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AVAILABLE ONLINE: Games from the Internet include Lost Planet, Counter Strike and Hardwood Backgammon.
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SINGAPOREANS are latching on to a trend that is gaining pace elsewhere - downloading games off the Internet instead of buying discs.
Two months ago, the world's largest game publisher, Electronic Arts (EA), opened a Singapore online store (www.ea. com.sg) that allows gamers to download the latest titles, such as Fifa 08 and Need for Speed ProStreet, directly to their PCs.
This makes Singapore one of only a handful of countries - the United States and Australia are among the others - to deliver such digital downloads.
Besides EA, Microsoft is also offering old arcade games, from $10 each, for Xbox gamers to download directly to their consoles. Many add-on levels or characters that are bonuses to the game are also sold online this way.
Though EA and Microsoft declined to give sales figures, they say the popularity of downloading games has 'exceeded expectations'.
Some brick-and-mortar stores say they are already feeling the effects of this trend.
Ms Pauline Ong, manager of game retailer e2000 at Funan DigitaLife Mall, reckoned that she may be losing 5 per cent to 10 per cent of sales to digital downloads.
It is a trend that is being seen elsewhere, with some experts saying buying games online may eventually be as popular as downloading music.
In the US, for example, 14 per cent of games sold are bought online, according to a recent New York Times report that quoted data from consultancy firm NPD Group.
While the number is still relatively small, the report pointed out that digital music sales started slowly too: Apple's iTunes music store, for example, sold 25 million songs in its first eight months, but has now sold four billion in about five years.
Downloading games has several upsides, apart from the comfort of shopping from home.
The EA store, for example, allows for repeated downloads. So even if your computer breaks down, you can download the game on your new machine and play it again.
Gamers can also 'pre-download' an upcoming game and play it the moment it is released. And downloading is fast if you go to a store hosted locally, as EA's is.
In a test by The Straits Times, the popular Need for Speed game - a massive 4.6GB file - took just 50 minutes to download using a broadband connection.
But there are drawbacks to downloading: Prices are the same as for DVD versions, even though you do not get the fancy packaging, glossy manuals and free gifts that usually come with games bought from a physical store. Also, those who do not have broadband - and many here do not have fast connections - will find download time intolerable.
These barriers are keeping new entrants from the market. New Era, a large distributor of game titles here, with titles such as Call of Duty, estimates that only 1 per cent of its games here are sold online.
Chief technology officer Toong See Wan said that unless the broadband take- up rate jumps, the company would not be offering games for download anytime soon.
But market watchers say Singapore's next-generation broadband network, which promises even faster downloads with speeds 10 times faster when it is ready in the next few years, will encourage more digital downloads.
When that goes live, writer Wee Ler Ping will be one of the first users. Said the 26-year-old who recently downloaded an arcade game directly to his Xbox: 'The Xbox Live (download service) is easy to navigate around and it saves the environment by cutting down on materials.'
Retailers, meanwhile, are looking warily over their shoulders as online sales gather pace.
Said e2000's Ms Ong: 'We have to start selling office software, like anti-virus programs, for the future because things will be very competitive.'
siewtha@sph.com.sg
tanwz@sph.com.sg
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