Penny Arcade Talks Greenhouse, Their New Game Distribution Platform

This week we learned that Penny Arcade, along with Hothead Games, intended on launching a new online digital distribution platform for indie games known as Greenhouse. The website has already launched, albeit with no content available as of yet. Episode One of the Penny Arcade game, On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, will be the first game available through Greenhouse (at a price of $20) with more games to come, both from Hothead Games, developer of the Penny Arcade game, and other as-of-yet undetermined independent developers.

Penny Arcade founders Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins – better known as Gabe and Tycho, respectively – recently spoke with Wired about their role with Greenhouse, the decision to create a new place to buy games, and whether or not they want to destroy GameStop.

We know how this works out for you and Hothead, but how does it work out for gamers? With things like Steam and GameTap already in place, why does the world need another competing digital distribution system?

Tycho: Greenhouse isn’t an application by any means. It’s similar to the store we have for posters or shirts or whatever; it just happens to sell videogames instead. So we’re not asking somebody to install the Greenhouse client and then keep it updated or whatever. It’s just that as a fully independent project, we need to retain control from end to end.

Gabe: Also, the only reason that there is a Penny Arcade and that we’re able to do this stuff is that because people trust us and even agree with us on a lot of occasions, so the opportunity for us to go out and find some independent games that might not have seen the light of day otherwise, or might have slipped between the cracks — to help promote those, and get out via Greenhouse, I think that people will like to see what we have found.

While I like the concept of having a very selective hub of high quality, indie-developed games, I also think the interviewer made a good point in saying we already have Steam and GameTap, do we really need another platform? Of course, I’ll gladly make use of Greenhouse if and when they do start getting those games flowing on there.