graphic
graphic  
graphic
News > Technology
graphic
Silicon soul searching
graphic January 4, 2002: 11:53 a.m. ET

A leaked demo sparks a hot debate in the gaming world.
graphic
graphic graphic
graphic
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - What likely started as a minor misunderstanding has snowballed into one of the hotter topics in the PC gaming world over the past few days.

It began around New Year's Day (exact timing is never clear on matters like this). Somewhere... somehow... someone published a copy of the single-player demo for Electronic Arts' upcoming (and highly anticipated) World War II-themed game "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault." Within 24 hours, pretty much every major gaming site on the Web, along with numerous "Medal of Honor" fan sites, had gotten their own copy and were offering it for download.

The problem was it wasn't supposed to be available yet. Computer Gaming World magazine, which will offer the demo along with its February issue, was supposed to be the first to offer the trial version of the game, but a copy leaked out early. What followed were countless debates on ethics, exclusives and Electronic Arts (ERTS: up $1.16 to $62.14, Research, Estimates) .

  graphic
"Medal of Honor: Allied Assault" ships to stores Jan. 22
Some gamers took Webmasters to task for offering the file, arguing that posting it before the magazine hit the streets bordered on theft. Others felt the genie was already out of the bottle, making the file fair game.

It's been a fascinating microcosm of the gaming world to watch. The question is: Is it an accurate one?

"It's easy to look at the ramblings of the real hard core gamer and mistake it for sentiment," said Stephen Heaslip, editor in chief of Blue's News.com, the dean of Internet gaming news sites. "I think it's a case of the vocal minority vs. the silent majority."

EA, which plans to officially release the single-player demo to the internet on Jan. 8, says it's simply honoring its agreement with Computer Gaming World. CGW, though, says it's not angry the demo was leaked in the first place.

"All I thought was 'OK, yeah, I knew that was going to happen.' I wasn't upset at all," said Jeff Green, editor in chief of CGW. "The reality is [the demo] is still a competitive tool for us against the other magazines. These guys who are on the forums were probably never going to buy our magazine to get the demo, anyway."

A buzz-worthy demo can help to build sales for a game. And a successful game generally translates into $40 million or more for a publisher, in this case Electronic Arts.

Complicating this situation was a Dec. 29 Web report that Amazon.com was selling copies of the demo for $4.99. That, it turns out, was a glitch on Amazon's part.

"It's not for sale," said Steve Groll, a spokesperson for EA. "That was a goof-up. If you pre-order the game from Amazon, you get the demo sent to you. They never should have charged for it."

[Amazon.com did not return calls inquiring how many people had paid for the demo, which is listed as "currently not available" on the site.]

graphic  
Some "Allied Assault" scenes are reminiscent of "Saving Private Ryan."
It was EA's request that sites remove the demo until the magazine was available that sparked the loudest cries, the vast majority of which are unprintable. And while all major sites complied with the request, it left a few people scratching their heads.

"I think they acted on behalf of us and I appreciate it, but I wouldn't have done so myself," said Green. "And I wouldn't have asked them to do that."

"I believe this is the first time [a publisher] has gone out of its way to protect a magazine," Heaslip added.

Ultimately, it's somewhat ironic that so many gamers are upset about having to wait a few days to try a single-player demo of "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault." A multiplayer demo was released in mid-December. While the gameplay's different, it still gives the curious a good taste of the game.


Morris is director of content development for CNN/Money.

Click here to send email to Chris Morris graphic





graphic

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

graphic