I think retailers should spend less time complaining that they can't compete against Steam, and more time building a better product that will make gamers want to use something other than Steam. Even more hilarious is that shops are threatening not to carry some publishers' games if they continue to support Steam. How many gamers would even notice this? I stopped buying PC games from traditional retailers ages ago because I felt Steam did it all a lot better. They won't be losing much of Steam's already existing user base with such a strategy, and those that didn't use Steam would probably just start using it at that point.The world's biggest digital distribution platform for games is under attack.
MCV understands that key retailers will drop titles that integrate the popular Steam service as fears mount that the service has a ‘monopoly’ on the download market.
Insiders say Steam, run by US studio Valve, serves a massive 80 per cent of the PC download sector. And retailers preparing their own rival platforms don’t want that share to grow any more.
Some of the biggest PC games – such as Call of Duty and Fallout – use Steam. But retailers are concerned that selling games with the tech built-in pushes users towards only buying games via Valve going forward.
At least two major retailers will demand that publishers remove Steam from their games – or they will not sell them in any form.
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Koch
“If we have a digital service, then I don’t want to start selling a rival in-store,” said the digital boss at one of the biggest UK games retailers.
“Publishers are creating a monster – we are telling suppliers to stop using Steam in their games.”
The head of sales at a big-name digital service provider agreed: “At the moment the big digital distributors need to stock games with Steam. But the power resides with bricks and mortar retailers, they can refuse to stock these titles. Publishers are hesitant, but retail must put pressure on them.”
Gaikai CEO David Perry told MCV Steam could become the games-equivilent of iTunes, where it dictates the terms of the market, not the other way around: “Steam has made it so easy for everyone and they have lots of users. But how long do you wait before you take control of your own digital strategy? Like with iTunes, at some point it’s going to be too late.”
The same holds true for GFWL, D2D, or any other digital distribution outfit. If they want to seriously take on Steam they need to make a service that is so darn good that gamers will want to use it over Steam. Failing that, carve out a niche a la GoG.
As it stands currently, I can't see a reason to use something other than Steam for my PC gaming. Of course, there is still the possibility of Steam becoming evil, so I do welcome the idea of competition trying to take them on, but potential competitors shouldn't stamp their feet, and cry that life isn't fair when confronting Valve's service. Make a vastly better product and gamers (then publishers) will come (I know, easier said than done).
