the sort.


Now what I am wondering is games like this for download... Virtua Cop? House of the Dead 2? these are Sega Saturn and DC titles. What the hell are they going to be played on? Are they condoning burning games and modifying consoles? Come on, anyone who still has a Saturn ALREADY has Virtua Cop! Or what?

Now that would be cool though, if Sega actually released a freaking Saturn emulator. But like that will happen...



am I confused or something... I think I am.

[j_factor]

Virtua Cop and House of the Dead both had PC ports.

[lordofduct]

PCs feces