Rockstar Catalogue Available at Direct2Drive

[Tami]

ROCKSTAR GAMES ENTIRE CATALOG OF TITLES PREMIERES FOR DIGITAL DOWNLOAD EXCLUSIVELY ON IGN'S DIRECT2DRIVE

Partnership Includes the Groundbreaking Grand Theft Auto Series, and Marks the First Time Rockstar's Games Will be Offered Digitally

BRISBANE, Calif. – December 21, 2007 – Direct2Drive, IGN Entertainment’s digital retail store, today announced that it will exclusively premiere [url=\"http://www.rockstargames.com/\"]Rockstar Games’[/url] entire catalog of AAA titles for digital download on [url=\"http://www.direct2drive.com\"]Direct2Drive[/url]. Available immediately, consumers can browse through and - for the first time ever - digitally download all of [url=\"http://www.direct2drive.com/zones/rockstar\"]Rockstar Games PC titles[/url] including: the entire Grand Theft Auto series, Max Payne, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Manhunt, Midnight Club: Street Racing II and Wild Metal.

Rockstar Games was founded in 1998 to create the most innovative and progressive interactive entertainment. Rockstar Games has continued to be an innovator in the gaming industry and the driving force behind many of today’s most popular series including Grand Theft Auto, Midnight Club and the recent smash, Bully.

“Rockstar Games has one of the most celebrated collections of AAA titles available to gamers today and we’re proud to add the Grand Theft Auto series and the entire Rockstar catalog to our world-class library of content,” said Sutton Trout, VP of digital content for IGN Entertainment. “By providing our customers with the ability to easily download these popular titles immediately, Direct2Drive continues to solidify its spot as the gaming industry’s premiere digital retail store.”

“We are excited to be opening our archives,” said Rowan Hajaj, Head of Finance and Corporate Development of Rockstar Games. “For the first time, fans will have the chance to explore our catalog of original, groundbreaking PC titles at the press of a button.”

Since launching in October 2004, Direct2Drive has allowed gamers to conveniently purchase and download the latest premium games from the world’s top publishers. Consumers can download titles from Rockstar Games starting today.

[Jim]

awesome...why wouldn't they put all their games on here to start with?

[Tami]

I don't know, really. It seems like some publishers are very hesitant to go the digital download route, even though it's something which has been working incredibly well for the casual game industry. Or it could also be that some games have so much content that they had to devise a way to make the downloads go reasonably quickly for the initial install files etc., and then upon registering the gamer can get the rest of the content streamed as needed. However - not having purchased a game from Direct2Drive, I can't really say for sure. I'm also there were also some issues in regards to licences and what percentage of the sale would be kept by Direct2Drive and what percentage goes to the publisher/developer. At least it definitely does away with the excess packaging for retail shelf versions. /yes.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'(nod)\' />