Episode 29 - Episodic Content

It is the future. I really think that with the new consoles having built in storage devices and built in online functionality it moves us only one short step away from having full episodic content.

Think about it. What do we have right now? Right now we have all three console makers pushing for you to use their online service to buy small games to play and relax. It caters to those times when you are at home and just need to kill some time. A little Geometry Wars can go a long way when waiting for your roommate to come out of the shower, or while you wait for dinner to cook.

You can even download nostalgia games. That’s what Nintendo is banking on anyway… that the people who grew up with an eight bit and sixteen bit childhood will want to relive that and purchase all those titles one more time. You know what… I’m all for that. Little Blades of Steel… maybe some Contra… oh yeah.

The PC side of things is very interesting. You have a game like Half Life 2 that came out in 2004. It was ported to the Xbox at the end of last year and did ok. Now, they are releasing episodic content for it in the form of … you guessed it, episodes. Three additional levels for one low(er) cost. The idea is to release these episodes every few months to keep you interested, (consistently take your money) and keep you anticipated and excited. Instead of waiting years between full games, you can wait months between episodes.

That makes a lot of sense to me. And I like it. Sam and Max are doing the same thing, releasing episodes more consistently however. I would love to have this on all of the consoles. As far as I know there is only one game for the 360 that has actually added levels and that is Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW). After you beat the game you can purchase, (on the Live Marketplace) a package of new levels. Four I think. Not unlike Half Life 2.

I think this is the coolest feature of the current generation of consoles. I am hoping more games will follow the ways of GRAW. Downloading an extra quest or two for Legend of Zelda every few months would be delicious. Eventually though, I’m hoping that games will be released ONLY this way. Not every game. But it would be a cool new way to tell a story. And by new, I mean old.

We get so many other types of media in the form of episodic content. It started with radio programs, then it was the serial films of the 40’s, those became television shows, and comic books… don’t forget comic books. That’s a long history of episode content and I think video games will follow suite.

While I think it will definitely lower development costs, will the consumer see any of that?

I’d like to say yes, but I doubt it. While, the middleman (EB, Best Buy et al) would be cut out from the equation we know how greedy the developers can be (i.e. EA is making an estimated 4 million dollars on in game advertising this year for Need for Speed Carbon alone… where’s the price drop?).

Creating games that are only 3-4 levels long hinges on one thing. Timely release! You can’t give us three levels, then not have anything for a whole year. That doesn’t work. It needs to be every 4-6 months. After that, people will loose interest, and wonder why not just release a whole full game. There may even bee a subscription thing hooked into Xbox Live… that could be cool. Like pick 3 Episodic games for X dollars. Ideally it would work out so you save some money… somehow.

All the pieces are there, it really hinges on the developer to come through on this one. I for one am excited by the possibilities. Being able to try out 3 levels of a game, for 15 bucks, rather than buying the whole thing only to find out it sucks appeals to my wallet. Getting a story in chunks with the possibility of having awesome cliffhanger endings, as well as some real development in characters and who knows, maybe even a game that in total runs hundreds of hours but is spread out over years… and you keep your character and all of your accomplishments… but linear.

If only Santa Takes Manhattan could be released like this…