The Age of Steam

[John Funk]

The Age of Steam

Edge Online has an interesting feature up about Valve's Steam service - how an experiment by a small PC game development house turned into the massive digital distribution service it is today.

At a whopping 6 pages, the article [http://www.edge-online.com/magazine/the-age-steam?page=0%2C0] is a fairly long read, but it's also pretty interesting. The history of Steam is a long one, and it's fascinating to look at how the service grew along with Valve, turning a small PC developer into a publisher with server farms in Greenland, of all places.

It's also a nifty look behind the scenes at Valve, shedding light on some of the thought processes behind the evolution of Steam and its myriad of services:

[blockquote]Digital distribution was inevitable,‭ ‬and Newell isn't surprised that it was a developer rather than a publisher that provided the most successful platform:‭ "‬Take UI.‭ ‬That's what games are.‭ ‬Figuring out how to expose a media library is not that different to the challenge an MMO has about helping people figure out which armour [sic] they should wear.‭"[/blockquote]

For all the success stories on Steam - Darwinia and Audiosurf among others - and the great strides that the service has made in combating piracy and making games more easily updated after launch, the service isn't perfect, and Newell & Co. know it. The digital distribution platform is becoming increasingly fragmented as others want a piece of the pie, and when it comes down to it, it's understandable that many developers and publishers are wary about handing a competitor the keys to their games - and their customers.

If you've got the time and the patience, though "The Age of Steam" is a pretty fascinating read. A good way to kill 20-30 minutes on a dreary Monday morning, if nothing else.

(Edge Online [http://www.edge-online.com/magazine/the-age-steam?page=0%2C5])

Permalink

 

[Abedeus]

Why didn't you mention that EU market gets not ignored, but screwed over by Valve?

How else could we call prices at least 30% higher than in US?

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Why didn't you mention that EU market gets not ignored, but screwed over by Valve?

How else could we call prices at least 30% higher than in US?

I agree with this man/woman/intergalactic alien.

 

[Corpse XxX]

Why didn't you mention that EU market gets not ignored, but screwed over by Valve?

How else could we call prices at least 30% higher than in US?

I agree with this man/woman/intergalactic alien.

You forgot shemale!

Steam is great, but they aint beeing fair to us europeans with their prizes.. But still cheaper than the local shop though..

 

[Abedeus]

Why didn't you mention that EU market gets not ignored, but screwed over by Valve?

How else could we call prices at least 30% higher than in US?

I agree with this man/woman/intergalactic alien.

You forgot shemale!

Steam is great, but they aint beeing fair to us europeans with their prizes.. But still cheaper than the local shop though..

Steam - Mass Effect, 45 EUR x 4.7 = 212 PLN.
Local shop - Mass Effect, 75 PLN.

You were saying?

 

[Skrapt]

Why didn't you mention that EU market gets not ignored, but screwed over by Valve?

How else could we call prices at least 30% higher than in US?

I agree with this man/woman/intergalactic alien.

You forgot shemale!

Steam is great, but they aint beeing fair to us europeans with their prizes.. But still cheaper than the local shop though..

Steam - Mass Effect, 45 EUR x 4.7 = 212 PLN.
Local shop - Mass Effect, 75 PLN.

You were saying?

Europe always gets screwed in comparison to US prices on electronic products anyway, although I agree that Steam atm is way too expensive - £40 for Empires when it's available at Amazon for £23? I thought digital distribution was meant to remove transport and store costs to LOWER prices, not increase them. Although I guess serving all the content directly takes a lot of bandwidth and horsepower - I seriously think Steam would be much better off with a P2P content delivery system so instead of getting choked up on a game release/patch day everyone would be up to date swiftly.

That said I still make most of my game purchases over Steam (when the price is atleast semi-reasonable), the ease of access to games is really handy for me and since I seem to be cursed when it comes to keeping discs unscathed being able to download all the data again is really handy.

 

[John Funk]

Why didn't you mention that EU market gets not ignored, but screwed over by Valve?

How else could we call prices at least 30% higher than in US?

Karmic balancing for the prescription medicine pricing difference.

 

[shadow skill]

And yet Steam is made using techniques that expect the people using the program to have infinite hard drive space, despite there being well defined methods of making programs that do not implicitly expect this. I am not pleased at all that I had to break my existing partition scheme because the creators of the Steam client were lazy/asleep when they made the thing.

 

[scarbunny]

Im also not sure what strides have been taken against piracy?

I know of a several cracked Steam clients that allow you to download the whole Steam catalouge from their own servers.

Also in my experiance it dosnt work, especially if you buy a physical copy of a game that requires Steam to play. I bought SIN:Episodes when I didnt have an internet connection and was unable to play the bloody game as Steam couldnt verify!

 

[Skrapt]

Im also not sure what strides have been taken against piracy?

I know of a several cracked Steam clients that allow you to download the whole Steam catalouge from their own servers.

I think they mean that in comparison to many other games, on average those using steam are pirated much less often. I actually think it's rather interesting that when consumers are presented with an out dated business model (such as current state of music industry with CD's/online availability) and have the alternative of piracy they are very willing to make the jump but when presented with a service that provides a convenient service with extras the pirate trackers can't that consumers are willing to pay (for example with Steam and iTunes/7 Digital).

 

[Corpse XxX]

Why didn't you mention that EU market gets not ignored, but screwed over by Valve?

How else could we call prices at least 30% higher than in US?

I agree with this man/woman/intergalactic alien.

You forgot shemale!

Steam is great, but they aint beeing fair to us europeans with their prizes.. But still cheaper than the local shop though..

Steam - Mass Effect, 45 EUR x 4.7 = 212 PLN.
Local shop - Mass Effect, 75 PLN.


You were saying?

You are obviously not from Norway, games in local shop cost 75 euros..

 

[Art Axiv]

Why didn't you mention that EU market gets not ignored, but screwed over by Valve?

How else could we call prices at least 30% higher than in US?

I agree with this man/woman/intergalactic alien.

You forgot shemale!

Steam is great, but they aint beeing fair to us europeans with their prizes.. But still cheaper than the local shop though..

Steam - Mass Effect, 45 EUR x 4.7 = 212 PLN.
Local shop - Mass Effect, 75 PLN.


You were saying?

You are obviously not from Norway, games in local shop cost 75 euros..

He obviously is from Poland. And speaks the truth.

 

[scarbunny]

Im also not sure what strides have been taken against piracy?

I know of a several cracked Steam clients that allow you to download the whole Steam catalouge from their own servers.

I think they mean that in comparison to many other games, on average those using steam are pirated much less often. I actually think it's rather interesting that when consumers are presented with an out dated business model (such as current state of music industry with CD's/online availability) and have the alternative of piracy they are very willing to make the jump but when presented with a service that provides a convenient service with extras the pirate trackers can't that consumers are willing to pay (for example with Steam and iTunes/7 Digital).

I agree that piracy on Steam is no where near as common, mainly as its easier to do it via other means.

Ive never used Steam for longer than the time taken to realise it stopped me playing the game I had legaly purchased, so Im not sure what extras it offers over pitate copies? The same for iTunes/7 Digital as well.

 

[Virgil]

Why didn't you mention that EU market gets not ignored, but screwed over by Valve? How else could we call prices at least 30% higher than in US?

You're on a different continent, with a different currency, taxes, and byzantine legal system. Don't expect everything to be the same just because there's only one internet. These are the same reasons we can rarely run international contests. Is it "fair"? Probably not, but neither is life.

Steam - Mass Effect, 45 EUR x 4.7 = 212 PLN.
Local shop - Mass Effect, 75 PLN.

You were saying?

Valve doesn't determine the prices of anything that isn't their own product. The prices on Steam are set by the game publisher. That complaint is probably better directed towards EA.

 

[Abedeus]

Why didn't you mention that EU market gets not ignored, but screwed over by Valve? How else could we call prices at least 30% higher than in US?

You're on a different continent, with a different currency, taxes, and byzantine legal system. Don't expect everything to be the same just because there's only one internet. These are the same reasons we can rarely run international contests. Is it "fair"? Probably not, but neither is life.

Steam - Mass Effect, 45 EUR x 4.7 = 212 PLN.
Local shop - Mass Effect, 75 PLN.

You were saying?

Valve doesn't determine the prices of anything that isn't their own product. The prices on Steam are set by the game publisher. That complaint is probably better directed towards EA.

Okay, but then explain to me - why MMO games have $15, 12-13 EUR and 9-10 GBP as their payment options? Why they just don't set 15 for everything? Answer - because they don't want to appear as money-grabbing morons with no business sense. Valve, by raising prices FOR NO REASON (except for greed) has made thousands of EU clients stop buying on Steam.

Another thing is, like you noticed, different continent and different CURRENCY in different COUNTIES different TAXES. I don't expect them to be the same. They should be fair, they should cost just as much as normal products in the country I live in. Some countries don't have tax on digital purchases? Well, to hell with that, you have to pay VAT on Steam. Some countries don't use EUR? Well to hell with you, you still have to pay in EUR.

Also, why UK is being treated differently? Why they don't pay in EUR? They are on the same continent (technically), they count as Europe, yet they get treated much better. They have their own prices, based on their currency and their normal retail offers.

About second thing - lie. They do determine the prices. The official developer might not agree to those prices, but other than that, they can set even 100 EUR for every game. That's why some of the games had their prices lowered, for example, instead of being 9 EUR, they are now 6 EUR (I think it's even a bit less than in US). Don't remember, which game it was, but I think it was THQ's.

Guess why they get a Weekend Deal every week? It's not because the developer is setting those prices 50% lower than normally. It's because THEY set those prices so low.

I mean, if not for the fact that they screw us over, I would've bought UT3 for 12 EUR. Because it's barely less than what I could get in a retail shop. But this just means games on Steam are 40% more expensive for no reason.

 

[Skrapt]

I agree that piracy on Steam is no where near as common, mainly as its easier to do it via other means.

Ive never used Steam for longer than the time taken to realise it stopped me playing the game I had legaly purchased, so Im not sure what extras it offers over pitate copies? The same for iTunes/7 Digital as well.

For the majority of consumers Steam is easy to use, and offers no restrictions of much consequence (Steam is happy to let me have access to all my games even when I'm nowhere near anywhere with internet access) and offers social networking/group features which pirate games don't. And although I'm personally not a fan of iTunes it has a huge back catalog and offers seamless integration with any iPod products, and 7 Digital offers DRM free and no limit on the no. of downloads or from which location.

All in all, the 3 services I mention offer more then Pirate sites (except for the price of course), I simply think that consumers are shifting to a mindset where they believe they are paying for what we call 'extras', i.e. the social networking, software integration, and limitless access and see the core product of almost no value. As piracy nets you the core product which many are happy with, but enough consumers are happy to pay for the extra content.

It's basically the TV subscription scenario, if TV is free but ad supported the majority of consumers will be happy with it, offer an extra service where you pay a monthly subscription to remove the ads and enable extra features, there will be a healthy consumer base for you.

Also, why UK is being treated differently? Why they don't pay in EUR? They are on the same continent (technically), they count as Europe, yet they get treated much better. They have their own prices, based on their currency and their normal retail offers.

We are still getting royally screwed by Steam prices, just take my earlier example Empires costs £40 on Steam for the basic version, from Amazon it costs £25 and you still get the same service from Steam. This example is true for all mainstream games, the only fair prices we get are on indie titles.

 

[oliveira8]

Steam - Mass Effect, 45 EUR x 4.7 = 212 PLN.
Local shop - Mass Effect, 75 PLN.

You were saying?

Valve doesn't determine the prices of anything that isn't their own product. The prices on Steam are set by the game publisher. That complaint is probably better directed towards EA.

The thing is that Valve decided that 1?=1$, games used to be cheaper and one day when you got from home BOOM! they were more expensive.

 

[Zerbye]

Anybody here familiar with the UT3 Free Weekend offered through Steam? Sounded like a great deal, but it didn't work out so well due to connection issues/slow download speeds/ended Sunday at 6pm EST/etc. If you want to see a bunch of angry people, check out the Steam forums.

 

[Quick Ben]

Why didn't you mention that EU market gets not ignored, but screwed over by Valve?

How else could we call prices at least 30% higher than in US?

I agree with this man/woman/intergalactic alien.

You forgot shemale!

Steam is great, but they aint beeing fair to us europeans with their prizes.. But still cheaper than the local shop though..

Steam - Mass Effect, 45 EUR x 4.7 = 212 PLN.
Local shop - Mass Effect, 75 PLN.


You were saying?

You are obviously not from Norway, games in local shop cost 75 euros..

Well I am from Norway, and I wonder: Where the hell do you live, where games are 75 euros (674 NKR) at the local store? Steam is for PC games, which cost 45-55 euros (400-500 NKR) new at my local store.

That is about the same as Steam ATM, but Steam shouldn't have any VAT for us (no VAT on digitally distributed software,) but it does anyway...

 

[CanadianWolverine]

Guess why they get a Weekend Deal every week? It's not because the developer is setting those prices 50% lower than normally. It's because THEY set those prices so low.

While I am in no way going to dispute that prices vary from country to country (I pay more than an American customer because my Canadian (CDN) dollars have to be exchanged for American (USD) dollars before I can purchase a game on Steam and with the current exchange rate that means I pay more), this quote is false.

I assume the "they" in this stands for Steam & Valve. This is incorrect, the other publishers have to sign a contract with Steam to have their game on Steam services and not all games have in their contract that there can be special deals on them. Those special deal weekends you see? Those were carefully negotiated with the content providers. Early on with Steam, the only games that had special deals were exclusively Valve games and this was probably so they could prove to the other publishers that offering deals on their service would increase sales of that game.

I just had a very similar conversation about Steam with regards to Mass Effect and how it doesn't have the automatic patches to the game - you still have to go to somewhere else, prove you purchased the game, and manually do it. And a few days before that a conversation about how another EA game was very slow and didn't finish to download. In both these cases it was because the publisher of that game was deciding how much they would support that game on Steam, with regards to content servers. And with that in mind, you think the publisher doesn't control the price on Steam as well?

Also, keep in mind that in the world of banking, Steam has to strike a deal with someone to manage the finances of those purchases and different banks around the world provide those services. If you want prices in your local country, ask yourself if any of your banks offer the kinds of services to provide for Steam account purchases and if the your country has laws and taxes that are favourable to Steam doing business there with said banks. I know I would welcome not having to do a currency exchange to purchase a game on Steam, here is hoping they could strike a deal with one of our Canadian banks.