No World Of Goo For Europeans?
from the digital-borders-are-meaningless dept
The whole concept of staggered regional releases of digital products makes less and less sense in an internet age, but it does create some bizarre situations. Reader SteveD alerts us to the launch last week of a puzzle game called World of Goo that was apparently selling quite well (despite the developers' decision to offer it without DRM -- showing, once again, that you don't need DRM to sell a video game). However, two days after being released, the game disappeared from Steam, the popular video game distribution system, for European users. Apparently, the European publishers of the game wanted to delay the digital release of the game until the physical version was ready sometime next year. This seems backwards and bound to fail. Now any European player who wants the game is more likely to pirate it rather than buy it. It appears the game's developers aren't too happy about it either:"As part of our European agreement, we are restricted from selling the game on Steam in Europe. I'm thinking this was a clause that was accidentally left in, since I can't imagine this kind of restriction is good for anyone. We're going to try to reverse it. We live in the future. We shouldn't even have countries and regions. Just one big Internet where everyone is equal."It will be interesting to see what happens, as it's nice to think that this was an "accident," but we've seen too many company execs somehow think that artificial scarcity is a reasonable business model, and thus limiting the digital release for a while might make sense in their minds.
![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: borders, internet, steam, video games, world of good
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
That aside, it would make sense to use Steam as a distribution channel, especially if there's no overhead for the publisher. But alas, some companies have distribution capabilities and decide to maintain those high operational costs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Shameless Plug
World of Goo Demo
Full Disclosure: I work for the US Distributor for World of Goo. There is a link in the demo that you can use to purchase the PC version of the game from most anywhere in the world. I bought the game for myself after playing the demo before we acquired the rights. It really is a great game.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bad Link
http://media.beanstalkgames.com/demos/wog/WorldOfGooDemo_Setup5.exe
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Bad Link
Maybe all the bad publicity will wake the euro publishers up real soon :)
Also: since when is a US host affected by an EU publisher's rules?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Bad Link
I'm in the states, but thanks for the link to the demo!
I love this game! Way cool graphics, enjoyable music (a major plus) and the gameplay is terrific.
Viva la Goo!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
lETS SEE.
Simple distribution to over 60% of computers, and they DONT want to use it??
Distrib over the net is QUICk FAST and CHEAP, and you can get to over 60% of the computers.
No Store sales,
NO Packaging,
NO handling or freight charges..
ANd very little Advertising needed.
What are they trying to do? Shoot themselves in the foot?
Only reason I goto a store, is for the CHEAP programs, that have been MARKED down over the past 6 months.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
not on Wii
I've been looking forward to this game since the US release, and have logged onto WiiWare a couple of times to check it out -- and of course, it was never there. Now I know why :(
This is ridiculous. By the time it comes out on physical media, there's a good chance I'll have forgotten all about it... they'll have missed the boat on its good PR entirely.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You can kind of use it on Steam
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Simultaneous Release
[ link to this | view in chronology ]