UK Retailers Threaten to Ditch Steam Games

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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UK Retailers Threaten to Ditch Steam Games

Retailers in the UK are balking at the idea of selling a rival inside their stores.

Insider sources are suggesting that the UK videogame retail sector is on the verge of a mutiny over the growing influence of Valve's digital distribution platform, Steam. Two major retailers are said to be leaning on publishers to remove Steam from their games, or the stores will refuse to stock them.

The retailers are concerned that the prevalence of Steam - used in games like Call of Duty: Black Ops and Fallout: New Vegas - will cause players to look to the service for game purchases, cutting the retailers out of the loop entirely. Further complicating the situation are retailers who are setting their own digital distribution and are reluctant to stock games that essentially promote a rival. One source, allegedly the head of a well-known digital service provider, said that Steam's digital distribution rivals have no choice but to stock Steam games at the moment, but suggested that if bricks-and-mortar retailers stopped stocking them then publishers would reconsider using Steam in the future.

The fear that Steam is in danger of becoming a monopoly is not a new one. In Issue 245 of The Escapist, M.S. Smith outlined the most salient points of the monopoly argument in his article, "Steam: A Monopoly in the Making [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_245/7285-Steam-A-Monopoly-In-the-Making]," which said that despite Valve's good intentions, the integration of Steamworks and the Steam platform itself was still hedging out competitors. It seems though, that Steam's market share - thought to be around 80% of all PC downloads - has grown sufficiently large that retailers are aggressively trying to curtail any further growth. It's going to be interesting to watch how this develops, because while publishers need the support of videogame retailers, the retailers need the publishers just as much.

Source: MCV [http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41746/Retail-threatens-Steam-ban]




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Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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So they're going to improve their sales of games they hardly stock anyway by ditching half of them?

Right then.
 

deth2munkies

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Jan 28, 2009
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OR, and this is a CRAZY thought:

They could actually run sales and promotions that would make buying from the retailer more attractive than on Steam!

I know, it's an insane thought that competition should be a core part of capitalist economics.
 

Super Toast

Supreme Overlord of the Basement
Dec 10, 2009
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Simpsons MatParker116 did it.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.244305-Two-Major-UK-retailers-considering-ban-on-Steam-integrated-Games

I still think that they didn't have to act so childishly about the whole situation, buy whadda you gonna do?
 

gl1koz3

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May 24, 2010
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Sounds great. When do you, retailers, start?

Apart from that, people can be much more useful in other areas than "standing and counting money all day". In the name of progress, I bless you to die.
 

TheGuy(wantstobe)

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Dec 8, 2009
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As I said in the thread earlier Where will i get my PC games if not from the tiny plastic spinning self thats at the back of the store?
 

Senaro

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Jan 5, 2008
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If I can, I prefer to own physical copies of my games, but Steam runs such great deals from time to time, and stock games that are impossible to get elsewhere. Even Gamestop employees recommend I buy certain games from Steam instead of their own stores because they can't guarantee that any computer game they sell me hasn't had it's activation codes stolen already.
 

VitusPrime

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Sep 26, 2008
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Wwwwwwwhhhhhhhaaaaaaaat... that's just stupid on the retailers end...they get plenty of sales, steam happens to get good sales because it just so happens to be...INTERNATIONAL...
Sure, it may result in customers going to steam, but that should just ring alarm bells that maybe their products are too expensive or maybe a sale is needed...
 

Jonny49

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Mar 31, 2009
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There will always be people who prefer their games with a box and disk over digital downloading, so removing the games altogether would just cause them to make a loss.
 

_marrow_

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Jul 9, 2008
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I live in the UK and I can tell you that retailers not stocking steam games is no big deal. The range of PC games they have in stock already is PATHETIC not to mention they are over priced. Steam offers things cheaper with good support after purchase. You want to not stock steam games? Fine, you will just drive away sales and more people will use steam anyway. If you want to compete with steam try offering your games at a competitive price rather than just crying that someone has stolen your lolly pop.
 

Fasckira

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Oct 22, 2009
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_marrow_ said:
I live in the UK and I can tell you that retailers not stocking steam games is no big deal. The range of PC games they have in stock already is PATHETIC not to mention they are over priced. Steam offers things cheaper with good support after purchase. You want to not stock steam games? Fine, you will just drive away sales and more people will use steam anyway. If you want to compete with steam try offering your games at a competitive price rather than just crying that someone has stolen your lolly pop.
Amen. You can walk into most places like Game, HMV and Gamestation and expect to find at best one shelf section dedicated to PC games. I hate this idea that Steam becoming a monopoly is such a bad thing - they're providing an excellent service, excellent prices, after-product support and a community built up around it. I can buy a new PC tomorrow and have all my games loaded at the click of a button, along with the save games in some cases.

Long live Steam, I say. If local game retailers stopped selling PC games completely I wouldnt care in the slightest.
 

Cousin_IT

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Feb 6, 2008
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As much as I like Steam, I hope if it comes down the a showdown that the retailers/Steam's comptetitors win. Combining a distribution platform with DRM & development software will lead to nowhere but monopoly, which is not good regardless of what a nice guy Gabe Newell might be.
 

Luke5515

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Aug 25, 2008
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I'm perfectly fine with Steam becoming a monopoly. They are more than fair and I love the service. If the retailers ditch steam games, they're just going to lose to steam a lot faster.
 

Legion

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Oct 2, 2008
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deth2munkies said:
OR, and this is a CRAZY thought:

They could actually run sales and promotions that would make buying from the retailer more attractive than on Steam!

I know, it's an insane thought that competition should be a core part of capitalist economics.
Exactly. The main reason I buy online (digitally or not) is because the prices are always better than they are inside an actual shop.
 

Tiamat666

Level 80 Legendary Postlord
Dec 4, 2007
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I like the service that Steam offers. But I think it's really questionable that I have to get Steam even for some games I bought through retail (such as Civ V). I hate the thought of having to register every game I've got with some online content provider. But of course, Steam is not just a distribution platform, but also DRM and DRM sucks monkeyballs.
 

SpcyhknBC

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Aug 24, 2009
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I know that I am not supposed to say this, but Steam is by far the best digital distribution system I've seen. I for one cannot wait for Steamworks to come to PS3 with the release of Portal 2. The last game I bought in a store was Starcraft II, because it wasn't available on Steam and I wanted the manual. If I had known how pathetic the manual was going to be (No unit descriptions, no histories, WTF Blizzard, you used to be good at this???), I would've just downloaded it from Battle.net instead. The last physical game I bought before that for the PC, Warcraft III.
 

TsunamiWombat

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Sep 6, 2008
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Welcome to Capitalism. Someone makes a new mousetrap and you become obsolete and die of hunger. Steam is hedging out competition because THEY HAVE A GOOD SERVICE. When did being successful make you a bad person?

IS NOT A MAN ENTITLED TO THE SWEAT OF HIS BROW? NO, SAYS THE GOVERNMENT, IT BELONGS TO THE STATE! NO, SAYS THE MAN IN THE VATICAN, IT BELONGS TO THE POOR! NO, SAYS THE COMMUNIST, IT BELONGS TO EVERYONE!

I chose...something different. I chose, the impossible. I chose, Rapture STEAM!
 

WaspFactory

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Nov 11, 2010
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Living in central London gives me a ridiculous choice of shops from which to purchase my games. As Yhatzee once said, "Being white enough to afford all the consoles and a PC" I?m pretty much spoilt for choice on what game and on what format to play it on. However I can't remember the last time I went into a shop and choose to buy their overpriced games. Why should I when I can get the same game for 5, 10 or even 15 quid cheaper online, or even from across the road at places like HMV.
However for PC games, the common factor in these stores is the extensive 1 foot (12 inches) of shelf space they make available for PC games, which most recently, half of that shelf space was taken up with just StarCraft 2.
If retailers want me to part with my hard earned cash in their store then they should make it worth my while. Otherwise I?ll continue to buy my PC games from Steam and console games from online retailers.
And a note of wanting a physical copy, Steam does allow you to backup your games, which I do. As such my Steam games have survived countless rebuilding of my PC over the years.
 

Kevlar Eater

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Sep 27, 2009
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If the retailers had a bigger stock of PC games, this would be less of a problem. But of course, they've coddled to the console market for so long that they haven't noticed the elephant in the room that is Steam until it's too late.

I blame their lack of foresight, plus the fact that retailers usually have an either an abysmally small PC games section or none at all.