Retail threatens Steam ban, Valve monopoly is killing PC market

The world's biggest digital distribution platform for games is under attack.

MCV understands that key retailers will drop titles that integrate the popular Steam service as fears mount that the service has a 'monopoly' on the download market.

Insiders say Steam, run by US studio Valve, serves a massive 80 per cent of the PC download sector. And retailers preparing their own rival platforms don't want that share to grow any more.MCV UK

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the retailers are just jealous that Steam has 30 million users plus achievements in games

i hope Steam destroy every one of these retailers

the retailers are just jealous that Steam has 30 million users plus achievements in games

i hope Steam destroy every one of these retailers

guildclaws

Yea, and then they appoint the Big Play Brother, and every1 joins the The Collective Centralised Community of Players (CCCP) and play what The Big Play Brother tells them to play...

[QUOTE="nutcrackr"]Yeah great idea. Just like Direct2Drive boycotting Steam. Instead of having a few sales for Steam games they will get zero. Oh look D2D now sells steam games. How about instead you offer a competitive alternative with great prices and good games. _Pedro_

They were all laughin at Steam's vision 6-7 years ago. Even I may have been quietlysnickering. Valve are the only one's laughing now - along with those independent companies who now have a market of 30 million to present their product. 8)

[QUOTE="nutcrackr"]Yeah great idea. Just like Direct2Drive boycotting Steam. Instead of having a few sales for Steam games they will get zero. Oh look D2D now sells steam games. How about instead you offer a competitive alternative with great prices and good games. _Pedro_

So let me see if I have got this straight ? Retailers that have neglected the PC and reduced PC titles to a grotty little bin in the corner of the shop are going to boycott steam games. The retailers that employ staff that actually LAUGH at you if you buy a PC game from aforementioned grotty little bin.

Well all I can say to that is "too little too late" and "you made your bed Mr Retailer now **** lie in it". I will continue to buy games from steam and it will have the added bonus now of knowing it annoys the hell out of retailers :D

lol, funniest part is retail will be all but dead for console games eventually too. Just give it 5-10 years and everything will be digital.

As much as I like Steam, I'd have to hope Valve does not monopolize the PC games market. It'll make everything worse.

Its only natural that all games eventually will be digital, does it matter who sells them?

Besides, i personally dont care that Steam dont have the resell option, id never wanna resell them anyway.

So let me see if I have got this straight ? Retailers that have neglected the PC and reduced PC titles to a grotty little bin in the corner of the shop are going to boycott steam games. The retailers that employ staff that actually LAUGH at you if you buy a PC game from aforementioned grotty little bin.

Well all I can say to that is "too little too late" and "you made your bed Mr Retailer now **** lie in it". I will continue to buy games from steam and it will have the added bonus now of knowing it annoys the hell out of retailers :D

charmingcharlie

Amen to that! I just started PC gaming a couple months ago and have never purchased a game in stores yet. Whenever I think about it, I just look at Steam's sales and say, "Hmm, Gamestop is selling Arkham Asylum for 40 dollars whereas Steam sells it for $13.69... that's a toughie." :P

I think you guys are misinterpreting what is being said. They're saying valve has a monopoly on digital downloads. Which is probably true. It wouldnt suprise me if 90% of digital downloads were through steam. Then again you couldnt have a nicer company than valve to run steam. Imagine if Microsoft owned steam. You'd never see sales, special deals, etc.

Do they really think dropping Steam titles from retail stores will slow them down from steaming ahead of the competition?

are people (in this topic) seriously complaining about a digital distribution system that gives absolutely ridiculous sales as often as newegg does? wow. i wish i was ignorant to the point i'd complain about paying 1/2-1/4 of the normal price of a game.

are people (in this topic) seriously complaining about a digital distribution system that gives absolutely ridiculous sales as often as newegg does? wow. i wish i was ignorant to the point i'd complain about paying 1/2-1/4 of the normal price of a game.

yellosnolvr

Retail is outdated for most of what we can get anyway... its becoming obsolete.

Digital Download is better, (and less of a carbon footprint) and what you cannot get there you can order from amazon.. or ebay, etc.

RETAIL IS A MAJOR RIP-OFF ANYWAY. It is time people start realizing this.

DRM matter, you do not own any of "your" games, never have, you are just buying a license to use it. It has never really been "I buy a game and play it.." (not in a corporate world, which this is no doubt a corporate world) So they limit that even further, the battle does not start here with steam or valve or any game developer, it starts with these ridiculous laws that they use to get away with this crap. (Start by getting your rights back as people, then you will see the domino effect)

Retailers threatening Steam

their PC selection is so abysmal I don't care how much it cuts into their profits

I prefer boxed copies but it's so hard to find them unless they are the big thng and new.

[QUOTE="yellosnolvr"]

are people (in this topic) seriously complaining about a digital distribution system that gives absolutely ridiculous sales as often as newegg does? wow. i wish i was ignorant to the point i'd complain about paying 1/2-1/4 of the normal price of a game.

bonafidetk

Steam is crushing and beating the living **** out of retail.

Steam is expanding and soon most PC games will need it. If not all.

Steam is fantabulous. I love everything about it.

Saved PC gaming for me at least, I'm done with brick an mortar forevah!

If a game is not-steampowered, I hesitate to buy it.

the retailers are just jealous that Steam has 30 million users plus achievements in games

i hope Steam destroy every one of these retailers

guildclaws

PC games are in a weird state today where there is a virtual monopoly on digital distribution, but that monopoly is actually serving customers better than they've ever been served before. Also, having everything available through one service is very convenient.

The problem is, companies can change over time. If Valve changes management a few times, the people in power could eventually have a radically different vision and start squeezing customers who are already heavily invested in the service for everything they can.

Retail is outdated for most of what we can get anyway... its becoming obsolete.

Digital Download is better, (and less of a carbon footprint) and what you cannot get there you can order from amazon.. or ebay, etc.

RETAIL IS A MAJOR RIP-OFF ANYWAY. It is time people start realizing this.

DRM matter, you do not own any of "your" games, never have, you are just buying a license to use it. It has never really been "I buy a game and play it.." (not in a corporate world, which this is no doubt a corporate world) So they limit that even further, the battle does not start here with steam or valve or any game developer, it starts with these ridiculous laws that they use to get away with this crap. (Start by getting your rights back as people, then you will see the domino effect)

Lach0121

There is an irreconcilable difference here. Where do the rights to own a thing and their rights to supply it begin or end? It's going to change with the thing of course but here we are talking intellectual property. The use of which is part of the contract one enters into by using the thing. If you want the peoples rights back you'll have to concider all the people, suppliers are people too.

[QUOTE="nutcrackr"]Yeah great idea. Just like Direct2Drive boycotting Steam. Instead of having a few sales for Steam games they will get zero. Oh look D2D now sells steam games. How about instead you offer a competitive alternative with great prices and good games. _Pedro_

Let me paste something from NeoGAF:

Bull****, this fallacy keeps going in every Steam thread and is just pure bull***. They are not forced to anything. Steamworks provides a service to the developers, in terms of online implementation, userbase and DRM, a service that would cost lots of money and time if the developer had to do it. And the only "price" for that service is that it requires its platform to work. How is not that fair?

Others distributors can still sell the game with Steamworks and get their cut, but of course the cry fool because they know once people are exposed to Steam, they rarely go back. So what are they complaining about? That Steam is too awesome? Come on...

If they want to compete with Steam, they must offer what Valve does in terms of service, for ursers and for companies. Or find their own niche like GoG and Gamesrgate does. But complaining about a company for being simply better than them is pure stupidity.

I wish people would go back and read this post again so they can better understand the only reason most people have a complaint regarding Steam. I have seen posts comparing Steam to Newegg and posts suggesting people shouldn't complain about Steam because of the specials and deals they run. I have a Steam account, not because I wanted one, but because I had to have one to play a game I purchased from a local retailer. freesafety13

I don't think it is Valve's option to remove the DRM from their service, they are probably required to do it in their contracts with publishers to prevent piracy.

The only disadvantage to Steam is that you can't share games. I wish there was some way it would be made possible to share games. I can't think of any way without user abusing it to hell though. chandu83

It's funny how little businesses know about how the market system works sometimes. Provide people with viable alternatives to Steam and you'll increase competition, you'll increase business, prices will go down to an extent (in the form of sales and deals) and everyone benefits. Steam is obviously providing consumers with what they want and retailers are obviously doing something wrong. Adapt and change, or exit the market. Cries about "monopolies" and so-called "unfair" markets kill business. Subsidies kill business. Tariffs kill business. Valve saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. Retailers are just butt-hurt about it.

I love how these same retailers that forced the market to purchase from Steam by downsizing their support for PC games are now uppity about it. Steam has helped turn a 180 on PC gaming; now retailers want in on the action they forsake previously. To hell with these guys, seriously.

Yeah.. you can do that with some other digital distribution services (not any game services that I know of, though). Where you can "gift" or "lend" the item to a friend. That would be great... it will stop you from being able to use the license in the time that your friend has it, and he can give it back later.MyopicCanadian

I'd like to see the ability to sell your license. One should certainly be able to resell the game that they purchased and own.

Well, eventually all PC games will be distributed digitally, I support this, it´s better for the environment, it´s faster, it doesn´t require walking down to the nearest GameStop(which in my case is pretty far away) and physical copies won´t take up space.. But then again, I´d miss the feeling and smell of a new game, popping in the DVD and installing it, it´s the best.. This is sort of lost with the digitally distributed games where it´s more like "Buy, k, thx, install." Also, sales on Steam are rediculous! I like saving money.

[QUOTE="Lach0121"]

Retail is outdated for most of what we can get anyway... its becoming obsolete.

Digital Download is better, (and less of a carbon footprint) and what you cannot get there you can order from amazon.. or ebay, etc.

RETAIL IS A MAJOR RIP-OFF ANYWAY. It is time people start realizing this.

DRM matter, you do not own any of "your" games, never have, you are just buying a license to use it. It has never really been "I buy a game and play it.." (not in a corporate world, which this is no doubt a corporate world) So they limit that even further, the battle does not start here with steam or valve or any game developer, it starts with these ridiculous laws that they use to get away with this crap. (Start by getting your rights back as people, then you will see the domino effect)

Rickylee

There is an irreconcilable difference here. Where do the rights to own a thing and their rights to supply it begin or end? It's going to change with the thing of course but here we are talking intellectual property. The use of which is part of the contract one enters into by using the thing. If you want the peoples rights back you'll have to concider all the people, suppliers are people too.

I wasn't talking about getting the people their rights back for the use of the intellectual property how they see fit... I mean get the rights back period, if you have not noticed the constant limiting on your rights as a person, removing bit by bit, while the rights of corporations are constantly increasing, then this will turn out to be a completely different discussion which is not suitable here. Though if you do understand this fact. Then you will see how it does directly allow these Publishers (etc) to pull crap like this over and over, its all about profit, how you achieve more, how you lose less. (this is the incentive for a corporate world) Hence fight for the rights of the people, "but it isn't worth our time" which is why it will constantly get worse. (look at Black Ops, its a beta test, that people paid $60 for) Of course all of this is just a tiny spec in the spectrum of examples that are around us everyday.

Now I love steam, and D2D, and Impulse Driven, Gamersgate, and GOG.com I buy most of my games from them, most of the time, none of the drm really gets in my way. I am not really complaining about it. Matter of fact, I consider having a physical copy of it more of a burden. (and a waste of resources)

Last but not least, people want to talk about monopoly, but never mention the Federal Reserve, what a funny world of denial we live in huh?

I don't really like the way Steam is built, i wasn't able to play black ops the day i had it in my hands because it wasn't "released yet", the day it was released i couldn't play because the Server where Full all the Time, it did not even let me Install it! **** that, back to playing blizz games.

Let me paste something from NeoGAF:

Bull****, this fallacy keeps going in every Steam thread and is just pure bull***. They are not forced to anything. Steamworks provides a service to the developers, in terms of online implementation, userbase and DRM, a service that would cost lots of money and time if the developer had to do it. And the only "price" for that service is that it requires its platform to work. How is not that fair?

Others distributors can still sell the game with Steamworks and get their cut, but of course the cry fool because they know once people are exposed to Steam, they rarely go back. So what are they complaining about? That Steam is too awesome? Come on...

If they want to compete with Steam, they must offer what Valve does in terms of service, for ursers and for companies. Or find their own niche like GoG and Gamesrgate does. But complaining about a company for being simply better than them is pure stupidity.

Baranga

It's not about being awesome here, it's about being an unavoidable option to a game. Stores are currently selling of games which require another store to gain access to (constantly). It's like having to always go to supermarket B to get what you've bought in supermarket A, after a while you resign to the idea of getting stuff simply at supermarket B regardless if it is what you would have wanted in the first place. Just because the majority of pc gamers made Steam as big as it is today, doesn't mean that the minority need it shoved down their throats.

So it isn't PC gaming that is dying. It's those brick-and-mortar retailers. :lol:

[QUOTE="Baranga"]

Let me paste something from NeoGAF:

Bull****, this fallacy keeps going in every Steam thread and is just pure bull***. They are not forced to anything. Steamworks provides a service to the developers, in terms of online implementation, userbase and DRM, a service that would cost lots of money and time if the developer had to do it. And the only "price" for that service is that it requires its platform to work. How is not that fair?

Others distributors can still sell the game with Steamworks and get their cut, but of course the cry fool because they know once people are exposed to Steam, they rarely go back. So what are they complaining about? That Steam is too awesome? Come on...

If they want to compete with Steam, they must offer what Valve does in terms of service, for ursers and for companies. Or find their own niche like GoG and Gamesrgate does. But complaining about a company for being simply better than them is pure stupidity.

_Pedro_

It's not about being awesome here, it's about being an unavoidable option to a game. Stores are currently selling of games which require another store to gain access to (constantly). It's like having to always go to supermarket B to get what you've bought in supermarket A, after a while you resign to the idea of getting stuff simply at supermarket B regardless if it is what you would have wanted in the first place. Just because the majority of pc gamers made Steam as big as it is today, doesn't mean that the minority need it shoved down their throats.

Who is forcing "the minority" to use steam? Atleast for now, its not the only option out there.

[QUOTE="Baranga"]

Let me paste something from NeoGAF:

Bull****, this fallacy keeps going in every Steam thread and is just pure bull***. They are not forced to anything. Steamworks provides a service to the developers, in terms of online implementation, userbase and DRM, a service that would cost lots of money and time if the developer had to do it. And the only "price" for that service is that it requires its platform to work. How is not that fair?

Others distributors can still sell the game with Steamworks and get their cut, but of course the cry fool because they know once people are exposed to Steam, they rarely go back. So what are they complaining about? That Steam is too awesome? Come on...

If they want to compete with Steam, they must offer what Valve does in terms of service, for ursers and for companies. Or find their own niche like GoG and Gamesrgate does. But complaining about a company for being simply better than them is pure stupidity.

_Pedro_

It's not about being awesome here, it's about being an unavoidable option to a game. Stores are currently selling of games which require another store to gain access to (constantly). It's like having to always go to supermarket B to get what you've bought in supermarket A, after a while you resign to the idea of getting stuff simply at supermarket B regardless if it is what you would have wanted in the first place. Just because the majority of pc gamers made Steam as big as it is today, doesn't mean that the minority need it shoved down their throats.

So you're saying GFWL would be a success? Or Impulse, which has to be installed if you want to update your game - so who the hell doesn't have it?

No, the minority will choose Steam because it's awesome, not because it's shoved down their throats. Nobody, and I mean nobody is stupid enough to ignore the better service in favour of the lesser one. But these retailers would rather shut down their competition instead of offering a superiour service. I don't see how someone could agree with them unless they're just playing the devil's advocate. Brick and mortar retailers and Steam's competition would blame anything but their incompetence, which is what made them fail.

Furthermore, Steam prices are way too high in continental Europe. The retail market is successful there. The problem is with the US and UK retailers which abandoned PC gaming and just now realise that it's not dead.