Steam gets almost all the PC games sales now..How do you feel about this ??

simpletom said:
It is because many people are ignorant or have some misguided sense of loyalty. Buy it at the cheapest place: that is how the system works. Steam's prices appear vastly overinflated much of the time and as other sites manage to do it cheaper, buy from them.

I really don't get the Steam (and Valve) circlejerk. Some people here have such an infatuation with them it makes Apple fanboys appear casual...
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We lost the motor industry to that way of thinking.

Its better to buy from a English company's who pays tax and may re invest in the UK or expand. if their bought out buy from another English company.

If you empower a foreign company who's ripping off government/tax payers, your giving them leverage in our system and when it comes down to politics/laws/courts/tax money you dont want corporations especially mostly foreign controlled ones lobbying http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying on their masters behalf.

You didnt save 30p you lost the taxpot £6, and weakened us in more ways than you can imagine.
 
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npjnpj said:
A large collection of physical game CDs and DVDs fits comfortably and accessibly into one desk drawer if you store them in slim jackets and chuck away the boxes. If you're really pushed for space then scan the manuals and they take up no physical space at all. Most of them are PDFs anyway nowadays.
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Gosh, that sounds convenient and not at all a ridiculous thing to spend your time doing. Buying the physical copies with their glorious boxes, manuals and extras, then scanning them page by page and throwing them away... If you like having hardcopy backups, why not get the digital versions, burn copies to DVD and store them as above? Increased convenience, less waste, and if STEAM ever goes down you can just reinstall from your DVD and just google for the (no doubt hundreds) of cracks to remove the STEAM/Origin/Ubi/whatever DRM ?

Surely it's not that difficult to install a game by using Autorun or clicking on an install.exe or autorun.exe. Oh, that's double-click, of course. Very strenuous! And mentally extremely taxing.
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This rudely-phrased piece of pointless sarcasm that completely ignores the multi-disc or multi-game installation issues that pervious posters raised is particularly welcome when it's followed by...

Any update can be run manually (and should be). Praising all automatic updates and thereby accepting that anything can be installed on your PC is just plain lazy. Can be a right pain if you're into modding as well.
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You can turn off automatic updates for any STEAM game that you're modding with about three clicks. "Very strenuous! And mentally extremely taxing."

I'm no STEAM purist, I have a lot there but will buy elsewhere for a better price/service, but there have to better 'arguments' than these - have a look at some of Fox's posts in this thread to see a handful of them rather well expressed (I may not agree with him, but he knows how to express himself clearly and logically).
 
MURDEROUS G said:
I'm happy for you that your time is worth so little that you can spend it scanning the manuals of your entire game collection page-by-page, and keeping a library of hundreds of games constantly updated by checking developers' websites on a daily basis and manually installing all relevant updates.
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To be fair, games were auto-updating even before Steam became mainstream. Though that said, Steam does tend to keep games updated in the background, which is certainly nicer than running a game and being met with an update prompt.
 
[TW]Fox;23684854 said:
they are usually more expensive than traditional retailers despite nothing like the overheads.
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Not having the same overheads isn't really the same as having nothing like the overheads though, Steam may not have a physical store like a games shop with running costs and staff but they do have data centers with higher running costs and higher paid staff, they do have internet connections so powerful they let millions download their games/updates as fast as their connections will allow, etc.

Not saying it balances or skews in their favour but the argument that their overheads don't compare to a physical games store has never really held water. In addition a lot of people don't actually care about having a physical item, until CD/DVD became dominant I used to throw away the boxes/etc that came with floppy disks and console cartridges, and the fact I can buy a game off steam and download it faster than I can drive to a physical store and buy it is for me just compensation for any slightly higher price on steam.


The real comedy in my view is that GAME now sell steam downloads, in their stores, for more than they cost on steam... yeah lol.
 
Since when did Steam bashing become fashionable?

In reply to the Op, is it fair, YES.

A bricks and mortar shop cannot offer the service I want (digital downloads) so in my opinion, I have no need for a "shop".

When games were available only at "retail", it was easier to pirate.

Just as with the record industry, they are no longer needed in that same form.

The system is fairer now.

Publishers were ******* devs left right and centre before this revolution.

People wrongly assumed digital distribution would mean cheaper end product, what it means for a lot of developers is that they no longer get ripped off. Cheaper end product was previously being subsidised at the expense of the developer and the greed of the publishers who CONTROLLED the market.

The fact is, while this may not be true for some bigger publishers, the Indies are now getting a fair deal and not screwed over.
 
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Surfer said:
I was happy paying my money and taking home the big box game with manual, discs, posters, reference card and other stuff inside.
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While at the same time knowing that the developer was getting completely ripped off by the publisher? Yes, makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to.
 
I think Steam has had a positive impact on PC Gaming regardless of monopolisation. I think its helped drum up sales that might not have otherwise have happened without having a central "hub" for gamers. Steam Sales also seem to help shift a large volume of purchases. It would be interesting to know what kind of impact on piracy having Steams easily available catalogue has had.
 
I'm not really all that comfortable with Steam having a monopoly, however they do offer the best service. Also I'd rather have one good source of games than lots of smaller ones, some of which would probably fail, leaving games scattered around between different platforms. It makes sense to have things centralised to a degree. As long as they remain a decent company I can't really have too many complaints. Gabe Newell has done alright by PC gamers so far.
 
SarGara said:
It would be interesting to know what kind of impact on piracy having Steams easily available catalogue has had.
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Personally, buying retail, installing multiple discs, downloading patches, installing patches, retaining serial codes etc etc was all a bit pointless.

Steam automated ALL of that which for myself (Call me lazy) made sense and made piracy redundant.
 
TheVoice said:
And that has what to do with Steam, exactly?
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seems valve changed it's eula late last year so now we lease the licenses from "Valve S.a.r.l." Luxembourg (lux is a massive tax haven)

Though i cant really tell you search google yourself

Valve S.a.r.l. tax evasion

and

Valve S.a.r.l. tax avoidance
 
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LOL normally the prices via steam are more expensive.

I'd prefer that UK business gets a share by buying physical media either online or via shop from a English company who pay's tax. Hopefully then our law will circumvent the illegal eula.
win win
 
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Gimpymoo said:
Steam automated ALL of that which for myself (Call me lazy) made sense and made piracy redundant.
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Sorry but thats the most hilarious statement i've read in this thread.
Digital downloads have made piracy far more easy due to pre loading new releases.
For instancei just visited a torrent site and Dead Space 3 has been out for 3 days. The new Sonic racing game is there, DMC etc. and the leechers dl'ing at any one time number in the thousands.
So just how has piracy been made redundant?
 
Gimpymoo said:
You have no idea what you are talking about.

They did no such thing.

All transactions on Steam have ALWAYS been "Subscriptions".
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bit off aint it m8 to get into a convo with "You have no idea what you are talking about" you silvered tongued mofo

when i referred to it as a leased license is basically the same thing

http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

As a Subscriber you may obtain access to certain services, software and content available to Subscribers. The Steam client software and any other software, content, and updates you download or access via Steam, including but not limited to Valve or third-party video games and in-game content, and any virtual items you trade, sell or purchase in a Steam Subscription Marketplace are referred to in this Agreement as “Software”; the rights to access and/or use any services, Software and/or content accessible through Steam are referred to in this Agreement as "Subscriptions."

2. LICENSES

A. License Terms.

Steam and your Subscription(s) require the automatic download and installation of Software onto your computer. Valve hereby grants, and you accept, a limited, terminable, non-exclusive license and right to use the Software for your personal use in accordance with this Agreement, including the Subscription Terms. The Software is licensed, not sold. Your license confers no title or ownership in the Software. To make use of the Software, you must have a Steam Account and you may be required to be running the Steam client and maintaining a connection to the Internet.

You understand that for reasons that include, without limitation, system security, stability, and multiplayer interoperability, Steam may need to automatically update, pre-load, create new versions of or otherwise enhance the Software and accordingly, the system requirements to use the Software may change over time. You understand that this Agreement (including applicable Subscription Terms) do not entitle you to future updates, new versions or other enhancements of the Software associated with a particular Subscription, although Valve may choose to provide such updates, etc. in its sole discretion.

section 10 C

C. Termination by Valve.

Valve may cancel your Account or any particular Subscription(s) at any time. In the event that your Account or a particular Subscription is terminated or cancelled by Valve for a violation of this Agreement or improper or illegal activity, no refund, including of any Subscription fees, will be granted.

I'm assuming the licenses are through steam. license being a subscription or however they want to word it.
 
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I'm glad, it gives all game makers a good method of keeping games up to date, easy releasing, publicity.

It's better for the user and the game maker.

I do wish they'd improve the GUI a bit though, it's always felt a bit 'buggy' due to the slowness of some of the screens.

Screens like News / Community should load 'instantly' like you'd expect a website to load, since that's all they are essentially..
 
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