The Digital Distribution Wars Are On Again

[Shamus Young]

The Digital Distribution Wars Are On Again

Digital distribution for PC games has been here for some time, but there are some new players. Shamus rates the contenders.

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[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

My first experience with Galaxy was just now, downloading the pre-load for the Witcher 3. Apart from an atrocious download speed (between half and a fifth of my download speed on Steam and Origin) that I chalk up to a sudden increase in demand and beta servers, the interface was intuitive enough for anyone who's used Steam and the whole thing seems to leave a rather small footprint. Could be something, especially if it means something better than the current GoG downloader...

 

[Bedinsis]

One regard that Steam and GOG fails at is the usage of regional currency. I mean, yes, I can technically copy-and-paste the price and find out what the price is in Swedish krona. Alternatively Steam and GOG could do that for me, displaying the price in my local currency directly.

I mention that since both GamersGate and Origin does so, despite that the price doesn't end with that neat 99 that gives them a larger income.

 

[Irridium]

And fun fact with Uplay, though I'm not sure if it's a problem affecting only me, is that when you try to open the steam overlay in-game the game hangs for a good five minutes before automatically closing the overlay and going back to the game. Makes the steam overlay useless. But the uPlay one works of course! Even though it's a lot slower and clunkier!

 

[Scars Unseen]

One regard that Steam and GOG fails at is the usage of regional currency. I mean, yes, I can technically copy-and-paste the price and find out what the price is in Swedish krona. Alternatively Steam and GOG could do that for me, displaying the price in my local currency directly.

I mention that since both GamersGate and Origin does so, despite that the price doesn't end with that neat 99 that gives them a larger income.

On the other hand, Steam and GOG don't force me to use the language of my physical region like Origin does. I don't read Japanese, so I have to use a VPN just to browse their store.

 

[Xman490]

I remember when I gave Uplay a chance with Driver: San Francisco on PC. It's was always-online, but I didn't mind. Then Uplay went offline for the entirety of December 2012. I have not bought a Ubisoft game on PC since then, and I only bought 2 on console.

Has the service completely failed that much recently? I might get Far Cry 4 on PC if Uplay isn't total garbage.

 

[Absolutionis]

You mention that Origin "launched" three years ago, but that's simply when they re-re-rebranded the unpopular EA Downloader from way back in 2005. Steam itself has gone through several UI overhauls since then; if they had simply changed the name, would that constitute a completely new release?

 

[Olas]

GamersGate sure has an unfortunate name.

I just wish there was some way to transfer games from one distribution platform to another. I don't like having my "library" scattered across half a dozen different programs, which need to be separately installed, each of which requires a separate account/password. It seems like these platforms try to sell themselves on convenience, but they're only convenient if you stick to one of them.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

If I start enthusiastically giving my money to GoG and supporting their new platform will CD Projekt stop making games?











[sub][sub][sub][sub]Edit: To clarify, this is a jab at Valve, not CD Projekt[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[Jeteye]

And fun fact with Uplay, though I'm not sure if it's a problem affecting only me, is that when you try to open the steam overlay in-game the game hangs for a good five minutes before automatically closing the overlay and going back to the game. Makes the steam overlay useless. But the uPlay one works of course! Even though it's a lot slower and clunkier!

I've had this exact problem as well. Especially in Far Cry 3. It's beyond annoying. To make things worse I can't even play my uPlay games right now. If I try to launch something like Far Cry 3 I have to wait for uPlay to update before I can play my game. However uPlay crashing during the update process and I'm now trapped in a loop. It even crashing during the uninstall process and won't go away. It's like a virus that won't go away.

 

[theSovietConnection]

And fun fact with Uplay, though I'm not sure if it's a problem affecting only me, is that when you try to open the steam overlay in-game the game hangs for a good five minutes before automatically closing the overlay and going back to the game. Makes the steam overlay useless. But the uPlay one works of course! Even though it's a lot slower and clunkier!

Hmm, which game/s does this happen with? Anno 2070 (which I'll get back to in a minute) and Rocksmith 2014 don't cause any issues for me.

Back to Anno 2070, that will always be my biggest point of contention with UPlay: it took me two years after buying the damn game before I could even play it, and UBi's recommendation involved poking around with router settings I'd rather not touch, because last time I did it took me three days to get my internet working over it again.

As for Steam, I'm in full agreement here. Steam needs the competition for people to readily flock to in order to keep them from putting any truly shitty practices into place. Origin is a bit of an odd case for me. While I haven't downloaded any games since my internet service package was upgraded on it yet, on my old package, Origin would routinely and easily at least double the download speeds I'd get from Steam. I'm in the beta for Galaxy, and I'm hoping it might be the real competitive force we need in the digital market to keep Steam under control.

 

[Irridium]

And fun fact with Uplay, though I'm not sure if it's a problem affecting only me, is that when you try to open the steam overlay in-game the game hangs for a good five minutes before automatically closing the overlay and going back to the game. Makes the steam overlay useless. But the uPlay one works of course! Even though it's a lot slower and clunkier!

Hmm, which game/s does this happen with? Anno 2070 (which I'll get back to in a minute) and Rocksmith 2014 don't cause any issues for me.

Far Cry 3, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, Assassin's Creed 4, and Assassin's Creed 3. Basically the only Ubi games I have on PC. It's really annoying.

 

[Grimh]

Aah Uplay, it rendered AC: Black Flag unplayable for me once, forcing me to redownload the whole thing on my not that great for big files connection. But I got it down eventually and could go back to playing, too bad it deleted my 40 hour save file.

I'm actually glad GoG Galaxy has come out. I'm too used to clients (that aren't Uplay) at this point. I like having all my games ordered in lists for easy access. It also makes patching more effortless. I even don't not like Origin.

 

[Rad Party God]

Personally I don't worry too much, I'm one of those daring ones who searches for a crack* if the game can be played without Origin, also for the ones that still use shitty DRM on Steam like Dead Space 2 or anything that used GFWL, I'm not ashamed to say that I actively looked for a crack for that game, also for Crysis Warhead and Dirt 2.

[small]*I know I'm threading that fine line between piracy and legit stuff, I don't care, to me, looking for a crack for a game I already own is not piracy, but whatever.[/small]

 

[bificommander]

While I do buy at GamersGate, I think it's fair to mention that most of the non-indies (and some of the indies) you buy there give you a steam-key and nothing else. So it's not much of an alternative to Steam's monopoly, just an alternative outlet with different sales.

 

[Gretha Unterberg]

we need something for our game libary what trinity was for aim,icq,yahoo - messenger.

Especially heavy users can easily loose track of what they own where.

 

[Tiamat666]

I prefer getting a game from GoG rather than from Steam, with or without Galaxy, also because of lack of DRM. But mainly because GoG really walks that extra mile for you by providing all sorts of easily downloadable extras that might interest you; manuals, maps, soundtracks, design documents... in that regard it's a better service than Steam.

 

[Doom972]

I wouldn't say that it's much of a war. Both Steam and GOG have large loyal customer bases, and the rest are fighting over the small market share that's left.

EDIT: I just realized that there was no mention of the Humble Store. They're pretty good and should be mentioned.

 

[Darkness665]

Well said. I love the Uplay icon means, "Get the console version". Conveys the situation perfectly.

 

[grigjd3]

Well, this accurately describes how I feel about the platforms. I use Steam because I've already got a huge library with them. I use Origin to play Mass Effect. I use gog for older games but I generally like what they are doing. The thing is, there haven't been many games out lately that I'm interested in. It feels like one lame nostalgia-based rip-off after another these days.