Comcast Tries Online Game Subscription Route

WebGangsta writes "Comcast announced a new gaming service available to anyone: for a monthly fee of $14.95, subscribers will have unlimited access to more than 60 PC-based games, from mainstream titles to educational software. New titles will be added each month. Games referenced in the press release included Atari's Dead Man's Hand [plus other largely Atari titles from the recently launched, similar Atari On Demand, including Neverwinter Nights and Civilization III: Conquests]. Is this one of the revenue streams Comcast was thinking about developing when they combined G4 with TechTV? Is there really a market for pay-service video games, and was there a lesson to be learned from Sega's attempt at this market (which was priced $2 less just nine years ago)?" Update: 06/02 17:06 GMT by S : Commenters point out Yahoo! is offering a similar service, currently with a greater variety of games.

Re:Phantom?

[Anonymous Coward]

My first thought, too. But a cable company doing it (as opposed to, say, an investment scammer [hardocp.com]) strikes me as a "good-fit" idea.

Re:Phantom?

[gamgee5273]

I'm not going to knock the Phantom till it's out and the service is up and running. I think the idea behind the Phantom is a great one... but the most recent noises make it sound like cable TV for your games: you get a basic package for the monthly fee, then you add on "premium" packages...

As a console, not PC, gamer I'm skeptical, but still interested, when it comes to the Phantom. This Comcast service, however, doesn't interest me in the least since I still have to have a PC to play the games...

It's worked already for Steam

[skermit]

Steam works and although I had my reservations about it originally, I kinda love it. I like not having to d/l the latest HL and CS patches to play, and it's great now that they've worked out most of the bugs in the integrated IM/matching client. If this service becomes anything like it, AND they have a software base which is worth buying... they can consider me as another customer.

I'm horribly mistaken

[greywar]

ACK.... Yahoo does this. sigh. I suppose now I get modded down. Please tell me there isnt a 'mod stupid' option. I can see it now.... Karma rating: stupid

Sega Channel

[The-Bus]

Sega Channel was simply amazing. It's too bad it came in at the tail-end of the console's life-time. By then I know Sega had branched out into the Sega-CD, the Sega 32x, making it a bit confusing in the minds of parents. At the time, my non-SNES having friend had it, and being not of legal age to work and not with unlimited spending money, we couldn't just rent a game every couple of days. But with SC, we could get any game, anytime. It was usually a long wait to get each game (up to 10 minutes sometimes), but the smorgasbord was fantastic. Had Sega Channel come out in 1991, they would have cleaned up.

I think $14.95 to download PC games isn't a bad idea... A better idea is to have the new set-top boxes (which have integrated HD and Tivo-like PVR options) also include, say, a cheap PC. Then you can have a wireless game controller and/or keyboard and mouse and play on your TV. The benefits are of course that the hardware requirements aren't insane. Graphics are gonna run, max, at 1024 x 768 (they could run at 640x480 or less in a non-HD TV)*, so you don't need a super-powerful nVidia SupraGammadeon 85000 (an MX runs, what? $55? [newegg.com]). The processor is also ultra-cheap, because you don't "need" the new P7. Hard drive doesn't need to be more than 20GB. With some work, this could be a Phantom-style device. Except it has an installed user-base and it's, oh yeah, a real product. Cost of the device is probably an extra $200-300. You can slash that by making it a PC from one or two years ago and getting older PC games to work with it. You know, UT, Quake 2, Half-Life, etc. Or offer two choices, one that's $14.95/m with free rental and plays games with sys requirements that were average in 2001, and one super-fancy one that can play all the newest games, with a higher cost.

Would I pay an extra $9.95-14.95 to be able to play a library of games from 1995-2002 (or newer, less process-intense ones?). Hell yeah. Just have it be on my TV, not my PC. I spend enough time in front of it as it is.

Bring it on.

* Pure guesses here.
** I'd say the second option shouldn't be considered because its target market frankly does not want to play games on their TV, or if they did, they already can, and get games through illegal means or just plain buy a whole lot of them.

Re:Sega Channel

[Torgo's Pizza]

You mean like a DISCover or a PC with a DVI or TV-OUT? Or even a HTPC? Hey, the technology is already here ready for you to take advantage of it. There's no need to wait for someone to build you a box when you can go out and build it yourself for possibily less. Or just drag your existing computer and hook it up to your television. Or grab a used laptop and use the TV output. Need older games? Just visit the many abandonware sites on the net. Can't beat free games. The whole point is everything you

Re:Sega Channel

[The-Bus]

That's sort of what I refer to when I speak of "Power User" -- anyone that wants what I described can do it, easily, and cheaply. Hey, you can even do it with ROMs and cabinets and all that jazz. However, due to the interest there is in this, and the amount of time/research people are willing to put into developing these things, I also think it's likely that someone would just as rather pay $15/m to do this because the most intensive technical thing they have done is reformat Windows with Dell tech support

Re:Sega Channel

[UltimaL337Star]

I had a sega channel, I cherished it for as long as I could. If I could I'd still be paying for it. You got what seemed like hundreds of new games each month complete with different themed browsers. Games were nicely catagorized into genres and there were even help forums, stratdgy and tips and news. A perfect example of what a p2p could be like. I would have TRULY never of had the chance to try (and many times) buy games I'd otherwise dismiss, Gainground/Gain Ground is one great example for those who

Yahoo! has something similar.

[MeenMunky]

http://gamesondemand.yahoo.com/play [yahoo.com]

They've had that for quite some time now. Same price and a lot more games. Never tried it; though.

Been there, done (still doing) that

[CDLewis]

...for a monthly fee of $14.95, subscribers will have unlimited access to more than 60 PC-based games...

Blah... http://www.usenetserver.com/ has been doing that for years. And they don't limit you to games. You've got apps... music... donkey porn...

Re:Been there, done (still doing) that

[calebtucker]

Yeah, but service mentioned in the article is for people who want to have legit, non-warez software. Anyone can find warez, especially now with all of the bittorrent sites around.

I'm only replying because someone modded this as interesting. I'm pretty sure the parent was trying to be funny, but some dumbass mod thought it was interesting.

Re:Been there, done (still doing) that

[CDLewis]

...some dumbass mod thought it was interesting.

I suppose if that dumbass mod hadn't heard of Usenet, he actually may have found it interesting...

To the topic, though - as a Comcast user, I'd rather see them investing in and offering a higher-bandwidth, more trouble-free pipe. To use the peanut butter cup analogy: just focus on the peanut butter... I'll get my chocolate from someone else. (Actually, I'd most like see them whither up and blow away and let Optimum Online's 8mbs+ pipes service my area.)

Re:Been there, done (still doing) that

[calebtucker]

My point was that the article is about a service for getting legit games. Anyone can find pirated software. I don't see how that could be modded up as interesting for such a story.

This topic has been covered before on Slashdot

[matthewcraig]

Nice to see another player in the online games market, but this topic has been covered [slashdot.org] by Slashdot only last year.

How about low ping servers?

[British]

I might be compelled to pay comcast if they hosted super-fast(ie super-low ping, but also fast server proecessorwise) gaming servers for UT2004, etc. Have other comcast players hop on board and have some really nice streamlined gaming.

Idea has been brought to comcast before, but shot down.

Heat.net did this awhile ago.

[JavaLord]

Heat.net which I believe was owned by Sega used to host high speed servers which catered to @home users. They had custom games that you had to pay to play, but they also had Quake 2 and Sin servers. They also ran deathmatch games with cash prizes, and had their own software to connect to the servers and hang out in lobbies. It was a nice little community. The best part was the deathmatch for cash, like twice a week for each game they would get players together to play a normal DM game, and whoever won w

Mod parent down

[Anonymous Coward]

Subscribers have a finite amount of cash they will spend on games per month. If games turn to US$15-20/mo each, then subscribers will only play 1, maybe 2-3 games.

Isn't that the whole point of the service? I took a look at the yahoo link and, unless I'm mistaken, you can play as many titles as you want for $15. At $50 a title in the store, I only buy 2-3 titles a year.

so you will only play a few games, thereby fragmenting the player communities. but who cares about that? divide and conquer! turn gamer

The Phantom business model

[liminality]

sounds like the entire Phantom "console" business model has been pre-empted by a web-based interface running on PCs (and for a lower fee too). what were they thinking?

But have you seen the games?

[Anonymous Coward]

They're all at least 3 years old...
Who'd pay to pay "Budget shelf" titles?