I’ve been thinking a lot about digital marketplaces, and how they can widely differ from physical marketplaces. In particular, I’ve been looking at the world of games. First, a digression into music…

Until recent years, I had been a firmly in the physical music camp. Although I’ve had digital copies of most of my music in MP3 format for the best part of 8-9 years, I always liked having an actual CD. There was something about having the artwork, the lyrics, and nice little touches by the band that made it special. There is also the collective urge: the need to gather up more of what I already had. I’ve got every Idlewild single so far? Great, I’ll get all the new ones on CD too. I’ve not counted in a while but I’m certainly over the 400 CD mark.

Two things changed my mind about how CDs (as a physical medium for music) can be so great. Firstly, I have moved a number of times in the last 5 years, more than I’d have liked. This has the very obvious consequence of packing, moving and unpacking 400+ CDs. While one CD is certainly not heavy, when you start scaling up you’ve got a very obvious physical problem. It’s not fun.

Secondly, I started thinking about the amount of time that I’d spent admiring the artwork and liner notes on most CDs. For the vast majority, it’s under a minute. Very few actually contain much beyond the cover art and the credits. There are a few outlying exceptions to that which I’m glad I own (such as NOFX’s “45 or 46 songs that weren’t good enough to go on our other records”, Bad Religion’s “Tested” and the Refused compilations), but they are very few and far between.

The pain of moving and storing these products just isn’t worth the benefits any more.

For the most part, I buy all my music digitally these days. Either on iTunes (not it is DRM free), Play.com, 7Digital (my favourite for a long time) or Amazon (best price-wise for most of my more recent purchases). I can pick between them based on price, any extras, exclusive tracks, longevity (some may not go the distance), copy protection (market forces have all but killed DRM in audio) etc. That’s a VERY good thing.

Now, games. I am a gamer, and have been for as long as I can remember. While I don’t tend to keep consoles for more than a generation or two, it’s still fairly easy to build up a decent number of games. Given that games face the same physical issues as music when the numbers get large enough, and they can be represented digitally, it makes sense to start building digital marketplaces.

It was no surprise to anyone, then, when Microsoft announced their Games On Demand service at E3 this year. It has now launched and features older games for cheaper prices. In and of itself, a digital service like that is probably a good thing, but there are some serious causes for concern.

As the platform holders, Microsoft are fully in control of the digital marketplace for their console. That means that they are the only people selling anything and they’re the ones setting the prices. We have a situation where, effectively, Microsoft have a monopoly. History has taught us, time and again, that marketplaces are good for consumers only whilst their is genuine competition.

If you pick any game on the Games on Demand, you can buy a copy much cheaper elsewhere in physical form. Whether the premium is worth the lack of box to store is entirely up to you, but I think that doubling the price probably isn’t worth it. That’s also ignoring the fact that digital products are cheaper to produce that physical products and that fact should be reflected in their prices.

It’s unfair to just pick on Microsoft. Sony have the same situation with their offering. (I’m leaving indie games, XBLA and Steam out of this discussion for the moment and may revisit it later).

What we need are alternatives. We need Microsoft to open up the platform from a sales-perspective at the very least. Different distributors could fairly well compete in the digital games marketplace for consoles. Pricing is an obvious differentiator, but with products like games there are a number of ways to build a competitive service: in-game extras, download speed, limited remote access (play from a friend’s console), limits around re-downloading, exclusive multiplayer servers (less of a concern with the 360), avatar awards, etc.

For now we’ve got a fairly weak offering in terms of its competitiveness. The worry is that the next generation of consoles move further from the retail and into digital (see the most recent PSP iteration) without these concerns being addressed.

July was a decent month, 3 films, all worthwhile in their own way.

Ice Age 3 is, inevitably, an also-ran in the animated movie race. It doesn’t come from Pixar so is never going to be as great as something like Up (wait for the October Film Fight for that one). It is, however, a good fun film. Sure, the plot isn’t very deep, but it’s a kids film. It’s silly, and funny, and has some surprising risque jokes. Simon Pegg is great as crazed adventurer, Buck, and the rest of the cast build the franchise just a little more. Good and simple humour. (See my Ice Age 3 Twitter review).

It’s hard to say whether Sascha Baron Cohen has any shame or limits. In every one of his projects, he goes further and further. Bruno is no exception. His very camp, Austrian fashion designer runs amok through US talk shows, the middle east, and the deep south; offending everywhere he goes. The laughs are inconsistent, but when they come they’re often huge. It’s obviously not for the easily offended, but for those that like humour that makes them very uncomfortable, this shows the master at work. (See my Bruno Twitter review).

Finally, Moon is an interesting movie. It’s not The Shining in space, which is what I expected, but it does evoke the cold and desolate atmosphere even better than that movie. Sam Rockwell plays a harvester operator at the end of a three-year stint on the moon, when things start to go wrong. The isolation has made him lonely, to the point he’s seeing people on the surface. The mystery deepens when he realises he might not be as mad as he first thinks. The structure is a little slow, but the off-beat way scenes play out make it fairly compelling. Early on, it’s hard to tell whether we’re seeing delusions or genuine events, firmly planting us in the reality of the film. A convincing debut from Duncan Jones. Definitely see. (See my Moon Twitter review).

The winner for July is Moon, for it’s stark atmosphere and interesting play with the medium.

June was a relatively sparse month for me at the cinema, so only two films to review.

The Hangover is very much a dumb comedy. There’s nothing clever happening and it doesn’t have the levels of sheer bizarre genius of something like Anchorman. It does, however, have Zach Galifianakis doing his slightly crazed humour, that pushes against the comfort threshold a little much at times. The cast are pretty solid, and the laughs are consistent throughout, but don’t see the highs of other films. All in a good comedy. (see my The Hangover Twitter review).

Sunshine Cleaning is a slightly odd film. Being the next movie after an Oscar winning indie film (but not a sequel), it sits in a middle ground: it’s not a big movie, but it doesn’t seem like an indie film either. At it’s heart, it deals with the story of two sisters coming together to build something, while dealing with the issues elsewhere in their lives. When that something is a bio clean-up service, you know you’re going to get some funny moments, some sweet scenes and some troublesome times. Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are both great as the aforementioned sister, and the supporting cast are all solid. Alan Arkin was equally good, but seemed to be shoe-horned in. It could really have benefited from tighter editing and a reduced running time, but it was good as-is. Worth seeing.   (see my Sunshine Cleaning Twitter review).

I don’t feel all that strongly about either film. They’re both good in their own right, but haven’t exactly resonated with me all these months later that I’m writing this. I’m going to opt for The Hangover though,  simply because if you asked me to watch one right now, I know I’d pick it.

Yes, yes, it’s more than a little late this time. I’m hoping to get caught up on the old film fights in the next few weeks (I think I’ll be doing around one a week). Let’s get started.

Star Trek is a brave take on an old and well-loved franchise. The central conceit of the franchise reboot is deftly handled: it’s set in an altered time-line, the details of which are laid out in a companion comic and left out of the film. Some people might see this as only getting part of the story, but the truth is for most people it’s actually really tight editing. For the most part, the film is well done. It’s a decent action film, with the blockbuster effects you expect, but is also a boldy written story; with each character falling into the new timeline perfectly. Karl Urban is particularly good as Bones, getting all of the original ticks just right. JJ Abrams and co have put together a solid film, regardless of whether or not you know the original material. Very good. (See my Star Trek Twitter review.)

Synecdoche, New York shows Charlie Kaufmann at his best, this time both writing and directing what will surely be his opus. We get another fantastic performance from Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a frustrated theatre director who embarks on a near timeless project to have his art imitate life, literally, by recreating a chunk of New York city in a stage play. As he gets more involved, life and art start reflecting each other more and more, showing more intricate and beautiful detail. Synecdoche is beautiful, confusing, painful, funny, and full of oddity. In this way it reflects the subject matter itself: life. I cannot recommend this film highly enough. It’s an obvious pick for film of the year. (See my Synecdoche, New York Twitter review).

Finally, Night at the Museum 2 carries on in exactly the same vein as its predecessor. A little bit of a magical set-up ends with some mayhem, bad guys plotting and good guys saving the day. It’s simple but relatively good humoured, with some decent cameos, particularly by Jonah Hill. It’s a funny enough kids film, though there are better choices. (See my Night at the Museum 2 Twitter review).

The winner for May is, unsurprisingly, Synecdoche, New York. Kaufmann does it again.

April, it would seem, really is the time for fools as all 4 films are comedic (though not necessarily comedies). Let’s get started…

Monsters Vs. Aliens is the best animated film I’ve seen in years that didn’t come out of Pixar. While I’m sure Dreamworks are used to coming in second place, the gap is narrowed by this, their best film. The plot is straight forward and simple enough, but it’s the characters, actors and visual jokes that really make this film. The entire voice cast (which is an impressive list by itself) do an excellent job, while the characters themselves are the right mix of lovable and a little weird. It’s also the first full 3D film I’ve seen where the 3D didn’t seem like a gimmick, it was instead quite well-integrated into the experience; bold enough to add excitement, but reserved enough to avoid being ostentatious. All in, a very good film. (See my Monsters Vs. Aliens Twitter review).

Next up is I Love You, Man. It’s a comedy about a man who needs to find a best man for his wedding, since he no longer really has any male friends. The set-up is a bit clumsy and heavy-handed, but it grows into a decent, if hit and miss, film about the lead (Paul Rudd) learning how to enjoy himself through his new friend (Jason Segel). It’s definitely a little forced in places but there are enough good parts in there to make it entertaining. Throw in the feel-good ending (even if it is cheesey), and you’ve got a reasonably worthwhile film. (See my I Love You, Man Twitter review).

I’ve been a fan of Armando Iannucci’s work for quite some time now, so it was good to see his first film In The Loop. A cinematic spin-off of his 2005 series, The Thick of It, it follows a mostly new cast fight the case for and against going to war with a Middle Eastern nation based on a flimsy amount of evidence. The result? A fantastic political satire that finds the perfect balance between the ridiculously over-the-top antics, spot-on observations and down-to-earth worries. The whole cast shines here, particularly Peter Capaldi as the vicious government policy enforcer, and James Gandolfini as the peace-loving general. Definitely worth seeing. (See my In The Loop Twitter review).

Finally, Observe and Report is a bit of an odd one. The trailer and advertising make it look like just another wacky Apatow/McKay/Ferrell styled comedy (i.e. a bit silly, a bit gross, but with a sincere lead). While it has elements of that, it’s often quite dark; preferring to go further into substance abuse and mental health, than do another fart joke. It’s wildly uneven, with some very high peaks (the final sequence, pre-denouement, being one of the best bait-and-switches I’ve seen in years) and some long dull gaps. It’s probably worth seeing, but maybe after it goes to DVD. (See my Observe and Report Twitter review).

The winner is… In The Loop. I can’t recommend enough this brilliant comedy; one of the sharpest British films in years.