Are Video Games on the Road to Change?

The video game world has changed over the years and not just when it comes to consoles.

While our controllers have been riddled with triggers and buttons, the concept of the games has stayed consistent. However, the way in which we receive our games may change altogether.

Does anyone remember going to your local Blockbuster or rental store and actually renting a game? Well, who is to say that in the future people may be asking a similar question? “Does anyone remember going to your local Gamestop and actually buying a disc?”

The move from disc to digital is nothing new. PC gamers are very familiar with this concept thanks to Steam and now consoles are getting this treatment. Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network (PSN) allows gamers to buy games from their respective stores and download them digitally onto their console’s hard drive. But still, this isn’t exactly what I’m talking about.

The other night, I found myself exploring the PlayStation Network in hopes of finding an old school game in which I could treat myself. While exploring, I discovered something very interesting.

Several developers have split their games on the PlayStation Network. I noticed that the game StarHawk can be digitally downloaded with three different options:

1. The entire game
2. The story campaign
3. Multiplayer

I was not aware that games could be split like this for downloading purposes, but when you think about it this opens up so many doors for gamers.

I did not buy Black Ops 2, but I know that if I was given the option of only buying the story campaign then I would have absolutely forked over the cash.

When you go to the store and buy the game, you’re investing in everything – the campaign, multiplayer and the zombie mode.

Well I’m a strange gamer. I hated the zombie mode. I’m not that thrilled about Call of Duty‘s multiplayer, but I will say that I am a fan of the original Black Ops story mode.

So the question that needs to be asked: would developers stand to make more money this way? I know they’re splitting up the cost and running the risk, especially in Treyarch’s case by giving the people the option of spending only $30 for the multiplayer mode rather than forcing everyone to spend the $60 for the whole game.

But one thing that needs to be taken into consideration is gamers like me. I’m not going to buy a game that I’m not fully going to utilize. If I could have, I would have bought only the story mode for all the Gears of Wars games, mainly because I suck at the multiplayer.

My main gripe with most developers is that they often tack on meaningless multiplayer or co-op modes to games that are usually half-assed… so why pay for it?

If more developers utilized the tactic of splitting up the modes to choose what you want when they distribute their games, I think that I would be buying a lot more of them digitally.

But what do you think? Sound off in the comments section below.