[quote who="Stant123" reply="77" id="2809766"]...snip.... [/quote] I disagree. I will end this debate with something we can hopefully all agree on: Future if digital distribution of PC games will be interesting and nothing is certain.
[quote who="Stant123" reply="75" id="2809625"]I don't use Steam, but I am aware of it and the positives and negatives associated with it, so take these comments as they are, from someone who's a disinterested third party neither for, nor against it. Steam is the digital age version of Standard Oil. If you don't know what that is, it's one of the companies that is responsible for there being anti trust and monopoly laws, and one that was successfully sued usi
[quote who="konjad" reply="1" id="2809509"]And if you install this patch you can't continue your game from 1.0 version.[/quote] Only saves from Deluxe edition seems to be incompatible - hotfix for this problem is expected on monday or tuesday.
[quote who="Alstein" reply="71" id="2809292"]These sorts of posts are what got that thread locked. You guys should know better. As for the chargeback abuse, you're right that it's wrong. The question is- who should absorb the costs: Steam, or the purchasers on Steam? I have no issues with banning accounts from buying games, or banning cards. I do have issues with banning games legitimately paid for over a dispute on something els
[quote who="coreimpulse" reply="63" id="2809009"]They just relaunched windows marketplace this last week, didnt they? They're having some good sales right now.[/quote] Games for Windows Marketplace will be relaunched on November 15th. (at least based on 3 articles I read about it).
Back to topic (Steam and its competitors).... Looks like MS is going to relaunch its store soon - IMO too little and too late (and MS has nasty habbit that unless something start making money soon they either cancel it or stop development, so I dont expect their current push into PC gaming to last very long). What is your opinion?
It wasnt me who derailed this thread by spreading incorrect information :) - you can thank Alstein for that.... If you dont like threads created by me, you dont have to open them. 2 scratchthepitch: yes, your rant was just paranoid FUD.
[quote who="scratchthepitch" reply="53" id="2808653"]1. Accordingly to what I've read, steam was started by former microsoft guys. 2. Steam is pursuing a similar strategy as microsoft to garner a monopoly in their area of business. Start out cheap and "friendly" to reel in the suckers, then once you got them by the balls, start squeezing. I have no doubts that steam is a microsoft "front" company. 3. The downsides of steam have already been explained in grisly detail, the futu
[quote who="Alstein" reply="52" id="2808514"]The anticonsumer policies involve chargebacks, as well as no refunds for technical issues (which Stardock offers and should be standard- I believe gamersgate offers this also) Poor support- your 1 day is my 1-2 weeks on average unstable servers- Steam crashed when I wanted to play TF2 whenever there was a major update or big game came out. [/quote]</p
[quote who="Heavenfall" reply="49" id="2808118"]http://www.newrules.org/retail/news/walmart-charged-predatory-pricing (last among many)[/quote] And still nothing happened to them for it....
[quote who="Alstein" reply="47" id="2808078"]I'm not arguing Steam's quality, though I could. My main issue with Steam is that I dislike their anti-consumer policies, poor support, and unstable servers. I prefer Gamersgate and Impulse for those reasons I'm arguing that they are engaging in what is POTENTIALLY predatory, anti-competitive behavior. [/quote] What anticonsumer policies? No resale - not allowed in game licen
[quote who="Tridus" reply="42" id="2808051"] Vista sold poorly, and was overwhelmingly rejected by business customers. Microsoft in response hurried Windows 7 to market because customers demanded something better. MW2 outside of PC circles is pretty popular and I know people who consider it to be a better game then newer stuff like Medal of Honor. I don't understand why, but then I don't understand why absolute garbage like 'reality' TV is popular either. But there's a m
[quote who="the_hunger" reply="41" id="2808048"] Quoting Heavenfall, reply 39 As a consumer, the best thing you can do is purchase games elsewhere. As a consumer, the worst thing you can do is request that new games be available through Steam (unless you like paying higher prices). ^This. It always amazes me that there are so many people who actually want their games locked down with Steam DRM and tied to a single account that may one day not be accessibl
[quote who="Heavenfall" reply="39" id="2808019"]Impulse is not the only competitor to Steam, and the online market cannot possibly be seen as completely disconnected from retail sales. Obviously it's a smart move by Steam to take on Civ5, a game they know will see huge sales, without making a profit on it. We've seen this behavior from Steam before, where the goal is not to make a profit but to attract users for the Steam software (I believe the free Alien Swarm game was the latest
[quote who="Alstein" reply="36" id="2808003"] D2D selling the Steam games to me is not anti-proof but proof, because the only way they can sell anything on D2D that's Steamworks is to make it cheaper- which implies a competitive advantage. [/quote] When Impulse Reactor is released it will offer most of the features in Steamworks - also, remember that its developer/publisher who decide which service he wants to use - and nobody preven
[quote who="Alstein" reply="31" id="2807863"]Civ 5 not being on Impulse, a DD service that disproportionately favors strategy gamers, is a sign that Stardock had its profits impaired by the tie-in between Steam and Steamworks. The fact that Impulse is forced to cannabilze is the anti-competitive impact to me.[/quote] Given the fact that Impulse can still sell Civ5 and make profit, Steamworks isnt preventing Impulse from making profit, which IRL means
[quote who="Alstein" reply="28" id="2806773"] Quoting Rebell44, reply 26 Quoting Alstein, reply 24 Quoting ZehDon, reply 18The problem with Steamworks is that it requires the running of the Steam Store Client in order to authenticate. It doesn't make games exclusive to Steam, albeit this is happening due to publishing deals, it makes it unreasonable for other Digitial Services to sell them. \. And that is what the lawsuit would
[quote who="Alstein" reply="24" id="2806628"] Quoting ZehDon, reply 18The problem with Steamworks is that it requires the running of the Steam Store Client in order to authenticate. It doesn't make games exclusive to Steam, albeit this is happening due to publishing deals, it makes it unreasonable for other Digitial Services to sell them. \. And that is what the lawsuit would be asking for as a remedy- for those games to not mandate the Steam store or ma
[quote who="Frogboy" reply="23" id="2806623"]Steam's growth has been impressive. I am surprised no one has pointed out that Steam claimed to have over 20 million active accounts last year (which I believe) and yet states they had an over 100% growth in active users in the past year which, strictly speaking, is impossible (20 million to 30 million is far less than a 100% growth). Steam has definitely taken off. Impulse too has done well. Its revenue has gone up over
[quote who="VonVentrue" reply="9" id="2806064"]As it's been mentioned already, Steam being popular is not a problem. Games being exclusive to Steam are. What state is Impulse::Reactor currently in, both in terms of functionality and overall "interest" from third parties? It would be a shame if what seems to be the only viable alternative to Steamworks ended up being completely ignored.[/quote] IMO its not exclusive if D2D also sell Steamworks games. I would als
[quote who="Alstein" reply="7" id="2806050"]I think the arguement could be made that Steamworks DRM requiring the Steam store is anti-competitive. This would likely have more success in Europe. [/quote] IMO: I dont think so. Decision to use either Steamworks or other solution is made by publisher/developer and games without it can be sold via Steam (so decision not to use Steamworks doesnt cause any damage to developer - which mea
[quote who="4Nana" reply="5" id="2806005"] err... unless you're violating antitrust laws, then being successful is a crime. Also, any major lawsuit in todays legal environment is pretty hard for either side. Pretty much a moot point.[/quote] You should read those laws :) - having huge marketshare ISNT illegal (at least in EU and USA). Show me any recent (succesfull if possible) antitrust lawsuit which was based only on fa
[quote who="Alstein" reply="1" id="2805930"]I remember hearing something about a 1 million accounts. I'm not too worried about Impulse going out of business. Stardock has no reason to stop. What I am worried about is Valve muscling games away from Impulse, such as Civ V. I hope Brad knows some good anti-trust lawyers, I hope not, but I got a bad feeling he may need them in a few years. [/q
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-15-pachter-sets-record-straight-on-steam-trade-in Michael Pachter has insisted he has no idea what Valve plans to do with Steam after the Wedbush Securities analyst was reported as saying digital trade-ins were set to be introduced to the platform. On Wednesday an online re
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