Gaming on demand

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Gaming on demand (also called GoD) is to computer games as video on demand is to video rental or video purchase.

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[edit] History

Software rental appeared during the late 1980s as an alternative to software retail by small cooperation to cut operating cost, to only rent a software only when needed instead of purchasing the software for occasional uses. Game rental is based on the same idea and foundation, where are player would only rent the game for short duration of time instead of owning a personal copy. This is particular popular for console game cartage. Gaming on Demand is a new innovative update to the aging game rental industry.

[edit] Description

Unlike console game rental system, where the rental store would either mail a game cartage or disc to the customer or the customer have to walk in to the rental store itself. GoD is a PC game rental service which take advantage of broadband connection and advance file encryption and compression technology available today to digitally distribute product and often offer a zero return policy. Zero return policy basically mean the customer will get to keep that copy of game he or she rented.

[edit] Comparison of Purchase vs. Rental

Pro Con

Purchase
  • user retains product rights as long as the product functions
  • paying full retail price
  • possible bad purchase (regret the purchase)
  • damage or failure causes product to become unusable

Rental
  • price is a fraction the retail price
  • allows low risk trial before purchase
  • retrieve back up or download (again) product when needed
  • delivery time depends on internet connection speed
  • usage limited by subscription

[edit] Piracy issues

The early model of PC game rental failed due to the ease of digital media duplication on a computer. Customers would copy the game CD or diskette to their computer, then either exchange for another title or return for refund. GoD uses digital rights management technology when delivering a game to a customer. The program files are scrambled and encrypted with a key available from the rental store, thus duplicating the file is meaningless as long as the key is unavailable.

A customer usually needs an active account with the rental store to run the game. A part of the fee from the subscription is royalty to the publisher and/or developer of the game. Customers pay a fraction of the retail price to enjoy a game, while the creator gets profit from their labor.

[edit] No wait delivery

This only apply for delivery over distance, since walk-in customer would only use up the time that take for going to the store and returning home. With the wide availability of broadband, game are now deliver either with full download or streaming technology. There are arguments for and against each type of delivery.

Full download transfers the complete game to the playing machine. This lengthens the delivery time particularly for massive games, but offers uninterrupted game play once downloaded. Streaming lets customers play the game while download progresses, this drastically reduces perceived delivery time since only a portion of the data is needed to launch the game. The downside is game interruption, when the game is trying to access a required file not yet available, so the game may quit or pause while downloading the required files. Predictive streaming can help, but few effective implementations are available.

[edit] External links

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