Friday, January 8, 1999 [NOTE: Article based on interview with James Wilson, VP of Business Development] Imagine the convenience of going to a 7-Eleven or a Circle K rather than a major shopping mall or superstore for buying software. This is the future envisioned by James Wilson, Vice President of AegiSoft. But this is only the beginning, how many times do you buy a game for $40 or $50 only to beat it within three days of intense play? What if you could rent the game for those three days for only $3.99? Need more time? No problem. How about a whole week for only $6.99! Did you like the game so much that you want to own it? AegiSoft offeres a Rent-to-Own option with outright purchase available for any title you can't bear to be without. But this technology is not only applicable to gaming. Do you need to use Microsoft Word or Lotus WordPro once in a while, but not enough to justify the hundreds of dollard these products retail for? Imagine the same convenience of renting the software for a few days for only a few dollars! This is the vision that Larry Ellison of Oracle described to Robert X. Cringely in his PBS show Triumph of the Nerds modified to accomodate the current lack of bandwidth available on the 'net.
Mr. Wilson tells us that AegiSoft will be debuting their product with a host of current game titles at a number of Blockbuster franchise stores. This introduction will allow the gameplayer to experience the ease and convenience of taking home a PC game for only a few dollars and installing it through an intuitive interface which allows for renewall of the game or outright purchase. The renter will be required to enter their name and address for registration, although Mr. Wilson assures us that personal information will not be sold for any reason and that phone #'s and e-mail addresses will not be required. In other words, you can expect to be solicited ONLY by AegiSoft and the original game company--no mass mailing lists! (This makes us very happy since we have managed to have our addresses added to just about every mass mail list on the planet and we hate SPAM with a passion.) The forced registration is a good idea anyway since hard-drives are capricious devices and if one crashes you will need to contact AegiSoft to have the game unlocked again assuming you still have time remaining on your rental or you purchased it. One of the advantages of the registration is that when you visit their website you will be presented with a list of current software titles which match your past rental and buying habits thus saving you time while looking for the next great sequel.	James Wilson, V.P. of Business Development, AegiSoft
We see several major advantages for the consumer. The method of encryption which AegiSoft uses is not key based so it makes the code wheel obsolete while providing a product which eliminates piracy. You are encouraged to burn copies of the program disk and distribute them since any new player will need to register separately. The elimination of piracy means lower software prices for everyone, and the rental scheme promotes the "Try before you Buy" business model so prevalent in everything else we buy. We hate to spend our hard earned greenbacks on loser titles (that's why we write this e-zine to help you get good games), and now for only $3.99 we can all find out whether a game is hot or not. See the Press Release. View the Company Profile. For more information visit the AegiSoft Website: www.AegiSoftCorp.com

Tintagel
Staff Writer -- Game Zero Magazine

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