I would point out Sony themselves claim the PS3 was made hard to work with so there would be a constant improvement as devs got a better grasp on how to work things. End result however is the same as the Xbox360 which companies end up wasting less money and come out with a better quality product now rather than crappy ones now and decent ones latter. PS3 also dropped the ball completely on getting their network gaming up and running. Xbox has always had a consistent online strategy which features big with Valves offerings.
Borderlands itself has issues that show big time that its a crappy console port. Control schemes optimized for a small number of buttons, item text that doesn't fit (For those that don't know what I'm talking about did you know that weapons have stats that are not shown? It only shows 4 bonuses but gear can have 6 or 7 and with some tweaks or through a dev console you can actually see it). Borderlands also uses gamespy for matchmaking rather than steam which means unless you know your friends gamespy aliases its very hard to get together with them.
Steam doesn't control the market, there is impulse and direct2drive out there. Steams big advantage comes from the excellent social tools, big indie market and support they give. http://www.neoseeker.com/news/12017-tripwire-steam-does-not-exploit-indie-developers/
Gibson specifically addresses the who exploitation business. He talks about his past experiences with Valve and how the Steam service has aided his studio's growth. Additionally, he claims that Steam offers indie developers a better chance at success compared to "traditional brick-and-mortar" publishers, whose proposals seem to leave devs high and dry.
As a small independent developer that has released multiple games on Steam, we are exactly the type of studio that Randy believes is being exploited by Valve. Additionally, as president of Tripwire Interactive, I've personally been involved in all of our business deals with Valve and have experienced firsthand how they treat independent developers.
So, is Valve exploiting independent developers? In short: absolutely not. Without pulling any punches, I can say with certainty that if it weren't for Steam, there would be no Tripwire Interactive right now.
In the early days, when we were shopping our first game Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 around to traditional brick-and-mortar publishers, we were shocked at how terrible their proposals were. We were getting pitched offers like, "We'll give you a 15 percent royalty rate, take the IP rights to your game, and slap a $1.5 million administrative fee on top of your recoupment costs." And deals like this were being offered for a game we funded ourselves!
With deals like those, we were wondering how any third-party developer could be successful in the game industry. Under the terms of that deal, we would have needed to sell hundreds of thousands of units before we would have seen one cent of royalties. Enter Steam.
Gibson goes on to say that "Randy's statements" are unfair in their assessment, suggesting that smaller devs are being ripped off through Steam with crappy royalty rates. This just isn't true, according to Tripwire boss, who vaguely refers to their own deal with Valve. After pointing out other examples of indie games that have benefited from Steam, like Audiosurf and Zeno Clash, Gibson ends it all by advising:
... 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.