What if STEAM went under.....

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I'm not worried about Steam going under at all, their services are the best out there and they have basically created the all in one service for gamers.

Purchasing/Store Front w/ links to forums, developer homepages, manual and demos etc.
Auto updates
Cloud Syncing
Community/Profiles
Acheivements
Screenshots
Recommending Games
etc etc etc etc

The only thing in the back of my mind would be if Gabe sold Steam to say Microsoft to integrate it into Windows 9 or whatever. I doubt they go public with an IPO because they have absolutely no reason to and Gabe loses his power.

I think they are on the right page with Steam. They are tying everything together nicely and Valves main focus is only on Steam which should be obvious and as much as I want to see Half Life 3 I want to make sure Steam is their #1 priority because of the awesome service it is.

They are keeping Indie alive and their Steam Sales are awesome.
 
next-Jin said:
I'm not worried about Steam going under at all, their services are the best out there and they have basically created the all in one service for gamers.

Purchasing/Store Front w/ links to forums, developer homepages, manual and demos etc.
Auto updates
Cloud Syncing
Community/Profiles
Acheivements
Screenshots
Recommending Games
etc etc etc etc

The only thing in the back of my mind would be if Gabe sold Steam to say Microsoft to integrate it into Windows 9 or whatever. I doubt they go public with an IPO because they have absolutely no reason to and Gabe loses his power.

I think they are on the right page with Steam. They are tying everything together nicely and Valves main focus is only on Steam which should be obvious and as much as I want to see Half Life 3 I want to make sure Steam is their #1 priority because of the awesome service it is.

They are keeping Indie alive and their Steam Sales are awesome.
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This was my thought. In the event of a 'Steam going under' scenario that doesn't involve an apocalypse or Red Dawn, someone would probably pick it up and either roll it into their own service or try and migrate the users. This may not be the best scenario though, and a 'permanent offline mode' may be preferential (in the sense that you don't need to be connected to steam to play online games, not that you could never play the games online again).

Steam is so much more than a DRM/digital distribution service.
 
Gabe is worth somewhere around $70 million the last time Forbes did an piece on his net worth, that's probably gone up by now.

he isn't poor by any means, I doubt he really wants to sell Steam or Valve, it'll probably only end when he's dead.
 
Valve / Steam literally shits money as is and neither will ever sell out, there's no reason to.

Gabe is a genius at this shit, as long as he is around to work his magic I'm fairly sure neither will ever run into trouble.
 
Fail said:
This is why I say just download ALL your games, then keep backups of your steam folder on externals or file servers you own.

I follow that practice, so I am prepared in case something like this happens.
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I have a lot of my commonly used ones saved, hard drive space is cheap so it's not much of a problem. I don't have all of them though, I have so many games on steam now it's silly.

theNoid said:
There already are.
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There are a lot of pirates who pirate media but also buy games they like, I know this isn't a popular opinion and that most people resist it, but from being in gaming circles for many years I feel I have some perspective on this, most gamers I actually know behave like this.

I'm talking about a service dicking people out of potentially hundreds of games making those people bitter for life about ever paying for games again.
 
PrincessFrosty said:
There are a lot of pirates who pirate media but also buy games they like, I know this isn't a popular opinion and that most people resist it, but from being in gaming circles for many years I feel I have some perspective on this, most gamers I actually know behave like this.
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so......do you have numbers or are you just blabbering? I can tell you that based upon what I see amongst people I know is that the VAST MAJORITY of the time if they can pirate a game, they never buy it as they don't need to since they already stole it.
 
 
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YeuEmMaiMai said:
so......do you have numbers or are you just blabbering? I can tell you that based upon what I see amongst people I know is that the VAST MAJORITY of the time if they can pirate a game, they never buy it as they don't need to since they already stole it.
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You're certainly entitled to believe whatever you desire, but don't try to pass off your belief as a FACT.
 
Fail said:
Gabe is worth somewhere around $70 million the last time Forbes did an piece on his net worth, that's probably gone up by now.

he isn't poor by any means, I doubt he really wants to sell Steam or Valve, it'll probably only end when he's dead.
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Actually, the Forbes piece that you had linked in another thread put his worth at nearly $1 billion. The $70 million figure was for Valve's revenue in 2005.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0228/technology-gabe-newell-videogames-valve-online-mayhem.html

So yeah, if it hits the fan, Gabe has some deep pockets to reach into. :p
 
Fail said:
Gabe is worth somewhere around $70 million the last time Forbes did an piece on his net worth, that's probably gone up by now.

he isn't poor by any means, I doubt he really wants to sell Steam or Valve, it'll probably only end when he's dead.
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Forbes had new article about GabeN earlier this year saying that he might already be billionare (hard to know because Valve dont publish financial results)

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0228/technology-gabe-newell-videogames-valve-online-mayhem.html
 
insaneshell said:
What your missing is ARM CPu's will be dominant by 2020-2025 and most of our games wont work anyway :p
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...and you know this how? :rolleyes:

386 processors no longer exist and yet we can still play games from 20+ years ago with software emulation.
ARM processors have yet to prove themselves in a desktop and laptop market/environment. Why would you say they will be dominant?


@ the OP: yes, if Steam went under, all of our games would probably be lost, or a temp. download service might be held so users could permanently download them (hopefully). Unless another company picks it up and continues the service, our games and purchases will probably be lost. This has happened to a lot of MMOs in the past, bye bye character with legendary items.
 
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Valshistixol said:
A billion pounds maybe.
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I'm pretty sure he has lost weight and has had to have eye surgery getting "dead people" eyes because of a disease. He is 6'4" and is probably in better shape than 75% of people on these forums, excluding you of course.

He also has more money than you'll ever have in your entire life including lottery wins and provides an exceptional service to hundreds of thousands PC gamers trying to push the envelope when everyone else went to consoles.

But that's ok because someone will probably chuckle at the post so you win.
 
People seem to forget Gabe started working at MSFT in '83 and spent 10+ years there. He made his money and left. Valve is like a hobby for him. Sure it now making big bucks but he already was a millionaire years ago.
 
If Steam went under, then there will be just another downloading site that will replace its place.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
so......do you have numbers or are you just blabbering? I can tell you that based upon what I see amongst people I know is that the VAST MAJORITY of the time if they can pirate a game, they never buy it as they don't need to since they already stole it.
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It's my personal experience over the last 15 years of gaming on the PC and knowing a great many other PC gamers both online and in real life, it may not be hard numbers but it doesn't mean it's "blabbering".

There has been quite a lot of studies now done that show people who pirate media actually spend more on legit media than average, links to such articles above. And this makes sense because for the average person there is SIGNIFICANTLY more media available to consume than they can possibly afford to buy, what that means is people tend to spring for media they like the most and pirate the rest.

There was also a study recently done by a games company that showed that patching an online system for multiplayer to lock out pirates resulted in something like 1% increase in sales, a strong indication that 1 download != 1 lost sale, in fact no where close.

However you look at steam sales and hardocp lights up with threads about the deals, and we have jokes amongst the community now about how no one can possible get through their steam backlog and that steam are evil for their deals (tongue in cheek).

Gamers buy games, it would not be an expanding market if they didn't.
 
the internet would explode with "pc gaming is dead" posts, and the universe would quickly follow.
 
next-Jin said:
I'm pretty sure he has lost weight and has had to have eye surgery getting "dead people" eyes because of a disease. He is 6'4" and is probably in better shape than 75% of people on these forums, excluding you of course.

He also has more money than you'll ever have in your entire life including lottery wins and provides an exceptional service to hundreds of thousands PC gamers trying to push the envelope when everyone else went to consoles.

But that's ok because someone will probably chuckle at the post so you win.
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I did I mean cooome ooon

grifneweell.jpg
 
DeathPrincess said:
As you can currently play any game in "offline mode" i'm sure all theyd have to do would be patch the software to be in that state permanently. That way it doesn't need any internet connection after the initial installing the game (the first time I think).
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I actually leave my laptop in permanent Offline mode, it never asks to go online.. its been at least 4 months sinc ei last was online with it.


The issue wont' be steam, but some of the games you currently own on steam may one day just not want to work any more.

eg. Some of the online activate games may not activate anymore - Ubisoft is a prime example of not supporting their games beyond.

as a specific example, Colin Mcrae 2005 is actually not playable on Vista or Windows 7 - Ubisoft has no intention of updating the starforce and as such, the game is pretty much dead weight unless you keep an old XP gaming rig around. (5 years is not that old for a game)
 
TwistedAegis said:
Has anyone read the TOS to see if any of this is actually addressed?
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Most people are focused on the technical feasibility, but the main issues are legal. There is reason why as far as I know not a single digital distributor has any formal guarantee regarding this issue, because they wouldn't be able to keep it.

9. DISCLAIMERS; LIMITATION OF LIABILITY; NO GUARANTEES

A. DISCLAIMERS.

THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF USE OR PERFORMANCE OF STEAM, THE SOFTWARE, AND MERCHANDISE REMAINS WITH YOU, THE USER. VALVE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS (I) ANY WARRANTY FOR STEAM, THE SOFTWARE, AND THE MERCHANDISE, AND (II) ANY COMMON LAW DUTIES WITH REGARD TO STEAM, THE SOFTWARE, AND THE MERCHANDISE, INCLUDING DUTIES OF LACK OF NEGLIGENCE AND LACK OF WORKMANLIKE EFFORT. STEAM, THE SOFTWARE, THE MERCHANDISE, AND ANY INFORMATION AVAILABLE IN CONNECTION THEREWITH ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, "WITH ALL FAULTS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NONINFRINGEMENT. ANY WARRANTY AGAINST INFRINGEMENT THAT MAY BE PROVIDED IN SECTION 2-312(3) OF THE UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE AND/OR IN ANY OTHER COMPARABLE STATE STATUTE IS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. ALSO, THERE IS NO WARRANTY OF TITLE, INTERFERENCE WITH YOUR ENJOYMENT, OR AUTHORITY IN CONNECTION WITH STEAM, THE SOFTWARE, MERCHANDISE OR INFORMATION AVAILABLE IN CONNECTION THEREWITH. THIS SECTION WILL APPLY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

B. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.

NEITHER VALVE, ITS LICENSORS, NOR THEIR AFFILIATES SHALL BE LIABLE IN ANY WAY FOR LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND RESULTING FROM THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE STEAM, YOUR ACCOUNT, YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS AND THE SOFTWARE INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, OR ANY AND ALL OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES OR LOSSES. IN NO EVENT WILL VALVE BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH STEAM, THE SOFTWARE, MERCHANDISE THAT YOU ACQUIRE VIA STEAM, ANY INFORMATION AVAILABLE IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, OR THE DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE MERCHANDISE OR ANY INFORMATION, EVEN IN THE EVENT OF FAULT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, BREACH OF CONTRACT, OR BREACH OF VALVE'S WARRANTY AND EVEN IF VALVE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THESE LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS REGARDING DAMAGES APPLY EVEN IF ANY REMEDY FAILS.

IF YOU ARE A RESIDENT OF A EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRY, THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

C. NO GUARANTEES.

VALVE DOES NOT GUARANTEE CONTINUOUS, ERROR-FREE, VIRUS-FREE OR SECURE OPERATION AND ACCESS TO STEAM, THE SOFTWARE, YOUR ACCOUNT AND/OR YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS(S).
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C. NO GUARANTEES.

VALVE DOES NOT GUARANTEE CONTINUOUS, ERROR-FREE, VIRUS-FREE OR SECURE OPERATION AND ACCESS TO STEAM, THE SOFTWARE, YOUR ACCOUNT AND/OR YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS(S).
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BOOM

Nice find, that about sums it up.
 
limitedaccess said:
The issue with any claims not in writing/contract is that bankruptcy laws will take precedence over any vague claims for sure, and generally these laws place an emphasis on protecting financial stakeholders and not the consumer.
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This may be an issue with Valve games, but I would imagine that the other developers would begin making patches so we could play our non Valve games without the need for the Steam client/servers. I mean if Steam goes down, all the developers that sell their games through Steam wouldn't be effected (other than through sales) so it would ultimately be up to them to fix the problems.

At least this is how I would imagine it would go down, should Steam just say "F you." and leave.
 
WarriorX said:
Really doesnt mean much. More of a cover their ass in case some storm shuts down the servers and they dont get a billion lawsuits.
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Well that's about what would happen if their servers shut down, which is what the original question was. Not sure what your point is.
 
Skillz said:
This may be an issue with Valve games, but I would imagine that the other developers would begin making patches so we could play our non Valve games without the need for the Steam client/servers. I mean if Steam goes down, all the developers that sell their games through Steam wouldn't be effected (other than through sales) so it would ultimately be up to them to fix the problems.

At least this is how I would imagine it would go down, should Steam just say "F you." and leave.
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It's hard enough getting normal post-purchase support (bug fixes, etc) from publishers and devs, yet you expect them to: a) still be in business; and b) put out a patch for each game in their back library that was distributed on Steam (in effect, crack Steam DRM with the latest game patches applied)? Is this before or after every child gets a unicorn?
 
If Steam goes under, it will mean that the terrorists won.

We cannot allow that to happen.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Wrong, but keep on believing....
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what's wrong, and what belief do you claim is false? you can't rely on a bunch of dots to make sense out of that.

this would not give them any type of immunity from prosecution if someone pursued a case against them, if that's what you're implying. none of that is legally binding for any party, it wouldn't even cover their ass if they used it for toilet paper. ass-covering here means discouraging uninformed people from seeking restitution, or scaring them into using things the way they were intended, that's basically all it's good for.

not sure why people keep on pointing at the eula, it's worthless. valve assuming no responsibility doesn't actually mean they don't have any, same goes for anyone else who likes to bundle official looking documents with their products.
 
mas said:
not sure why people keep on pointing at the eula, it's worthless. valve assuming no responsibility doesn't actually mean they don't have any, same goes for anyone else who likes to bundle official looking documents with their products.
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This is said a lot these days and I donr get it, I dont know much about law except the one unit I did during my engineering degree, however from my understanding EULAs are far from "worthless".

Its still a contract you are entering when you agree to it, and like any other contract it's binding up until such point where it violates another law or act.

So if its written in a EULA "by agreeing you are agreeing that we have the right to come into your home and steal your first born for ritual sacrifice", the EULA would not be binding, because it violates the law.

If it says "we only guarantee you can download this game for the now and may not be able to provide such a service in the future", as far as I'm aware that doesn't violate any laws and thus would be an acceptable contract.

It could potentially violate a trade practices act, though I dont think it does. It says they dont guarantee it'll be error free, but lets say the extreme hypothetical situation where a bug in steam caused your computer to catch fire and burn down your house. They'd still be liable as errors in the programs caused you damage, even though they said they dont guarantee it wont be error free, they still have a duty of care.

However, in the context of removing support in the future, how is it "worthless"? Is there some law I dont know about that says EULAs are meaningless and companies are just wasting their money on people who write them?
 
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