[game_preservation] XBLA, Wiiware, and maybe the future of releasing all games + intro

[Steven van Stelten]

Hello SIG mailinglist members,

Firstly, I would like to introduce myself and than throw in a bone. I  
am Steven van Stelten, Dutch student Reinwardt Acadamy of Cultural  
Heritage. And currently very busy with a paper about preservation of  
the world of video games. This mailinglist and its archive have been  
very helpful. So thank you for that.

And now for the bone:
It probably is not the biggest issue out there right now. And I do not  
know very much about the future of releasing games. However I have  
come across some speculation here and there that games will be  
released (downloads) and/or played solely via internet. So nothing  
tangible will be put out on the market anymore. Now MMOs and the sorts  
fit in to this, and there are XBOX 360's XBLA and Wii's Wiiware. For  
MMOs and such there are other problems. But nowadays XBLA releases  
games exclusively, see:
This title is only available to Xbox 360® owners with an Xbox LIVE®  
Silver or Gold membership, through download from the Xbox LIVE  
Marketplace.
From:http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/b/bngxboxlivearcade/default.htm

A hit game like Braid is also available as a PC game. But some XBLA  
games are, I think, only available as a download for the XBOX 360,  
where it hides somewhere on that platform/console. If a game is  
brought on the market on disc, and there are several tens of  
thousands  or more made there is a bigger chance that something will  
live (I think). I do not how those downloadable games are stored by  
the publisher, however I can imagine that collecting these  
downloadable games will be something quite different in the future.  
Acquiring a game from someone who still has that game on a certain  
hard disk will be different. And I reckon that quality control can be  
something that will be more important, because these games are more  
prone to be (accidentally) fiddled with. And they need to be migrated  
and without viruses and such.
Especially the XBLA games are fragile, I think. Because they are  
harder to access for making copies, and are more likely to turn  
obsolete at some time.

Sorry for the long text. In short I am interested in your thoughts  
(maybe more broad than mentioned above) on this as brought on the  
market intangible stuff. And if you agree that these intangible  
artifacts are more susceptible to loss than the games on let's say,  
discs. And maybe someone knows some interesting resources or could  
direct me to a earlier post, because I remember something about  
delistings a while back.

Many thanks en best regards,

Steven





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