Dave Perry Cautions Against the Looming Threat of Steam

[Fuselage]

I think the more important question, which many people like me are asking is: who is Dave Perry?

The guy who made Earthworm Jim

 

[RDubayoo]

Right, I get the impression this Dave Perry just likes to attack the competition, like he did in an earlier article about OnLive. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/93075-OnLive-Will-Never-Get-Support-From-Console-Makers-Says-Gaikai-Founder] Whatever, buddy!

 

[beema]

I'm starting to become paranoid of Steam from a customer perspective. I used to be a stickler for always geting physical copies of games, but with the constant sales Steam has, and how instantaneous and easy they make it, I've been buying tons of stuff from them. Valve is trustworthy for now, but there's no telling where they will go in the future. Nothing is stopping them from royally screwing over everyone who buys games on Steam.

 

[AceAngel]

Oh Jeebesus, the drama in this thread is too much for me. See ya people!

*Hops onto the train of logic and IQ, and head to Whatever Central*

 

[Weaver]

Well, if anyone can come close to doing things as good as steam is maybe people will think of using it. As it stands Impulse it's probably it's closest competitor, but that have any of the features the steamworks API does.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I'd say that Steamworks is slightly worrying, as it's one more stop towards monopoly central, however that's the ONLY complaint I have about Steam. (OK one more, sometimes the prices are a bit high compared with Amazon's boxed retail version.)

Even the forced ads that pop up, half the time they're informing me about a weekend end deal I'm actually interested in, or a new release indie game that I'd never have heard of. Steam, while of course it pushes the big games, also bothers to push the small dev indie stuff in a way that I can't see say, Amazon putting 'Undergarden' on its PC front page.

So long as Steamworks doesn't get too much of a hold on the market, I'm very happy with Steam, but Steamworks does stop other DD companies selling that game, therefore I'm against that, because of the need for competition.

 

[Delusibeta]

Well, if anyone can come close to doing things as good as steam is maybe people will think of using it. As it stands Impulse it's probably it's closest competitor, but that have any of the features the steamworks API does.

Yet. Elemental launched with a Steamworks clone called Impulse: Reactor.

Honestly, iTunes is a bad comparison, especially considering there's still plenty of competition in the MP3 market (Amazon, eMusic, 7digital, various own-brand providers etc). Much like Steam's relationship with Direct2Drive, Gamersgate, Impulse, GOG, Green Man Gaming, DotEmu...

Not even Steamworks will stop them (other than when they're QQing over Call of Duty).

(PS, Steam's adverts can be easily switched off in the options menu.)

-snip-

Suggestion: Delete clientregistry.blob from the Steam folder and restart Steam. Far faster than uninstalling and reinstalling Steam.

 

[twm1709]

we need to have 1 or 2 more stores like steam to keep each other in check, I think