Retail threatens to not sell Steam games.

[Mkilbride]

Steam, The world's biggest digital distribution platform for games is under attack as MCV reports, they understand 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.

Some of the biggest PC games – such as Call of Duty and Fallout – use Steam. But retailers are concerned that selling games with the tech built-in pushes users towards only buying games via Valve going forward.

At least two major retailers will demand that publishers remove Steam from their games – or they will not sell them in any form.

“If we have a digital service, then I don’t want to start selling a rival in-store,” said the digital boss at one of the biggest UK games retailers.

“Publishers are creating a monster *– we are telling suppliers to stop using Steam in their games.”

The head of sales at a big-name digital service provider agreed: “At the moment the big digital distributors need to stock games with Steam. But the power resides with bricks and mortar retailers, they can refuse to stock these titles. Publishers are hesitant, but retail must put pressure on them.”

Gaikai CEO David Perry told MCV Steam could become the games-equivilent of iTunes, where it dictates the terms of the market, not the other way around: “Steam has made it so easy for everyone and they have lots of users. But how long do you wait before you take control of your own digital strategy? Like with iTunes, at some point it’s going to be too late.”

http://www.guru3d.com/news/retail-threatens-to-ban-steam/

Ha...

 

[Avenger]

Nothing is as amusing as the creation of another corporate monster to mkilbride. Well, apparently he likes watching his grandmother kill animals more, but you never know.

 

[Sicron]

If retailers stop selling games in their stores, what stops people from eventually purchasing these games in the Steam store? Yeah sure, a lot of consumers opt to go for a physical copy. But when these physical copies are not available, they will resort to digital downloads, nothing stops a gamer from buying the game they want. Retailers are digging their own graves right there, if publishers do not comply with their demands. And as I see it, publishers would rather like to increase in digital copies. Saves the publishers from having to spend money on packaging and shipping.

 

[Mkilbride]

Well you see, Retail wants to have their own Digital Distribution, but right now they are selling games that come bundled with Steam - effectively giving their future competition a customer for each customer they get. Steam will never go evil like Apple, Valve is too good for that.

 

[Sicron]

If you put it like that, it might be in the best interest of the publisher to listen to the retailers. Fragmentation in the digital download market could lead to competition and lower prices, which leads to more sales. In the end, the publisher gains more money, for selling more products.

 

[kam!]

They're like 5 years too late to launch their own plattform. The average user who already uses steam most likely will be really really hesitant to start buying from another digital source (no pun). The main drawback with digital distributors is that the customer needs to have a certain degree of trust before he starts investing. Steam has proven that they have the infrastructure and longlivety to serve your games 95% of the time.
I hope publishers won't give in to that pressure, since doing that would hurt everyone. Swapping steam for "retailer A's service" will hurt steam, since they don't get activations, the publisher, since people that don't want another download service will be hesitant and thus also the retailer itself.
The article also says that 2 major retailers want their own digital service... That would mean publishers would need to work with multiple systems, and retailer A won't support retailer B's system? sounds like it won't work out to me.


Also physical copies are mostly already obsolete, with most DRM requiring online auth or they have limited installs.

 

[hleV]

They're jealous because Valve has owned them by creating Steam.

 

[Prozac]

<3 steam. **** retailers, expecting me to leave my house. How do they DARE!

 

[Grega]

Also physical copies are mostly already obsolete, with most DRM requiring online auth or they have limited installs.

Yet i prefer to have a CD case + CD on my desk rather than some info stored on the net. And i hate that DRM that forces an online authentication. Its been proven to be crackable and does nothing more but annoy the people who legally bought the game

 

[Nemix]

Yet i prefer to have a CD case + CD on my desk rather than some info stored on the net. And i hate that DRM that forces an online authentication. Its been proven to be crackable and does nothing more but annoy the people who legally bought the game

But CD's get scratched and brake. And Steam is reliable.

 

[Tenzo]

I say it's good to have'em both if possible but seeing as the internet grows and gets better and better each day i guess Steam is great.
As for the article, i say they're just jealous that they didn't thought of it first.

 

[Brosiris]

I would rather have a digital download simply because having a physical copy takes up space. Problem is, my internet doesn't download very fast, so gigs upon gigs of information take ages to download, that's when having a physical copy comes in handy. Just my two cents.

 

[Damaera]

I may have misunderstood this article, but wouldn't this be even worse for the retailers? As in, even more people will buy these games off of Steam, which is what they don't want to happen?..

 

[Z Power]

I'm with Tenzo. I'd rather buy retail and then add the CD Key through steam then just plain ol' download. Although this is only for a select few games that would send shivers through me everytime i see the cover. ^_^

 

[dutchmeat]

Retail constribution is dying.
In this age, computers and networks have become advanced enough to do this digitaly.
Alot of gamedevelopers are discussing about the fact on how to distribute their games, and digital solutions like Steam are becoming more and more attractive because it's easy, and sometimes cheaper. (Although Steam is charging a large percentage on every game you want to sell).

Having that said, I might be interested to sell my future game(developing with my study) on a similar solution.
Developing your own distribution system(eg. own website with keys etc) is a time and resource intensive process.

 

[Grega]

Having that said, I might be interested to sell my future game(developing with my study) on a similar solution.
Developing your own distribution system(eg. own website with keys etc) is a time and resource intensive process.

You mean something like what Mount & Blade uses (or used back in the day)

 

[Mkilbride]

Steam takes a large percentage?

Uh, Steam publishes the game, promotes the game, allows you to use their content servers, provides you with 24/7 support, ect.

Every single Indie dev I've seen makes a post about how getting their game out there wouldn't be possible without Steam. Killing Floor / RO Devs said "Valve even offered us Staff to help us create the game, and work out bugs", ect. Valve gives you the full package if you choose Steamworks.

Mount & Blade was popular before it was a Steam title, but on the forums, the couple that made M&B said their sales shot up over 500% when it was released on Steam...

It's not like Valve is being greedy or trying to control everyone; it's just that Valve's Steam offers a array of services that are incredibly tempting to a Indie dev, almost crucial. Natural Selection 2 has gotten a lot of hype just from Valve, they make news posts about it on Steam, pop ups, ect, and Valve Engineers even offered them help with Unknown Worlds new Engine since they wanted it to be able to load Source content with a easy conversion. Natural Selection 2 wouldn't receive alot of press without Steam, especially because once it is released, Steam will have several pop ups, write ups, possibly deals and such...

Also, automatic updates for an Indie game...makes life alot easier for the player. Trust me, all those hotfixes Indie games have to release? Can you imagine if every player who bought it had to go searching through their forums every few days after release looking for a thread with the download link? Most would just say eff it.

 

[Grega]

Also, automatic updates for an Indie game...makes life alot easier for the player. Trust me, all those hotfixes Indie games have to release? Can you imagine if every player who bought it had to go searching through their forums every few days after release looking for a thread with the download link? Most would just say eff it.

Thgats what Desura is trying to accomplish now though. And free of charge if im not m isstaken.

 

[Prozac]

(Although Steam is charging a large percentage on every game you want to sell).

Please provide proof of this statement.

 

[Grega]

Not sure if its proof, due to the fact that its Valves own game, but

On STEAM the Orange box was round 24€, i bought it retail for 14€ no discounts, no nothing.

Hows that make sense.