LeninGHOLA
Vladimir Hayt
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2009
- Messages
- 18,416
No, they're right. I buy so many games on Steam, so do many others, that the amount of money going into it is killing PC gaming because blah blah blah penis.
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The future is digital distribution for more then just games. Valve gambled big and released the service ahead of it's time; now they are reaping the rewards exponentially.
It's silly to try and make Steam look bad, what is had achieved, and the scope of it's goal, is huge, but 8 years running it's made it. The first years were horrible, everyone hated it, but Steam's paid it's dues, and now is making dividends! GJ Steam!
eh, lets talk about what the article is really about
1) retail has often totally ignored pc market, pushing consoles and games heavily since pc market is nothing but "pirates"
2) steam has made pc market very viable and thriving
3) console market is losing market share to pc market
4) oh noes! what to do?!!!
I'm to the point where I wont buy a game unless it is on steam.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky (ROW) (Steam, 11-2010)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. CoP + SoC (Steam 08-2010)
Just Cause 2 (Nvidia Coupon with GTX470, Associated w. Steam 07-2010, never played)
Resident Evil 5 (Nvidia Coupon with GTX470, Key doesnt work with steam 07-2010, never played)
Metro 2033 Retail (THQ deal, Associated w. Steam 07-2010)
Civilization V - Deluxe Edition (Preorder Steam 06-2010)
The Deus Ex Collection (Steam 06-2010)
Half-Life 2: Episode Pack (Steam 05-2010)
Sid Meier's Civilization IV: The Complete Edition (Steam 05 2010, replaced my lost Civ4 disk)
Half-Life 2 Bronze (Preordered on Steam in 2004 some time)
Half Life Platinum Pack (The last retail game I bought, some time in 1998)
Retail's real problem with Steam is the fact of the digital distribution model over the physical copy model of doing business. Retail has to tie up their cash into inventory which means that only a limited number can be purchased for resell vs digital which isn't constrained by the same problem. Digital: larger catalog, less overhead. Retail: inventory which requires warehousing, physical shipping, showroom space and additional personnel for assisting customer at POS. Digital wins hands down.
Steam has one of the most effective systems for digital distribution which means more dollars in both Steam and the publisher's pockets. As a consumer, I prefer Steam as it's less hassle and I don't have to worry about keeping up with CD keys and other stuff physically for my games.
Retail has only themselves to blame as they historically didn't give PC games a chance to truly prove itself as a viable product in their stores. I speak from experience as I used to buy PC software for a retail chain of 110 stores and my best year they only gave me a budget for the year of 5 million total; 2/3 of which was expected to be reserved for buying for the 3 month period leading into Christmas leaving only 1/3 of my budget for the other 9 months spread across 110 stores. Can't buy too many copies of AA titles with that, much less the smaller Indie titles.
Stop thinking about your closed world only (where it seems only Steam deals are great) and think about the big picture.
Steam prices outside of the US are all bad or definitely not as good as in the US, so that's not "overall" but rather only in the US...
Digital distribution IS the future; only the consoles haven't caught up yet.
It's 'greener' too, if that's your thing.Ya... I'm in Canada. I just bought DoD:S for $2.50USD, $0.00 Tax, $0.00 Shipping, $0.00 Gas. No packaging wasting space. It downloaded in about 2 minutes. I'm happy
Ya... I'm in Canada. I just bought DoD:S for $2.50USD, $0.00 Tax, $0.00 Shipping, $0.00 Gas. No packaging wasting space. It downloaded in about 2 minutes. I'm happy
Maybe you should stop thinking about your closed world where you're... Nah, I'll leave it
As for "outside of the US are all bad" Maybe you should stop thinking about your closed world where you're... Oops! There I go... AGAIN
What they are chiding at the moment isn't Steam itself, it's the integration of the service into retail versions of the game.
?
Are you seriously using a game as old as the dinosaurs as a good example of how good Steam prices are ?...
Also, funny that you excluded the "or at least not as good as the US" portion of my post, just to make your point, but I wasn't expecting you to be fair about it anyway
Exactly. It is a bit cheeky for a game to require you to use an online service which is ultimately a games store, when you bought the game from a competing retailer.
Zarathustra[H];1036417297 said:THe problem here is that part of the benefit - from a developers standpoint - of developing a steam game is that you get all the multiplayer integration for free, and you can focus more on th erest of the game, rather than reinventing the wheel.
It's going to be difficult to get rid of that incentive.