UK Retailers Threaten to Ditch Steam Games

[johnman]

Ignoring the issues of Seam being a mandatory install which is more complex, have these publishers not noticed supermarkets under cutting them, in the field of console games as well which is alot more important to retailers than the PC market which has been thrown into a ditch and left there like that stripper after the business trip that you dont talk about.

 

[Callate]

Some of us don't like the idea of Valve having absolute control over the entire PC platform, which is where things are headed. Without retail, Valve will be able to set whatever terms they like and there will be no other way to play PC games aside from Piracy.

You did read the second half of my post, right? The part where I said:

On the other hand, I don't inherently wish the brick-and-mortar stores ill, and while Valve seems like a fairly benign entity in the world of electronic games (especially compared with some of the schenanigans of businesses like Activision, EA, and Microsoft), it's good to remember that company policies rarely become more customer-friendly because of a lack of serious competition. Power corrupts, etc.

?

 

[Azulito]

Altough I can sympathize with the retailers concerns, they brought upon themselves. It's because they sold the games in the first place. "Oh, this game requires a program download which allows the customers to get cheaper games, bypass DRM and clean up their shelves", they sat down, looked at that an decided to sell the games. Now they're worried because it's towering them.

In a way, it's their fault, if only partially.

 

[Fuselage]

Are these guys kidding?
My friend dislikes Steam for the high cost of his shitty internet, He loves everything else.
Even I know this is a really stupid idea

 

[tkioz]

This will hurt the retailers more then Steam or the Publishers, it's really a stupid move,..

 

[dochmbi]

I don't understand why so many people buy games on steam, when there are so many cheaper options available. Online retailers will ship the game much cheaper to you, or you can even buy a cd key from many stores. I got Assassins Creed 2 for 23 euros, on steam I would have payed 50e for it. Is most peoples time so valuable they refuse to spend a few minutes to save 50% on their purchase, or are they so ignorant that they don't know how to google for a low price or so irrational that they don't care how much a game costs

I'm a real-life min-maxing geek so it's hard for me to understand why someone would make such hugely sub-optimal decisions.

 

[Decagonapus]

It's not just B&M stores who have a problem with mandatory Steam and the evil Steamworks DRM. Every other internet distributor (Direct 2 Drive, GoG, Impulse, Greenhouse, etc..) have a problem selling games that force the installation and use of the Steam client. At 80% market share, it's an abusive monopoly, in my opinion.

I personally will never buy a Steamworks game from Steam, and I wait for a no-steam crack before buying one from another store. And as for Civ V, sorry, you've lost my business.

 

[tris4992]

thats ironic

let me tell you all something, last time I walked into GAME the uk equivilent of gamestop there was no pc section, only a single shelve to sell bargain bin games that dated back to 1998. I asked the staff, their explenation was "the pc markt just isn't profitable enough so we stopped stocking new pc games all together.

The biggest video game retailer in my country STOPPED stocking my beloved pc games and now DEMANDS that steam my only solace in these dark time's makes place or they won't sell the games anymore. YOUR NOT SELLING THEM ANYMORE ANYWAY.

[insert string of obscene words]

 

[Pielikey]

Wait, game stores still SELL PC Games? Last time I went to Gamestop there was this tiny pathetic little rack of maybe 20 PC games.
Sure, Steam might be a little bit of a dick-move to force you to install it every time you buy the game, but it's really not that bad of a program. At least it's not GFWL.

 

[tehroc]

I'm a real-life min-maxing geek so it's hard for me to understand why someone would make such hugely sub-optimal decisions.

I'd say a majority of Steam purchases occur during sales. When they knock 66-75% off a great game it's an easy sale that's only enhanced by its convenience.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I've supported Steam earlier, but I'm certainly in agreement with two points here.

1) Steamworks - it's forcing a monopoly, and that's always a bad thing.

2) If I buy a game from a real store, or by post from Amazon or the like, I expect the game to be on the disc. Especially in a potential future world where the UK government is going to decide if you're guilty of piracy by how much bandwidth you use, and not need any proof to condemn you as a criminal, when I buy a game on DVD, I don't expect to have to download 15gb of stuff when it should be on the discs. Updates, patches, great, all part of the fine Steam service, but not the whole damn game. come on Steam, it'll save you money too!

Fully agree with tehroc above, too, I've probably bought at least a dozen games I've not played or only loaded up once, hell there's stuff on my list I've not so much as downloaded, purely cos it was like 'ooh £1.75? I'll probably get around to playing that sometime and it's only 2 clicks to buy it. What the hell *click*'

 

[w00tage]

I agree with the game stores. Im sick of buying a game and then finding out i need steam to run it.
Particularly when that game has no need to go online at all. Like mafia 2 which needs steam and i have no idea why as it has no multiplayer or online side to the game at all. Or fallout new vagas which also has no online compatability.
Steam should just stick to there valve games or games with multiplayer/co-op as the only good thing about steam is its handier for playing with friends. Not to mention if your account gets hacked you loss all your games.

Steam has an Offline mode just for this reason. Here's the link to their KB on it:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-agcb-2555

You need to set up the games online, but after that, you can play them offline all day long.

 

[LoganN]

Two Pc exclusives? Wow really?.
Read your own posts for ironic content before posting and you will save yourself a lot of embarrassment

How many PC exclusive titles does Valve release a year? Sometimes, one. Most of the time, none.

 

[WolfLordAndy]

Sad thing is, I have better chance of getting a PC game for cheap in Asda or Tesco then from GAME or whatever other shitty game shops are about these days. I have bought PC games from GAME in the last year, but thats only 3 for £10 on copies of League of Legends (Hurray for points codes!). I've never seen any actually good games in there older/discount PC section, and the new PC games section is basicly a top 10 with one shelf underneath for whatever stuff was popular a year ago.

Gaming stores gave up on PC gaming long ago, so I don't see what they're complaining about, long live steam, and long live Play.com and hmv.com who if I do want something physical, will give it to me cheaper then in a store and on the day of release to my front door.

 

[Decagonapus]

I'd say a majority of Steam purchases occur during sales. When they knock 66-75% off a great game it's an easy sale that's only enhanced by its convenience.

Although I agree, I'd say it's only as convenient as it is because you already had steam installed, and probably because some game you bought on disk a couple years ago had steam as part of the game.

Other services offer sales too and would be just as easy if you had their service installed, but Steam are the only ones forcing their client for certain games.

 

[SimuLord]

If they're not stocking hard copies, then there's always Amazon or any of a number of other options. Refusal to stock games that will sell well only means you get thought of as a poor place to shop for games.

And they say Americans are dumb...these Brits would be "special" in a US school.

 

[dochmbi]

I'm a real-life min-maxing geek so it's hard for me to understand why someone would make such hugely sub-optimal decisions.

I'd say a majority of Steam purchases occur during sales. When they knock 66-75% off a great game it's an easy sale that's only enhanced by its convenience.

It would make more sense if you wouldn't purchase ownership rights to the Kinect or Xbox 360, but rather usage rights or custodianship (if that's the the right word) for the device. That way Microsoft could legitimately limit what you can do with the device, because it would be their property.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

Steam is convienient and cheaper for the consumer.

Anyone who is savvy about PC gaming is probably using Steam. As much as I like hard copies of what I purchase, you will lose this fight.

Not to mention the fact that not stocking games that'll sell well will just allow your competitors to steal all of your customers.

It won't cause publishers to rethink using Steam.

 

[maswell]

I've said before that steam isn't perfect. But it is convenient and offers more sales than I have ever seen in any retail store for just about any product. If this is drawing customers in that means steam is doing something right. It doesn't mean that store retailers should start throwing fits and threatening publishers.

This reminds me of the music industry trying to stamp out downloading of music by force instead of being creative and playing to their strengths. i.e. being able to sell physical copies of music/games.

More in-store sales or a general lowering of prices would help too.