Friday, November 17, 2006

IGN Offers Manga Entertainment and CPM Downloads

IGN's Direct 2 Drive entertainment download site offers movies and videogames for purchase and direct download to your PC. This service has a continually growing library which now includes Ghost in the Shell and Castle of Cagliostro. As a subsidiary of Fox, IGN's service has access to a catalogue of decent size especially when it comes of films of interest to their target audience.

Let me be straight here. I think that download services for movies and games are the future. I think they are great ideas. I am very interested in what Microsoft is doing with the 360 in this regard. What I am not so keen about it the pricing scale.

Let me get this straight. I, as the consumer, incur all the printing costs of the manuals and have to burn the CD or DVD copies of the downloads myself. My movie or television DVDs won't play in a regular player only on my PC, they had better track things like Microsoft is tracking TV shows where a login is all you need. They allow backups only, but at least they allow backups. I need my backups or I'm not even beginning to use a direct to download service. I am an old school gamer. I play Zork every now and then. You know I'll want to play Neverwinter Nights 2 in a decade, so I need the backup capability. And before you ask...yes, I know I will have to have a computer room filled with totally obsolete machines to meet my desires, that doesn't stop me from having the desires.

So let's say I print in color. That's a couple bucks in printing, and I'll have a few more cents of CD cost. Additionally, there is the time I waste waiting for the printing to happen. I am a meticulous instruction booklet reader, so I do need my copy. So I pay a couple of bucks at home for backup and printing, reducing the manufacturing costs of the game I am buying.

Do I get a price break?

Not really. I can buy X-men: The Last Stand for $19.99 and watch it on my computer screen and handheld device or my TV if I have a television card, or I can buy it for $15.87 from Amazon.

Hmm...Not much question as to which way I'll purchase the item. I might be willing to pay more to support my Local Friendly Mom and Pop Shop (LFMPS), but not to support a subsidiary of Fox.

I think that this is a great idea, but I am still waiting for the "working model."

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