I recently did a pretty lengthy interview with Game Daily. In it, we talked about where we thought things were going to go with digital distribution, retail publishing, etc.

Nowadays, digital distribution of major titles doesn't seem that big of a deal. But when we started selling The Corporate Machine on Drengin.net (later renamed to TotalGaming.net) it was a definite big deal. People suddenly had the option to either buy the game at the store or buy a copy and download it.

In 2003, Galactic Civilizations was the first major retail game released at the same time digitally for download.  Sales at retail and for download both vastly exceeded our expections.

At the end of February, Galactic Civilizations II will have an even wider release at retail than the first one with most of the major retailers already on board to carry it (many taking pre-orders -- all users who pre order the game anywhere will be able to get the Collector's Edition box).  On the same day, the game will be available for download as well.

Even users who buy at the store will also be able to digitally download not just updates but the entire game. So if you blow away your CD or just plain lose it, no problem, you can just download the game -- even years later (as GalCiv I players can attest to).

So check out the GameDaily article, it should give you some background into what we're trying to do.