BitTorrent: Disruptive to Rental Video Games?
Here’s an interesting article about the “next big thing” in video content. It discusses the major media players and their recent moves and strategies, as well as disruptive technologies such as peer-to-peer (P2P). Of course, one of the biggest players in P2P is BEN, or the BitTorrent Entertainment Network, which recently went corporate-friendly and has agreements with studios such as 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros to distribute movies and TV shows.
Towards the end of the article, one of BEN’s founders is quoted as saying “You can rent movies, purchase TV shows and music videos, try out video games, and if you like them, you can purchase them.” Clearly, if BEN was widely adopted and major game developers were willing to give them comprehensive distribution rights, video game rental companies (given their current format) would be in trouble. Not to mention gamers are likely to be a prime segment for P2P adoption. Quite frankly, the whole concept of waiting to have a game cartridge shipped over the course of several days seems antiquated.