Ritual is releasing a sequel to Sin in episodic format.

Ritual Entertainment’s long-awaited Sin 2 is to be released episodically over Valve’s Steam digital distribution system, with episodes lasting around six hours each to be released “every three to four months” for around $20 (£11.38) an episode.

This is interesting from a number of angles. Despite Steam’s massive unpopularity (and not all undeserved, I should add), there are many who think that digital distribution will catch on in a big way, possibly even going so far as to save gaming. As Scott Miller points out:

[I]t may be one of the most promising ways for independent developers to bootstrap themselves, and bypass the entire publisher/retailer model, which is closed to most indies.

This is the promise of Online Distribution. In many ways, we’ve done it before. Doom, if you recall, was fueled largely by Shareware sales powered by BBS downloads and the nascent internet. The thing that’s sexy is that, if you’re selling online, you’re not paying to press CDs, buy jewel cases or print manuals that would go unused. You’re not paying retailers or distributors (who can take more than half of the box price themselves). And perhaps most importantly to developers, publishers don’t necessarily get a cut. So the good news is that every dollar goes into the pocket of Ritual and Valve.

All that being said, it feels too expensive to me. Now, I’m all for developers getting their hands on as much cash as they can, so we can all buy Ferraris and build bigger and better games. Still, given the sheer amount more that’s being earned, it seems like some of that savings should be passed onto the consumer. If Sin is 3 episodes long, that’s a $60 dollar game. If it’s longer, it begins to get ridiculous.

Doom worked because they gave the first episode away for free, and I think that it would be smart for Sin to do the same. That alone would dramatically change the psychology of the experience, and might be enough incentive for the Steam-haters to try putting it back on their boxes again.