Digital distribution is growing in the video game industry by leaps and bounds. I’m in agreement with many analysts that brick-and-mortar stores have years of life left in them and actual packaged games with manuals and other inserts will be here for years to come.

However, it behooves people like myself who create game box & docs to stay abreast of what’s going on with “packaging” and “manuals” for digital game distribution. I keep a very close eye on game industry trends in terms of online documentation, and honestly, there’s not much out there yet other than PDFs.

As we move more into digital game distribution, I hope manuals will improve from the current PDF model. However, currently, most games that are solely digitally distributed aren’t those with big marketing budgets and therefore a very limited amount of time and money reserved for documentation and packaging.

My hope is as more triple-A titles are distributed online, publishers will want to create more robust online packaging. I think one of the main obstacles to this advance is to convince publishers it’s worth the money—that interactive, updatable, link-based box & docs are worthwhile and can add value and life to a product.

Links in online box & docs to other avenues of title monetization are probably one of the strongest arguments for robust online packaging. Dynamic “in-game” advertising added to online packaging and documentation is another revenue stream that could convince publishers to move in this direction.

Bottom line, I think it’s useful technology that can benefit the consumer and add value to games distributed online, but it’s a matter of convincing those who pay. . .

I’m co-leading a roundtable discussion called “Contractor, Freelance or Employee?” at Monday’s Cas… less than 5 seconds agoI’m co-leading a roundtable discussion called “Contractor, Freelance or Employee?” at Monday’s Casual Connect Leadership Dev Forum. Say hi if you’re there!

The IGDA has found someone to replace longtime director Jason Della Rocca. Joshua Caulfield, who has experience in association management, has been chosen for the ED position.

I think it’s a really good idea for the IGDA to choose someone with this type of experience. It has been a flaw in the game industry for many years that senior management is often staffed by people who moved up to those positions from within game design and production.

Our industry has suffered from having really great, smart people with little management experience in top positions. As the industry has matured, we’ve been seeing top people recruited from outside video games.

I first saw it in 1999 at Activision when many packaged goods people were brought into senior positions at the company. As a gamer and an industry vet, I was flabbergasted at the time, but Activision has since become the biggest video game publisher in the world under the tutelage of management from outside the industry.

The ESA recently recruited someone from outside video games in their top position. When I heard he had never been to E3, I cringed. But then again, that’s exactly how I felt in 1999 and I was proven wrong.

The game industry needs to continue to mature and realistically and objectively analyze our strengths and weaknesses. And industry vets need to swallow their pride a bit and find the skills they need wherever those skills are held.

Let’s welcome these new people to the industry and open our minds to more collaboration with other industries and skillsets. It’s vital for our future!