Are you kidding? With developer costs flying in the millions, who wants to give away their work?

Actually, setting up a steam clone is cheap and easy, now.

Amazon S3 can do half the work for you, even if you use BitTorrent to ease the server load.

people would probably never pay for a videogame either because the developers are faceless. With radiohead, I know the bandmates and i have a deep emotional connection to them so I would be more likely to pay even if its optional

They can be close to free though... like when BK made those Xbox games for $4 each. Not having played any of them, I think it's safe to say they were worth it.

"there's no equivalent of the concert tour or other sideline business where they can make money"

Ahh not true. You have online subscriptions, premium content, advertising revenue, technology licensing and a whole lot more. In fact, only a small minority of PC games are actually sold in stores, and both the XBOX 360 and PS3 have a much larger online catalog than retail store.

"Some independent studios are attempting to become their own publishers"

This has been happening for a long time. You don't need to build your own Steam system, you just use steam - after all, it also already has the audience. Of the 500+ games on steam, less than 10 of them are from Valve. Even their competitors (id games (Doom, Quake) and 2k Games (Bioshock)) are distributing via Steam. Online distribution methods are *much* more cost effective than the publisher, distributor and retail store model - meaning that games are a lot cheaper and you can easily distribute add-ons and extra content

"Console gaming doesn't yet have the storage capacity, business model, or open access to be a viable digital solution to retail stores"

Both the XBOX 360 and the PS3 have online marketplaces which give developers both the distribution mechanism as well as the audience. It is relatively easy to get your game or content into either - Sony and MSFT are falling over each other to attract developers to their systems and networks. While you might not pay a nickel, the cheapest games are around $5.

In the console world, the actual machines are loss-leaders. Sony and Microsoft both rely on both attracting good game developers and good games to their platforms and in-turn strong sales. The economic model of gaming (especially on consoles) is very different, and its the reason why nobody has made a business from developing an open console that will let you run any game, and why the business relies on closed platforms.

Yes, Mary Jane. It's completely impossible that games would be free. That's why sites like Kongregate and Addicting Games have no content and no traffic.

Wait, no. Actually they have thousands of games and make a shitload of money. Funny, that. Next thing you know people will be giving away free business software and operating systems and stuff.

@Filament: The development and promotion cost variance between a game like Halo 3 and the games at Casual Collective is so huge as to be incomparable. Giving away business software and operating systems is no way to make a profit. Those businesses either provide services for a fee or advertising. When the billboards in Need For Speed bring in enough cash to cover development costs, let me know. Don't hold your breath.

Free video games have been around for awhile guys. Games like Puzzle Pirates and Habbo Hotel pioneered what is known as the "virtual goods" model in the US and Europe. Nexon, NHN, and Neowiz have around 10 games each in Korea which operate exclusively on this free gamplay plus premium item sales model.

Valley VCs are even hailing the this as "the next big thing":

[www.techcrunch.com]

Radiohead's experiment is cutting edge for the music biz but, it is actually way behind in comparison with the innovative models the game guys are working with.

@JLGolson: That one can still make a buck by selling games does not invalidate my point, which is that Mary Jane was talking out of her ass when she said that Radiohead's model couldn't work in the video game world. As Lophat also points out, it already does.