FMV Without The Clicking: GOG Starts Selling Movies
But when will they sell groceries?
Look, all I want to know is: when can I exchange wizard hats for whisky? The few video game digital distributors that seem to have survived the tensies in decent shape are all moving towards selling digital movies and music and software and all that, but when will they get serious and go physical too? When will they sell groceries? When will Steam let me earn virtual wizard hats playing Dota 2 then sell them on the Steam Community Market to fill my Steam Wallet and blow that on official Demoman-branded whisky or Kunkka's Rum that someone will deliver to my door?
Today we're perhaps one step closer to realising that dream, as GOG have started selling DRM-free downloads of movies.
GOG's launch lineup of 21 movies and documentaries covers the usual "gamer" interests of video games, cosplay, old video games, comics, bronies, YouTubers, and so on. It's gamerfication--building that curious supposed shared lifestyle, identity, and wider culture around video games--but GOG need to start somewhere. The announcement says they're looking to get into just plain old regular moving pictures too once they've proven selling DRM-free movies is feasible:
We talked to most of the big players in the movie industry and we often got a similar answer: "We love your ideas, but... we do not want to be the first ones. We will gladly follow, but until somebody else does it first, we do not want to take the risk".
Most of the starting lineup comes as 1080p video, some 720p, and GOG also offer 576p versions for people who don't want to download, or can't run, the full fanciness. They all cost £3.69 ($5.99) right now, though that's only a promo price for some.
Here, look, you can see how it all works by downloading a free documentary about The Pirate Bay or another free one about indie games (no, not that documentary).
Humble already sell comics, books, and movies in their Humble Bundles from time to time. Valve had a bit of a nosey at selling moving pictures through Steam, starting with Indie Game: The Movie in 2012, but still haven't really given it a good go. We'll see about that. SteamDB spotted that a Steam client beta added item categories for TV series, video, and music earlier this month.