(Im posting this in the forums since I can't post it like an article in the blog section.)
I remember the old days of gaming. That long gone era called 2008. Back when games were provided with their own custom installers, and were self-contained products that installed themselves separatedly on the computer you instaleld them. I like to call this era the "Installshield Era" of gaming. Back when game media only contained asset and binaries, and a registration window, when dialog box wizards ruled the gaming land, and when there weren't any remote validation hooks attached to executables. That is why, with increasing concern, I am watching nowadays the way our most amazing form of entertainment is rearranging itself, how market forces and anti-consumer tendencies are beggining to shape the new landscape of gaming, at the expense of the average gamer.
Big game releases nowadays are abandoning these old, anticuated components such as autorun main menus, install wizards, or dedicated servers, and have moved to the all encapsulating remote delivery methods of popular DRM schemes, such as Steam. By itself, Steam is convenient, fast if you have good internet connection, and easy to deploy. Many games were released in normal "retail" form, and were offered in Steam's store shortly after. Those instances however, are nowadays mostly the case with PC only releases from eastern european studios it seems. Steam's "next step" in gaming convenience is anything but that, and could mark the beggining of a new mandatory requirement for gaming in the future. More and more games are now announcing their complete deployment based around Valve's new Steamworks framework, touted as the "least intrusive" DRM scheme, "convenient" to gaemers and publishers alike, which takes care of formerly manual tasks like patching. They claim it isn't intrusive when compared to the likes of Securom or Tages. But I would like to point out that it is more than that. It's not only indeed intrusive, it's THE most intrusive DRM scheme to come along yet. The game is not at all installed or even located completely in your computer when you realize it. At least Securom installed itself after it let the installer copy YOUR game to YOUR hard drive. Steamworks' remote always-on cloud network remotely controls one of ITS game's installation, patching, running. When you start the game, you send a signal to the autenticathion servers situatied remotely from your location, and the order is sent back before you are able to game. You are asked for an authorization each time to play the games you paid a hefty premium to be allowed some few hours of playimte. It's the arcade coin-up model. We've gone back full circle, to the arcade machins of old times. It may as well place a coin slot in your computer. It's like trying the games you paid for thru a remote terminal. A service that, much like an arcade place, can close up in after hours, or at the discretion of their owners. The access to the games you are allowed to try remotely can be switched off at any moment without any explanation from the providers, and you are effectively out. Cloud based gaming, and software as a service don't look like a good idea afterall under these terms.
"Blah blah, who cares, I don't have to deal with DVDs anymore!" Maybe this is really making mountains out of molehills. Steam does have it's merits, which mostly come from giving smaller indie developers a storefront to showcase their creations without needing a traditional expensive distribution contract. Companies like Tripwire and 2d boy have been the most vocal about their praise for steam, with Tripwire saying they wouldn't be around without Steam. This piece is not an anti-steam call to arms, it's just an informational soundbyte, just to express concern about the trend Steamworks is creating, which isn't 100% in reality as advertised in the package. A steamworks game instantly becomes a steam exclusive game. That situation could become the beggining of a monopoly. Maybe this is a good time for competitors to shine.
what a joke
edit: double post
I think Gamestop is failing with Impulse right now- Impulse is actually inferior in terms of sales/content/focus to what it was when Stardock had it.
They needed to make a splash on the transition day, but the pool was empty.
I'm hoping Stardock moves to SDC when the exclusivity period is up so I can ignore Impulse in the future- it's just becoming a waste of time.
I don't see that at all. The sales haven't really changed. There's been some good ones, and some not so good ones. Just like before. All that's changed is that now it doesn't have Stardock fans pushing it online, and nobody else much cared to begin with because Steam's game selection is so much better.
The idea of going back to SDC at this point is pretty absurd, Impulse was created entirely because SDC wasn't up to snuff when it came to pushing out games. Going back to it would just cut off Stardock stuff to an even larger segment of people then not having it on Steam does.
Looks like even Paradox will now be using Steamworks
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?569096-CK2-Price/page5
[QUOTE=Johan;13067826]Yes. The boxes will need steam to activate and run.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I saw that announcement a couple weeks ago. I immediately dropped all plans to purchase Crusader Kings 2 as a result. It's a pity; I was so looking forward to that game....
It's a dark day for gamers for everywhere.
Fixed
Most PC gamers dont have a problem with Steam.
You have an interesting definition of "most".
You can easily find polls on big PC HW/gaming sites - I saw quite a few such polls and in almost all cases 90+% of users vote that they dont see Steam as a problem.
What do you think will happen to all of Steams great deals once they have driven all the other competitors out of business.
If all the games start requiring Steam, then there is no reason to buy the game from any place other than Steam. Once the competition is gone, no reason to have the sales.
sorry I'll pass. I can't help it if most PC gamers can't think past the end of their nose.
Valve promote those sales as a way to maximalize revenue for developer/publisher - for example http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/693342/live-blog-dice-2009-keynote-gabe-newell-valve-software/
Yep, and that will last until...
.... because suddenly developers would want less profit ???? Thats absurd - sales maximalize amount of money spent by gamers, and both Valve (Steam) and publishers that have games on Steam have interest in maximalizing amount of money spent by players.
And frankly lets me honest, what real competition do they have? Gamestop/Impulse and GamersGate? Neither of which are all that big in market share. Steam already *owns* the digital sales market, they could stop doing sales right now if they wanted to since they don't have any real competition to speak of. And they certainly don't do sales just because, they do them in coordination of the publishers of said games. Without the publishers/developers there would be no sales.
Sales will continue because as in *every* consumer market out there, discounts equals bigger sales and more profit.
Plus think about it, most of the super 75% off sales like the summer and winter sales are for games that are well past "end of life" at this point. Thus selling any copies is good because they aren't selling at all any more. That and indies which need the exposure for future sales. Take Defense Grid for example. I got it at 75% off in the summer sales, I think it was $6 or so for the game and all DLC's. They just released a new DLC which I purchased Day 1 at full price. So the super sale in the summer got me to buy something from them again at full price.
Wow, this thread is still going good. While I agree that Steam is not a monopoly yet, although it is the biggest DD provider, I dont think will continue to be the digital market owner in the coming years. I think Steam rivals have begun, in the ways of the new appstore that opened this recent years. Windows 8 will have its own appstore, won´t it? It´ll be somewhat similar to the mac appstore, which is increasing its game offerings.
Then there is the Great Gift Pile holiday event. All I did was check my Steam inventory and I got a free game as a gift...Portal 2!
Also completed the level of Orc Must Die and I'll get another gift shortly. Sweeeeet!
I hate to say it but the industry still needs an alternative to Steamworks. Impulse::Reactor was designed to be such an alternative but GME is in the process of integrating it into their infrastructure which has delayed it.
But if I'm a developer and I want something that will keep track of wins/losses, ladders, match making, etc. What exactly am I supposed to do?
That isn't a rhetorical question. With Demigod we had to roll our own system and it nearly killed us and was a disaster at launch. So in response, was made Impulse::Reactor so that we would never, ever have to go through that nightmare again. But we don't have that now obviously and there is no way we're going to roll our own ever again.
So what will your future games use if GameStop manage to screw up Impulse Reactor (or if they dont release it at all)?
I'm not sure. That's the thing, people rail about Steamworks without presenting an alternative.
One of the things I regularly said (in this thread I think) is that Steamworks IS VERY GOOD and that the industry needs to provide alternatives.
Impulse::Reactor certainly has the capability to be an alternative but it has to be released to developers first.
For example, we have Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion in development. We (Stardock and Ironclad) want the multiplayer to be compelling (lots of stats, match making, leaderboards, achievements, in game chat, voice over IP) basic stuff these days. If we choose Steamworks, you'll see a riot. But what would those users demand we use instead?
I see a lot of angst but I don't see a lot of viable solutions.
I see it same way - competition have to offer decent alternative and when competition fails to do that, its perfectly OK that Steamworks is now almost standart.
Good example is GFWL - when it started, they had significant opportunity to take on Steamworks, but because they didnt improve GFWL (and didnt fix all those bugs and design problems) its now dead service.
I work with Oracle databases. If you want serious, heavy duty databases with lots of options and the best there currently is, you are stuck with Oracle. Despite hard work and valiant efforts, when push comes to shove, Oracle is the database you rely on.
I've talked to folks who made comments along the lines of "but its so expensive, why do you use it? use something else." Same problem as with steam... list me the viable alternatives with the same amount of reliability and options.
Valve knows they have a headstart, and they will do their damnest to keep it.
Well, I believe Paradox was thinking about trying to compete, but gave up. Crusader Kings II is going to be Steamworks DRM I believe.
I really see only two ways competition will happen
a) A big publisher tries to compete directly with Steam in order to keep their profits, and manages to do it right and properly resourced, or
antitrust suit and a judge breaks up Steam into competing companies. This is unlikely , but not impossible, especially since I see trustbusting becoming trendy again in a decade or so.
1. Yes, they will use Steamworks, but they wont use any DRM, so you will be able to play CK2 without running Steam. Steam will be needed for patches and installations.
2. maybe
3a. As I mentioned before, antitrust lawsuit agains Valve/Steam would by very very hard (IMO impossible) to win, because when competing service is either run by incompetent idiots (GFWL) or isnt released (Impulse rReactor) its not Steamworks fault that competition is losing. Antitrust laws are designed to punish companies when they abuse their dominant/monopoly position, not for offering better service.
3b. Only penalties currently given to companies for breaking any law (including antitrust laws) is that company has to pay XX millions $.
Well, when looking at the PC market you'd almost have to at least think about the European Unions anti trust laws (the EU PC gaming market is bigger than the US PC gaming market). One thing to consider here if Valve is using their market power in one area to get hold of another area (combining drm (that's given to developers for free) and steams frontend might be considered as some kind of abuse of market power to gain a strong stand in another area).
With Microsoft it was about giving away the Internet Explorer for free with each Windows Installation, therefore using their market power in operating systems to promote their own browser which ended in Microsoft paying a billion dollar fine and selling operating systems that forced you to "choose" a browser before going online.
€: So if youre a developer and you're using a specific DRM solution from a competitor of Steam and would not be allowed to sell the game on Steam because of this DRM solution (so far I think Valve had allowed this, as some games did require a Games for Windows Live account) then there might be quite a chance of winning an antitrust lawsuit at least in the EU.
1. Based on my understanding of EU antitrust law, that is nonsense.
2. IE being free was never problem for EU - EU just wanted MS to include in initial install and let user chose. MS was given chance to avoid any penalty, but they ignored EU demands for 2 years and so they had to pay penalty.
3. Valve/Steam let developers/publishers decide such things, so this theorectical problrm is moot. Also, Valve almost never give specific reaon why game wasnt approved for distribution via Steam, so proving anything would be hard (and lawsuit could easily cause that such publisher would never get on Steam again).
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