Gearbox Boss Says It's "Dangerous" to Let Valve Win

[Plinglebob]

While I disagree that Microsoft would do a better job (I want what he's smoking if he thinks that) I agree that Valve owning Steam is a bad idea. From what I know the problem at the moment is if Valve goes under (it may happen) Steam will go bye bye along with everything you've downloaded. Instead, Steam should be made a seperate business entity from Valve, with Valve being a major share holder.

 

[Capt.DeSoto]

disc in hand is how it should be.

very well said. i cant stand steam. to me its a worthless program that keeps slowing my computer down. also whats with the deal about having cd-keys locked to your account with no way of getting them off? i let my friend barrow my DoW2 to only find out he cant play it because its linked to my steam account and now needs my informaton. if they REALLY cared about their customer base they would do this.

Disk in hand...Your earth is still flat? I have a disk, a hard disk and I need no other medium lying around and a noisy dvd-drive. And I can download and play my games wherever I am, even if I just can lend someones PC.

The part which the industry loves Steam for is because you can not lend or second hand sell the game. It is far better than EA's you can only install the game 3 times, what's up with that...

 

[samsonguy920]

I wouldn't be that hard on Gearbox. Sounds to me like they are more concerned with a possible monopoly, and that lack of competition will decrease overall quality. Sound like he likes Steam, he just wishes there were other options. I'm not going to fault him for being concerned by one company dominating the market. That's something to be concerned over. He just hasn't thought his fears all the way through. Game developers have there own capacity to advertise, promote, etc, and have there own capability to bring people to Steam to buy the game. Steams only concern is content delivery. Its like how, say, Mad and Cracked magazine might be competing, but the postal service doesn't really enter into the equation. And in addition to things like D2D, Steam naturally has to compete with physical copies, and the developers themselves selling there game digitally all on there own. Those options won't go away, and are enough to keep Steam honest. Yes, I am bit of a Steam fanatic, but that is because it does the content delivery thing better then anyone else in the market. I'm willing to seem like a fanatic for things which are better.

I think what it boils down to is that this guy Hasn't thought it through, and yet he felt himself in the right to just speak out, with most of what he said having no basis and making many wrong assumptions. If people did that everyday, there would be bad yet wrong publicity for many things, and many good companies would suffer for it. Is that the kind of reporting and assessment you want to see for games companies? I love Steam myself, even with its faults (Free UT3 Weekend anyone? That might not have been Valve's idea to begin with anyway), but I would like to see more services like this pop up on the webs. There is absolutely nothing stopping Gearbox, EA, Activision, or even somebody that's not a publisher from putting together a service much like this. Valve isn't hogging the property, they are just setting the bar. Time for someone to get their hands out of their pockets and work to go over that bar.

 

[Eldarion]

This

The man is criticizing valves DD monopoly, not Valve as a game developer. If Valve is the single owner of the most successful DD service it monopolizes on aspect of the game industry, gets a profit off of everyone and makes it harder for small game developers to get started.

Valve fanboys need to pull their heads out of their asses and actually read the article.

Seriously dude, if anyone needs to pull their head out of their asses and read something, it would be you and a dictionary.

Here, let me help you with that: "Monopoly - Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service" Now, by that definition, Steam doesn't have a monopoly, since there are other people in the DD market, such as GoG or D2D (Edit: and Impulse). Just because they have a bigger slice, doesn't mean they have a monopoly. Saying Steam has a monopoly on DD is like saying M$ has a monopoly on OSs: it makes you sound like an idiot with no grasp of the English language.

Incredibly minor competition doesn't count. Those you listed don't make much of a dent in steam.

Also, I know what a monopoly is, some people don't take everything super literally.

Steam is a close to a monopoly as you can get right now. Try thinking a little outside of your incredibly narrow dictionary next time next time. A couple of small technicalities don't change the fact.

Steam doesn't have "exclusive" control of the means of producing or selling games. It's not a monopoly no matter how literal or not you interpret the word.

Only if you are pretending that anything else comes close.

Because Steam is the SUPERIOR product. Thats how capitalism -WORKS-.

I understand thats how capitalism works. Capitalism allows for monopolies to exist.

Steam is way to big to consider anything else lose competition.

 

[Skizle]

disc in hand is how it should be.

very well said. i cant stand steam. to me its a worthless program that keeps slowing my computer down. also whats with the deal about having cd-keys locked to your account with no way of getting them off? i let my friend barrow my DoW2 to only find out he cant play it because its linked to my steam account and now needs my informaton. if they REALLY cared about their customer base they would do this.

Disk in hand...Your earth is still flat? I have a disk, a hard disk and I need no other medium lying around and a noisy dvd-drive. And I can download and play my games wherever I am, even if I just can lend someones PC.

The part which the industry loves Steam for is because you can not lend or second hand sell the game. It is far better than EA's you can only install the game 3 times, what's up with that...

time to install w/ disk 1-5 minutes. time to download and install hour and a half to 3 hours max. much valuable time to play the game instead of wait. while it is nice to not have to look for disks, i am absolutely impatient when it comes to installing because...well i just wanna play it.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

This

The man is criticizing valves DD monopoly, not Valve as a game developer. If Valve is the single owner of the most successful DD service it monopolizes on aspect of the game industry, gets a profit off of everyone and makes it harder for small game developers to get started.

Valve fanboys need to pull their heads out of their asses and actually read the article.

Seriously dude, if anyone needs to pull their head out of their asses and read something, it would be you and a dictionary.

Here, let me help you with that: "Monopoly - Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service" Now, by that definition, Steam doesn't have a monopoly, since there are other people in the DD market, such as GoG or D2D (Edit: and Impulse). Just because they have a bigger slice, doesn't mean they have a monopoly. Saying Steam has a monopoly on DD is like saying M$ has a monopoly on OSs: it makes you sound like an idiot with no grasp of the English language.

Incredibly minor competition doesn't count. Those you listed don't make much of a dent in steam.

Also, I know what a monopoly is, some people don't take everything super literally.

Steam is a close to a monopoly as you can get right now. Try thinking a little outside of your incredibly narrow dictionary next time next time. A couple of small technicalities don't change the fact.

Steam doesn't have "exclusive" control of the means of producing or selling games. It's not a monopoly no matter how literal or not you interpret the word.

Only if you are pretending that anything else comes close.

Because Steam is the SUPERIOR product. Thats how capitalism -WORKS-.

I understand thats how capitalism works. Capitalism allows for monopolies to exist.

Steam is way to big to consider anything else lose competition.

Because no one has TRIED to compete. No one else has tried to offer what Steam offers.

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

I'll agree when Newell hits Kotick level of assery.

But until then, Pitchford can shove it.

 

[Voodoomancer]

"So who would Pitchford like to see at the head of the digital distribution charge? Oddly enough, he seems to think Microsoft might be a pretty good choice, if they ..."
Nonononononono, do not want.

Also, I see nothing wrong with Steam. This same argument could be applied to Microsoft, with them having a massive market superiority in operating systems. Valve just has the same type of market superiority in digital content distribution.

 

[oranger]

sigh...does anybody really know what the term "free market" really means? it means your product sells for what you can get for it, with the market dictating your price. and besides, if steam isn't maintaining some kind of monopoly, why is it the only one? the tech is old, advertising is easy and there are investors who will toss money at good ideas.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

He is aware that Steam hosts games from other developers, right?

 

[hypothetical fact]

We wuv steam. They give us master racers a high quality service. How can anyone think badly about our beloved Steam
There are far too many fools that think like this. Valve is a business, just like any other business they want money. Their quality service ensures excellent business but they have competition. As long as there is competing companies trying to get your money they will provide everything you ask to get at your wallet. The moment the competition has been run out of town thanks to steam fanboyism, they have free reign to jack the prices through the roof and everyone that uses a pc.

MONOPOLIES ARE BAD NO MATTER HOW NICE THEY SEEM.
The Steam fanboys are no brighter than the halo kids when it comes to business.

 

[YuheJi]

Of course, competition is always good. But I don't think Steam is exploiting any small devs. Don't take my word for it, John Gibson of Tripwire Interactive (makers of Red Orchestra and Killing Floor) posted a response to Pitchford's comments on Gamasutra.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25595

 

[Valate_v1legacy]

I smell nuclear launches. Nuclear launch, detected!

 

[AceDiamond]

Of course, competition is always good. But I don't think Steam is exploiting any small devs. Don't take my word for it, John Gibson of Tripwire Interactive (makers of Red Orchestra and Killing Floor) posted a response to Pitchford's comments on Gamasutra.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25595

I think this sums it up

So the next time someone wants to say that small developers are getting exploited by Valve, I suggest they talk to a few first. Ask Garry Newman, creator of Garry's Mod, or Dylan Fitterer, creator of Audiosurf if they feel exploited. Ask the Tripwire Interactive employees if they feel exploited, as they move into their new offices paid for by the money the company has made on Steam. Or me, as I drive away from the company that was built from the royalties we made on Steam, in my sports car paid for by the royalties we make on Steam, to the home that I pay for with the royalties we make on Steam.

 

[thevegetarianzombie]

Small, indie titles that I have purchased exclusively because Steam existed:
Aquaria
Braid
Mr. Robot
Gish
Zeno Clash
Penumbra
Mount and Blade
(7 other games that came with Gish, Robot, and Braid in a weekend deal)

I think a lot of the "smaller players" in the video game industry are pretty darn grateful for Valve's existence.

 

[Joshimodo]

I hate Steam as much as I hate Games for Windows LIVE. I like Valve, and them "winning" wouldn't bother me, but Steam is horrible.

 

[7ru7h]

This

The man is criticizing valves DD monopoly, not Valve as a game developer. If Valve is the single owner of the most successful DD service it monopolizes on aspect of the game industry, gets a profit off of everyone and makes it harder for small game developers to get started.

Valve fanboys need to pull their heads out of their asses and actually read the article.

Seriously dude, if anyone needs to pull their head out of their asses and read something, it would be you and a dictionary.

Here, let me help you with that: "Monopoly - Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service" Now, by that definition, Steam doesn't have a monopoly, since there are other people in the DD market, such as GoG or D2D (Edit: and Impulse). Just because they have a bigger slice, doesn't mean they have a monopoly. Saying Steam has a monopoly on DD is like saying M$ has a monopoly on OSs: it makes you sound like an idiot with no grasp of the English language.

Incredibly minor competition doesn't count. Those you listed don't make much of a dent in steam.

Also, I know what a monopoly is, some people don't take everything super literally.

Steam is a close to a monopoly as you can get right now. Try thinking a little outside of your incredibly narrow dictionary next time next time. A couple of small technicalities don't change the fact.

Steam doesn't have "exclusive" control of the means of producing or selling games. It's not a monopoly no matter how literal or not you interpret the word.

Only if you are pretending that anything else comes close.

It doesn't matter how close any other competing service comes. They were never given a monopoly, and by definition, they don't have one. They are just the best/most popular service that provides DD games.

 

[ekimekim]

Yeah, in the same way that Windows doesn't have a monopoly of the PC market?
Hell, they don't even call other OSes "Personal Computers" anymore, just because they AREN'T WINDOWS.

That said, to chip in a single insignifigant opinion: Valve is awesome, I think they'll be fair, but a company can change. Also, I see how conflicts are possible. I think that Steam's popularity is Valve's just reward for a quality service, but I would be open to a switch should a better one exist.

 

[Tairan]

to hell with microsoft they will make everything thats free (like the updates e.g. crash course for left 4 dead) and the tf2 stuff

 

[slowpoke999]

This really doesn't speak to me. All im hearing is "Valve invented a system that bypassed retailers, it started off shit and after persevering through the insults ended up being very popular with lots of other people paying valve to use it,HOW DARE THEY".

Disregard all what i said before if you didn't 100% agree with me and listen to this,the guy said Microsoft should be in charge of steam, MICROSOFT.I don't hate Microsoft but FFS they pretty much dominate the Operating System and Console industry and have been regarded as the most monopolistic business in the world. Imagine if Microsoft bought steam off Valve and then immediately bought say 3 big name game developing companies and merged them all into Microsoft, they'd basically control nearly 50% of the gaming market.