One of the things I routinely see on-line when they hear about something new about Impulse is someone commenting “I wish they’d all just consolidate under Steam.” In fact, as Impulse has become increasingly successful, the cry has gotten louder.
So strong is Steam’s fan base at this point that one of the most common comments about Impulse on third-party forums is the desire by some that it didn’t exist and that everything was just on Steam.
I admire Valve on two levels. First, I admire their excellence in what they make. I like companies that strive for the highest quality possible in what they produce. Second, I admire Valve’s business practices. They are incredibly effective, competent, and adaptive. In short, Valve is a fantastic company.
I’m a professional zealot. My tendency to get behind the best technology has led me to be, at various times, an OS/2 zealot, an OpenDoc zealot, and yes, even a Valve zealot (Source engine).
But I’ve also been around long enough to know that you don’t want one player calling all the shots. The companies we love today may not be so loved later on.
People routinely give me a hard time because I like Electronic Arts a lot. How is that possible? Because to me, when I think of Electronic Arts I think of Archon, MULE, Seven Cities of Gold, Starflight, and Summer Games.
When I was an OS/2 zealot, the up and coming star was Microsoft. Its fans helped ensure that Windows, not OS/2, became the standard OS. For many people today, it’s hard to imagine Microsoft as the fanboy favorite – the company that could do no wrong – the company that would never do anything “evil”.
Now, we live in an industry absolutely dominated by Microsoft and Electronic Arts. Its fanboys got their way. Is there anything wrong with that? You tell me.
Today, the pattern repeats itself. Steam is doing phenomenally well. It has fans that actively wish that competition would just go away in the name of “standards” (whatever that means).
And yet, even though Impulse is just an up-and-comer, the competition has already helped consumers. Before the “Impulse Weekend Buys” it was relatively rare to see regular organized major sales on Steam. Now we get them every weekend.
I would like to think that we’ve had some impact on people’s awareness that you don’t need nasty DRM to be successful.
I think Impulse’s focus on trying to encourage one price, worldwide in local currency right out of the gate has made some impact too.
I think Impulse's very fast download speeds have helped encourage competing services to keep increasing their bandwidth capacity.
At the very least, Impulse’s growing success, I think, is something most people can agree has been very beneficial to consumers.
Steam’s most successful venture yet, Steamworks, has helped Steam get an increasingly firmer hold on the market. In my opinion, Steamworks is 90% copy protection, 10% game-related features. I know that publishers are looking at Steamworks as a replacement to SecuROM for protecting games.
The problem is that Steamworks requires the user to have a Steam account and Steam installed to use it – even if you buy it at retail or through a third party like Direct2Drive. I think that’s the basic strategy for Steamworks -- give developers a bunch of “free” features that they used to have to pay for (copy protection, DRM, GameSpy type stuff) with the only catch is that the user has to become a Steam user and have Steam installed. As a result, something like Dawn of War 2, for instance, won’t be on Impulse.
Even with the case of Steamworks, competition has helped here too though, since Stardock is producing Impulse Reactor to compete with Steamworks. Impulse Reactor doesn’t require Impulse (the client) to even be installed to work.
Steamworks, obviously, has a head start and publishers have been following THQ’s lead by setting up with Steamworks even when it means they’re distributing a third party store with their game. After all, right now, Steam has the numbers.
Based on the #s I hear from publishers, Impulse, which has only been out for 6 months, has already become #2 in terms of actual units sold on a given title. But Steam still has a massive lead. Obviously, if we can’t even carry certain big name titles because they've hooked in Steamworks, the competitive trend will reverse.
And while some people might very much like seeing there be only one option, especially if that option comes from such a cool company like Valve, they may not be considering the long term ramifications.
For example, last weekend, Steam and Impulse both had sales on Titan Quest. Steam had it for $7.99, Impulse had it for $3.99. Neither I assume knew the other was going to have a sale on it. But that sort of competition is good for consumers.
Competition is good for consumers. It’s also good for companies. I’m a Steam user. I enjoy watching it evolve and improve over time. But I am also thankful that there are still alternatives to it. Because as much as people love Valve today, I still remember how much everyone loved EA and Microsoft in their day too. Competition keeps companies dynamic and consumer friendly.
Update:
Reading through the comments I see some people turning it into an Impulse vs. Steam discussion (i.e. Impulse rulez! No, Steam rockz!).
This isn't mean as a Steam vs. Impulse discussion. What it is supposed to be is to make people aware of the long history in which fans have rooted for the up-and-comer (whether it be EA in its day or Microsoft later and Google today) and how perceptions change when said companies dominate.
There are plenty of people out there that with that everything would just "standardize" on iPods and iTunes. And even as an iPod and iTunes user, I am glad there's Amazon.com selling MP3s.
For the record, I use Steam every day. I like it a lot. The question isn't which is better (right now, if I had to choose one client, I'd use Steam because of its superior community features and game library -- how many CEOs would say that publicly about the "competition"?). The objective is to remind users that competition is always a good thing even when you love a particular vendor (whether it be Valve, Stardock, whoever).
It's never a good idea to explicitly wish for a single source. Some people in the comments area have said "Of course no one wants a monopoly". But I can assure them that yes, there are lots of people and companies who would like just that because a single source is seen to streamline things.
We expect Impulse to exceed 1 million users before Demigod even ships. So suffice to say, it is doing well. It's nowhere near Steam's user base but then again, Impulse has only been out 6 months.
The point is, Impulse's existence and success shouldn't be seen as an "inconvenience" to consumers but rather as a way to ensure that consumers continue to have choices.
Steam and Impulse at a glance:
www.steampowered.com
www.impulsedriven.com
Related articles:
Stardock mentioned by name by the Michigan governor in the state of the State address
Impulse Phase 3 preview
Stardock prepares to open up second game studio
Stardock's Sins of a Solar Empire top selling PC strategy game of 2008
Completely, utterly, and totally wrong. Valve would get a cut of the profits. With Impulse, Stardock gets all of the profits.
Also, it would really annoy me, as I don't like Steam.
An example of how annoying I find Steam: Three weeks ago I took advantage of their $7.50 offer for Mount and Blade.
After two days, I tried everything I could to get the game off Steam- until I figure out you could download the game directly from them, and enter in the Steam Key, and it works.
If Impulse was willing to be aggressive, I'd suggest this idea, though it may not make business sense.
Go after Steam users by starting a policy of acception Steam ID Keys for games that are on both services- then let them gain brand loyalty by seeing the superior service. Maybe also consider a price match to Steam Sales (or even a price match+10%)
that's the kind of expression that leads to monopolies.
Internet Explorer has already won the browser war. I wish Firefox would go away. I don't want to have two web browsers on my computer.
do you think that argument would fly?
i wish AOL instant messenger would just give up. MS instant messenger has already won the im client war.
i've been using impulse since it first game out a half year ago and it's made huge progress since then. what has steam done since then? nothing. The only way the steam client is going to get better is if there's competition.
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Steam isn't bad. Steam is good. For the sake of argument, let's say Steam is 10X better than Impulse in every way. Would users be better served if only Steam existed?I have a confession to make: I have never purchased a PC that had an AMD CPU in it. But you know what? I'm really glad AMD makes CPUs. I don't wish that it was only Intel.
Absolutely, Impulse's existence is a good thing for consumers, I said as much in the first paragraph of my original post. But don't you think that some lessons can be learned from the complaints people are making? What if 2 or 3 more companies enter the competition, noone is going to want 5 different sales/distribution apps installed on their machine that service different games they have bought that they have to boot up to check for updates etc.
How about Impulse has an 'On Start Up' mini app that checks if there are updates, informs the user if there is and then closes and cleans up if there isn't? I'd still open the app when I'm interested in seeing what the store has to offer. If you add cummunity type features are they going to require Impulse to always be loaded in memory for it to work? Because that's one thing I dislike about Steam, I'd prefer a minimal Community application that I can open seperately and would open when I start a Steam game. If I get an Impulse program with community/friends features aswell and then possibly others it's totally undesirable and not good for consumers. The competition is good, the concept that we should all use multiple of these platforms isn't.
People wish there was only Steam because they don't want to install and run multiple of these vendor/digital distribution platforms, that is the "inconvenience". I think you can address that by making Impulse less intrusive _and_ provide the features Steam does. It wouldn't be long before Impulse is considered the better product by users as it's less needy. And with higher customer installations you are obviously going to get more games companies interested.
Do you also becry Xbox Live? What about Quazal? Gamespy? Battle.net? They're all online services that provide a unified profile across several different games - Steamworks simply provides more functions than most of them (Achievements, a feature it shares with Live is one example).
Wrong analogy - Browsers are all different ways to access the same content. Steam, Impulse, GamersGate and whatever other Download service you want to name are all different clients to access different content - with significant, but not complete, overlap. That is the issue - if every client was simply a different way to access the same game purchases/downloads noone would have a problem with it.
You might want to check this thread https://forums.elementalgame.com/339314 ...
Don't worry Zubaz, kryo, Yarlen, and Zoomba are all infinitely more fun to torment than you, anyway!
I do not wish for a DD monopoly. It's good to have a reason to improve.
What I wish is a monopoly of player over the game he bought and own. When I buy a game I shouldn't have to worry about which software I'll have to install to playing it, how often and how fast it'll get update, compatibility issue with retail or other DD title (for istance Overlord on Steam can't run the expansion Rising Hell, many games can't use mods due to Steam's modded executable, and so on).
A player should be able to download a game from wherever he wants, even if bought elsewhere. We can complain that a DD services has cost so this cant be done but I think that this should be an agreement between publishers and DD providers. In that way if a player feel more likely to make use of the game he bought from a particulary DD provider instead of another, that's other DD providers' fault. Maybe this will put a lot of stress on that provider but with that will come good publicity and in long term that could became a common thing. Being able to switch from a DD to another with no pain would give player the power to no be the weak part in the agreement between a player and who provide the services. If a service start to became bad, rot, not improving, it shouldn't tie a player to itself only because other ways he cant play with the games HE bought. Competition is GOOD but it's nothing if there's no way to change and redeem our property. Feeling that the player could leave anytime with still the right to own his games it's the only way to make provider to keep improving.
I'm more worried about Google's activities than if Steam can fall to the dark side. That said, diversity is good. The competition prevents monopoly (i'm supposing that it doesn't end in oligopoly), incentives new strategies and benefits greatly the customers.
In this moment i would choose Impulse over Steam any day. And the future seems quite interesting. Yet, Steam isn't a bad thing and surely it's faaaaaar better than traditional DRM schemes. A pity DoWII uses it tough... I would have loved to have it in Impulse too.
This thread is so pointless. Frogboy, its pretty clear you have already made up your mind. Theres not even a point to ask a question unless your going to be open about the responces instead of trying to direct responces one way or another. Go ahead with Impulse, you have a great company, a great business model and i'll deffinitely be a customer. However if you prefer to have your games reach a wider audience, one that doesnt have the chance to fail (many things can easily fail in these troubling times), and be able to focus entirely on your products rather than their delivery method choose steam
I think the question was a bit rhetorical.
I still feel burned over the support I recieved for Steam. Three times I sent emails asking for help, three times I received emails stating that they were glad my problem was resolved.
I'm very glad that Impulse exists. I'm glad that it has a loyal fanbase of people who enjoy using it. I look forward to the competition between it and Steam.
What I'm not thrilled about is that GalCiv2 and Sins of a Solar Empire are not available on Steam. How is this different than every publisher having their own client and only allowing digital copies to be bought from there? That is very bad for consumers.
I don't want 6 different clients cluttering up my machine. This is a big concern I have about Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2: are they only going to be available in digital form from some blizzard app, or are they going to publish them on Steam or Impulse or Direct2Drive or GameTap?
Even in your example you claim the benefits of competition in your example that TitanQuest was available for 2 different prices at 2 different stores. Wouldn't it be nice for consumers if the same could be said for GalCiv2 and Sins?
It's horrible business sense to give your competitor a slice of your profits.
Actually, I think Skellt has a point. Until and unless Impulse Reactor has "can't-live-wiithout" features, thereby making it the go-to digital distribution app, why not make games available through as many outlets as possible? After all, a sale is a sale.
Get Blizzard games into Impulse and you can have my first born!!
But at least more people would see you're game and thus have the possability to buy it. A slice of your profits is always more money than no sale and thus no profit.
Another odd detail Frogboy, I've mentioned this elsewhere (on Impulse's forums I think) but the screenshot you have in the OP stirred up a thought I had. World of Goo is at version 1.30 and from the response I got from SeaBass was that the version thru Impulse was the latest (1.3) from 2DBoy, but currently the version shown in Impulse is 1.00 since there was no determination on version # in the game.
.......
There's just too much wrong with this, so I'll just stick to one point: You act like they don't sell physical copies for games anymore. Failure of a product will have very little to do with it's digital distribution method.
I would imagine those games becoming available on Steam around the same time Half Life 2 / Left 4 Dead become available on Impulse.
(ie. it works both ways, and neither is likely to arrange for their direct competitors to get a cut of their profits)
I find it rather interesting that Steam fanboys complain that Sins of a Solar Empire and Demigod and GalCiv and other Stardock games aren't on Steam but don't complain that Valve forces people to get its games off of Steam.
A user can buy Sins of a Solar Empire at the store and never mess with Impulse if they don't want. A user who buys Left4Dead at the store is forced to become a Steam user.
I do think Half Life 2 and the Orange Box and Left 4 Dead should be available on Impulse. You'd have install Steam anyway to play it, but it still should be the case. Look, I don't want to have to drive to Walmart to buy my Blizzard games but then trek all the way over to Best Buy to get my EA games. The same is true in the online world.
I also wouldn't be opposed to the price being slightly higher at the competition store. That way even though your competitor gets a slice of the profits, you don't have to forfeit your full percentage.
It just sounds hollow to say that competition is good for the consumer but then only sell your product from a single source. I'm a consumer, I know what's good for me and having multiple sources that each carry the same games is the top of line when it comes to goodness.
This is another interesting point, and I think one of the things that will be really different with the Phase 3 Impulse Reactor versus Steam-enabled games/apps. I remember being a bit shocked that I had to register my copy of SiN Episodes: Emergence with Steam instead of just popping the DVD in the drive and installing.
From the narrative in the Impulse update post, it appears that physical distribution of games could occur with the game using just a .dll or two to do a "phone home" check (to add the user and registration code to Stardock's database) during installation without the need even for the Impulse client to be installed on the user's system at all.
It actually is already. We'll gladly do that, but the onus is on the publishers to provide us the needed info to validate cd-keys from retail or other DD systems. So far none have taken us up on the offer.
So I read the OP update edit just now and I think it draws a good distinction. It doesn't matter how good one service is compared to the other, as long as there is more than one service. Steam right now is the Giant and Impulse is Jack...
It doesn't really matter where Steam and Impulse stand now, though, because online retailers will boom and bust far faster than most of us think. Youtube is 4 years old this month, for example, and Wikipedia is 8 years old, but many of us have trouble remembering a world without them. Killer apps quickly take over and move through to becoming "the way it is." (When did searching the web become "googling?")
So toward making Impulse the "killer app"
- give users vindication and expression outside of and parallel to the games. Tournaments are an ancient way to do this, social networking is becoming deeper and more integrated, but look at User apps, replays, mods, music, games, videos, machinima, fanfic, and input. What would supporting these look like?
1. A section for each of the above in Impulse with user reviews and cross-referencing by game
2. Easy access to mods in multiplayer game lobbies - if someone else is playing with it you should be able to see and download quickly and without closing the client.
3. An integrated video player
4. User-made games and applications which must meet criteria a la iPhone apps and which are free or cheap to download
5. integrated tool suites for editing and modding files, maps, videos, and games
6. Regular developer recognition and reward of the very best of the above
Many of these things are way too ambitious, but they point toward an application that would transcend DLL and become the default. Build this app and Steam will be knocking on your door, wanting a couple of tickets to the party.
That's a big step in the right direction
As the word monopoly has been raised a few times, let's take a look at the issue from an anti-trust point of view. Obviously there are only two significant players offering digital downloads Stardock & Valve, one being significanly larger than the order.
The first question we need to answer is wether the digital download market can be identified as a separate market. As an analogous example, the x86 market can be defined as a separate market from the CPU market, because a vendor making an ARM cpu cannot compete with Intel x86 cpu's. I am not convinced that digital downloads at this time form a separate market from the game market, I think a retail-only vendor can compete with digital platforms like Steam & Impulse. Therefore we cannot speak of a monopoly as Valve still faces plenty of competition.
But suppose digital downloads are a separate market. Then we need to idenify a dominant player. As Steam is much larger than the other player it can be considered dominant.
If Valve is a dominant player in a market, then it has to refrain from uncompetitive behaviour. For example wether it treats games from other publishers fair compared to its own games. There are some issues here, because I'm sure Valve advertises their own titles prominently. But all in all, I don't think there is any major abuse at this time.
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