How Impulse hopes to challenge Steam

[Fenolio]

Did a quick search of the first 3 pages, my bad if this has been mentioned before ^^;

Just saw this on twitter. I dont think ValVe have much to worry about if the only difference is the ability to connect through facebook *eye-roll*

Spoiler

How Impulse hopes to challenge Steam, open PC market with Facebook Connect, Twitter


Stardock Corporation revealed to GamePro today that their forthcoming developer resource and distribution service Impulse: Reactor uses Facebook Connect -- which represents a significant challenge to competitor distribution service, Steam.

Right now, Valve Software's Steam is the most popular PC gaming platform out there for developers because it offers multiplayer support, digital rights management options, and a relatively cheap and convenient way for devs to get their games to market on PC. The only drawback is that Steam is pretty much the only game in town, so Valve can require developers to do things like bundle the Steam client in all their games.

"If no one challenges Steam, what's going to happen [in the future] is you'll have to bundle all your games with Steam Achievements or something," Stardock CEO Brad Wardell told GamePro. "The PC will become a closed platform -- like the Xbox 360. And eventually, big-budget PC games will go away."

Impulse: Reactor plans to offer the same services to developers as Steam and already provides a competitive user service, Impulse. It's also stepping up the competition by not requiring users to register an Impulse account to play Reactor-distributed games. The software instead uses Facebook connect to identify users and allow them to import friends lists directly from the social network instead of starting all over on Impulse.

"It's hard not to root for them," Wardell said, praising Valve's excellent reputation and indie cred. "But you could replace Valve with Microsoft and it'd still be the same problem... a monopoly."

Impulse: Reactor debuts with the Stardock-developed turn-based strategy role-playing game, Elemental: War of Magic this August. Find out more about the service here.

Link

Spoiler

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/215288/how-impulse-hopes-to-challenge-steam-open-pc-market-with-facebook-connect-twitter/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GameProNews+%28GamePro.com+Daily+News%29&utm_content=Twitter

Thoughts?

 

[Irridium]

Don't underestimate facebook users.

And besides, I hope they do challenge Steam. Competition is good.

 

[SimuLord]

Stardock's making a bad move here. Facebook has an extremely well-deserved reputation among savvy computer users (the sorts of people who buy games online) as having major privacy issues, something Steam does not have to worry about.

Facebook is dangerous to a company's brand if they choose to get involved.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

It really depends on how well they manage to pull it off. Just like SimuLord said, if they're able to work the privacy thing, which facebook is legendary for failing at, I see good competition here.

Competition can only make it better, though. We'll see, but I'm still rocking steam.

 

[Fenolio]

Don't underestimate facebook users.

And besides, I hope they do challenge Steam. Competition is good.

We beat them during the 'Madness' (Dont even think about it.) we can beat them again.

And im all for competition, its just... Facebook aint exactly gonna grab you customers
Especially since steam is an established service that works. (most of the time)
They're going to have to bring more to the table if they want to match steam

 

[Irridium]

Don't underestimate facebook users.

And besides, I hope they do challenge Steam. Competition is good.

We beat them during the 'Madness' (Dont even think about it.) we can beat them again.

And im all for competition, its just... Facebook aint exactly gonna grab you customers
Especially since steam is an established service that works. (most of the time)
They're going to have to bring more to the table if they want to match steam

We did beat them, but it took many rounds and they still got very far.
Just saying, don't underestimate them.

And they already do one thing Steam doesn't, they release games without DRM.

I love Steam, and love that it offers a shit load of incentives for using it, but its still DRM. Just a "good" DRM.

Better stop now before I start a flamewar...

 

[Worgen]

Facebook? Seriously?

I think this company is kind of short sighted, social networking sites are a fickle business, and to directly link your distribution software with facebook could be disasterous in the long run, when facebook becomes a pariah like Myspace, and people move on to the next site.

Edit: Also, like SimuLord said, Facebook has some major security issues, and these would have to be fixed before a lot of gamers would be interested in using this service.

actualy impulse is a really good digi game service, they started the weekend deals before steam did (according to them) and they are run by a company that is widely known for dislike of drm, stardock the only problem is that none of their games have been the big name ones of valve, they published sins of a solar empire and demigod and made the galactic civ games but valve has some really big name games so impuse doesnt have the market share it really deserves, altho facebook is kinda like the dry hump of marketing

 

[Plurralbles]

Stardock is probably my favorite developer from a moral and business standpoint.

I hope their Impulse works out very well and offers Steam a little bit of competition.

At least Facebook will get their name out there.

 

[Yureina]

I'll keep preferring Steam I think.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Facebook? Seriously?

I think this company is kind of short sighted, social networking sites are a fickle business, and to directly link your distribution software with facebook could be disasterous in the long run, when facebook becomes a pariah like Myspace, and people move on to the next site.

This would be true if they were going to exclusively sell things over facebook, but they're just adding Facebook Connect functionality, which lets you log on to compatible sites with your facebook login, instead of creating a new profile. The Escapist actually uses facebook connect. It's almost always optional, and only serves to remove some of the hassle of using a new service.

 

[Fajita]

Seeing as the only online game I play is TF2, I don't think I'll ever use anything other than steam.

And steam always has those great discount sales every once and a while, a perfect opportunity for me to stock up on like 5 or 6 games for 20$.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

I actually really like impulse, mostly because I never need it. I can't even remember if I had to install it when I originally bought Sins of a Solar Empire, or when I bought Entrenchment. And that's a GOOD thing. Unlike steam and their "update news" (I know it's nitpicky, but just call it a f***ing ad)

Does it phone home and run every time I try to run a game from it? If the answer is no I'll start using it (cause Stardock makes good games)

NO! You don't even have to update if you don't want to. That would have been an absolute godsend for fallout 3 (shudders). You don't have to be online, you don't even need Impulse running to play. They have a decent selection of games, including some big ones like ME2 and bad company 2; I'm not going to sift through all those damn train expansion packs to count, but its pretty good.

But back to the original point. Facebook is a crap move.

 

[Kanodin0]

Well I suppose this could attract a few new users, people who are interested in gaming (maybe even from those flash games on facebook, no matter how much we dislike them) but aren't familiar with either platform yet. The capability to login with facebook would give impulse a lower buy in cost which gives it a slight advantage. But again those are just a few new users, I can't see this chipping away at the existing clientele of Steam.

 

[slowpoke999]

"If no one challenges Steam, what's going to happen [in the future] is you'll have to bundle all your games with Steam Achievements or something,"

Oh dear god the achievements or something, the achievements were bad but SOMETHING?!?!Something can imply ANYTHING...

Seriously are programming achievements such a painstaking development process?

Edit:My post count tells me the something could mean steam will want your soul

 

[soulsabr]

"If no one challenges Steam, what's going to happen [in the future] is you'll have to bundle all your games with Steam Achievements or something,"

Oh dear god the achievements or something, the achievements were bad but SOMETHING?!?!Something can imply ANYTHING...

Seriously are programming achievements such a painstaking development process?

You would be amazed. Especially if you weren't planning on having such trivial things to begin with. And when Fenolio says "something" I would like you to look at Assassin's Creed 2 and then rethink the "something" angle. They are good, now, but EA was good once upon a time. Now EA is to video games what M$ is to everything else computer related.

 

[Island Dog]

I think this company is kind of short sighted, social networking sites are a fickle business, and to directly link your distribution software with facebook could be disasterous in the long run, when facebook becomes a pariah like Myspace, and people move on to the next site.

The good thing about Impulse::Reactor is that it can adapt to new services that may appear in the future, and Facebook Connect is just one service mentioned at this time.

I think some are getting this confused with playing Facebook games. This is a way to sign-in and connect with your friends.

 

[TheComedown]

"The PC will become a closed platform -- like the Xbox 360. And eventually, big-budget PC games will go away."

This i don't understand what they are trying to say, yes the PC would end up being a closed platform, but why would that stop the big-budget games? Look at mw2 for example, that was shipped with steam, and no way that cant be called anything other then big-budget. Not to mention consoles are closed and they are still getting big-budget stuff that gets released on all 3 major platforms.