How do you compete with free?
I started thinking about all this catch-up Microsoft is playing - always branching out, trying their embrace, extend, extinguish strategy - only now it doesn't seem to be working as well. It's getting harder, because plenty of viable free alternatives are turning up. Undercutting free is pretty hard. You can do it with hardware - the Microsoft-subsidized XBOX has been losing a minimum of $100,000,000 a QUARTER ever since its 2001 inception - but it's hard to beat google+piratebay for value.
So how can you compete with free? By being better than free. That means being faster, more reliable, and/or of higher quality than free.
After acquiring a PC, I have spent in excess of 1,000 NOK on computer games. These were all purchased online, through Steam or GOG. The free alternative is to download via bittorrent, work to bypass whatever physical media/copy restrictions the manufacturers have installed, and risk my computer joining a botnet through some trojan bullcrap piggybacking on my crack. I'm not even going to consider actually WALKING OUTSIDE and BUYING a game. Are you an ass? That market is gonna die. Let's be reasonable here. It's not like they're not from purchasing a physical copy of a game - First Sale Doctrine.
The key word is convenience. I can quickly find what I want, quickly pay, and get a nice digital package which Just Works™. My time is important, in the sense that I want to choose exactly how I am going to waste it. The businesses which I pay money to have these things in common:
1) they have unobtrusive DRM, or (ideally) none at all
2) I can log in to any computer and (re)download all my "stuff"
3) they at least attempt to build a community, with varying degrees of success. The Rifftrax community is subjectively great, the GOG community is subjectively mediocre. I believe the GOG community is doomed to mediocrity simply because of their focus - Good Old Games. This is highly subjective and leads to nerd rage and shitstorms, whereas the Rifftrax community is basically about having fun at the expense of the idiosyncrasies of pop culture. The Steam community, much like the XBOX Live community, is far too large for me to even attempt to give a shit, elitist prick that I am.
The likelihood that TV series will get to this point is low, at least in Europe. We have an induced delay between between here and the US. The internet is not subject to existing syndication agreements, so I have two options:
1) Wait a month (or two) until it's shown here, and thereby deny myself the opportunity to engage in any meaningful discussion about that particular episode with my friends.
2) Download the thing in about 7 minutes flat, for free, straight into my living room PC and watch it at any time it suits me.
Add to this all kinds of digital content protection, unskippable FBI warnings and lame menu intros*, false positives, plus the practical disadvantages of having the physical medium, and you'd be a fool not to format shift your favorite films/ TV series.
* I keep saying this but you know those annoying unskippable FBI warnings at the start of every DVD? You know who DOESN'T have to see them?
UPDATE:
Historic ‘Blockbuster’ Store Offers Glimpse Of How Movies Were Rented In The Past
So how can you compete with free? By being better than free. That means being faster, more reliable, and/or of higher quality than free.
After acquiring a PC, I have spent in excess of 1,000 NOK on computer games. These were all purchased online, through Steam or GOG. The free alternative is to download via bittorrent, work to bypass whatever physical media/copy restrictions the manufacturers have installed, and risk my computer joining a botnet through some trojan bullcrap piggybacking on my crack. I'm not even going to consider actually WALKING OUTSIDE and BUYING a game. Are you an ass? That market is gonna die. Let's be reasonable here. It's not like they're not from purchasing a physical copy of a game - First Sale Doctrine.
The key word is convenience. I can quickly find what I want, quickly pay, and get a nice digital package which Just Works™. My time is important, in the sense that I want to choose exactly how I am going to waste it. The businesses which I pay money to have these things in common:
1) they have unobtrusive DRM, or (ideally) none at all
2) I can log in to any computer and (re)download all my "stuff"
3) they at least attempt to build a community, with varying degrees of success. The Rifftrax community is subjectively great, the GOG community is subjectively mediocre. I believe the GOG community is doomed to mediocrity simply because of their focus - Good Old Games. This is highly subjective and leads to nerd rage and shitstorms, whereas the Rifftrax community is basically about having fun at the expense of the idiosyncrasies of pop culture. The Steam community, much like the XBOX Live community, is far too large for me to even attempt to give a shit, elitist prick that I am.
The likelihood that TV series will get to this point is low, at least in Europe. We have an induced delay between between here and the US. The internet is not subject to existing syndication agreements, so I have two options:
1) Wait a month (or two) until it's shown here, and thereby deny myself the opportunity to engage in any meaningful discussion about that particular episode with my friends.
2) Download the thing in about 7 minutes flat, for free, straight into my living room PC and watch it at any time it suits me.
Add to this all kinds of digital content protection, unskippable FBI warnings and lame menu intros*, false positives, plus the practical disadvantages of having the physical medium, and you'd be a fool not to format shift your favorite films/ TV series.
* I keep saying this but you know those annoying unskippable FBI warnings at the start of every DVD? You know who DOESN'T have to see them?
UPDATE:
Historic ‘Blockbuster’ Store Offers Glimpse Of How Movies Were Rented In The Past