Poll: Did Steam "save" PC gaming?

[The Madman]

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

AAA? No. Retail still account for a good chunk of most games profits. Stardock was saying around %50 percent of their profits on game release were from digital distribution for example (Mind you this was in 2009 and via Impulse, which never did get nearly as big as STEAM and now likely never will.). If a developer can afford to pony up the money for a retail release it's still worth it.

That said for smaller companies such as two of the ones you mentioned (Sam & Max are available retail!) who can't afford to invest into packaging and retail distribution without being brought to the brink financially, digital distribution has become a major source of income.

Simply put it's cheaper, it's easier, and it gets them more immediate return for their investment. That's why its become the prevalent source of income for arguably the vast majority of the PC as a platform.

 

[kijebe]

my personal opinion?

it didn't need saving, but made it much for accessable and cheaper

but it may be due to my internet being dirt cheap

 

[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

People move house and borrow and lend things. Part of life that things occaisonally go wrong for physical things. And whilst everyone may not have the internet now its a road we are striding on down, eventually everyone in first world locations will (well everyone in first locations who buys games at least).

The reason that i rarely pay attention to the arguements of they can't do it, is simply that most gaming today is multiplayer based. And lest we forget that if we have the money to buy luxury goods such as videogames it can be reasonably assumed that they have a working internet connection. If you haven't got the money for a working internet connection, chances are your should spend that game money on food or taxes.

Speaking from the UK our infrastructure has gotten to the point that can support downloading titles relatively easily. Much like other countries in europe and ofc japan.

If downloading titles is a big issue than gaming via consoles would be the better option due to 2nd hand games.

(sorry if this comes off as ignorant. I very much believe that the quality of gaming as a hobby is defined by what lengths you go to secure it, i know many people who choose their living quarters based on location relative to new wires and the like.)

its not money thats the issue, its also infastructure (I live in Australia...well yeah what else can I say)

also I even read an article talking about how hard it is to get decent internet in some parts of America...which I belived was the holy land of 100gb limits

mabye I shouldnt worry as by the time it really goes full digital (consoles too I bet) Ill have good enough internet

also I shouldn't have to fit my enitre life around gaming..you know to actually be able to GAME at the most basic level

but dammit somone of us just prefer to buy the thing in physical, simple as that

 

[Elsarild]

I'm about as big a Steam fanboy you can get, if theres any such thing. I love it to death, over the course of around 2 years of actively using it, I have increased my liberay of games 4 times because of great deals, and the pre-ordering/pre-load systems, I have problems as much as the next guy, but considering how many games are getting steam exclusive now, I don't see the problem since most of them are intergrated very well into, among other things, the steam overlay.

All games I play is run through steam because I can't live without having access to my steam overlay for quick fact checking and looking stuff up about the game I am currently playing. That said, I wish microsoft and steam would either work together a bit better, or outright remove windows live, since they are not the best of friends, and it can get a bit tiresome to open the overlay only to have LIVE open in the backgground as well.

In conclusion, yes, I believe Steam is doing a great job, giving Indie titles a major spot in the spotlight, and also offering great deals on games and cutting cost for shipping AAA releases.

Edit:
Reading through my own post, (And spell checking) I realized I may have come off as a person who hates retail bought stuff, this is certanly not the case, it depends entirely on the game, I belive it would be a sad day when retailers have to shut down because of Steam, but I hardly doubt that, one thing Steam can't give me is a collectors edition of a game, sure they can give me the artwork book or something simillar in digital form, but I don't want that really, I recently bought both the Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Collectors edition, (biggest one there is, can't remember the name of it, either codex edition or something) and the duke Nukem Balls of Steel edition, both containing physical stuff, like the chest or the leatherbound Codex from AC, or the bust of Duke Nukem none of which Steam could offer me in the same compelling way.

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

What? How is that monopoly? They never patented it, or forced other firms to shut down their division, they go about their buisness, they don't even restrict the developers to make the game steam exclusive? many, if not most of the indie titles can be bought on other sites, as the developers own, gamersgate, direct2drive and others, and many of the AAA titles too, see Mass Effect or Medal of Honor, can both be bought both on steam, retail and the EA store.

Sorry but monopoly dosen't mean that you are the biggest, it means you are forcing other companies to either do it your way or bugger off, and Steam does not do that in any way, they do hold most of the market for online distribution, but it's hardly monopoly.

 

[Bad Cluster]

I'll go for "No not really". Simply because I prefer my good old hard copies and a smell of fresh print! I only use Steam in cases when its unavoidable, usually, multiplayer games. I had way to many negative experiences with it otherwise, and I don't like the way they treat ownership, it is getting better though it seems, again, I don't use it enough to be sure on that.

What I think is going to save PC gaming is current artificially prolonged console generation. More and more of my "console only" friends are beginning to look at PC gaming with increased interest, some already switched.

 

[Shinigami214]

Discounts on anything that aren't mainstream titles, you mean.

Fallout: New Vegas STILL at EUR50? Please. Who do they think they're kidding.

P.S. I have deep aversion with a limited number of digital downloads/installs. Once I buy something, its mine.

Having someone tell me how many times I can install it is as if someone is telling when and where I can eat the sandwich I just bought. Sod that.

And don't get me started with the 'playing offline/online'hassle. I want to be able to play my games without requiring an internet connection goddamit, without having to jump through additional hoops to do so.

And what is with more expensive prices for digital downloads? It flies in the face of both common sense and simple economics. It costs less to maintain a digital distribution service than to produce and distribute physical copies of games.

Seeing steam charge higher prices than conventional online retail sites only makes me giggle at what morons they must take consumers for.

 

[Kathinka]

no...just no. it's still just a glorified DRM that they tried to make us like (with much success, unfortunately) by implementing some social stuff, and a store for making huge profits by cutting out the retailers.

it's damn convinient, but it's a huge step in the wrong direction. the direction that has lead us from not being able to borrow our games to friends over the quasi-dead of lan and DRM that forces you to be online all the time to who knows where.

 

[Mordwyl]

Was PC gaming in any danger to begin with? AAA titles are not the only relevant games out there.

 

[Aurora219]

It didn't save it per se, but it changed it dramatically and for the better.

I personally live on Steam.

 

[Moromillas]

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

What are you asking exactly? To save? From what? Do you mean to ask, if the steam business model is a success?

 

[GLo Jones]

What PC gaming USED to be is dying, and Steam is simply the beacon and catalyst of change towards what PC gaming is becoming.

If Steam was never invented, PC gaming wouldn't have suffered much, it would've just developed slightly differently.

 

[Hristo Tzonkov]

It's a great distributor with great sales and awesome servers...But beyond that people themselves keep it alive.I didn't know it needed saving.I just thought they should put a little more heart when making console ports...

 

[DSK-]

Not really. If anything it makes games more accessible and via the deals they do, a bit cheaper.

 

[DanDanikov]

I think Steam does some things very well. It's certainly prevented used game sales, which some people have said are the biggest threat to gaming at the moment and one of the probable factors in the DLC bullcrap as of late.

It's not a golden bullet to piracy, but I have a strong suspicion that Steam games suffer from a lot less piracy than comparable titles. I also think that the Steam DRM solution is a good balance between intrusive and relaxed. There are some edge-cases that might make people in very remote locations suffer, and I think they could also do an automated install-by-dvd option (i.e. mail you copies of any Steam game, or make images of games that you can burn to DVD) that allows offline installs that just need an internet connection to unlock, much like installing from the DVD with Steam-enabled physical copies.

There is the worry that at some point, Steam might collapse and you lose all your games, although I'm sure they promised at some point that wouldn't happen (it's only a promise though). I think the lack of competition is also a good point- it stifles innovation. Having other similar products out there may be annoying, but it also could lead to new features that may not have occurred to anyone without the competition. I suspect the nature of the platform, i.e. everything integrated, makes single-dominant platforms far more likely. See: facebook, twitter, WoW, reddit (sorry Digg, I couldn't help myself).

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

Did the advent of Xbox Live and PSN save console gaming?

No, but it's a cool as hell addition to an already thriving market.

 

[Kris015]

PC gaming was NEVER dying, and will probably NEVER die.