245: Steam: A Monopoly In the Making

[Kojiro ftt]

This is totally different than the IE debacle, and frankly smacks of alarmist BS from someone who doesn't understand software very well. There is nothing about Steam that prevents other services from being used or that promotes anti-competitive practices. Developers can spend a minimal amount of effort to abstract away everything Steamworks does and easily swap in another service. This would make it possible for one game to be compatible with multiple communication and distribution services.

 

[AceDiamond]

It'd be the tiniest monopoly ever seeing as how computer game digital distribution is only 5% of the entire computer game market. While I admit the possibility is certainly there, Direct2Drive is still around, Impulse is still around, and so is GOG. Impulse and GOG, the other two digital content distribution formats I have experience with, have actually grown in the last year. I wouldn't say that Steam has intentionally been crippling the competition. Maybe making things more difficult, but that's the (somewhat unfortunate) nature of competition in a capitalist environment.

The other thing is that if Steam wanted to truly be a monopoly of digital distribution they'd have to do music sales too. Which they do not, but iTunes does and nobody ever complains about them being a monopoly, which is an interesting double standard I think (I can't really name any other online music sales format like iTunes). In fact Apple always seems to mysteriously get a free pass on being a monopoly despite them being even more proprietary and price-gouging than Mircosoft. Also more evil.

Anyway Steam has never done me any wrong personally so I can't find any fault with them or Valve for the service they offer. I know that for others it is not the same case but I've found the valid complaints to be far outweighed by completely outlandish ones.

 

[gendoikari]

Really, Intel was your best choice as a "good" monopoly? What, with all their business dealings in order to persuade/coerce vendors to stock Intel processors instead of AMD through big rebates, even during the time when Athlon XP easily handed Pentium 4 its ass on a silver platter? Then again, ATI/Nvidia were in a price fixing scandal a year or two ago so none of the three companies are clean.

Oh yeah, and one of the reasons I hate Steam is because you can't resell a game that uses Steam. Even if its a retail copy. For example, I bought Supreme Commander 2 retail 2 weeks ago, and promptly regretted it. Now, I can't give the game back due to using the Steam code. Wonderful.

 

[gendoikari]

Urk. Double post.

 

[Kojiro ftt]

Edit: Double post. Servers seem to be acting up.

 

[samsonguy920]

regardless the ethics and possible problems a round of applause to valve for perhaps grabbing what could be one of the biggest gaming money bags in its history. If the vast majority of PC gamers went steam wards valve would literally become the PC market and if there was anyway to replicate this in the console market one day then the skies the limit

Last time I checked, LIVE offers digital sales to the 360, and not just small games. So I am going to guess that you already got your wish. Happy birthday!

It does seem as though the market is heading towards a Steam based monopoly. While I like Steam and use it (very) regularly I do use Impulse as well. I feel it is a shame that it seems as though Steam (and Valve) will control this because in my opinion Impulse and Stardock provide an excellent service which is just as good. Although, as shown from the article, this does not apply to the publishing side of things but the fact that this is a deciding factor for digital downloads to everyday people seems unfair to Valve's competitors.

What the article is missing, and merely conjecturizing, is that Steam is out to control the market. Several Valve execs have openly expressed desire for competition. Perhaps Steamworks is offered freely to all developers and publishers. So what? It doesn't forbid them from also distributing to other digital services. Direct2Drive does offer many the same mainstream games that Steam does. I imagine so do others. As was mentioned in this thread, if anyone is keeping Steam at the top, it is the publishers. Try looking at it from their perspective. Direct2Drive doesn't distribute to certain countries, therefore limiting their sales area. D2D is also overdiscriminating in what they distribute. Why would you want to use them? Impulse barely has much exposure to the broader customer base. Why would you want to use them? Both of these handicaps can be overcome, which would help bring publishers to those distributors. And now we have Microsoft getting into the game with their store in Games for Windows LIVE. Though the only thing going for Microsoft there is they can throw money at that service to keep it alive. I don't expect them to put much effort into it to make it a feasible service for customers.

You do still also have EA's use of SecuROM as well, but these days that merely limits the installs. And unless you have to reformat your hard drives often(and if you do you should just get a new hard drive or quit surfing the pron sites with malware), that shouldn't even become an issue.

Limited install is retarded , something you can't use as much as you like is not yours; you've been had, it's a rental, not something you bought.
If the game is good enough to be played again and again in the following years, that limited install scheme will hurt .
Though you can say most games using this scheme don't have much replay value.

I agree that Steam is a trojan, I don't want it, I will do without ...
It is a buffet where you are forced to eat for the rest of your life if you go in, and that is definitely EVIL.

This pretty much is another illustration that Steam isn't a monopoly. You pretty much illustrated that you can go to another source for your games, without feeling restricted or oppressed. Thank you sir, and have a good gaming session.
However, your arguments about the limited install do not really apply to Steam. That is an argument for the games publishers that use that mentally handicapped concept. And since Steam already applies its own DRM to the games it distributes(which doesn't limit installs, or even requires 24/7 online access), anything the publishers insist on including is merely overkill and added insult to the customers.
Though I imagine it is possible to crack Steam and use it to pirate games, one would think there are easier and more clever methods than laying your pc open to being tracked by an online system.

 

[Legendsmith]

I just got gifted Dawn of War 2 over steam by a guy I've never seen in real life.
So I don't have anything bad to say about steam at the moment.

However, I do agree with the part about the current management retiring. There's nothing better than a good king and nothing worse than a bad one.
So far, VALVe has been a good king. Hopefully the next management will be just as awesome.

 

[silverxxx]

I really am not one to defend microsoft, but to call it an evil empire takes it a bit too far. I am sure the motivations of MS, intel or steam are exactly the same. Sure, it is a monopoly, and you have a point, but the are all the same, not one evil and one good. The perception is in your eyes.

 

[boholikeu]

While there definitely is the possibility for Valve to "go to the dark side", I have faith in them simply because it makes more business sense for them to "stay good". They, more than any other company in the industry, know that DRM and other such business practices only work in the PC market if you give the consumer equal benefits (say, offline modes, more convenience, etc). I have no doubt in my mind that if they suddenly went "Ubisoft" on us that you'd suddenly see a surge of Valve/Steamworks games being torrented...

One big problem: If a company can offer something that is better than all of it's competitors, and thus takes a huge chunk of the market - Is it actually fair to draw a line saying that the competitors must be entitled to a certain %?

This is an excellent point. Even if you consider Valve to have a monopoly on digital sales, I don't think that "automatically" makes them evil. They certainly deserve to be scrutinized a little more closely, but they pretty much got to where they are today by providing a good service and making people on both sides of the video game industry happy.

 

[the_carrot]

The main problem I think the other distribution platforms have is a lack of killer apps. Sure, Impulse does have Sins of a Solar Empire, Galactic Civilisations and Total Annihilation, but they aren't ever going to be as popular as a Left 4 Dead or a Counter Strike. Look at the sales charts: in both Steam and Impulse exclusives make an extremely strong showing.

Basically, what Stardock needs to do is to create (or buy out) a very, very popular game, and get them to require the Impulse client in some form. Which leads to the second problem: Stardock doesn't like making the client manitory for retail games. Whichis noble of them, but it also makes it less likely for the end user to install and use Impulse.

Right now, the only other distribution platform with access to such large, popular exclusives is Games for Windows Live, thus is most likely to become the Steam challenger. Which sucks.

[Edit] Scratch Total Annihilation from the list of Impulse exclusives, it's now on GamersGate.

They thought Demigod would be the exclusive that put them on the map. Didn't happen.

 

[Goremocker]

It's hard to read this as i love steam,but i do see every point in youre argument...I guess all we can really do is sit back and watch the show.I personaly don't care if steam becomes a monopoly,as long as they stay as user frindly as they are now.But if they do become a monopoly and,huge A-holes,I suspect that a new company will arise that everyone will go to,thus shifting 3rd party developers to use the new service...I hope...

 

[jdun]

American laws allow for monopoly. Monopolies are not illegal in the USA. Anti-Trust laws do not ban monopolies. Anti-Trust laws aren?t there to protect bad companies. Anti-Trust laws are there to protect the consumers. As long as the monopoly doesn?t hurt the consumer it will stay out of government view. In Steam case as long as it provides low prices that benefit the customer, the government will leave them alone.

Monopolies are given out everyday except for weekends. It?s called the patent office. Monopolies are in your utilities bills. How many power companies, garbage companies, water companies, etc can you chose from? One in most cases depending on where you live.

There are monopolies that just happen for one reason or another. Some market niches can only support one company because the consumer base is so small that there is no room for more then one company. Other monopolies comes from companies closing up until one is left. These companies close up for one reason or the other. Some from bad management or the market they are in can?t support them anymore.

Monopolies are not illegal in the USA.

 

[lorenzolio]

The author should have taken a broader approach. Cut the analogy to IE and Microsoft in half (I don't think it's very close to what Valve is doing) and add in comparison with digital distribution of other medaia. Hello?! Have you ever heard of music and movie distribution via iTunes? That is a much closer analogy to Steam. Take Steam, fastforward it five years and Boom! it looks like iTunes.
Otakucode and Whispering Death mentioned iTunes on this forum. Once you have a good chunk of users in your monopoly, you can dictate terms (pricing, DRM) even over publishers.

 

[ark123]

It works offline. My brother plays with my account when I'm not using it. It's DRM, but it's not draconian DRM, so I'm totally fine with it. Plus, you get to do shit like buying Team Fortress 2 for 5 bucks when those crazy sales happen. Steam is a monopoly because the competitors suck ass, they're not predatory and anti competition.

 

[Cheesezorz]

As long as Valve owns Steam, I am not worried.

 

[incal11]

I'm tired of people saying "offline mode, blablabla... and so yeah"
It still requires me to install a bloatware on my pc and Requires internet access at least once; that is too much for me, I respect only the publishers who put NO DRM at all (and won't give in to steam either).

 

[Byers]

The European version of Steam is basically a scam to get people to buy games at 200% the cost.

And people need to read the fine print and realize that Valve can terminate your Steam account at any time, for whatever reason they choose, and cause you to permanently lose your entire Steam game library, which could be worth thousands.

Then there's the pressure they put on publishers to snub other digital download platforms in favor of being Steam exclusive. (Hello Modern Warfare 2).

Steam is highly immoral and more detrimental to the gaming community in the long run than piracy is.

 

[The DSM]

Sweet. Is TF2 going to be like Mayfair?

Really, I think they have been the only good digital distributor for a long time, many of the other big ones ive heard of are very unreliable.