On-Demand Games

Are you ready for on-demand Doom? According to Reuters, Comcast, the biggest cable provider in America, will begin offering PC games via its on-demand system. For an extra $14.95 per month, subscribers will get unlimited access to over 60 games initially, with new games added every month; specific titles have not been announced.

Comcast deserves props for courting the gamer nation. The company is also behind G4 – the MTV-style video game network. But I’m skeptical about PC games on-demand. How will they be controlled? What about a keyboard and mouse? I can’t imagine someone playing Age of Mythology on the sofa.

Assuming Comcast works out the controller issues, the other big challenge is in appealing to the PC gamer crowd. Fact is, this audience is a smart, persnickety group. They’re accustomed to stuff like multiplayer competition and user-made modifications. What will Comcast do to cultivate that sense of community? Maybe nothing at all. It’s possible, also, that simple, parlor games – backgammon, chess – or even ports of old classics like Asteroids and Pong could find a wider audience. At the end of the day, the living room gamers, I suspect, would rather switch on their PS2/Xbox or GameCube; and the PC gamers would rather stick with their old machines.