Registering games bought in the shop with your sol account

mazz0 · Post by **mazz0** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:14 pm

If you've bought a game on disc can you register it with your sol passport so that, should you lose/damage the disc you can download it?

Post by **pipfromslitherine** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:59 pm

Iain will know for sure, but I doubt that all the various license agreements would allow something like that to happen easily. And the products use different technology for anti-piracy so it's non-trivial...

Cheers

Pip

mazz0 · Post by **mazz0** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 12:00 am

Aah, that's a shame

Mind you, I'm not likely to be playing frisby with my LA disc, so it's not much of an issue.

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 10:01 am

Yes unfortunately each game has a different system. We're not big enough right now to dictacte copy protection systems to our publishers so they all do their own thing. A more integrated approach would be nice & probably make life a lot simpler for us, but does have substantial set up costs.

mazz0 · Post by **mazz0** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 8:59 pm

So, are publishers really as evil as everyone makes out?

sum1won · Post by **sum1won** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 1:15 am

They rarely help make the game better, and often weaken it in some way or another, usually by forcing a rushed product. Which makes them look pretty evil, yes.

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:17 am

The way we work, it tends not to be an issue. We take finished games to a publisher and say do you want this or not. They sometimes ask for some changes, but relatively minor ones & we'll only make them if we think they are worth doing. They never get to dictate design.

We judge a publisher by whether they pay their bills and how well they market the game. You'd be amazed at how often the developer gets screwed. I don't remember the last time we did not have outstanding invoices that were months overdue or we were involved in legal action to get our money. Oh yes I do, it was about 5 years ago, before we sent out the first invoices.

mazz0 · Post by **mazz0** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:37 am

Does online distribution make it a lot easier then?

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:18 pm

Oh yes, direct purchases from us mean we can track every sale & receive the money much sooner. There is still a delay because the payment providers either report weekly or monthly, but they never fail to pay up!

mazz0 · Post by **mazz0** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:45 pm

And presumably you get more money from each sale too?

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 3:23 pm

Yes usually

mazz0 · Post by **mazz0** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 9:28 pm

Mwa ha ha ha haaa! <buys things on cd>

ste · Post by **ste** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:03 am

I guess the games industry is quite similar to the music industry in that, if you buy your favourite artists records from a record store, they see a relatively small cut of that, if you go watch them on tour, and buy the cd there, they get a much better cut...

mazz0 · Post by **mazz0** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:50 am

ste wrote:I guess the games industry is quite similar to the music industry in that, if you buy your favourite artists records from a record store, they see a relatively small cut of that, if you go watch them on tour, and buy the cd there, they get a much better cut...

Are you going to go on tour?!?