Dave Perry Cautions Against the Looming Threat of Steam

[tk1989]

Yeah, but like with iTunes steam opened a new way for companies to sell products in a world that was becoming increasingly dominated by piracy. Much like CD sales, physical PC game sales were dropping. Steam lead the way in creating a new method of distribution, as iTunes did, and im sure that it pretty much kept pc gaming going to some extent.

 

[Exort]

Steam also saved a truckload of little indie developers through their discount system so I wouldn't call it the behemoth that crushes souls yet.

I remember developers saying stream have a unfair system toward small indie developers as well.
I forgot who said it, I only remember he works on AAA games.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I don't think the accusation is fair because the implication is that this is something that only became relevant with the advent of digital distribution.

Musicians, authors, directors and game makers have all given away their right to distribute. How many people write a book, negotiate retail contracts, pay for printing and binding and shipping out of their own pockets? How many people do the same with movies and games? The Digital space isn't new or exciting really, it is just another way to get a product to a consumer. Yes, in the most literal sense you are "giving something away" but no more than was traditionally expected.

 

[seekeroftruth86]

I am admittedly not as versed in e-commerce as I should be.

I don't understand the issue. I've not had much problems with iTunes. I've not had much problems with Steam. Musicians do pretty well getting on iTunes I thought, their record label gets just as much from distribution. Am I wrong?

Game makers do fine with Steam in the same way. The companies are the ones making money off their games, not the makers themselves - or was this what was implied?

I'd like not to confuse the artist with their patrons.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Yes, it is the exact same thing we saw with iTunes - and the publishers are, once again, refusing to recognize the truth of the matter: digital distribution is OBSOLETING YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN THE PROCESS. This isn't about trying to figure out how you can wrangle digital distribution in order to maintain your position between developers and gamers. This is about coming to terms with the fact that you are no longer remotely as important as you once were, and you will soon cease to be paid such exorbitant sums of money for doing what computers now enable us to do for ourselves.

The sky is absolutely falling for publishers, but it really doesn't concern gamers or developers. We're the producers/consumers, literally the alphas and the omegas of this exchange. Everyone else is fluid, replaceable, expendable.

 

[Ne1butme]

If Valve ever becomes a publicly traded company, then I might be a little worried about the dominance of Steam. As it is still private, it's controlled by the people who built it, not the people who invested in it after it became popular.

I fear that if Valve does become public, or is bought by a publisher, then it will use Steam in the manner described by Dave Perry. After all, look at Activision. The next quarterly report is more important than the general health of the industry and Steam could be seen as an exploitable marketplace.

 

[theultimateend]

The very millisecond that steam becomes near the cost of physical media for me I'll stop using it.

The only reason it's even on my radar is I can grab something like Bioshock for 4.99 when it's 19.99 everywhere else.

I'm a fickle consumer, games are a luxury for me, steams inconvenience currently is outweighed by the prices provided.

Though I'll admit this doesn't exactly address the topic at hand.

 

[paketep]

I used to hate Steam, but the rest of the industry has worked so hard to make their respective systems so much worse via stupid DRM, always online schemes, activations, installs limit, etc, that Valve seems now like the only sane publisher out there.

Besides, when you get all this people shouting self-serving "Steam is the devil", crying because they didn't think of it before, I can only laugh.

Especially if it's one of those old-timers that shouts a lot but doesn't deliver. Perry's last good game was sacrifice, TEN years ago. His Matrix games were so awful that it almost made me forget his previous games. He's now one of those walking empty shells, only Molyneux hypes better than he does, and Broussard is the only one that will outboast him.

Sad.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Gabe's already apologised for the late apocalypse, but he's had to delay it another year so they can make sure it's equally balanced.

It's meant to be out the same time as Episode 3.

 

[Exort]

I used to hate Steam, but the rest of the industry has worked so hard to make their respective systems so much worse via stupid DRM, always online schemes, activations, installs limit, etc, that Valve seems now like the only sane publisher out there.

Don't stream also have activations, anyways stream itself is a DRM...

 

[Heart of Darkness]

So what, Steam is popular so it mmust be evil?

Both yes and no. No in the sense that it's not evil today, but yes in the sense that Steam could be evil tomorrow. If Steam grows popular enough to shut out every other digital distribution platform available (which is a pretty big "if," but not exactly outside the realm of possibility), then it creates a monopoly. Once you get rid of that whole "choice" factor in making consumers pick your product over a competitors, then you can start charging higher prices for the same amount of content, or start charging a monthly subscription fee for a previously free service.

Sure, Steam might look like the best option now. But let it grow at an unrestrained rate and we'll be quite literally paying for the consequences.

 

[Dioxide20]

Hey guys, I don't mean to sound like a narcissist, but my digital distribution system will never fall victim to this, my platform is super-cool. Steam is bad, but mine is awesome.

My god really? Why do people feel the need to do this?

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I can see where he's coming from. I would believe other companies would do this before Valve would, but that doesn't mean Valve would never do it. Change in leadership, and anything's possible.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Steam has the potential to turn into an iTunes-like institution, except for one big difference. Valve isn't run by a megalomaniac like Jobs.

I don't mind Steam, it's convenient, has great sales, Steamworks isn't intrusive, all-in-all I don't mind Steam being a big player. They became that way by being good to their customers.

this. can't say too much more, especially about the jobs part.

 

[Bebus]

Earlier we saw an article about how the PC is losing out in stores. Online distribution is the reason why, and I think eventually it will become the primary method of PC game retail, especially considering the enormous advantage of cloud game storage combined with the widespread availability of independent games. Since Steam was the first major retailer, it will be the main target of competitor attacks. Unless Steam starts making their users the product of their business rather than the clients (a la facebook), I'm a loyal and very happy customer.

I've bought 2 'hard' PC games since I downloaded Steam, and the sheer inconvenience of DRM and misplaced & accidentally scratched discs, alongside the price, has made me swear eternal loyalty to my black windowed overlord. Sure I miss the feeling of having a nicely printed hard copy in my hands, but then I run the game and remember the real reason I bought the thing.

 

[cerebus23]

any time a guy that runs a DD service is out there sniping at the big guy on the block it is just them wishing they were steam.

hey steam was pretty darn much first. they had an idea they grew that idea into something big. they won the race cause not many people were looking at DD as the wave of the future before valve jumped into that pool.

not that things could not go terribly wrong, i mean valve could get an activision head, or an EA head, or a mac head or so on and so on. that proceeds to grind the industry into the ground, but then again there are other services out there that gamers and publishers could flock to.

it is not like every publisher out there does not have their own DD service. it is not like there is no direct 2 drive. and a few other services of less stature out there.

plus valve makes their own games and pretty darn good games at that. would they really tell other game makers how to make their games? or force strong arm companies what they could charge? i would not i would just try to make better games than all of them and if they wanted to charge 100 bucks a title i would charge less for my titles. i would not bully anyone or force them to do anything.

 

[Snotnarok]

Except no one is as controlling as Steve Jobs. He has a vision that his products MUST FOLLOW. Everything is micromanaged by him, it's not about the royalties that makes Apple so worrying it's how Jobs wants the world to work and tries to force it.

So this whole nonsense that steam is like itunes is just as it is, nonsense.

 

[SovietSecrets]

I wish I didn't have to run games through Steam. That is very annoying.

 

[Freemon]

Only those behind direct competitors of Steam alert to the dangers of Steam. I think this is just pure jealously because Steam is the first of its kind and the ones who try to follow in its wake can only copy its features.

There's not a single competitor out there to really have what it takes to innovate and jump ahead of Steam.

Steam is in the lead because people like it.

Instead of pointing out the hypothetical flaws in the competition, people like this Perry guy should start looking at their own creations and make them better than Steam. His words have no value in changing opinions.