GameTruth

I think Seth and I try on purpose to leave most of the game legislation and censoring garbage off this site because we do not know any lawyers and its always found unconstitutional. However, I am posting this link to the Game Politics blog where there are some posted pieces of actual testimony against Jack Thompson. The Florida Bar is trying to disbar him on ethic and other violations, I am not a lawyer so I do not care much for the details. What I did find fascinating is how insane Thompson actually is and I think this testimony shows it well. The testimony of the Judge in the Alabama case is coming I believe on Thursday. If you have some down time I really recommend giving this stuff a read.

-Mark

Its been a while since we have sent out a question.  We have had spring breaks and other things going on recently.  Anyway, in the news there is an article about Atari using Steam to distribute games.  I think this is awesome because I believe Steam solves so many PC gaming problems.  The best part about Steam for the industry is the security it provides against piracy.  The other awesome aspect of Steam is that it will allow multiplayer games to have a standard when creating a multiplayer experience through Steam’s matchmaking.

The thing I believe Steam is missing most is a casual portal.  When Steam releases a casual games section I think it could easily rival Popcap and Pogo for the casual audience.  I see Steam becoming the Xbox Live Arcade for the PC, it already has over 15 million users.  I realize that there is already some casual games available but I would like to see free games available to play on Steam that are multiplayer in nature.  Even if it is only a demo and the real version can be purchased.

The question is, will Steam become the dominate form of digital distribution on the PC, therefore making digital distribution viable for indie games?  I totally think that it will.  I think there is going to be a shift in digital distribution with the support of Steam that will allow independent studios to go around big name publishers for PC games and release directly to the audience.

-Seth