First Capcom and now Eidos are getting into world of digital distribution. Eidos announced today that it has bought digital game distribution specialist Bluefish Media. I suppose they wanted to test the waters before going in with their big franchises. The games up on the PlayStation store are either retro or more casual pick up and play games: exactly the type of games that would have previously been released on retail as budget games. With the PlayStation network, we’re witnessing an interesting phenomenon: budget gaming’s leaving retail and going online.

It’s a good move. First of all digital distribution is a lot cheaper. Producers don’t have to sort through logistics like packs and shipping. It also means that there’s a lot more variety in pricing the games. Retail PS2 budget titles would have sold for maybe £15-£20. Digital distribution allows for far more exact product pricing.

A healthy budget scene is good for the PS3. It’s an excellent testing ground for new game concepts. Non-budget games are incredibly expensive. With budget titles, developers can play around with newer concepts in inexpensive budget titles, where there’s less need for a focus on graphics. This in turn leads to more innovation in mainstream titles as developers take the working concepts from their budget games. Hopefully, we’ll see the PlayStation store used for delivering imaginative new games, rather than just for delivering new content to existing titles.

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