Poll: Did Steam "save" PC gaming?

[Vault101]

this may be controversial...kinda

now my relationship with steam has always been love/hate especially at the begining

"what the FUCK??? what do you mean I have to download a bunch of stuff before I can play it??...my internet is out? FUUUUUUU *rage face*"

I will admit steam does some things good, the only thing I still dont liek about it is its not very freindly to those with strict download caps

but from where Im stand steam also has been good...in a way

 

[Digital_Hero]

Well, my question to you is: Did PC gaming need "saving"?

Steam is a digital distributor. Thats pretty much it. We still have physical copies of games being made and more to the point, games are still being made on/for the pc.

Things have gone cross-platform, sure. But really, it would be silly if it didn't. There is far more money to be made in multiple systems releases.

More on topic: all steam is, is the middleman. Instead of the store, all steam is doing is cutting out the disc.

 

[felbot]

i cant say that it did it single handily but it sure helped an whole lot and did simplyfy alot of things.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

I think it more helped out the indie crowd than saved PC gaming.

 

[Zac Smith]

I think it helped some games, especially lower budget indie games to get more into the spotlight

 

[Simon Pettersson]

I don´t think it really "saved" PC gaming have it been under attack?
I have always preferred PC over console mostly because of the controller and the fact that a computer can be used to many things.

And in sweden console games are expensive, PC games often goes down in price after a month, sometimes even after a week.

Still I play on both PC and PS 3 (just have to wait for some of the games on PS3 to go down in price).

 

[gamer_parent]

huh, didn't know the PC gaming market needed saving in the first place.

 

[remedyX]

No steam demonstrated there was still a strong PC gaming marketbase.

Perhaps it has partially aided the PC gaming medium, but attributing it to be some sort of saviour, looks like fanboyism.

 

[Stickill]

I am confused, how did PC gaming ever needed to be saved?

 

[Spygon]

I feel they have as walk into any game store and alot of them have a very small pc section and some do not even have one at all.I see this as a possible sign of two things either pc gaming is slowly disappearing or everybody is buying pc games from steam/ other stores.

I feel with outsteam pc gaming would be in a worse state.

 

[Me55enger]

Well, my question to you is: Did PC gaming need "saving"?

hear hear.

If I recall correctly, those tosspots at Microsoft have just recently announced a redoubled effort to support PC gaming, starting with Windows 8.

We've been claiming PC gaming has been dying. If this is the case than im happy for it to continue dying for many decades to come.

I use Steam, and I think it is an excellent source of Games. But remember that the MUSIC download system actually accounts for a mere fraction of music purchases, despite all the hoohah about it.

 

[TriggerHappyAngel]

Nope, it did gave us huge discounts though

 

[vehystrix]

I dislike steam, it has screwed me over more then once, and I have vowed to never buy anything from it again. Even going as far as to make me prefer console gaming over PC gaming. So for me it didn't quite save PC gaming as singlehandedly killed it.
Glorious will be the day that steam falls and traditional boxed games take its place once again!

 

[Phishfood]

I wouldn't say its saved PC gaming as such, but it has given a big boost to the indie devs which will help gaming overall and definitely gives PCs something that consoles don't really have.

I would also say that steam is helping PC gaming by not being so obnoxious with their DRM to drive people away from playing PC games. *cough* Ubisoft *cough*.

 

[Henkie36]

What I really hate about Steam is that they diverted from thier original purpose, an online gamestore, which didn't work that half bad but it wasn't really anything memorable. Now that they are running games, they are constantly cocking it up, making the game worse and more annoying then they need to be.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Whenever Steam isn't occasionally refusing to connect to my Friends list and arbitrarily deciding that my games are unavailable, it's a perfect model for DRM. No CD's or serial keys, for two examples. Also it installs the games suspiciously fast. I swear if you installed the same games from hard copies it would take twice as long.

 

[linwolf]

No, PC gaming have never needed saving. But it did change it, was it for better and for worse that depends of how must control you are willing to give up.

 

[The Madman]

STEAM was just the first to do it best, had it not been Valve another company would have taken the spotlight whether that be Stardocks Impulse (No longer actually owned by Stardock, go figure!) or Paradox's Gamergate or a whole slew of other digital distribution services like Direct2Drive. And hell, STEAM was initially reviled by gamers... no really, it was and I was among them. The absolute mess that was STEAM's launch along with Half-Life 2 was disastrous, the damned thing didn't work. Thing is that HL2 sold well enough that it guaranteed a stable community, a community which expanded as Valve continued to support their service by releasing new games for it as well as making it suck less so it could eventually become the monolith it is today.

So no, STEAM didn't 'save' PC gaming, it was simply at the forefront of the 'digital distribution revolution' that's since overtaken PC gaming to such an extent that many PC games aren't even being released retail anymore and major developers and publishers consider it their major source of revenue on the PC platform. LINKY.

Digital Distribution on the PC has become so big that even the big boys are trying to get in on the action now. Ironically even big boys like GameStop, one of the companies whos neglect of the PC platform at retail helped drive the change to digital distribution. In their haste to promote used games sales Which by now represent over 50% of the companies profits since they don't have to share with developers or publishers they all but abandoned the PC platform in which used games sales were difficult and often impossible. But NOW that they see there's profit to be made online they want in again and have bought Impulse from Stardock.

Pity, I liked Impulse. Hope Stardock got a nice cheque for it at least, because GameStop wont be getting my money, that's for damned sure.

ANYWAY, no, STEAM didn't save anything. It's just really good!... I hope someone reads this or I'm gonna feel silly.

 

[rabidmidget]

I don't think it "saved" it, but it sure helped it.

 

[CodeOrange]

Yes and No.

Yes, because it forces the consumer to actually purchase the game rather than resorting to piracy. It also works in the same way as iTunes, because it is easily accessible from one's own home and doesn't force anyone to go out of their way to hunt for games. In addition to this, steam offers regular discounts which encourages and in turn stimulates the purchase of games, for larger companies like valve and indie companies alike.

No, because unlike iTunes, steam is not the universal medium for purchasing PC games, nor is it a common household name, meaning that new or casual gamers may have never heard of steam. Steam also can only assure the protection of multiplayer games where consumers are forced to buy a legitimate copy of the game in order to play with other people (yes yahtzee, not all games are built around their single player mode). To (most) pirates, if there's no need to play online with others, or if the game is single player only, whats stopping them from neglecting steam and downloading the game anyways. Not that I pirate games.

Really, the topic of Steam being the messiah of PC gaming is moot. Anyone can easily pirate console games, music, movies and pretty much anything else that's in ready demand.