Your browser will make everything obsolete

That box in your living room that overheats, using the cheapest possible components to make the most impressive graphics it can: it's a dinosaur. The original Quake can be played here in your browser. Even more convincingly, Quake III arena (or Quake Live as it's now called) runs a brilliant deathmatch here. You're paying absolutely nothing, either in terms of hardware or software, for something that not much more than five years ago you'd have needed a state-of-the-art PC for and a willingness to splurge £30-40.

 This game remains great

 "Free" is the future. It's happening in the East already, and reflects broader trends in terms of what "consumers" are willing to spend their money on when it comes to entertainment. For better or worse, piracy is rife, and a significant minority don't see much wrong with picking up games they want to play without paying for them. The best, or indeed, only way for publishers to combat this is to create a more effective business model. Free at the point of entry, with incentives to start spending money once you know you like the game, should make sense for everyone involved. It demands greater quality control from publishers, and moves the incredibly fickle games industry closer to the "long tail" business model that could make videogame culture less disposable and more sustainable.

Says I. At 1am. After a few beers.

More later.