Why I would like SoW to go DD (Digital Distribution)
 

I'd rather my $$$ go directly to Oleg's company than the middle man.

http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/article.asp?CIID=107750

Depends on the medium used. A lot of people are less then enthousiastic about Steam but I quite like it. If it means more money for the developers I am all for it. Perhaps Oleg could then spend some more on marketing ;)

Ain't gonna happen and it isn't at all that easy:

UBIsoft and Oleg already have an agreement and it even couldn't be canceled, when it was decided that the next games will be released by Atari.

As much as I understand your wish, it ain't gonna happen for SoW.

It also makes little sense to distribute it by Steam or similar means only. You should be aware that there are much more people playing this game offline than online, some by consideration, other because they simply don't have internet access. They'd lose all those customers by pure online-distribution!

Let's not forget that the US is the only nation that has a law to grant all citizens access to the internet. :(

I'm certainly not saying it should be the only option, but it would be nice as an alternative option. If Maddox Games were to offer it I'd use that option.

I guess it all depends if "exclusive" was written into the contract.

The contract even includes advertising and all rights on the engine AFAIK, which is infact why I always wonder why people blame Oleg for bad publicity works.

As you can see with IL2 now, if anybody makes the decision to make SoW go by DD, it's apparently UBI.

Are you sure re: the engine? I couldn't not see Oleg signing over the game engine, that would be suicide.

It was posted before that the whole SoW-series was included in the contract with UBI. To what extend I don't know for sure, but it would make sense, as if they only own the title, 1C could simply rename the project after the initial release and there you go.

Off topic, but where did you get that from?

I read that a long time ago on the UBIZoo and asked a friend of mine, who is lawyer. I'm not sure whether it is a law, a presidential promise or whatever, but IIRC it was said, that for terms of equality each citizen of the US should have the ability to access the internet.

Well, even if this is a law in the literal sense, it doesn't mean every citizen in the US gets a cable for free. After all you can access the internet by a lot of means and even providing the phonelines capable to get you there, would be a great task, IMHO.

No one is forbidden by the government from using the net, but there is no such thing as universal access by law, I have no idea where that comes from. In general, many fundamental US Rights are negative with respect to the government... The government SHALL NOT. Rights are not granted by the State, Rights belong to man.

We have free internet in public libraries, that's about it for universal access.