UK Retailers Accused of Blacklisting Steam-Required PC Games

[archabaddon]

That's funny, I'd imagine doing that would earn them less money, overall. "Hey, nobody has this game I want?" "It's on Steam!" "To Steam, with our CASH!"

Exactly. They must like loosing money, because with the popularity of Steam and other online distributors, and their ease of backending into programs for multiplayer lobbies and patching, British retailers could soon find all of their customers going online to Steam or other retailers like Amazon.uk.

If they can't find a compelling business model to fairly compete, instead of trying to (probably unsuccessfully) snuff out the competition, they'll be going the way of the telegraph.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

I don't think I have seen a dedicated pc section in games that wasn't just one shelf in years. Hell the local pc world megastore stocks more console games and music cds than pc games. These retailers are just a bit sore because digital sales have started cutting into the cushy monopoly Game and co had going. Ultimately as a customer I will go with the options that are kinder to my wallet and steam, gog and amazon are kinder to my wallet than game or gamestation

 

[thisbymaster]

The days of the brick and mortar stores for buying games is over. They just don't know it yet.

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

Does that mean no EA games requiring Origin either?

 

[Scrythe]

What a wasted effort.

They should instead refuse to stock games that force you to use Games For Windows Live.

But then again, that would be "quality control", something that's been dead since the advent of the internet.

 

[w00tage]

In all fairness, it's a natural reaction. Every game the retailers sell that forces a Steam install shifts a customer from their store to Steam.

And it's been happening for a long time now, so they're pretty much desperate. The big publishers are signing with Steam or making their own direct download system. So retailers are dying, and this is the only thing they can think of to do.

 

[Riobux]

Blacklisting, because the idea of lowering your prices so people can actually afford the games so you actually compete is just silly.

 

[darkcommanderq]

Yeah because brick and mortar retails stock TONS of PC titles already..../end sarcasm.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot with a bazooka.

 

[Hyperactiveman]

There are bugger all PC games to choose from on retailer's shelves where I am right now (Australia).

I also saw this where I was born and growing up (England)

imo it's still not fair to make a game sold through brick-and-mortar retailers need an internet connection to work especially if they're not focused on the online multiplayer function (tf2/brink/etc.) and can stand up on their own locally played campaign (fallout/left4dead/etc.)

I mean not every has internet let alone a good enough connection for that sort of thing.

I do have a good internet connection as well as an above average PC build and do download games from Steam regularly because you get MASSIVE BUCKET LOADS MORE of choice, reliability and affordability from Steam (but not ones like GfWL or Impulse).

I'm actually getting my gaming fix without leaving my home thanks to Steam. <3 U Steam!

So really those brick-and-mortar retailers should be doing a better job to provide a better service. Only reason I see to go out and buy a PC game would be for special editions and/or pre-order bonuses.

 

[acosn]

You know, with PC sales all but absent from brick and mortar stores you'd imagine they'd be more willing to stock them to get anything at all.

If Steam was a troublesome, problematic service I'd be a bit more skeptical but this isn't 10 years ago.

 

[Motiv_]

Hey guys. You remember back when you could just slam the disc into the drive and install with a simple CD key? Remember?

If you'll excuse me I need to go grease my walker.

 

[snfonseka]

I believe Steam should be optional, never mandatory. Steam functions like an anoying DRM, I remember buying Half Life years ago and yet I couldn't install it with the disc because I needed to register it on Steam. It wasn't till years later when I got internet access that I could finally play a game I bought.

I support any game retailer that doesn't want to sell games with that horrific DRM.

Indeed. Though I kind of like steam, I agree that it should always be optional. Unreal Tournament 3 did this, and I loved that it did this. You could install it normally, or you could activate the product key on Steam and install it that way.

I wish more games did that.

Yes this should be optional. I don't support the idea of having Stream as a requirement.

 

[grigjd3]

It's a shame because steamworks is some of the nicest DRM one comes across on the PC platform. Anyhow, the brick-and-mortar stores aren't realizing the problem they are facing. If it's not going to be steam, it will be someone else. The stores aren't providing any added value. If I can download a game directly to my computer, I don't have to go to a store and deal with some annoying sales rep who is going to do their damnedest to sell me the latest Call of Duty game which I have absolutely no interest in. Now, if these stores found a way to add value to the transaction rather than make me feel like I have to slay some floor salesman to get at what I want...

The problem is that after a game that uses Steam as its DRM is registered in Steam,it becomes forever attached in somebody's Steam's account.
There are lots of people who return opened games to stores either because they never heard of Steam and now that they learned how it works they don't want the game anymore,or because they bought a game that was broken and want to take it back to the shop and get a refund.

Retailer's can't say no to these people,because it's in legal consumer's rights to return a product that is broken or doesn't work as advertised.

The problem is that Publishers won't take back registered games either,and retailers end up having hundreds of games that are already registered to some Steam account,and they can't sell to anybody.
The games are charged,and retailers have to pay from their own wallet for all these hundreds of games,and I think it should be reasonable that they can't afford it.

Steam forces retailers to loose large amounts of money,without a fault from the retailer's side.

You know, I work in a field where 250 people will apply for the same job. One can argue to the end of the world that life is unfair but it doesn't pay the bills. Pointing out that the system is unfair doesn't change the fact that I can get much better service from Steam, without leaving my house and without having to deal with a sales clerk who is trying to shove unwanted products down my throat. It also doesn't change the fact that I look for games to be steamworks compatible because other forms of DRM are absolutely terrible to me, the consumer.

Look, if your point is that it's hard on store owners, I'm a little sympathetic. Other than that, though, I'm always going to act in my own interests as are most other consumers. You have any idea what it's like trying to play a game with secuROM? Effectively, if you say to me that you will only sell PC games without steamworks, you've said to me that you don't sell PC games, and thus you've lost my business.

 

[unacomn]

This bugs me a bit, since I got Men of War Assault Squad of GamersGate, and can play it without Steam, even in multiplayer. 1C Games aren't really all that Steam tied.

 

[MetalMagpie]

It would be helpful if this article actually named names rather than just saying "UK retailers".

Game? Gamestation? CEX? HMV? WHO is being accused here? Or has this Russian company investigated EVERY shop that sells games in the UK?

Last time I was in Game, there were plenty of PC games that used Steam.

 

[cgaWolf]

I really sympathise with these guys. The way digital disribution is going, Valve have basically set up a monopoly, and will, in the same way as Microsoft and Apple did, probably be very very hard to dislodge now.

What I see Valve as having done is very sneakily gone behind everyone's backs, and very under the table, and set up Steam before the advent of digital distribution, and I think in the coming years we are going to see their company practices get very ugly as theystruggle to maintain their vice-grip on the industry.

I don't see how requiring Steam for HL2 was sneaky or "behind everyone's backs" - it raised a huge fuzz, and tons of people where pissed off a) by the fact that they had to get steam b) by the fact that when it started out, Steam was terrible ("STEAMing pile of shit" was thrown around a lot, iirc). It was actually a bit of a PR disaster back then.

 

[Gunner 51]

I wouldn't waste too much time fretting about this, 1C. Having been in several games retailers, you'll find that you'd be hard pressed to find PC games being sold in general. Most of the floor space is dedicated to console games.

Based entirely upon my own empirical research, I have found that..

30 per cent of the store front is dedicated towards X-box 360 consoles, games and peripherals.
30 per cent of the store caters toward PS3 consoles, games and peripherals.
20 per cent of the store stocks Wii / Handhelds stuff.
10 per cent is PC games only.
10 per cent is what can only be described as miscellany.

From what I've seen of bricks'n'mortar retailers, this isn't just limited to a few stores. I can also imagine that PC games are going to be the first ones to become swallowed up by Cloud Gaming and it's little brother we know as Digital Distribution.

 

[Nikolaz72]

It's interesting distinction to note that these stores are apparently not refusing to stock games available on steam, they're refusing to stock games that REQUIRE steam to play. Maybe they're one and the same. But it's great how people have been some brainwashed into buying incomplete products off the shelf from either B&M stores or even online stores like amazon.

There was a time where I could buy a game, and it would be MY GAME, and I could play it without internet watch dog holding my hand. And the game I bought was 100% complete, not 96% complete or whatever bullshit Steam pulls out.


What value does buying a game off Steam give you?
You can't resell it to a 2nd hand shop.
You don't actually own the game, because if Steam ever goes tits up guess what you can't play it.

It's basically a full priced rental.

Nope. If steam ever goes down the program will release a patch that makes it go into some kind of Permanent Offline mode. Disabling Multiplayer games but still allowing everything else to run just fine. (Source: Valve)

I guess the Download Servers will be down for good though. But I used a Steamkey to register Dragonage on EA's Website and can get a new download copy from them if I ever loose this one. So yea, those games? Just as much mine as a CD copy. And will probably last just as long (If not longer)

 

[Strazdas]

well if they have to come to that in order for publishers to understand that if i buy a game in store i dont want it to connect to steam, poo or any other bad named network just to be able to start.