[game_preservation] XBLA, Wiiware, and maybe the future of releasing all games + intro

[Henry Lowood]

Hello Steven,

Three quick points on your question:

1. Even games that are distributed via traditional means, such as boxed 
games, have similar problems, such as  frequent patches, say, for 
PC-based games.

2. The questions you are raising have to do with software preservation; 
another issue is how to save player activity.  Until recently, this was 
much easier with PC-based games, but now there are some replay and 
capture tools for certain game titles on consoles (e.g., Halo).

3. A few XBLA games have been distributed as "best of" sets on disk, 
e.g., XBox Live Arcade Unplugged (2006), which includes Geometry Wars, 
for example, and a few other less worthy games (in my opinion).

Henry

Steven van Stelten wrote:

> Hello SIG mailinglist members,

>

> Firstly, I would like to introduce myself and than throw in a bone. I 

> am Steven van Stelten, Dutch student Reinwardt Acadamy of Cultural 

> Heritage. And currently very busy with a paper about preservation of 

> the world of video games. This mailinglist and its archive have been 

> very helpful. So thank you for that. 

>

> And now for the bone:

> It probably is not the biggest issue out there right now. And I do not 

> know very much about the future of releasing games. However I have 

> come across some speculation here and there that games will be 

> released (downloads) and/or played solely via internet. So nothing 

> tangible will be put out on the market anymore. Now MMOs and the sorts 

> fit in to this, and there are XBOX 360's XBLA and Wii's Wiiware. For 

> MMOs and such there are other problems. But nowadays XBLA releases 

> games exclusively, see:

> This title is only available to Xbox 360® owners with an Xbox LIVE® 

> Silver or Gold membership, through download from the Xbox LIVE 

> Marketplace.

> From:http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/b/bngxboxlivearcade/default.htm

>

> A hit game like Braid is also available as a PC game. But some XBLA 

> games are, I think, only available as a download for the XBOX 360, 

> where it hides somewhere on that platform/console. If a game is 

> brought on the market on disc, and there are several tens of thousands 

>  or more made there is a bigger chance that something will live (I 

> think). I do not how those downloadable games are stored by the 

> publisher, however I can imagine that collecting these downloadable 

> games will be something quite different in the future. Acquiring a 

> game from someone who still has that game on a certain hard disk will 

> be different. And I reckon that quality control can be something that 

> will be more important, because these games are more prone to be 

> (accidentally) fiddled with. And they need to be migrated and without 

> viruses and such.

> Especially the XBLA games are fragile, I think. Because they are 

> harder to access for making copies, and are more likely to turn 

> obsolete at some time.

>

> Sorry for the long text. In short I am interested in your thoughts 

> (maybe more broad than mentioned above) on this as brought on the 

> market intangible stuff. And if you agree that these intangible 

> artifacts are more susceptible to loss than the games on let's say, 

> discs. And maybe someone knows some interesting resources or could 

> direct me to a earlier post, because I remember something about 

> delistings a while back.

>

> Many thanks en best regards,

>

> Steven

>

>

>

>

>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing list

> game_preservation at igda.org

> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>   


-- 
Henry Lowood
Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;
     Film & Media Collections
HRG, Green Library
557 Escondido Mall, Stanford University Libraries
Stanford CA 94305-6004 USA
http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood
lowood at stanford.edu; 650-723-4602

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/attachments/20090525/3971611f/attachment.html>