GameStop Eyeballs Steam's Milkshake

[Midnight Crossroads]

It's like EA is doing everything they can to shoot themselves in the foot trying to push this on the PC. They take it away Steam and give it to Gamestop. Next, they'll probably announce a monthly subscription and tell us they're still using Punk Buster.

 

[poppabaggins]

I don't agree that employees should ONLY be treated well when it makes economic sense.

Well then you shouldn't run any extremely profitable chain. And employees are being treated well, it's just that they're not used to anything but the mollycoddling they get at school and at home. Society is being filled with a bunch of softies who balk at the idea of actually having to WORK when they go to work. People don't get minimum-wage jobs for how cushy they are, you know.

More OT: I still think it's a shame that Stardock sold off Impulse. I always liked how they ran things. And there are two things they always had better than Steam: blazingly fast download speed (I once reached 2.1megs/sec) and the fact that you didn't have to have the client open to play games (which is only a problem with Steam when it refuses to start offline).

 

[Epona]

I don't think GS has a snowball's chance in getting even a fraction of what their expected revenue is for this new service. Steam isn't just some distribution service, it's also a community. A way to talk to friends and play together. For GS to even even crack that they're going to have to enter a market that Steam, Xfire, and the new Raptr already have a very firm grip on with some thing never done before.

Steam also has insane sales, like grandma eating silly string to get super powers kind of insane. Just a few days ago they sold the entire Sims 3 collection for $80, all that usually costs $230! I bought Portal 2 for 30 bucks! You think GS is going to have those kind of sales, hell to the motha fuckin no.

Steam also has the ability to install your games on multiple computers, just as long as the game is attached to our account. You think GS is going to do that, hell to the motha fuckin no, they'll probably charge a fee extra computers. And doesn't this whole digital distribution goes against GS's whole pawn shop business model?

Do you think most Steam users use the community features? I don't.

 

[Epona]

I don't agree that employees should ONLY be treated well when it makes economic sense.

Well then you shouldn't run any extremely profitable chain. And employees are being treated well, it's just that they're not used to anything but the mollycoddling they get at school and at home. Society is being filled with a bunch of softies who balk at the idea of actually having to WORK when they go to work. People don't get minimum-wage jobs for how cushy they are, you know.

More OT: I still think it's a shame that Stardock sold off Impulse. I always liked how they ran things. And there are two things they always had better than Steam: blazingly fast download speed (I once reached 2.1megs/sec) and the fact that you didn't have to have the client open to play games (which is only a problem with Steam when it refuses to start offline).

So treating employees well = business failure?

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Wow...

Even if I WAS interested in this game, I would just bypass all this nonsense and buy a hard copy on Amazon. I shall resist this whole digital distribution thing for as long as is humanly possible. When I pay with money, I wish to actually own something for my troubles.

 

[Internet Kraken]

From a gamer's perspective I still don't see the big deal about buying games from one digital platform instead of another. It's not like I have to drive farther for one than for another; they're all right there in front of me.

It bugs me becuase I don't like having to juggle multiple applications and profiles just to play my games. I'd rather keep things simple by just using Steam. Gamestop can do whatever they want, I won't care though. Steam will still probably have the best prices and that's ultimately what matters most to me.

 

[poppabaggins]

So treating employees well = business failure?

Are you reading a damn thing past my first sentence of every post? Mollycoddling minimum-wage employees will make them think they can get away with working less. They're already getting paid too much for doing something bullshit easy. So, no treating employees well does not equal business failure (which I never even wrote, that was your own invention), but it will hurt the bottom line. And sometimes, all it takes is for you to not do quite as well as your competitors for you to go under. Now you have a bunch of unemployed people instead of people who don't get regular manicures everyday at work.

And PLEASE read this sentence: Employees ARE being treated well. The United States has a full string of laws dedicated to making sure that employees can't be shat upon. People are just bitching that their minimum wage jobs aren't the greatest thing in the world.

FURTHERMORE: Treating your employees well can be crucial if you have people with actual skills that you need to keep around.

 

[samsonguy920]

I await the time when EA screws GameStop on this because of the slightest bit of license infraction. And I will laugh.
You can have your Battlefield 3. I will keep my Steam with my Terraria and other 50 games.

Why Gamestop?! You were one of the good ones...

Since when was Gamestop one of "the good ones"?

Since they were the biggest player in the used market that keeps physical media alive. Digital Distribution will lead to higher prices because shelf space is not an issue. Shelf space is why games go to the clearance bin. Also, there is no used market for DD games.

Considering most of GameStop's library will resemble Steam's, although I have my doubts there will be any indie titles on Impulse short of Angry Birds clones, they best keep their prices down. Right now digital distribution through Steam is cheaper than solid copy with sales that go on all the time. Unless Impulse follows the same model, they don't stand a chance at keeping customers around.
There is no used market for DD games because of this. Why buy used when you can get new for cheap? Oh wait, console games don't count in this equation. My bad.

Is Steam a milkshake or a pie? Make up your mind!
Well, it's Gabe Newell, so it's probably both. ZING.

OT: Not even surprised.

 

[iniudan]

"Given Steam's dominance - and insistence on users downloading a Steam client application - publishers are likely to be receptive to a competitive alternative."

Impulse requires a client to to download the games just as steam does so I don't see how impulse are any different.

Also gamestop are likely to struggle considering their past history of pissing off PC gamers and basically declaring the platform dead years ago a lot of them are going to remember it.

Then there's the whole issue of impulse not having a integrated voice or text chat program unlike steam, people are not going to swap to a inferior platform, people would be more inclined to buy at retail and add the game to steam via the add non steam game option as the UI overlay works with modern games.

Here you are making a few mistake, impulse indeed need the client to be able to install and download game you bought there (except steamwork game and game like mount & blade, where there is possibility to just use the cdkey that was included with the purchase). Most game outside of the impulse reactor games (equivalent of steamwork), don't require patching through the client, exception to that would be a game that get a exe different for online retail then for boxed version, which is something you will encounter only on game where the boxed version asked for a disk to play. And the client is not needed to run any of the game once they are set up (even the impulse reactor one).

So once they are install you can feel free to add them to your non-steam game list, for ther is no compatility issue.

But only ever use impulse because of three games, two of them because they are impulse reactor game [Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilization II], while the third is because it was not available on other online retailers I use at time of buying [Supreme Commander Gold].

 

[Epona]

So treating employees well = business failure?

Are you reading a damn thing past my first sentence of every post? Mollycoddling minimum-wage employees will make them think they can get away with working less. They're already getting paid too much for doing something bullshit easy. So, no treating employees well does not equal business failure (which I never even wrote, that was your own invention), but it will hurt the bottom line. And sometimes, all it takes is for you to not do quite as well as your competitors for you to go under. Now you have a bunch of unemployed people instead of people who don't get regular manicures everyday at work.

And PLEASE read this sentence: Employees ARE being treated well. The United States has a full string of laws dedicated to making sure that employees can't be shat upon. People are just bitching that their minimum wage jobs aren't the greatest thing in the world.

FURTHERMORE: Treating your employees well can be crucial if you have people with actual skills that you need to keep around.

Did you notice the question mark?

I know that you think Gamestop employees are treated well. There, I typed it back to you, feel better? Of course, there was no point in typing it back to you except to inflate your ego (which is why I didn't bother the first time).

The only reason I cared enough about your ego to type that back to you was because I am one of those idealistic people who think people are more important than the bottom line. I guess I wouldn't be able to run a overly-greedy business and I wouldn't want to. I like to sleep peacefully at night.

 

[Epona]

Considering most of GameStop's library will resemble Steam's, although I have my doubts there will be any indie titles on Impulse short of Angry Birds clones, they best keep their prices down. Right now digital distribution through Steam is cheaper than solid copy with sales that go on all the time. Unless Impulse follows the same model, they don't stand a chance at keeping customers around.
There is no used market for DD games because of this. Why buy used when you can get new for cheap? Oh wait, console games don't count in this equation. My bad.

I have bought games on other DD services because they were cheaper than Steam. The GTA games were on sale about a month ago on D2D so I bought them. Age of Empires III was on sale for 10 cents last year on GFWL. It doesn't really matter where you buy them anymore because Steam allows multiple DRM schemes so even though bought Batman AA on Steam, you still have to use GFWL to play it and GTA IV still has to be activated (it was a better buy on D2D because once activated you don't need to also run a client). Steam isn't always the cheapest or the best.

There is no used market on DD because the games have no value as data on a hard drive. Oh and as for prices, you ever see the prices of DD games from the XBOX Live Marketplace? I think you are more likely to find a cheaper copy of a console game at a retailer than buying it via DD.

 

[poppabaggins]

So treating employees well = business failure?

Are you reading a damn thing past my first sentence of every post? Mollycoddling minimum-wage employees will make them think they can get away with working less. They're already getting paid too much for doing something bullshit easy. So, no treating employees well does not equal business failure (which I never even wrote, that was your own invention), but it will hurt the bottom line. And sometimes, all it takes is for you to not do quite as well as your competitors for you to go under. Now you have a bunch of unemployed people instead of people who don't get regular manicures everyday at work.

And PLEASE read this sentence: Employees ARE being treated well. The United States has a full string of laws dedicated to making sure that employees can't be shat upon. People are just bitching that their minimum wage jobs aren't the greatest thing in the world.

FURTHERMORE: Treating your employees well can be crucial if you have people with actual skills that you need to keep around.

Did you notice the question mark?

I know that you think Gamestop employees are treated well. There, I typed it back to you, feel better? Of course, there was no point in typing it back to you except to inflate your ego (which is why I didn't bother the first time).

The only reason I cared enough about your ego to type that back to you was because I am one of those idealistic people who think people are more important than the bottom line. I guess I wouldn't be able to run a overly-greedy business and I wouldn't want to. I like to sleep peacefully at night.

Sooooo...you've yet to provide a counter-example to anything I've said and have resorted to ad hominem attacks. Well now I enter the ad hominem field, declare you a troll (or at the very least, a failed debater), and move on with my day.

 

[Epona]

So treating employees well = business failure?

Are you reading a damn thing past my first sentence of every post? Mollycoddling minimum-wage employees will make them think they can get away with working less. They're already getting paid too much for doing something bullshit easy. So, no treating employees well does not equal business failure (which I never even wrote, that was your own invention), but it will hurt the bottom line. And sometimes, all it takes is for you to not do quite as well as your competitors for you to go under. Now you have a bunch of unemployed people instead of people who don't get regular manicures everyday at work.

And PLEASE read this sentence: Employees ARE being treated well. The United States has a full string of laws dedicated to making sure that employees can't be shat upon. People are just bitching that their minimum wage jobs aren't the greatest thing in the world.

FURTHERMORE: Treating your employees well can be crucial if you have people with actual skills that you need to keep around.

Did you notice the question mark?

I know that you think Gamestop employees are treated well. There, I typed it back to you, feel better? Of course, there was no point in typing it back to you except to inflate your ego (which is why I didn't bother the first time).

The only reason I cared enough about your ego to type that back to you was because I am one of those idealistic people who think people are more important than the bottom line. I guess I wouldn't be able to run a overly-greedy business and I wouldn't want to. I like to sleep peacefully at night.

Sooooo...you've yet to provide a counter-example to anything I've said and have resorted to ad hominem attacks. Well now I enter the ad hominem field, declare you a troll (or at the very least, a failed debater), and move on with my day.

Oh no, you called me a troll, whatever shall I do? LOL It's like a compliment coming from you, now go abuse some employees.

 

[Podunk]

I keep seeing this article name on the sidebar, and I just hate how close the words "Eyeballs" and "Milkshake" are.

Gross...

 

[poppabaggins]

Steam also has the ability to install your games on multiple computers, just as long as the game is attached to our account. You think GS is going to do that, hell to the motha fuckin no, they'll probably charge a fee extra computers. And doesn't this whole digital distribution goes against GS's whole pawn shop business model?

Gamestop didn't actually make impulse. Stardock did, and Stardock cares about their customers. Impulse lets you install your games everywhere you want AND you don't need to be logged in to play. It's actually better than steam in that respect (try suddenly losing your internet connection after downloading a steam game and steam is refusing to start for some unknown reason).

Anyways, blind fanaticism for a digital distribution platform isn't going to help anything. If anything, the more competition this field gets the better. I definitely don't want Valve to have a monopoly, because then they could do whatever they wanted with our content. Yes, Valve is a nice company that takes care of it's customers, but they could always be taken over by dicks sometime in the future.

And for the record: Yes, I love steam. I just blew $180 on the recent sales.

 

[Skratt]

Whatever, EA just wants more money and it really doesn't matter if a user would rather buy it on steam. They'll probably make about the same amount of money overall, so it's probably a wash and the only people that lose are those that actually like steam. It would be nice if publishers would stop having pissing contests with each other, it's getting really fucking deep down here in consumer land.

 

[dfphetteplace]

I facepalm you, good sir. Don't talk if you don't know.

Lets face it the PC crowd is pissed off because of lack of dedicated servers, cant deny that. After the first few months mw2 had somewhere around 900,000 sales on the pc and was pirated over 5,000,000 times, again cant deny that.

I don't deny your point, but I'm sure most of those were people that would never have bought the game, people that wanted to try it out and might have ended up buying it. Almost everyone I know that pirates will usually end up buying the software if they like it. Not everyone does that, but it isn't always a missed sale like the companies would like us to believe.

 

[draythefingerless]

From a gamer's perspective I still don't see the big deal about buying games from one digital platform instead of another. It's not like I have to drive farther for one than for another; they're all right there in front of me.

As for GameStop vs. Steam, Steam is the big dog but GameStop is already a multi-billion-dollar company, so it can bring a lot of resources to bear in the fight, not to mention the fact that it can coordinate its digital efforts with retail-level advertising and programs that Steam cannot. That's a potentially huge weapon.

Having money and having business skills are two very different things. EA and Microsoft can surpass steam by miles in funds, and look at where their DD services are now...

As for why a gamer wouldnt like this, its simple. its useless busy work. having 5 programs in your pc, having to turn each one individualyl for this or that game, and even run some of them at the same time is a hassle unneeded. Impulse's strategy of no need to have the program on is great, and i wish Steam adopted it. I know its less of a hassle than going to a shop, but its still unneeded annoyance to have all this log in bullshit. buy from store, download client, download game, close program, play game as much as you want. if DD services all adopted this strategy, that would be great. then we would all keep Steam on, add all non steam games to our library, and chat away and play multiplayer with our friends, with mics and all.