GameStop Launches Internet Distribution Service ‘Download Now’

October 10, 2006 at 11:58 pm - by Dale Dietrich

Categories: Digital Distribution • Distribution Agmt Cases • New Business Models

GameStop has launched its new Internet-based digital distribution service “Download Now“. The service launches with some 1,000 titles including games from Capcom and Eidos.

Dale’s Comment: Internet video game distribution is an inevitability. The only thing surprising about this is that it took GameStop this long to get into the game that Valve has been in for several years with its Steam digital distribution system. I believe third party digital distribution has a very bright future. GameStop may face the same challenge that the likes of Cinema Now and others have faced in the context of online movie distribution – an industry reluctant to share revenue from 3rd party online distributors in the hopes it can bypass such distributors. But just like movies, in the main, I believe gamers won’t want to surf from publisher web-site to publisher website when searching for online game purchases. They’ll want a choice of one stop online game aggregaters just as they have a choice of brick and mortar shops to shop for games today.