Re: Digital Download Version?
There are many factors. I cant speak for this one but at other places it was
A) small free programs vs major products
We had a heck of a time downloading this game for beta tests. People can stand problems in downloads of patches or demos that they wont stand for in something they paid for.
Also the beta team heavily impacted the server doing the downloads. Can you imagine what the delivery of this game would do to a server? Buying bigger better servers in advnace for digital download is a gamble on possible profits that DD can bring. And outsourcing to companies that have huge server farms all over is not a cheap thing. And digital download is not likely to actually sell lots more copies
B) controlling the copies
Server crashes or using multiple servers causes a headache in the tracking of downloads. Verifying that a person has purchased the game and is resuming a download rather than grabbing a second copy
Doing it with no control of the software and only controlling the serial codes is an option but it needs to be setup that way from the beginning
C) integration
tying purchases thru some installable shopping cart package into an in-house written control of copies without compromising personal information
D) test runs
Everyone is trying out Digital Download but most of them are trying it with programs that wont kill the company if it messes up.
Some developers are more willing to be test runs than others are.
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