General Discussion

Paul Hyman has written a column over at the Hollywood Reporter discussing the unorthodox distribution NP Cube plans to use for Dark and Light.  In an attempt to avoid high manufacture and distribution costs (which, as we all know, result in higher retail costs) up front, NP Cube is looking at using peer-to-peer networking as an initial means of distribution:

According to Laurent Paret, co-founder and vp of business development at NP Cube, the developer of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) will use a unique three-step distribution method that initially eschews retailers and focuses instead on digital distribution. The first step will allow gamers to go to a peer-to-peer site -- - similar to Kazaa or the earlier version of Napster -- - and download "Dark And Light" for free. After a trial period, gamers will have the option to pay a monthly fee to continue playing. NP Cube is currently negotiating with three peer-to-peer sites.

After a few months of P2P, NP Cube plans on mail order sales, to be followed by a special edition retail release some months later.

Certainly a novel idea, and one that, if it proves functional, may well benefit the player community in the form of lower costs.  With Arena offering full tilt free play of Guild Wars during E3 and NP Cube choosing to self-publish, it's obvious that the new kids in town are serious about shaking up the MMORPG world.  Visit the Dark and Light website by clicking here.

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There are 10 types of people in this world...those who understand binary, and those who don't.

MMORPG.com Staff

I like it and i don't like it,

it is good because now you can get your game cheaper and save some precious euros/dollars but what i regret is that you don't get your game in a case, i like to look at some of the cases of some games it is better proof that you actually bought the game for me of course. and what i wonder is how to prevent corrupt downloads if you look at how many corrypt files on for example kazaa but we can only wait and see what happens

One day all will die, surely you but never I.

Me too. But in my opinion it is more about how long you need to download this! Most actual games are eating up to 6 GB on the HD! And we know the issues with the p2p network. Then you can only pray till you get it down and to hope it is complete and not corrupted. I would prefer to dl this from an FTP server.

Betatested:

AC2; Lords of Everquest; Horizons; Fung Wan Online; Wish; Saga of Ryzom.

Played:

EQ; DAoC; Horizons; SWG; Shadowbane

I salute NP Cube for their choice. Finally someone has understood what the net is for. So often when i want to try an mmporg, i'll have to wait for months for a download to be distributed, or buy the box if i want it early in the release. Usually this means one potentional customer less.