Poll: Will Steam take over the world?

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Thomiroth

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Mar 17, 2011
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Well, whether Steam do get a monopoly or not, they're pretty damn well set up for it. Not that I mind, since they gave me a cheap alternative to piracy, so I really haven't looked back on that one. Besides, there's enough F2P games out there for me to play nowadays as well, which is why I like LoL. :)
 

ScrabbitRabbit

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Mar 27, 2012
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SnowBurst said:
ScrabbitRabbit said:
SnowBurst said:
I used to be like you wanting the disc but then i realized discs break then your fucked whereas on steam I can royally bone the crap out of it and then re download it for free which seems to be the general opinion i can see physical games dying out in the next 5-10 years because of stuff like on live (i know it died its just the concept it had) and steam
I dunno. I think digital distribution will become the primary way games are distributed in a few years, but it's the primary way music is distributed, too and people still buy CDs and even Vinyl.

Of course, a future generation of consoles could ditch physical media but I'm willing to bet that there would be a huge outcry and people would still be buying boxed PC games.
i never see vinyl now, mainly for collectors and nostalgia id imagine but in 5-10 years i doubt cd's will be absolute primary and 15-20 may be completely obsolete unless some radical new tech comes out lol blu ray is just capacity it lets you store more information on the disc so can contain HD formats hence why HD DVD existed.
CDs have already been superseded by digital distribution as the primary format; my point is CDs and Vinyl still exist and still sell relatively well because a lot of people like collecting stuff. There's something special about holding a box in your hand, popping it open and listening to the album or playing the game for the first time.

Like I said, digital will become the primary way games are distributed. It'll become the primary way ALL media is distributed. But there'll always be enough people who like to collect that physical media will never really die; it'll just become expensive as fuck.
 

tendaji

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Aug 15, 2008
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Well if they do expand and start taking down the rest of the competition, someone somewhere is going to file an anti-trust lawsuit against Valve, and Valve would probably not be victorious from that battle.
 

Gennadios

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Aug 19, 2009
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As long as Steam is at the top, other companies will try to emulate it. Someone's bound to get a feature or two better eventually, from there it'll be up to steam to decide to implement them into their own service or risk falling behind.

I doubt Valve is in any danger atm, but I'm thankful for any legitimate competition they have, although there's nothing that's particularly challenging atm. My friends and I couldn't even get Bulletstorm running on GFW:L last weekend and we've all but given up on Origin.

If you want on-line co-op, you go to Steam, there are literally no other options.
 

kortin

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Mar 18, 2011
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Yes

Steam is going to take over the world

and Brain is going to be so jealous
 

irishda

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Dec 16, 2010
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I honestly want them to if only because then they become the huge corporate conglomerate that gamers have to rage and rage against. The Valve fanboys heads begin to expand from the sheer lack of acceptance and comprehension that their beloved company could fall so far until they explode across the internet in an orgy of incoherent defenses/rants/verbal assaults. And then the dust will settle, Valve will be upset by a new service type as they struggle to regain relevance in a rapidly uncaring world.

And Half-life 3 will still be unreleased.
 

SnowBurst

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Jul 2, 2012
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half life 3 is in dev theyve already basicaly said it theyve said theyre taking longer to dev games to make them better also i doubt valve will ditch their biggest money maker
 

Moonlight Butterfly

Be the Leaf
Mar 16, 2011
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YES all things will be super cheap during summer and christmas. Like Pineapples and Monkeys.:D

It will be awesome!

But seriously they are on top because they provide a decent service and don't treat their customers like garbage. It's not like they have a total monopoly, just look at most kickstarters people ask for GoG.com or physical copies.

Origin isn't too bad I would just never buy online off EA as their customer service sucks if something goes wrong.
 

vun

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Apr 10, 2008
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I sure hope they don't take over. Competition will only benefit the consumers and while a theoretical monopoly might not seem bad for some people, that only works in theory. For all we know the only reason Valve and Steam aren't more invasive and annoying might be because they have competition and therefore can't do whatever they want.

And as long as GoG lets me wear slippers in their store I'm going to support them over Steam if I ever have to choose. If you wear slippers around the Steam store everyone just looks at you funny.
 

Isalan

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Jun 9, 2008
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ExiusXavarus said:
Not everyone wants all of their games to be digital. I prefer my physical games. As long as people like me exist, I don't think Steam will take over the world. It'll become a big big service, but won't take over the world.
See, I used to be a big fan of the boxed game approach, until it got kinda pointless. You don't get anything in games boxes these days except the disc. Manuals tend to be online or in .pdf format on the disc, and theres no longer any real need for the stuff they used to put in boxed games like maps and mousemats and stuff like that.

Collectors editions are the exception here though, if I really enjoy a game I may try to track down a collectors edition of it. Don't generally buy them for new releases unless I'm positive I'm going to enjoy them. I think of collectors editions as a way to reward a developer whilst getting something nice and shiny for myself.
 

MeChaNiZ3D

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Aug 30, 2011
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No, but it will become a solid 99 percent if all that tries to oppose is f***ing Origin. I don't like monopolies at the best of times, but really, it's like having the most wonderful generous king in the world and then Hitler comes along and wants you to join his cohort. Well EA can take their toothbrushes and combs back to Ricitelland.

Basically, someone has to be better than Steam. And no-one is going to be any time soon, because Steam is already the service that would break down a larger service. We missed the part where the profit-first morons run the place. We got the perfect counter-service as the default.
 

RedDeadFred

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May 13, 2009
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I really hope not. Having one company control the gaming world means that there is no competition. I know I'm one of the few who thinks this but Origin is a good thing. It's poorly executed but we NEED competition. Monopolies are never good.
 

Souplex

Souplex Killsplosion Awesomegasm
Jul 29, 2008
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Steam taking over the world would require PC gaming to become a significant share of the market.
 

l0ckd0wn

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Jul 17, 2012
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So I voted yes, what do I win? What if I actively want Steam to take over the world?
 

Olas

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Dec 24, 2011
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I'm pretty sure steam is only interested in taking over the digital distribution end of the gaming industry, and I'd say they succeeded in that a while ago. At least they aren't like google and don't try to expand into all sectors of our daily lives.
 

Yopaz

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Jun 3, 2009
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ExiusXavarus said:
SnowBurst said:
ExiusXavarus said:
Not everyone wants all of their games to be digital. I prefer my physical games. As long as people like me exist, I don't think Steam will take over the world. It'll become a big big service, but won't take over the world.
I used to be like you wanting the disc but then i realized discs break then your fucked whereas on steam I can royally bone the crap out of it and then re download it for free which seems to be the general opinion i can see physical games dying out in the next 5-10 years because of stuff like on live (i know it died its just the concept it had) and steam
I don't have to worry about my games getting broken. I am what appears to be one of the few people in the world that actually takes care of their games. Treat your equipment well, it'll treat you well.
I treat my discs well, but I have on several occasions bought a game, received the sealed copy and the game had disc error straight out of the box. Luckily one of those games were for PC and gave me the chance to register it online and download it. As for "Retailer is supposed to be responsible for this" I bought most of these from GameStop and all they could offer me for broken games was the trade in price. I guess the guarantee that games are supposed to work is bogus...

OT: I doubt Steam will take over the gaming world. There's really a whole lot to get in charge of. There's Nintendo, there's Sony, there's EA, there's Ubisoft, there's Activision, I could go on, but you know these companies as well as I do. I don't know the sizes of all of these, but I doubt Valve is big enough to take over for all of these. Partly because Valve is a software developer who has preferred digital releases for a long while. They didn't even publish the physical copies of The Orange Box themselves. Then there are people in the world without high speed internet connections. There are those who feel safer having a physical product rather than just the data.

Finally, the EU has made a law that prevents monopoly. If Valve was ever aspiring to accomplish such a thing they could end up having to pay some severe fines (talking billions here) and so would any other company trying to do the same. This has happened to Intel already in case you think it's unlikely that anyone will care about EU.
 

Sandjube

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Feb 11, 2011
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Zachary Amaranth said:
SnowBurst said:
tbh if steam does take over the gaming market it wouldnt be a bad thing in my eyes because they dont do a half assed job of stuff they make good stuff
Monopolies are never good news.

Except in the game Monopoly.
Would be a decent word in scrabble too.

OT: I'm in a love/hate relationship with steam, so I'd hope not.