83 Games for £6.95 per month?

GAME have just launched an intriguing digital distribution PC games package. For £6.95 a month you can sign up to GAME: Digital (powered by Metaboli) and have access to their “Essential Collection” of 83 games. And they’re not rubbish games, either. You can get:

• Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
• Hitman Contracts
• Playboy: The Mansion (hmm…)
• Beyond Good and Evil

Sure, they’re not exactly the cutting edge but it’s a reasonable choice. Most of these games are ones I thought were interesting, but not enough to warrant the £25+ price tag.

There’s a much better selection of 108 games for £12.95 per month. Games in the “Ultimate Collection” are:

• Tomb Raider Legend
• Fahrenheit
• Call of Juarez
• Dark Star One
• Championship Manager 2006 (hmm…)

There’s something for everyone. Go to the GAME: Digital on Demand website to see their full list.

Of course there’s a catch… but it’s not actually too bad. They’ve gone with the Napster model, i.e. you can only play the games for as long as you’re subscribed to the service. Once you stop paying the monthly fee, you can’t access the games. They can stay on your hard drive so you’re not forced to re-download them if you let the subscription lapse for a few months.

Napster’s model was rubbish. In Metaboli’s case, I really think it could work. Unlike music, games have a limited shelf life. Very few people will go back and play most of these games more than once. I know I have loads of games sitting in a drawer that I can’t be bothered to play again. Metaboli have been operating in the UK since July 2005 so they must be doing something right.

At £6.95 the subscription isn’t too painful. It’s even cheaper if you pre-pay a year’s subscription. Best of all, they’re running a £1 seven-day trial this week, so you can sign up for a cheap look. See how you like it and then sign up for Eurogamer’s “Games on Demand with Metaboli” Essential Collection of 95 games for £6.95 instead. Or CVG’s. Wait, do these companies get paid by Metaboli for this? Maybe I should sign up for my own distribution account…

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