GamersGate CEO: "We're Not Afraid of Steam"

[Danpascooch]

Reporter: Mr. Bergquist are you concerned about Steam?

Bergquist: No, not at all

Reporter: What is that smell!? MR. BERQQUIST DID YOU JUST SHIT IN YOUR PANTS!?

Bergquist: .......yes

 

[teh_gunslinger]

Advantages GamersGate has ofer Steam:
*no client
*no, oops, you're banned
*installation limits enforced by some games DRM are reset on request
*it periodically gives me free games to review
*tons of games on sale a heck-of-a-lot more often than any other service

Mind you, it does have disadvantages, I'm just too lazy to list them.

Another advantage to GG:

Pricing. A new game on Steam is almost always the same or more as the retail price. Why on Earth would I buy Shogun 2 on Steam when I can get it at a bit more than half the price at GG? And the GG version ties to Steam in any case. And if I preorder I get a 25% cashback. Steam is not good at pricing.

I have a couple of hundred Steam games, but as long as they don't fix the laughable pricing I'll never buy a new game from them.

I got Dead Space 2 for 30£ on GG. It's 50? on Steam. Go figure.

I generally like Steam, but I am glad for any competition. That means I use GamersGate, GoG and Impulse as well as Steam.

Edit: It seems the Hammerlegion is out in force here. Why are you all so worked up about a competitor? I welcome it, if it means, at some point, that Steam can fathom that 1$ is not the same as 1?. And get proper customer support.

 

[Danpascooch]

"To be honest, we're not afraid of Steam. We think they are peaking now while the market is still very hardcore,"

"The market is still very hardcore"? What the FUCK is that supposed to mean?

Seriously, how does the word "hardcore" have any relevance or bearing at ALL in that sentence? The guy is spouting complete nonsense.

I could understand if he said the market was still very "open" or "young" or "underdeveloped" but "hardcore"? It sounds like he heard a bunch of people talking about how the Wii abandoned hardcore gamers and thought "hey guys, I figured it out! If we sprinkle the word 'hardcore' over our sentences people will agree with us!"

 

[teh_gunslinger]

from their technical faq:

"NOTE: Internet connection is required for performing the installation process. Installation cannot be made manually. It is done automatically and it requires internet connection to be performed properly."

DRM fail. I will never buy any game that requires a phone home to install.

Doesn't it mostly mean that in order to install your digitally distributed game you do in fact need a means to get online to download it?

 

[Danpascooch]

Advantages GamersGate has ofer Steam:
*no client
*no, oops, you're banned
*installation limits enforced by some games DRM are reset on request
*it periodically gives me free games to review
*tons of games on sale a heck-of-a-lot more often than any other service

Mind you, it does have disadvantages, I'm just too lazy to list them.

Most of those advantages can be attributed to the fact that it's not as popular as Steam.

Think about it, even if they accidentally ban the same ratio of people, having less people means less get banned, since they are small they have the time to review each installation reset request, and because they are small every so often you get chosen for a review copy (these are just generic numbers, but imagine they give out 100 review copies, if they have 10000 people using the service you are MUCH more likely to get one than if 1000000 people use the service)

I'm just saying, if they become popular because of these advantages, I wouldn't be surprised if they disappear rather fast.

 

[Danpascooch]

The Steam client, with its integrated friends list, achievements and the like has obvious appeal to core gamers but may not ring the same bell with the mainstream market.

I take it he has never heard of that little 'hardcore' site called Facebook? Friend's List? Check. Achievements? "Betty Sue grew corn on her farm!" Yeah, check. Most people I know use Facebook to talk with their friends and play games together. Everything in Steam, like the friend's list, achievements and whatnot will just be a familiar comfort when they decide to jump on board.

Then there's Bergquist's swipe at Steam being an integrated place for games versus GamerGate's clientless downloads. There's a reason why Macs are aimed at people who are not tech savvy users: Everything in integrated and easy to use. Just like Steam. Steam does it all for you, from installation to auto updates. Hell, it even updates your graphics card's drivers if you want it to.

I think Bergquist is just shotting of at the mouth a bit too much. He's sounds like all the MMOs that have bitten the dust after calling themselves WoW killers. Right now it seems like Steam is W0W to their APB, regardless of their jump in sales (around the holidays at that. A man selling staplers on a street corner can see a jump in sales during the holidays).

Steam can update my graphics drivers?

FUCK YES! I hate updating drivers.

 

[RA92]

Even if they do manage to topple Steam somehow, Newell will still have his ace in spades: HL2E3. Because it'll only be compatible with Steam, everyone will rush to reinstall Valve's DRM system as Episode 3 topples all sales record in the history of everything with a sales record.

Kidding aside, does anyone remember how people used to absolutely hate Steam when it was launched? It was only Valve's titles that managed to set it up, not the service itself. Funny how that worked.

 

[Veloxe]

Even if they do manage to topple Steam somehow, Newell will still have his ace in spades: HL2E3. Because it'll only be compatible with Steam, everyone will rush to reinstall Valve's DRM system as Episode 3 topples all sales record in the history of everything with a sales record.

So that's why they haven't released it yet! It's their ace in the hole...clever bastards...

 

[Therumancer]

I think people tend to overlook the fact that Steam is not nessicarly going to remain static, it's fully capable of itself adapting to the competition just as much as they can try and adapt to it.

I have mixed opinions about Steam, but I for some reason suspect it's going to be a virtual monopoly, and if a lot more services start popping up, your going to see legal action on that grounds rather than Steam losing ground naturally.

I could be wrong about that, but it occurs to me that Steam has millions of users who have invested money, sometimes lots of it, due to those sales. It's easy to have all of your digital games in one place, and truthfully being established that way is going to mean a *LOT* in the long run. It's sort of like how Microsoft has dominated operating systems, not so much because it produces the best one in objective terms, but because it got so heavily entrenched so early. I have a hard time seeing Steam losing out if this does indeed become the focus of future game distribution without the intervention of outside forces.

 

[RoboGeek]

every time Ive bought something on gamersgame steam have come up less than a week later with a much cheaper price, the second time this happened gg actually lowered the price to compete with steam after i bought it. so i'm trying not to buy anything from there again

 

[RA92]

Even if they do manage to topple Steam somehow, Newell will still have his ace in spades: HL2E3. Because it'll only be compatible with Steam, everyone will rush to reinstall Valve's DRM system as Episode 3 topples all sales record in the history of everything with a sales record.

So that's why they haven't released it yet! It's their ace in the hole...clever bastards...

Quick! Everyone! Abandon Steam to initiate Newell's doomsday protocol! There is no other way!

Or... could it be... that... GamerGate's CEO is... the most powerful Half Life fan amongst us... and is trying to make Episode 3 happen by taking the initiation himself... at the great expense of his credibility...

How much more blood will you draw Newell?

 

[omicron1]

I have about twenty games on Gamer's Gate, and about 120 on Steam. Nonetheless, I'd prefer if both survived - Gamer's Gate has a lot of interesting niche titles - from Paradox, various European developers, and minor indies.

My view on the current largest distributors' positions are as follows:
* Steam is the mainstream, for big-budget games and bigger-budget indies.
* Direct2Drive is like a smaller version of Steam.
* Impulse is similar to Direct2Drive, although its catalog overlaps a bit with Gamer's Gate too.
* Gamer's Gate is mostly niche titles, with a heavy emphasis on Paradox and lesser-known indies.
* Good Old Games is for older titles, for the most part. A commercial abandonware site.

Of these, I'd say Direct2Drive and Impulse have the most to lose in the current DD conflict. They're pretty interchangeable, and not large enough or unique enough to have a truly indispensable presence. GOG.com and Steam are completely separate markets, and I don't see either of them disappearing any time soon. Gamer's Gate is sort of in the middle - not the best-known of portals, but it has unique content that none of the others offer.

 

[dryg]

With my Steam account worth about 1000? I'm not going to abandon it. Its also the only chat program I use other than Mumble, all my friends, both RL and internet are on Steam when their comp is on.

 

[Albino Boo]

With all due respect to Gamers gate they are not the threat to steam. Its things like apples apps store is the the source of danger to steam. Huge numbers of non gamers are now quite happily buying media free applications. Its short step from buying angry birds to buying the latest AAA title.

 

[Veloxe]

Even if they do manage to topple Steam somehow, Newell will still have his ace in spades: HL2E3. Because it'll only be compatible with Steam, everyone will rush to reinstall Valve's DRM system as Episode 3 topples all sales record in the history of everything with a sales record.

So that's why they haven't released it yet! It's their ace in the hole...clever bastards...

Quick! Everyone! Abandon Steam to initiate Newell's doomsday protocol! There is no other way!

Or... could it be... that... GamerGate's CEO is... the most powerful Half Life fan amongst us... and is trying to make Episode 3 happen by taking the initiation himself... at the great expense of his credibility...

How much more blood will you draw Newell?

We can only hope that it is released soon.

To hurt the one he loves so much must be maddening to the GamerGate's CEO. If indeed HL2E3 comes to pass, as prophecy foretells it shall, and it falls shorts, could he not them exert his newly found powers to wage war never ending upon his beloved?

Only to realize too late that his own actions, to force the release of the game before its time, doomed it to failure. Thus destroying what he held dearest.

This could lead to a modern day Greek tragedy if things go awry and the hands of fate prove heavy indeed.

 

[NLS]

"GamersGate saw a 72 percent jump in sales over the holidays, which Bergquist attributed in part to gamers seeing it as a "better alternative" to Steam."
And Steam didn't have an equal or even bigger jump in sales over the holidays? If everyone starts doing christmas sales, of course they'll also get jump in sales. But Steam still has a bigger marketshare for sure.
Also, a percentage doesn't do much without numbers. If Gamersgate's sales equal to let's say 3% of Steam's sales, that's still just 4-5% after the 72% jump. So having a "big" jump during the holidays is nothing really great compared to everyone else who is probably also making a lot of sales.

 

[katsumoto03]

The question is: How much does GG's founder weigh?

I kid, I kid...

But seriously, It's good to see Steam getting some "competition" (whenever GG decides to go and be awesome). Hopefully it'll do everyone some good, especially us consumers.

 

[Exort]

In the long run he is probably true. The biggest adventage of Steam is that it have a few years head start.

 

[locoartero]

Steam will always be the number 1, they were the first and committed to the PC when everyone else turned their backs on it in favour of consoles.

Exactly. Steam, to some degree, saved pc gaming. If it wasn't for Steam, there probably wouldn't be a PC market for GG to exploit.