Poll: Did Steam "save" PC gaming?

[CodeOrange]

Yes and No.

Yes, because it forces the consumer to actually purchase the game rather than resorting to piracy. It also works in the same way as iTunes, because it is easily accessible from one's own home and doesn't force anyone to go out of their way to hunt for games. In addition to this, steam offers regular discounts which encourages and in turn stimulates the purchase of games, for larger companies like valve and indie companies alike.

No, because unlike iTunes, steam is not the universal medium for purchasing PC games, nor is it a common household name, meaning that new or casual gamers may have never heard of steam. Steam also can only assure the protection of multiplayer games where consumers are forced to buy a legitimate copy of the game in order to play with other people (yes yahtzee, not all games are built around their single player mode). To (most) pirates, if there's no need to play online with others, or if the game is single player only, whats stopping them from neglecting steam and downloading the game anyways. Not that I pirate games.

Really, the topic of Steam being the messiah of PC gaming is moot. Anyone can easily pirate console games, music, movies and pretty much anything else that's in ready demand.

 

[mcattack92]

this may be controversial...kinda

now my relationship with steam has always been love/hate especially at the begining

"what the FUCK??? what do you mean I have to download a bunch of stuff before I can play it??...my internet is out? FUUUUUUU *rage face*"

I will admit steam does some things good, the only thing I still dont liek about it is its not very freindly to those with strict download caps

but from where Im stand steam also has been good...in a way

The capped internet is a good trade off for the prices. seriously
http://www.ebgames.co.nz/pc/product.cfm?id=7140&refer=productsearch
It is on sale but still, $130 is too fucking much.
On steam, I brought both mass effects for $20.

But STEAM doesn't sell Starcraft (or other Blizard games). Some publishers don't publish through STEAM as they prefer their own digital distribtuion services or from retail stores (like EB games)

 

[NathLines]

I think "saving it" is a bit too far. It certainly helps though.

 

[Autofaux]

Nope, it started a digital distribution monopoly though, which is not a good thing.

 

[Morgan Howe]

pc gaming did not need saving, nor likely ever will

 

[EternalFacepalm]

It saved a lot of indies, but PC gaming never needed to be saved. And of course you need to download the games to play them.

Spoiler: Seriously...

 

[GiantRedButton]

Steam doesn't list how much the game sold on digital distribution. Thats why pc games seemed to sell less after digital distrubution started. If there was no digital distribution sales would be physikal and appear on sales charts and no one would falsly assume pc gaming needed saving.
Now that most sales are digital it might seem they sell less and steam is filling the gap, but all that happened is users buying from the cheaper option.

 

[V8 Ninja]

In a way, yes. It made PC gaming extremely cheap but for the price of a possible monopoly over the PC gaming scene. I love Steam, but I can't help but think of some of the plausible future scenarios.

 

[TrevHead]

Yes and no.

Steam and digital distribution is great for buying games online but not so for those of us who still like to own physical discs (like like both ways, but I want all my fav games as boxed). Steam and other DD stores are slowly bring about the slow death of disc based games.

One gripe I have with steam is the price of their AAA games because many of the AAA games are priced similarly to the boxed version and are generally kept at a higher price then I can buy the boxed version if I waited a couple of months for the price to drop.

For example Resident Evil 5 is usually £19.99 but is currently on sale at 50% but I still can buy the boxed version new for slightly cheaper.

Now and again theyll put a game on sale for 75%- 85% off which really is a bargain, and I jump at the chance to buy it. But many PC gamers have this misconception that they are getting a good deal for every game on sale which isnt true.

Where steam and other DD has made really helped is the industry as its provided them with more money especially with the 2nd hand market been killed off, which we all know is a big problem for the console industry.

Like others have said its the indies who benefit most, it allows them to cut out the middle man. IE the big publishers who have such a stranglehold on AAA gaming. As the indies are increasingly successful they can make games that are closer to AAA and compete on a level footing with the likes of Ubisoft and Activision. This good for all gamers as it shakes up the industry and forces the publishers to stop making the same old shit games that theyve been spoon feeding gamers for years. Or atleast until the publishers buy out the indie studio and force them to make the same crap the do.

 

[mcattack92]

this may be controversial...kinda

now my relationship with steam has always been love/hate especially at the begining

"what the FUCK??? what do you mean I have to download a bunch of stuff before I can play it??...my internet is out? FUUUUUUU *rage face*"

I will admit steam does some things good, the only thing I still dont liek about it is its not very freindly to those with strict download caps

but from where Im stand steam also has been good...in a way

The capped internet is a good trade off for the prices. seriously
http://www.ebgames.co.nz/pc/product.cfm?id=7140&refer=productsearch
It is on sale but still, $130 is too fucking much.
On steam, I brought both mass effects for $20.

But STEAM doesn't sell Starcraft (or other Blizard games). Some publishers don't publish through STEAM as they prefer their own digital distribtuion services or from retail stores (like EB games)

Ok then, explain this.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/550/?snr=1_7_7_151_150_1
http://www.ebgames.co.nz/pc/product.cfm?id=14907&refer=productsearch

This is not ok.

In terms of business operations, EB Games must buy their games before they can sell them while STEAM may not have to pay anyone else until a user buys a game. EB Games will have purchased their stock at a certain price at release and as Left 4 Dead 2 has been out some time, they would have reduced the price to try and sell that unit. They can only reduce it so much so they still make something back on it.

 

[Vault101]

STEAM was just the first to do it best, had it not been Valve another company would have taken the spotlight whether that be Stardocks Impulse (No longer actually owned by Stardock, go figure!) or Paradox's Gamergate or a whole slew of other digital distribution services like Direct2Drive. And hell, STEAM was initially reviled by gamers... no really, it was and I was among them. The absolute mess that was STEAM's launch along with Half-Life 2 was disastrous, the damned thing didn't work. Thing is that HL2 sold well enough that it guaranteed a stable community, a community which expanded as Valve continued to support their service by releasing new games for it as well as making it suck less so it could eventually become the monolith it is today.

So no, STEAM didn't 'save' PC gaming, it was simply at the forefront of the 'digital distribution revolution' that's since overtaken PC gaming to such an extent that many PC games aren't even being released retail anymore and major developers and publishers consider it their major source of revenue on the PC platform. LINKY.

Digital Distribution on the PC has become so big that even the big boys are trying to get in on the action now. Ironically even big boys like GameStop, one of the companies whos neglect of the PC platform at retail helped drive the change to digital distribution. In their haste to promote used games sales Which by now represent over 50% of the companies profits since they don't have to share with developers or publishers they all but abandoned the PC platform in which used games sales were difficult and often impossible. But NOW that they see there's profit to be made online they want in again and have bought Impulse from Stardock.

Pity, I liked Impulse. Hope Stardock got a nice cheque for it at least, because GameStop wont be getting my money, that's for damned sure.

ANYWAY, no, STEAM didn't save anything. It's just really good!... I hope someone reads this or I'm gonna feel silly.

to be honest I cant think of many big AAA release PC games that didnt make it to stores..

well ok there are others like serious sam..and uh sam and max and amnesia

I cant use steam to buy games so I rely on store :/

I do see your point though

 

[EternalFacepalm]

thats not an argument.
Thats like saying you need to go to the store to buy your games from a shop. :/
Internet makes me sad today.

I don't follow. He said "and you need to download things to play them," which I thought was blatantly obvious.
And yes, you do need to go to the store to buy games. x_x

 

[babinro]

For me personally it has. Before steam, I'd average less than one PC game purchase a year. Since I've started using Steam for the sales aspect last year, I average 20+ games a year (mostly thanks to developer catalog sales). I can say the same for two of my friends as well.

I doubt as an industry steam is saving PC gaming...but it is certainly making it more accessible to the evil casual gamer crowd due to great discounts. As long as my rig can run them, I'll be favoring steam over consoles for all the high end games as well.

 

[Vault101]

Yes and no.

Steam and digital distribution is great for buying games online but not so for those of us who still like to own physical discs (like like both ways, but I want all my fav games as boxed). Steam and other DD stores are slowly bring about the slow death of disc based games.

One gripe I have with steam is the price of their AAA games because many of the AAA games are priced similarly to the boxed version and are generally kept at a higher price then I can buy the boxed version if I waited a couple of months for the price to drop.

For example Resident Evil 5 is usually £19.99 but is currently on sale at 50% but I still can buy the boxed version new for slightly cheaper.

Now and again theyll put a game on sale for 75%- 85% off which really is a bargain, and I jump at the chance to buy it. But many PC gamers have this misconception that they are getting a good deal for every game on sale which isnt true.

Where steam and other DD has made really helped is the industry as its provided them with more money especially with the 2nd hand market been killed off, which we all know is a big problem for the console industry.

Like others have said its the indies who benefit most, it allows them to cut out the middle man. IE the big publishers who have such a stranglehold on AAA gaming. As the indies are increasingly successful they can make games that are closer to AAA and compete on a level footing with the likes of Ubisoft and Activision. This good for all gamers as it shakes up the industry and forces the publishers to stop making the same old shit games that theyve been spoon feeding gamers for years. Or atleast until the publishers buy out the indie studio and force them to make the same crap the do.

Well for pre ordering we usually get games for under 30 quid WITH extras, which is better than any shop (maybe not online retailers there so don't quote me). The added bonuses of being able to play as soon as the hour strikes, and having your games forever safe (hypothetically at least) are pretty big plus's to digital media. Physical media gets lost and scratched, then your pretty much screwed aren't you. Not to mention install limits on most recent games.

Me im just enjoying all this extra shelf space.

In a perfect world however I hope we would at least have the option as (and this is really hard for some to comprehend) some of us...cannot...thats right....cannot use digital distribution for certain reasons

I mean also its its not a steam titles theres no download, or if its a relitivley new stema titles..less of a download

as for install limits...mabye I dont know about them but I wasnt aware of any on more recent titles

and unless your using your games as coasters its not hard to keep them safe