Let me get this out of the way: I like Steam. I like Valve.
We have a poll up right now that asks whether you use Steam. Let us know please.
I’ve been in digital distribution since before digital distribution was a thing. The very first computer game that was launched at retail and digitally distributed was Galactic Civilizations back in February 2003.
For us, digital distribution was a matter of life or death. Consider this, how many other independent (or heck, just non-publicly traded) game studios have been around 20 years? Go ahead. Count them up. Not many eh?
I incorporated Stardock back in 1993 from my college dorm room. And I can tell you, if it weren’t for digital distribution, we would have stopped making games a long time ago. That’s because the more people that are between you and your customer, the more opportunities there are for theft. Not by players but by retailers, publishers, distributors, etc.
One of the reasons why the whole “piracy” bellowing from publishers irritated me was because the biggest obstacle to getting paid for my work wasn’t from pirates. It was from the middle men.
In 1994, we released our first game. Galactic Civilizations for OS/2. It was published by a company called Advanced Idea Machines. The game was a huge hit. So I heard anyway. We didn’t get paid. And being a poor college student at the time, I couldn’t afford a lawyer.
So in 1996, we released Galactic Civilizations 2 for OS/2. This time we released it ourselves. But our retail distributor, Micro Central, went bankrupt and didn’t pay us and our mail order distributor, Blue Orchards went out of business as well and didn’t pay us.
So then we moved to Windows and we released Galactic Civilizations for Windows, published by Strategy First….and again, didn’t get paid.
Do you see a pattern here?
What saved us was digital distribution. With it, we could sell directly to customers, cutting out the middle man.
As you can imagine, when Steam came out we started to get a little nervous. Not because of the competition but because we feared the idea that we would one day need to sell our software through a third party and hence risk not getting paid…again.
As it had turned out, our fears have been unwarranted. Impulse, now owned by Gamestop, pays like clock work and so does Steam. By contrast, with a retail distributor you were lucky to get paid merely 90 days late. And that’s not counting the obnoxious and expensive RMA games they play. I like the service Steam provides. They’re easy to work with, they’re honest, and they’re passionate about what they do. And most importantly, they let me, as a game developer, focus on what matters: making games.
Anyway, the point here being, what are your feelings on Steam these days?
Valve taking pictures of me? Paying for a Steam account? Good to see the anti-Steam arguments haven't changed over the years.
What if all of a sudden it was found out that handling DVD's gave you a skin disease? And what if it was discovered that by using Steam your manhood would grow by 10%? You'd be happy you used Steam then!
Well since we are using fantasy arguments why not?
Strange that people know how to manually patch games, find online servers etc. and yet can't work out basic Steam functions. Maybe there 1992 computers that barely run Steam just aren't up to scratch. Hell even my web browser uses more resources than Steam.
Exactly my arguments for not using steam. And having to be locked on to play some of the games at all is simply annoying. Impulse/Gamestop is fine and accessible from around the world. GOG is also my favourite in digital distribution.
I hate the fact European Steam users have to pay more for the exactly same digital copy than American.
I dislike forced Internet connection. Yet again, in real life, it has prevent me from playing only once.
I think Steam has become a little too big player and blocks innovation and competition.
I buy games from Steam all the time, it's convenient and works well.
Did you try deleting Steam then reinstalling it. A currupted DDL is not Steams fault. Remember any program can get corrupted and it does not mean that program is bad.
Basically these days we have one organization controlling everyone's access to gaming. At what point do they start flexing those muscles, and how likely is it that it will be good for the industry? It's the Steam way or the high way.
I just got one hell of a deal last night from Steam. The King Arthur Bundle which included all the DLC's for the game plus King Arthur 2 all for only $12.50. Now that is probalbly the best deal I have gotten out of Steam so far. But the other deals I have gotten were good to.
Love my Steam..
+1 Steam.
I get annoyed when games AREN'T steam nowadays. Its just the easiest way to shop for games and it keeps everything nice and updated patch wise. I have alot of games and it would be impossible to track the patch status without steam.
Steam is great.
Publish FA Beta on Steam like Endless Space & Krater does.
I for one HATE Steam. Or at least I did until I read your reasoning for distributing via Steam.
Let me explain. I have piss poor country internet. On a good day I get 70kbps, so having to log on to Steam to play a game I bought a DVD for and took 2 days to download updates for. That really irks me.
With that said, I don't typically complain about it unless I am asked my opinion, I just avoid Steam games when possible. It seems more unlikely these days to find a non-digital distribution.
In the end I digress. Its all about great games, and Stardock is making some of the best fan friendly games out there. Perhaps in the next 5 years our internet will improve and it will be a moot point.
-Terry
I loved Impulse and love Steam, and steam is always the first place I look for games. It offers me many services I value, particularly not having to have 50 different accounts for everything and being able to view my library at a glance.
Honestly if a game isn't on Impulse or Steam there is a 99% chance I will not buy it. In the past 3 years I have probably bought 100-150 games on Impulse and Steam, I have bought 3 that were not (SC2, D3, and Distant Worlds).
Steam is an excellent middleman application between publishers and gamers - and how it performs for gamers is impacted on a case by case basis by publisher demands.
It takes an exceptional game -like Elemental: War of Magic -for me to consider stepping off of Steam to acquire a game these days. (Despite the balance challenges, Elemental was awesome.)
It's possible that a publisher's requirements will force me to avoid purchasing their games even if they are on steam. For instance, the Steam/Galactic Civilizations 2 requirement of a Stardock account is why I don't have it yet. I've been too bloody lazy to link this account with it.
Do I think Steam will be around forever? Nope.
Will I lose my games when that happens? Yes. (eventually)
Do the games I bought in 1992 work on my current PC? Nope.
Do I have a floppy drive to install them? Nope.
Do all download services have the same problem? Yes.
Getting 8 track players is hard these days... that doesn't mean it wasn't a good way to enjoy music at the time.
-Do I like having my games available online in one convenient place? Yes-Have I been unable to play my favorite games because I ruined the disks, but they were old enough that it wasn't worth it/not possible to replace them? Yes-Do I trust these guys? Hell no.They are no better then Facebook or Linked-in for compiling pieces of personal information and selling it. You should be affraid that a potential employer will one day be able to put the pieces of the jig saw puzzle through the personal info traders and see your logged hours in a game service and not hire you.Where am I going with this?I really think you could have done something better with Impulse then feed it to Gamestop.You should have modeled it as a toolkit for resale to studios to do their own service, because really, we are headed this way anyways.The big players are pretty much forcing you into their versions of Steam / Impulse anyways, so ultimately we are still headed into the annoyance of competing game services on the desktop. The only problem is these services will be controlled by jerk face mega corps.Ultimately, it would have been nice if every studio could have their own "Impulse Lite" modeled to be as non-intrusive and non-obnoxious as possible. I guess the ultimate design of this toolkit would be more of a "web dongle" then full blown game store service.
Steam is the savior of PCgaming and for that, I'm grateful.
I LOVE its social features with friends list, achievements, easy printscreens and the communitytab so I can see what my Steamfriends are up to (who they added as a friend, what achievements they got and what games they bought).
Gaming is more fun with Steam
Obviously voted: Yes, and I like it!
I like Steam for all the reasons mentioned.
What I don't like about Steam is the bizarre offline mode. I have to go online to turn offline mode on, then restart Steam in offline mode. What if the connection is out and I can't get online to go into offline mode? I haven't figured out the logic behind that one yet.
I discovered Steam through a web-based ad several years ago. I use it, and I buy quite a few games from them. It can be annoying when , as Elexis, stated there is no Internet access available. I drive a truck for a living and often find myself with terrible Internet connections or worse none available. This is even with a cellular modem for my laptop. As a rule I have found that if Steam needs to update either itself or one or more games (or programs) it will refuse to launch at all. Once it updates it will work just fine online or offline.
That said, I prefer GoG and Impulse over Steam. I have also bought a couple of games from Direct2Drive (now Gamespy) and two from Amazon via download. I bought a couple from Atari directly and would not advise that to anyone else do to install limitations. Amazon also imposes install limitations. In both cases I believe it is 3 times to the same or different machines. Origin seems to be pretty much EA games only since EA bought it.
My prefence list in order is
1) Buy the retail box regular or Collector's Edition
2) GoG
3) Impulse/Gamestop
4) Steam
5) Direct2Drive/Gamespy
6) Any other service
Steam has to be a way to go further on, others too. The only reason I still havent preordered FE is that I can't be bothered taking track where to download what, and easse of install. I change PCs on biyearly basis, and have 3 travelling laptops for different purposes. I love gaming, and with all the other hassle, really dont have time to switch around and download games every other month on other PC I presently use.
I would pay extra $ for steam without a hiccup.
So, WHEN in Earth are you going to let it go to STEAM?
Whoever doesn't want to, doesn't have to go there, I will for one.
EDIT: Oh, yes, after checking E3 reports, Im preordering Rebellion instantly. MTF, what you did there is awsomeness pureblind!!!!
agreed,
why can't I pay in US$, its cheaper that way?
So now it will be Steam's fault that you don't get a job, is there anything that Steam can't be blamed for?
since the advent of the DSL and digital distribution I haven't bought a single DVD, digital distribution has made my life a lot easier
Steam has great offers and a vast choice, even many Indie games
the Steam client is well thought and easy to use
I hate their "update every two days" policy, often I have only half an hour to play, I don't like spending it waiting for steam to update - these updates are often to block multiplayers from exploiting weaknesses, never play online, why should I suffer
I'm always wary when a company becomes too big, like Steam nowadays, after some years of buying almost exclusively from Steam I find myself more and more looking for other providers
always preferred Impulse on Steam, however they don't have the rights to sell every game in Europe - because of these same publishers rights that make a game more expensive on this side of the Atlantic, we are dumb consumers and they know it
I hope Stardock will pursue their independent career creating and distributing games
I have two computers that I use for gaming: desktop and laptop.
I probably rebuild/replace my computers once a year.
I own a ton of video games.
Steam makes it easy to manage the reinstalls and no more hunting for the DVD/game keys.
The sales are awesome and the client is pretty good these days (in the beginning, I hated everything about it).
Now having said all that, I still prefer gog.com, which does a lot of the same things as steam except without the client and without any DRM...
Some business advice (I'm always late to the party).
I cant believe what it would take to even get that many replies to your question, so your doing good with the fan base.
Coca-Cola was a small start-up when it started selling to our stores. I'm younger than that generation, but I have seen the transformation in the last 10 years.
I dont know how this advice translates into your situation, but the building up of a business (steam), can, and in my experience often leads to you having nothing the vendor wants or needs. Once they get big enough they have nothing to offer you.
We went from having great pricing on a full 12 skids of Coke (that's a full semi-truck with skids stacked 6' high), too having crap pricing, and 3 or 4 cases ordered through a call center in Guatemala. All of that happened in 10 years.
We went from ordering 50k/yr to about 3k. Nothing was our fault. We still had the customer demand. It was only a corporate decision, and it screwed us. Now we can order it cheaper through vendors other than Coke. How nuts is that?
The moral (wish I knew how old you where) is that you need a fallback plan. Do not put all your eggs in one basket.
I dont love and dont hate steam. The offline cap sucks, but if you want to make a stink to them about it, now is the time. Don't wait until they get too big to care about you.
(how bored am I to write that on a Saturday?)
Guys, I want to say that I love gog.com, but comparing what they are to steam isn't exactly the same thing. No, gog doesn't have a client or DRM...but they also sell really old ass games for the most part and have a small library. It's not a fair comparison, no matter what you want to compare.
Dear Stardock,
i´ve been waiting for something like MoM for near 20 years.
Elemental showed some promising elements, but wasn´t complete. Fallen enchantress seems really good.
So i wait patiently.
Gal CivII and with it Stardock have impressed me by direct retail, customer friendly thinking first.
Unlike hordes of other companys u guys have earned my trust.
I liked impulse and because of my trust in stardock, i wasn´t to sceptic about the change to gamesstop.
That said: i would rather pay an extra 10,- to get the game in impulse, than let steam corrupt my system (that i don´t want to reinstall every 6-12 months).
Let anyone have, what he wants: Sell it on steam, works for a lot of people just fine.
But P L E A S E: Let me get it online, direct, without steam on impulse.
Btw: I´m really old, like newspaper instead of web 2.0.
This is my first post in maybe 3 years.
And now Steam corrupts your system!
So a round up of why Steam is evil:-
It corrupts perfectly good systems
It will stop you from getting a job
It will start to take photos of you to check it is you that is playing
It forces you to play Lord of the rings Online... Online
It will steal all of your games without any warning
It will attach electrodes to your gonads (ok this one hasn't been mentioned yet, but I am sure it soon will be)
Gamefly has restored most of their back catalog (sadly not everything, but) so you might check again.
They did irritate me as well with that move, admittedly.
Personally I buy from Steam, Origin, or Impulse. Pretty much in that order. Though I prefer buying from EA, they don't have the catalog.
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