Downloadable and rental games now available

A lot of you asked for the ability to download games.

We have listened and created the reseller download system.

From today all resellers will be able to sell downloadable copies of LGP games, and these will be cheaper than boxed copies. LGP is not selling downloadable versions directly, as to do so would seriously damage the ability of the reseller chain to compete meaningfully.

When buying a downloadable game you are guaranteed the following:

  1. All LGP games will be re-downloadable from LGP itself for as long as we are in business
  2. All full downloadable games, while keylocked, will always work, even if LGP shuts down
  3. In the unlikely event of LGP going out of business, all downloaded games will be placed onto the bittorrent network (in a keylocked state obviously) so that they will remain in circulation for as long as people demand them.

Rental Option

We have also listened to those who wanted ridiculously low prices on their games. We have created the LGP Rental system. Any downloadable game is now available for rental. This means you can pay just a fraction of the price, and have the game for a week, or for a month. The rental games DO require internet access to start up, but apart from that are exactly the same as the full game. I know some of you will dislike this, but really, it is rental, we have to have stronger security on it. The downloadable purchased game does NOT require internet access to start the game.

Right now, the only games we have that are available for download or rental are the three newest games that have the LGP Key System, X3, Jets’n'Guns, and Sacred. Other games will follow as we get time to add them into the system.

I hope that this will be what you all wanted, and will give everyone, even those that want their games for next to nothing, the ability to play LGP games. If you can think of other things we can do with downloads, please do comment here and let us know. I wont promise that LGP will do everything that people ask, but I can say, and I think we have now proved this, we DO listen {:-)

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39 Responses to “Downloadable and rental games now available”

  1. Tux Games says:

    As of now, Tux Games (http://www.tuxgames.com) implements the full range of downloadables, including rental.

  2. Max says:

    Wow, i just took a look at it, don’t you think that these rental options are too cheap?
    It’s 2.50$ for a MONTH! on Jets’n'Guns and 4.80$ on X3.

    Although on X3 it might be okay, since people can finish the storyline in one month but surely can’t enjoy the game to its full extend. You also gotta see the sparetime that people have. One might be able to play 12 hours a day and another person might only have 4 hours a week, so it’s pretty hard to balance it properly.

    Still it’s nice to see that you offer those options. But I’ll keep buying the real boxed copies, maybe coupled with the download option.

    • We based it on the basis that you can get an account on a game rental site for like, $10 or something, and get as many games as you like shipped to your door. They’ve lowered the bar so we have to compete meaningfully with these sites. I think the price is about right, I just hope enough people do what you plan and keep on buying the boxes too!

      • Aniruddha says:

        Why compare to other game rental sites? I don’t think they offer Linux games. Then it would also be fair to compare prices between Windows and Linux platforms.

        Anyway, I don’t think launching another service (rental) addresses the fundamental issue: why pay € 50 for Sacred Gold release (2004 metacritic 72%) when you can buy Oblivion for the ps3 for € 30 (release 2006 metacritic 92%)? I can buy almost 2 AAA titles for my ps3 for the price of Sacred Gold. I suspect the Tux Games sale was a big success and this hints to the conclusion that when the price is right demand increases.

        • If you want PS3 games, then buy PS3 games {:-)
          We compare Linux launch price and Windows launch price. Fact is, Windows sale prices DO go down faster than Linux because they sell them and cover their costs more quickly.
          When we get a game that covers its costs, we’ll be dropping the price on it. In fact that will be happening with one game in the next couple of months all going well. Hooray, our first game to cover its costs!

      • Thanks, at last that has found that wished to read here. By the way, I have drawings on this theme.Evden eve nakliyat , Where it is possible to throw off?

  3. Kevin says:

    This is really great. Downloadable games and rentals are some of today’s most interesting distribution for video games. I plan to use the rental option at some point this summer to play a bit of jets n guns. Just one question, if you rent a game and save your game, let the rental expire and then rent it again later, will the save game on your computer(assuming it’s still there) still work?

  4. Aniruddha says:

    Afaik there already was a download option at tuxgames. For the same privilege you now have to pay 10% more? That is a step back in my opinion. I don’t understand how this rental thing is going to work at these low prices but we shall see. Personally I’m not interested in renting, I rather have a boxed version.

  5. Vadim P. says:

    Thanks for listening! Now time to do my part :)

  6. MaximB says:

    Hello !
    This is indeed an excellent idea that should have been implanted long time ago.

    When looking at Tuxgames “Sacred Gold” (which I’ve already ordered and got a few weeks ago) the box version costs $50 , a Box + Download copy costs $55 which is reasonable, but only the download version costs $45 which is very high imo.
    As I’ve said before most indie developers who offer a box and download version do the following :
    Box + (usually) Download version for $50
    Only Download version at $25 which is very reasonable as you don’t have to pay for shipping , manual or the CD/DVD media, which saves the resellers/sellers money they would have otherwise had to charge from you (see Box version).

    I’m not really complaining here because I’ve already bought most games till date that I’ve wanted from LGP/Tuxgames , I am thinking about a few more titles but unfortunately they do not have a download version yet.

    I know you are wearing the LGP hat here and on the irc chat channel but I really don’t have another public place to ask you except this blog .

    At Tuxgames website there was written :
    “Due to sales levels being quite different to expectations, we have had to end our sale early, and all LGP prices are now back to pre-sale prices.”

    What does it means for Tuxgames ? that the sale levels were too high that they couldn’t afford selling more titles at those prices or that they were too low and there was “no point” to continue selling them at the 64% discount ?

    P.S
    I’ve submitted a crash bug in Sacred Gold a few days ago with a log file – did you get it ? have you found what’s wrong ? any fix soon ?

    If you can’t answer some of the questions here you are more then welcome to send me an email with your replay.

    Thanks
    MaximB.

    • We have to charge a certain level for the games we sell based on contracts we have made, the 10% off for the download roughly equates to the cost of the physical media. When you take into account there is no shipping charge either, it is closer to 20% off. The resellers prices will reflect the prices that LGP sells to them at.

      The Tux Games sale, I cant comment on, even with my Tux Games hat on, but we WILL be giving out the information later on, but. not yet, give it a couple of weeks I expect.

      As for the crash bug, we are really backlogged on email handling, but we are working on clearing through it all. I expect yours is in the queue.

  7. qhartman says:

    Thanks for adding these options! The less physical “stuff” have to accumulate while still enjoying my media, the happier I am!

  8. Carl says:

    Thanks for listening to us :) Rental system sounds like a good idea too.

    P.S. Still waiting for Sacred Gold demo.

  9. Liam Dawe says:

    While we are on the case of emails, i emailed LGP about sacred gold a while ago (19th may!), the updater doesn’t find the sacred gold updates file, i also checked via the lgp website and there is no sacred gold updates directory.

    Pretty annoying.

  10. Iggi says:

    True, but the updater should be told so, like for http://lokifiles.tuxgames.com/updates/rune/updates.txt ;-)

  11. Thanks a lot for this post. I am planning to do this.

  12. Vadim P. says:

    tuxgames website was failing (500 error on checkout), I emailed them about it, and no answer for 5 days. Poor service.

    Are there any other sites that offer the download-only option?

  13. Joshua Purcell says:

    Thanks for jumping in to the download distribution… I think it will be more and more needed in the future. I’ll definitely be taking advantage of it.

  14. Vadim P. says:

    I never received a reply, but purchasing worked now. Thanks!

    PS. Captcha here is hard and going back clears the comment.

  15. Vadim P. says:

    Hope Knights and Merchants will be available via the program.

  16. Herbert says:

    Hi all,

    just because i know that many of you are waiting for the downloadversions of the games like Michael mentioned.
    At http://www.linux-onlineshop.de there are the three download- and rentalversions of X3, Sacred and Jets’n’Guns available now!

    have fun :)

    kind regards

  17. At long last somebody is listening to what we are saying – rentals are the way forward.

  18. I prefer to rent games than buy em. Much cheaper and really the same thing. No one plays the same single player game after one playthrough anyway….

  19. but downloading games directly from the internet needs a good and fast internet connection, for other guys including me with a slow internet speed it’s hard to download something big, so for now i just buy from the stores.

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