first serious alternative to pirating games

[Stopspot]

Swedish game distribution service Gamersgate announced that they will launch their new service Void on Monday. Void will be a gaming service that allows you to completely free and legally download all games in Gamersgate's storage to your PC or Mac. Without paying a dime. To compensate for this you will have ads running on the site, during the download and install and when the game starts up. The games themselves will remain completely unchanged.

There are no hidden costs with void but there are upgradeable options that can be purchased with cash. Like extra gameslots for example.

This is the first serious attempt to get around pirating games without attacking the gamers I've seen. I will comment on it seriously once I've tried it out. It seems good though.

 

[Rysenberg]

So will it only be new games ?

 

[Stopspot]

So will it only be new games ?

Gamersgate has both new and old games in their storage.

 

[Leo C]

That seems cool. Is it only avaiable in Sweden?

 

[Crayo]

Nice idea to be honest.

 

[Stopspot]

It's suppose to be a global service. Starting out in Europe and US and then expanding steadily once they are past launch.

 

[Crayo]

Are they not worried that this might actually encourage those who do legally pay full price for games to download for free? I can see how it can return some financial benefit from those who illegally download, but it's surely going to lose a lot of money when people who legally pay for it move to legally downloading for free.

 

[Stopspot]

The game producers and distributors still earn money from the adverts. And as some gaming mags say. The ideal situation is were the buyer likes the game enough to buy it via the service to get rid of the ads. Plus they have bonus features and such that you can purchase which will bring in revenue. I also suspect the ability to buy "premium" membership like with Spotify. Where you pay a small amount for ad free games. For my spotify unlimited account I pay 49 Swedish krona a month for almost all the music from all the major labels and most independents in high Q and ad free.

They are most likely hoping for the team fortress 2 effect. Valve turned TF2 free to play with the ability to purchase add on HATS for characters. They make more money from TF2 then almost any of their own produced games now.

 

[Leo C]

I'll check it out when it comes here... it'll probably take a while.

 

[Crayo]

I'm sure ad revenue is less than full retail price sales.

 

[Stopspot]

I'm sure ad revenue is less than full retail price sales.

But it is still proven to work. Spotify is one of the top three global music services and it gets around on ad revenue and small monthly subscriptions for users who wish to skip subscription.

 

[Leo C]

I hope this works out somehow.

 

[Big Hoss Rambler]

:haha:

I'd rather continue pirating.

 

[Kyle]

Well if you're not a dumbass you use adblock.

 

[Roach]

Can not see them earning enough ad money to cover paying the gaming developers and staff. Ad revenue does not earn that much (less now with Google Adsense changes).