A brief history of downloadable console games

At this year's E3 Expo in Los Angeles, both Sony and Microsoft pushed upcoming services and devices that allow users to download full games to their hardware. For Microsoft, it's a new arm of its online marketplace that will let gamers download full retail games to their system's hard drives. For Sony, it's the new PSP Go, a slimmed-down version of its flagship portable gaming hardware that does away with its game slot in place of pushing Wi-Fi game downloads to its 16GB of built-in memory.

Both companies are pushing direct downloads as the premiere way to buy new games, and many are expecting the direct-downloading technology to be one of the main selling points in the next generation of gaming hardware. As a side effect, the new revenue model largely cuts out used game retailers, since there's less physical media to resell or swap with friends.

But let's get real for a moment, this is nothing new. In fact, game companies have been trying to get direct-download games working on consoles since the early 1980s. Let's take a brief look at previous efforts to sell console games without any physical media:

Intellivision's PlayCable (1981-83):
Intellivision was the first home console to let users download games via a coaxial cable line. Subscribers rented a special cartridge that hooked up to local cable and would be able to download single games that could be played until users decided to download new titles.

The service's downfall was a result of innovations to Mattel's Intellivision game system, which began using cartridges with ever-increasing amounts of memory. The PlayCable service could no longer keep up, since the special cartridge could hold only a fourth of the total space that newer games required.

(Credit: The Arctic Computer and Console Museum)

The GameLine (1983)
Game consoles of the '80s pioneered the use of cartridges. Early on, many were simply ports of arcade titles and thus retained the coin-sucking gameplay mechanics that kept users playing again and again to get high scores. The only problem was that once the consumer bought the game, that was the end of the revenue stream for the publisher.

Then GameLine came along. This third-party game download service from Control Video (which later became America Online) worked with multiple game consoles and would let users download new games through a telephone line connected directly to a special cartridge. It would then limit gameplay to a certain number of plays that users would have to prebuy.

Despite GameLine's innovative approach to game distribution, it had two big problems. The first is that it never got big game publishers on board, meaning that users were paying big money for smaller titles that weren't available at retail. It also came out the same year as the video game crash of 1983, when most of the hardware vendors and software-publishing houses were going bankrupt.

The Sega Channel (1994-98):
The Sega Channel was a monthly subscription service for Sega's 16-bit Genesis system. Similar to Intellivision's offerings, users paid $15 a month to get access to an ever-changing library of games that could be downloaded directly to a cartridge that plugged into coax cable. Not all of Sega's games were available on the service, but it had several big titles that could be downloaded without leaving the house. It was also the first service to give users special games that were never released as retail offerings.

While the Sega Channel's special cartridge kept the same amount of internal memory throughout its life span, newer Genesis games were growing in cartridge size. To work around that limitation, some Sega Channel games were split up into parts that could be downloaded and played on their own. This kept it from running into some of the size problems that led to the demise of Intellivision's PlayCable.

The Sega Channel was discontinued at the end of the Genesis life cycle, and it was not brought back to work with the company's follow-up console, the Saturn.

With the Satellaview, Super Famicom users could only access game downloads during certain parts of the day.

(Credit: Wikipedia)

The Nintendo Satellaview (1995-2001)
The Satellaview was an ambitious project by Nintendo of Japan to offer games, music, and news over satellite. Users could tune in at certain times of the day to get at the content, which would be downloaded into a special add-on accessory that strapped onto the bottom of the Super Famicom system.

Nintendo offered a wide range of games to the Satellaview. It also featured an innovative menu system that played like a video game. Users would have to navigate around a virtual house in order to download certain titles or access news feeds.

Satellaview operated by subscription and was never released outside of Japan. Its service ended when Nintendo released the Super Famicom's successor, the Nintendo 64.

Nintendo's RandNet (1999-2001):
Nintendo's RandNet service was specific to the 64DD add-on to the Nintendo 64. Released only in Japan, this peripheral added a magnetic disk drive to the bottom of the console and allowed for games that took up more space than Nintendo 64 cartridges could hold.

The 64DD was never released outside of Japan. It latched on to the bottom of the Nintendo 64 and added a disk drive.

(Credit: Wikipedia)

For about $30 a month, users got a special cable modem cartridge that plugged into the top of the N64 and hooked up to coax. It fed information into the 64DD, with which games up to 64MB in size could be downloaded from an online service. Users could also play certain games with one another, surf the Web with a built-in browser and, most importantly, download early levels from unreleased games. There was no game purchase store for full titles, but with a little more onboard storage, it could have led to that.

Xbox Live Arcade/Marketplace (2004-present):

Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a downloadable game service from Microsoft that's stretched from the original Xbox into Microsoft's current game hardware, the Xbox 360. When it was released for the original Xbox, gamers were required to have a special Xbox Live Arcade DVD in their systems to access any of the games they had purchased and downloaded to their hard drives. Once the Xbox 360 was released, Microsoft simply built it into the system's software to let users download games directly.

Games on XBLA are typically casual titles. Early on, they were limited to 50MB in size to be able to work for Xbox 360 owners who had purchased the lower-end versions of the machines that did not come with hard drives. Microsoft later lifted that cap to 150MB, then to 350MB, though several games have managed to get by that limit, including a movie tie-in game for "The Watchmen" that was 1.2GB in size.

Xbox Live Arcade games can be downloaded directly to the Xbox 360. They were were a precursor to full titles, which are coming to the system this fall.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Marketplace
Full-game downloads on Xbox Live's Marketplace didn't come until the launch of a service in late 2007. Called "Xbox Originals," the service let users download select original Xbox titles that could be played on their Xbox 360. Unlike the system's backwards compatibility with most older Xbox titles, Xbox Originals provided full digital copies that would be downloaded directly to the 360's hard drive.

At this year's E3, Microsoft announced plans to offer a similar service to Xbox Originals, except for Xbox 360 games. Called "Games on Demand," Microsoft is going to offer a selection of older titles, along with releasing new games as direct downloads. Each title falls somewhere between 4GB and 6GB in size, and can be redownloaded an unlimited number of times, if deleted.

(Credit: Nintendo / CNET)

Nintendo Wii Shop (2006-present)
The Wii Shop came as built-in software on Nintendo's Wii. It lets users purchase Wii applications and games using virtual currency tied to real-world dollars. The shop houses classic games from older consoles (including some of Nintendo's past competitors), along with new downloadable games that have been specifically developed for the Wii.

Due to size restrictions on the console, these games are not as large or full-featured as standard Wii titles. They're also similar to what's found on Microsoft and Sony's download stores.

PlayStation 3 / PSP Store (2006-present)
The PlayStation Store, which comes preinstalled on the PlayStation 3, lets users download movies, music, and video games. Like the Wii and Xbox 360, it has a selection of low-cost casual games that can be purchased online only. It also has some original PlayStation games that can be downloaded straight to the hard drive and run using a software emulator.

(Credit: Sony)

In late 2007, Sony began releasing select PlayStation 3 titles as direct downloads. It was the first current-generation console to do so. These games cost about the same as their Blu-ray Disc retail counterparts, but only eight have been released as direct downloads out of the hundreds of titles that have hit retail.

Along with games that run on the PlayStation 3, users can also purchase some games for Sony's portable system, the PSP, which can be transferred via USB cable to the device.

PSP users can download some games directly to their device instead of purchasing them on Sony's proprietary UMD physical format. Sony has not made all the games it's released at retail available for digital download, but it is expected to do so later this year to coincide with the release of the PSP Go, which features no UMD slot and uses internal solid-state memory instead.

The DSiWare shop can be accessed on Nintendo's handheld gaming device.

(Credit: Nintendo / CNET)

DSi Shop (2008-present)
Nintendo's DSi portable system includes DSi Shop software, which enables users to buy DSiWare games over a Wi-Fi connection, and store them on the system's internal or external memory. Unlike what's available on the PSP, however, these games typically have fewer features.

The future (2010 and beyond)
Going forward, direct downloads are sure to be a staple in all next-generation console hardware, for both the home and on the go. There are serious benefits to distributing game code digitally, especially for publishers. With built-in digital rights management, they get tighter control over leaks, and with the removal of a used market, their sales potential increases.

What's changed over the years has been less about delivery and more about storage. Storage, naturally, is an area in which some of the biggest problems crop up for hardware manufacturers.

Back in the '80s, GameLine and PlayCable were working with mere kilobytes of storage, whereas Microsoft's new Games on Demand service will have titles pushing 6GB. Some PlayStation 3 titles are nearly four times that size, maxing out single-layer Blu-ray Discs, which can handle up to 25GB.

Sizes like that aren't going to work for downloads, unless you've got some serious hard-drive space. The PlayStation 3 tops out at 160GB, though it can be expanded, if users install third-party drives. That has to be one of the factors that has kept Sony from making more of its titles available as direct downloads.

With advances in storage size and broadband speeds, optical media's days are definitely numbered, but we may be seeing the same hybrid approach we're seeing in this generation for the next one too. Where game companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo face the biggest roadblock is in trying to balance the ease of distribution with the burdening necessity of pricey and underperforming storage mediums.

[Xanthus179]

Great article! I also want to mention the XBand, which was like the Sega Channel but for both the Genesis and SNES.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBAND

I didn't realize, though, that services like this existed before the 16-bit era.

[Josh.Lowensohn]

I thought about including XBand, but that was primarily an enabler for giving existing carts P2P multiplayer. All the devices in this line-up are game download services. That might make for another good list though.

[krizhek]

@Josh

Man I remember the XBAND but I got very short enjoyment out of it as I got royally wooped in any game I played and I ended up playing the same guy over and over. I ended up using my credits to experement with email.

[milrtime]

Something they need to get right for this to work is the price. You say that eliminating the used game market will increase sales, I would say it has a chance to decrease sales. I am a lot more willing to buy a disc for $50 that I know I can sell to someone else for $30 when I'm done with it. For me to buy that same game as a download it would have to be priced in the $20 range to be of equal value assuming they aren't going to let me sell it to someone else when I'm done with it.

[Renegade Knight]

True enough. If they drop the price to what I lose reseling a game when I'm done with it, I MAY consider digital. They also have to solve the portablity problem. I can take my Disc to a friends house and play there. Then go back and play upstaires, or down. I'm not going to be paying 3x to solve that problem.

[Rolker]

I think that other great services exist in the PC world: Steam and Direct2drive, as two examples.
The possibility to buy any game, download it and play in on any PC is great.
But the future seems to be services such as Onlive, etc.

[Josh.Lowensohn]

Yeah, the PC has had it's own successful delivery systems for years. Only recently have console makers really begun to nail it. I totally agree about Onlive though--I should have mentioned that in the article.

[Mergatroid Mania]

I agree. If I can't resell the game when I'm done, I might not buy it unless it's value priced. Having said that, there is quite a bit of value priced games on the PS3 store site. However, no one I know who owns a PS3 wants to use their credit cards to purchase on-line content. As well, it's pretty easy to fill up your hard drive this way and be forced to go out and buy a larger one.

The PS3 is sort of bad for this credit card problem. Some console makers have made cards with on-line store credit available at local retialers. This is a great solution. I would be happy to buy some store credit and use it on my PS3 but sadly, even though the PS3 has been out for years, they STILL don't have any credits available for purchase at the retail level.

I realize Sony is having financial problems, and is trying to reorganize, but I think they are being left behind in this respect. If the don't have this available by now, will they ever?

Still, your article was very informative.

[E B]

I've used a credit card to buy stuff online with my PS3. No big deal. What's the worst that can happen -- somebody steals your card info and you have to get a new one while your bank reverses all the fraudulent charges? Big whoop. Really, it's no scarier than ordering a disc from amazon.

[ibeetle]

@Mergatorid Mania

What do you mean Sony does not sell any Playstation Network cards at the retail level? I have seen cards at Best Buy, Target and personally purchased one last month at GameStop.

[gmpIII]

I agree with being leery about entering a credit card through a console online store...not 100% sure I like that. But Sony does have PSN card that are available at retail outlets. I know WalMart has the $20 and $50 cards available. Look where they have the PS3/PSP accessories. That's where they are at our WalMart. I just bought a $20 card the other day and used it to buy a game for my PSP 3000.

I personally like downloading games as opposed to physical media, particularly with my PSP. I'd rather have a memory stick (yuck) with the 5 or so games I play regularly on it than having to switch out UMD's. I love being able to buy games from my recliner via WiF, which I just did for Hot Shots Golf. I think it makes sense for the portable systems, and I don't do too much with used games.

I can see the argument for physical media for a stand-alone console, like a PS3 or XBox 360. Our family has a Wii, and the kids do take games over to their friends house. Plus, we did trade in a bunch of really crappy Wii games (and there are a TON) for credit towards a Wii Fit (which is way overrated, but that's for another post).

[E B]

"With advances in storage size and broadband speeds, optical media's days are definitely numbered..."

Are you kidding me? You guys live in ivory towers, don't you? Broadband isn't available inexpensively everywhere, and where it is available more and more providers are considering bandwidth caps to stay profitable. Blu-Ray discs today can hold 50GB (you've heard of dual-layer, right?), which on a broadband connection could still take overnight to download. The Blu-Ray format may be readily expandable to 100G on a disc (quad layer) in the near future, and I've seen some rumors that it may be possible without hardware changes from the consumer's side (beyond firmware updates). That's a heck of a lot of longevity.

Yes, optical medias days are somewhat numbered -- but it's going to be replaced by flash devices rather than downloading, unless broadband really changes dramatically in the next 10 years -- something that, so far, doesn't seem as likely as the optimists hope. If EVERYBODY is downloading movies and games over their broadband connection, the demand on the system will be dramatically higher than anyone is talking about providing. It's just not practical yet.

[darkxeno]

E B you are correct until the broadband companies stop these pointless caps physical media will keep going on. It may not be CD, DVD or Blue-Ray it may come down to the flash devices who knows what will come in the next three years. Downloading in a piece of the whole puzzle. Im with you some of these people are not with reality.

[viper396]

@darkxeno, The caps are not pointless given the current level of broadband technology. There's only so much bandwidth available. It isn't fair that a handfull of people may suck up so much bandwidth downloading stuff that everyone else drops to a crawl. The caps are a necessary evil at this point to ensure that all their customers have bandwidth.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

@viper396

I guess you are 100% unware of Google owning 90% of the darknet that has yet to be lit up but was built in the late 1990s by the Dot Coms throughout our entire Nation, eh? Do you also know we're the only Nation in the world with download limits on broadband, whereas nations like Japan and South Korea and Germany, who don't have a Fascist FTC or FCC telling their corporations what to do at every single point in management have blazing fast broadband and stupidly low prices.

As for Blu-Ray sizes, big whoop. Seriously. Very few games, still, go over 500 MB, let alone 1 GB. If there's anything that is eating the storage space of a disc, it's FULL MOTION VIDEO. And flash cards will not be the end-all like it being predicted. No, not when the companies can see full control over their games on the consoles. Downloading also is something they'd love to have 100%, as it cuts out the middle man. So other than paying a group of techies to handle the system that the games sit on at the corporation's cluster farm, and some utilities, if a new game, compressed, and is about 10 GB in size, is released at $60, the corporation, if it's a first party game, keeps the entire $60, instead of splitting the cost to the wholesale of around $20 to the distributor, who then sells it for $55 to a store. I've worked at a video game store for a long time, and this is how that business runs for the retailer. So instead of $20,000,000 for the game, the company wants the full $60,000,000 is can make via download.

Also, going download only means no more used games, which makes the companies happy as well. Everything I've written will happen within the next generation, and is already being done by Apple and Sony, with Sony's new PSP Go model.

Also, if disc drives are still included, the discs that will be released with games will "lock" themselves to the console, preventing the use of the disc on another console. By 2015, this will be the gaming market, and you all will look for this post at the Wayback Machine and see I'm 100% correct in my post.

Enjoy everything right now as it lasts.

[ikramerica--2008]

First, most people don't have caps in the USA. Second, there are other nations on earth that do. Australia, the UK, etc. Average speeds in practice in the USA are comparable to most developed countries in the world other than Japan and South Korea. There are ADVERTISED speeds available in places like France, Germay, Sweden, etc. that are much higher, the average person gets in practice only about what you get in the USA, on average. South Korea is an exception to this rule because they built their infrastructure much later and don't have legacy delivery systems slowing them down. There are also small countries, usually formerly depressed or iron curtain nations, where the average speed is higher because, again, there was no legacy system. Add to that that small countries have the rural areas still close to major cities, so there is faster broadband available to farmers and ranchers compared to countries like Australia or the USA, with vast territories where slow DSL, slow satellite, or even dial-up is still the only way to connect, dragging down the averages quite a bit. Even Japan has huge populations densely packed into cities at a level we don't see in the USA. WIth a population of 40% of the USA, they have a land mass the size of California and most of the people are crammed into the city centers. That means close proximity to high speed internet providers, more subscribers per foot of fibre, etc. bringing the cost to implement and provide down. The same layout of the USA that makes us far more reliant on cars than many other nations also makes the cost to implement very high speed internet to a very large number of people much more expensive.

Before you glom on to a conspiracy theory, get your facts straight.

[One-Eared Gundark]

I think the future for games also lies in flash media. I can see this being in conjunction with DL content, as well,, but that would require an authentication scheme to prevent piracy.

It seems a bit ironic, doesn't it?
1970's-1980's: Cartridges
1990's-2000's: Optical discs
Future: Cartridges (well, cartridge-like media, anyway).

Everything old is new again.

[basraw]

Hmmm...

Didn't pirates in the c=64 era have the best distribution /download methods in action??? muhahahaha

just dial up your BBS and download a NEW WARE.

[viper396]

Best? How about *only*. At that time what else was there beside snail mail?

Either way, if there's one thing people don't want to do is go back to slow dial-up.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

The next generation of gaming consoles, be it portable and home, will be download only. Few reasons: when you run over your download limits ISPs are setting up everywhere, you will be forced to pay for the extra bandwidth used, the gaming companies retain full control over what can and can't be played on the console, and piracy will nearly dry-up, as if a user mods the console, the system update will just "fry" the modchip.

[gregorytga]

I'd say the iPhone deserved a mention in the article, while not entirely a console its really found its home as a game console, and the App store pressed Sony and Nintendo to use a digital distribution method. The iPhone notably is the first downloadable only console as previous gaming phones like the N-gage required purchasing the titles at brick and mortar stores.

[Tod Smith]

There is a new optical holograph tech going around the market that can be used cheaply.

MS can adopt it for their next console. Sony DOESN'T have an exclusive on HD optical media.

[the_brahle]

I don't agree with your assessment of the future. The need for optical media won't disappear that soon. Most of the services mentioned in this article aren't available in many countries, thus it won't be feasible to stop the distribution of software via forementioned optical media.

[njhgyftydr]

What an appalling article..... either the writer is an utterly clueless fanboy of the console industry (probably having spent thousands on these machines over the years he cannot face that possibly it was all a big waste of time/money), or they are some kind of paid shill.

Oh, the writer is a "cloud computing" type eijit. His salary and pay-rise prospects depends on everything going on line, when in reality cloud computing and downloads on proprietary systems are just the next generation of DRM. DRM on the client will never work, so companies are moving to put stuff on line as much as possible.

Downloads on consoles are there to do nothing more than screw money out of customers, and it is clear to anyone with more than half a braincell that the industry is moving more and more towards downloads to screw the customer more, and extinguish the competition; 2nd hand games, (apart from "pirates", who will always get the best deal - so always pirate stuff kids!). This article should have been a warning that future consoles will not be as good value as current consoles, just like current consoles aren't as good value as older consoles.

[Josh.Lowensohn]

You seem to be overlooking the convenience factor of being able to download a handful of retail games onto a console without leaving the house, which is what this article is all about.

Saying that these systems are simply being designed to "screw money out of customers" or that consoles will be less useful because of that feature tells me you think publishers are out there purely to make money over creating fun and innovative things that people enjoy (and buy). This way of doing business has worked for a long time, but protecting it from piracy and used sales means a different delivery method. There is a balance there somewhere, and like any other digital industry right now it's trying to find it. I for one would rather give more of my buck to the developer than the big retail chain, which is what these new systems can enable.

[DasaniDude5]

That would be Cool. I have emulators for all the older systems and love to download and play the ROMS of all my old favorites.

RT
www.online-privacy.vze.com

[Goffee71]

What are they going to fill these stores with? Old games! Gaming has just hit the "Best of..." goldmine. I await the deluge of FMV classics like Mad Dog McCree and Rebel Assault to bring back the 'um' good times. Might be a worth a chuckle actually.

http://goffee-freelance.blogspot.com/2009/06/old-games-interest-still-there-for-fmv.html

[J_Eagle]

Well I personally like the ability to download straight to my xbox 360 because in my case I am just not able to get to a retailer to purchase games as many are. Yes, there is online purchase like amazon.com and the like but what usually gets overlooked is the percent of people for varying reasons, some physical, other economic (perhaps no car) are unable to just run out and buy a game.

Before anyone even starts to make comments like "well if you can't afford a car you shouldn't be spending your money on games", EVERYONE needs an escape and the cost of a game can be cheaper than one evening out for a family.

My biggest problem about downloading games, at least with the 360 at this time, is even 120 gig drive will run out of room pretty quick. Sony has the edge by making it possible to replace their hard drives with pretty much any so long as they make one big enough and you can afford it your ok. MS on the other hand has you locked into the 120 gig at the moment and I am sure they will make available a larger capacity but with the same restrictive limitations (unless you want to hack of course) as present.

[theoboley]

Economic - Perhaps no car -

If you're in an economic pinch, here's a thought... Your money is better spent on things other than video games...

[Rod Roddy]

I want to go to Video Game paradise!!!!!!!

[siehead]

This is a great article. I believe that both the iphone as well as Onlive deserve mention here. The Iphone because of the historic numbers associated with downloadable sales, and Onlive because it represents the evolution of downloadable gameplay, an evolution that may once and for all transcend the storage-space capacity issue.

[rayheartx]

Very interesting. With downloaded games becoming more mainstream and "streaming games" (ie, OnLive) on the horizon, it will only be a matter of time before this method of distribution greatly changes the economic climate in the entire entertainment industry. The music industry has been doing it for years, and recently the movie studios have also jumped on the bandwagon. All of this means that physical media, even Blu-Ray Disc, can potentially disappear completely. Maybe not in the foreseeable future, but I think it will happen in 15 or so years. Good for game developers, movie studios and labels, not to mention, good for the environment if physical media disappears. On the other hand, extremely bad for the retail businesses, especially ones that purely sell entertainment, like GameStop, Sam Goody, FYE, etc. Circuit city and Virgin Megastores have already gone down in history and they certainly won't be the last.