The Digital Distribution Wars Are On Again

[esserin]

Pretty good, except you forgot the humble bundle store. Honestly, almost all of my steam games come from humble bundles.

If I can choose between GOG or steam, I always take GOG. I enjoy the service more.
I always get sad when a game that I already bought on steam becomes available on gog. If I'd waited a bit, I would have it on my preferred platform. :'(

 

[OverEZ]

You want my attention? Get your bundle on. Steam has like 7 or more services giving regular bundles of Steam codes for low prices. The other guys get bundles rarely from Humble Bundle. So Steam will be my main service until the other guys realize that we don't exist to further their profit margins.

 

[Scars Unseen]

I prefer getting a game from GoG rather than from Steam, with or without Galaxy, also because of lack of DRM. But mainly because GoG really walks that extra mile for you by providing all sorts of easily downloadable extras that might interest you; manuals, maps, soundtracks, design documents... in that regard it's a better service than Steam.

They also have a concept of quality control. Now that you can get Saints Row 2 on GOG, buying it on Steam is pointless, because GOG actually went to the trouble of getting the game to work right.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I wouldn't say that it's much of a war. Both Steam and GOG have large loyal customer bases, and the rest are fighting over the small market share that's left.

EDIT: I just realized that there was no mention of the Humble Store. They're pretty good and should be mentioned.

I think in the case of EA and Ubisoft, it is more a matter of control rather than getting what's left after Steam and GOG, as I seriously doubt either could survive on a market that small. And that's not really to say EA and Ubisoft are just that corrupt. I doubt most companies would share with Valve if given the option. It's just that, for most companies, not putting their game on Steam is pretty much suicide. EA and Ubisoft are big enough that they don't need Steam for exposure anymore, and they can certainly handle any costs associated with their own services.

 

[Devieus]

I never had much issues with Uplay, though I will say it's a pretty terrible thing; regardless, the achievements are probably the best thing about it, Upoints are things that more platforms need to do.

 

[wulfgar_red]

Galaxy is great concept from trustworthy company, but it's bare bones so far. Just for sake of competition i will buy every game on GoGG.

PS Don't forget to register you digital and physical copies of Witcher 1/2 on GOG (no matter where you bought them), you'll get another ones on GOG for free and price of wither 3 will drop.

 

[Doom972]

I wouldn't say that it's much of a war. Both Steam and GOG have large loyal customer bases, and the rest are fighting over the small market share that's left.

EDIT: I just realized that there was no mention of the Humble Store. They're pretty good and should be mentioned.

I think in the case of EA and Ubisoft, it is more a matter of control rather than getting what's left after Steam and GOG, as I seriously doubt either could survive on a market that small. And that's not really to say EA and Ubisoft are just that corrupt. I doubt most companies would share with Valve if given the option. It's just that, for most companies, not putting their game on Steam is pretty much suicide. EA and Ubisoft are big enough that they don't need Steam for exposure anymore, and they can certainly handle any costs associated with their own services.

Both Origin and Uplay sell games that EA and Ubisoft don't publish, so it's definitely not just about control over their own games. In the case of Uplay, they actually do sell their games on Steam, with Uplay launching whenever you want to play Ubisoft's recent games.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

GOG is great. The best service I think I've had in any store not just a digital game store. The one time I did have a problem due to being double charged I messaged them about it at 11pm and they got back to me the next day at 7am.

DRM Free, fair prices, good customer service, all sorts of bonus goodies, making sure the game actually works. I hope they're able to strike a deal with Zenimax at some point, lots of games from them I'd love to be able to get DRM Free.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

If I start enthusiasticly giving my money to GoG and supporting their new platform will CD Projekt stop making games?

Seriously, I get that the connotations here are that you dont like their games. Is that it?
But... others do. What if people made the games ONLY I liked? Wolfenstein, STALKER, some insane ultra-realistic strategy games and Witcher. That is all you'd be playing


Or is it a jab at valve that have forsaken the Half Life fans?

Actually I very much like CD Projekt's games and would prefer they don't go the same way as Valve, so yes, it was a jab at Half Life and more or less Valve's general behavior lately.

 

[Lillowh]

What, no Green Man Gaming? Functions like gamersgate, using it's own download or keys for a required service. Amazing deals on big title games on and before release (usually 15-20% off), great customer service (so far), and Steam keys if possible for most games. Granted the whole initial big deal about digital trade-ins that was touted when it started have been kinda narrowed down to near uselessness, probably due to publishers and indies requiring their games to have SOME kind of drm client, but the deals! I don't think I've paid more than $53 (many times much lower) for a new release in the past year because of the deals.

Also Humble store because, you know, chairty, plus Deals.

As an aside, I've started to use GoG Galaxy over the past few weeks and holy cow, if I could use it exclusively I would. I honestly loved the concept of GoG beforehand but absolutely hated the downloader, lack of a way to keep track of games, and lack of autoupdates. Galaxy, however, solves this problem for me, making it the defacto client for me because of the lack of DRM, ability to Roll Back the auto patches if it breaks something, and the fair prices, the fixing of older games to make them run on more stuff, etc. Plus those good old games!

 

[gigastar]

Has the service completely failed that much recently? I might get Far Cry 4 on PC if Uplay isn't total garbage.

I imagine if something like those server outages came around again, you would have heard about it from someone when it was relevant.

But to my knowledge, uPlay hasnt had anything that catestrophic in the last year or so.

What, no Green Man Gaming?

Last i checked, GMG is a third-party reseller, not a distributor.

 

[Kahani]

Gamers Gate (not affiliated with the culture-war hashtag) is an interesting contender. They're not big or powerful, but they do offer something that the other entries don't, which is access to your library without needing to use a client.

Complete nonsense. The GoG Galaxy client is entirely optional, and the vast majority of people still access their libraries through the normal web interface. They've explicitly stated that this is not going to change. You even mention this later on, so why lie about it here? GWFL also doesn't require you to use it to access your games, for the most part it's nothing more than a pointless overlay that gets slapped on top of your games when you install them, not a client to access them in the first place.

But there's a new contender on the field. Good Old Games

Again, complete nonsense. GoG was launched in 2008. Uplay was launched in 2009, Origin in 2011, Impulse in 2008, and even GWFL was only 2007. Calling one of the best established players a "new contender" is just ridiculous.

I have no idea what GameStop is doing with it these days.

Two seconds with Google would have told you it was shut down a year ago. If you don't have a clue what you're talking about and can't be bothered doing even a few seconds of research, why even bother writing the article? Actually, don't answer that; we all wish we could get paid for just making up random shit with no need to worry about little things like facts. Keep living the dream.

It's not that I want all the headaches that come with platform wars. (Exclusives, lock-ins, juggling multiple accounts. Just ask anyone who owns more than one console how fun it is.)

There are no headaches. The problems with platform wars only exist when they require you to own additional hardware, or at least pay something extra, in order to use the different platforms. The console wars exist, for example, because most people can't afford to buy four separate computer systems just to ensure they have access to all games. But that's simply not the case here; these are shops, not hardware systems, and every single one of them is free to use. The drive space and RAM required to install and run the clients is so small as to be irrelevant (especially with GoG and GG which don't need a client at all), so the only thing that could possibly be any kind of issue at all is remembering passwords for them, and for the most part that means typing it in once and then letting the client and/or website remember you (or you're sensible and use a password vault anyway).

 

[Scrythe]

I know that the "I must be the only one" statements are inherently untrue, but each day I'm feeling that I'm the only person who even gives a shit about Desura.

 

[Lightknight]

Uh, still burns my bum about the number of games Origin requires installation for. I still haven't played Mass Effect 3 and I once bought a game that require Origin without knowing it and I still haven't played it.

I just can't get around giving EA that kind of access to my machine or personal information. They're a dead ringer for a company that would abuse that information.

Interesting to hear about Gamers Gate. I'll have to check that out. I bet their email box sucked around August of last year.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

But there haven't been any new games to use the service in years and now we're like cancer survivors, each year going in for our checkup and hoping the cancer hasn't re-appeared.

...

Rating: Just die already.

Wow, Shamus, just wow... :O
Those things surely equate, huh? A very crappy game distribution system and cancer.
And then that rating below it.

 

[StorkV]

GoG for the win!

 

[Blackbird71]

Gamers Gate (not affiliated with the culture-war hashtag) is an interesting contender. They're not big or powerful, but they do offer something that the other entries don't, which is access to your library without needing to use a client.

Complete nonsense. The GoG Galaxy client is entirely optional, and the vast majority of people still access their libraries through the normal web interface. They've explicitly stated that this is not going to change. You even mention this later on, so why lie about it here? GWFL also doesn't require you to use it to access your games, for the most part it's nothing more than a pointless overlay that gets slapped on top of your games when you install them, not a client to access them in the first place.

Calm down, there's no need for baseless accusations of lying here, or any of that vitriol. As I read it, Shamus was just comparing Gamers Gate to the existing platforms. He later addresses Galaxy and its characteristics as a new and upcoming platform (technically still in beta), so the statement that Gamers Gate is doing something which none of the other platforms are does not apply to Galaxy.

But there's a new contender on the field. Good Old Games

Again, complete nonsense. GoG was launched in 2008. Uplay was launched in 2009, Origin in 2011, Impulse in 2008, and even GWFL was only 2007. Calling one of the best established players a "new contender" is just ridiculous.

Really, it's like you read the article, but didn't comprehend any of it. Yes, GoG has been around since 2008. But Shamus is specifically discussing GoG's entry into the download platform/client arena, Galaxy. Seriously, reread the article and pay attention to the context this time; I think you'll find you've got a lot less reason to get all fired up and angry.

It's not that I want all the headaches that come with platform wars. (Exclusives, lock-ins, juggling multiple accounts. Just ask anyone who owns more than one console how fun it is.)

There are no headaches.

Now who doesn't know what their talking about? Just because you may not have an issue with juggling all that is necessary with maintaining multiple clients, does not mean that those problems and requirements do not exist. It just means you have a different tolerance level for it than others. If you get over yourself and consider that other people's experiences are different than yours, and that your understanding may be different than theirs, you might find the world a more pleasant place, or at least find it easier to get by in said world.

But there haven't been any new games to use the service in years and now we're like cancer survivors, each year going in for our checkup and hoping the cancer hasn't re-appeared.

...

Rating: Just die already.

Wow, Shamus, just wow... :O
Those things surely equate, huh? A very crappy game distribution system and cancer.
And then that rating below it.

What is it with you people who just like to go through these articles and take everything out of context or blow it out of proportion just so you can get all riled up and indignant over it? It's an analogy comparing similar behavior, not a comparison of severity or importance. In case you are unfamiliar with how cancer works, those who have had it and lived through it are constantly wary of its possible return, because you never know if it's truly gone for good. Similarly, GFWL seems to be in decline if not for all intents and purposes shut down, yet as gamers we wait, hoping there is not a later resurgence. In each case, the behavior and reaction is similar; that is all. Nowhere did Shamus or anyone else make any kind of claim that GFWL was the same thing as cancer, or as bad as cancer, or any such comparison that you may have imagined.

If you people really want to keep imagining things to be offended by just so you can get all that rage running through your systems, then I suppose that's your prerogative, but it really is just wasted effort and energy and in the end just leaves you looking a bit foolish for overreacting.