Episodic games are produced and sold in such a way where you must buy them in small parts or episodes that construct into an identifiable series. Episodic games are not the large scale games that have expansion packs, which build onto an existing game (like the Sims 3).

Half-life 2 – Available

Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People – Available

Tales of Monkey Island– Available

Rayman Origins – Later 2010

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 – Later 2010

 
Hopefully Donkey Kong Country Returns (Later 2010) will be a regular title and not an episodic series.

- A way to make the games cost less for developers, therefore making the game cheaper for consumers.  

- A cheaper purchase price per episode leads to lower immediate risk for consumers and increased uptake.  

- The lack of the 'safety net' for disengaging periods provided by longer, less focused games coupled with the need to keep consumers on board for multiple release produces greater motivation for the production of quality and innovative titles.  

- Exposure and experience from early episodes can benefit the production quality of future releases.  

- Lower risk investment for the developers, as the games cost less to develop and to sell and are quicker onto the market. 
 
- Higher quality of life for developers, with more manageable, focused projects. 
 
- Faster games to market, as many high production titles often take anywhere from 2–5 years to complete - with episodic gaming, the wait time is often reduced to an annual or bi-annual basis. 
 
- Developing in smaller chunks means developers can better adapt to community feedback in between releases.  

- The developer gets several chances to hit the market with a lower level of risk each time, as opposed to a single chance to make good a lone product that has far more investment riding on it. New advancements can be added to the next release.

- After buying all episodes, the total cost for consumers may be more than that of the typical game.  

- Some developers choose the episodic model because they lack the resources to complete a full-length game, and hope the sales of episodes will fund further development.  

- If earlier episodes fail to sell, then funding for future episodes may suffer or disappear, forcing developers to renege on promises of future episodes and cut storylines short. Notable episodic series that have been aborted early include Sin Episodes, Bone, and Insecticide.
 
- In some situations it can be counter-productive using this method as opposed to plainly producing a full-fledged sequel or series of titles. Examples include sandbox titles such as the GTA and Sims series.  

- Most episodic content is distributed primarily or exclusively over the internet, to offset the potential extra costs of distributing more physical copies to retail (i.e. 5 hard copies for 5 chapters over 4 years as opposed to shipping a single item once). This is a disadvantage to consumers with limited or slow internet access, who might have to wait for a physically-published collection of episodes or never get anything at all.  

- Some content will always need to be created up-front, for example rendering technology. This makes bespoke engine software unsuitable in its complex modern form.  

- A player trying to progress through a series of episodes may find the technological advances over time distracting; in extreme cases, they may even be put off by the primitive techniques used in episodes produced years before. If the game's chapters are all available only through online systems (i.e Sonic the Hedgehog 4 for Wiiware/PSN/XBox Live Arcade), then the game may sell less because fans might lack online connectivity on the system.

Just straight out I’m against the release of episodic games. That fact that after buying all episodes, the total cost for consumers may be more than that of the typical game really makes me have an ill taste in my mouth about episodic games. Thing is, why release such a game in episodes when it could have been a wonderful full-fledged game instead? Even though some developers choose the episodic model because of the fact that they lack the resources to complete a full-length game, and hope the sales of episodes will fund further development, I just don’t think that reason is a very good excuse, because to me it shows that developers who release episodic games for this reason shows irresponsibility with finances and possibly ideas. Why can’t they just get their ducks in a row and get the money or resources needed and release the full-fledged game? They do have the potential! They aren’t looking out for the consumer, but just more for themselves when they release such games, which makes that first advantage listed above in my mind is a dirty lie in most cases. For example, who in the right mind would fork over $50 for all the episodes of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, when the game probably should cost much less than what it’s listed for? Stupid people or little children, AMIRITE or AMILEFT…… uh wrong!?!?

When it comes to episodic games, I just think they are a bad idea. I would think that people want to see a full fledged game instead of waiting for the next episode to come out to continue on. For people who do have the patience for wanting to get such a game, then I solute you on your patience. As long as you don’t get shit titles like Strong Bad, and possibly like and buy Half-Life 2 (which is supposed to be a good game) then it's alright I suppose. (Never played Half-Life 2, but it's supposed to be good.) As for this gamer, episodic games are a real bone killer, which means that I probably won’t ever buy episodic games.