A Universal Steam

Tommy B

Tommy B

Tommy B

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I've never understood why Microsoft don't work with games companies to produce something like Steam that works for all games. Therefore you've got an application that neatly manages all your games, all the mods for the games, security and prevents illegal games from running.

I can see what's going to happen. EA will make their own version of Steam, then loads of other companies will follow, and it'll end up getting ridiculous.

Thoughts?
 
EA already has their own version called ea downloader.

Can you picture the anti ms and steam kiddies if ms did make their own steam? It would be slated from all sides no matter how good it was because a lot of people hate ms products (yet still use them) and a lot of people hate steam (despite all its obvious advantages).
 
To be fair steam was really really REALLY bad originally. Then they sorted it out and it was stable + fast. No reason not to use it now its v.good.
 
Gerard said:
EA already has their own version called ea downloader.

Can you picture the anti ms and steam kiddies if ms did make their own steam? It would be slated from all sides no matter how good it was because a lot of people hate ms products (yet still use them) and a lot of people hate steam (despite all its obvious advantages).
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Those people are just immature tbh. If they hate Microsoft, I advise them to go and buy a Mac instead.

Most PC games are played using Windows, and so I don't see why Microsoft shouldn't try and implement such a feature.

The reason why people hate Steam is because it stops them from illegally pirating games, or playing pirated games :D
 
Ive never had any issues with steam despite having it since it was first released, only real problem i had was trying to order dod source and my card being rejected, but that was a valve fault and not steam. :)
 
Would be great yes, no doubt. But if you think of all the stick Valve get/got for Steam from unhappy gamers; imagine the uprising if Microsoft was in control of it :) I personally have never felt let down by Steam, and would happily use a service like it for more games. People like choice though, and some paranoid/power mad gamers wouldn't like someone else doing their patching for them.

I guess you mean something like Xbox360:Live? I have no experience of that, but if all games are using a unified download/update/server list it must make some things a joy to use.
 
Tommy B said:
The reason why people hate Steam is because it stops them from illegally pirating games, or playing pirated games :D
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Thats very true, in a world where almost all new games are warezed on or sometimes before the release date steam is a refreshing change. More developers should go that route and use steam for their releases.
 
I hate steam. Never got it to play CS right and when it was working the lag was stupid.

I have never figured out how to get it working......

And a side note. If all games were download only - just imagine how many jobs would be lost.

And what about 56k people or people on 512k etc - 4gb takes a long time to download......
 
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Personally I think steam is the future of distribution, just because of the indie games it throws into the mix, developers without a hope in hell of releasing a game because no publisher will accept them and they cant afford to publish it themselves. They no longer have to rely on word of mouth to get them sales, anyone who logs on in the morning will get a look at their pride and joy and I think that will make the games industry one hell of a lot better.
 
Gerard said:
Thats very true, in a world where almost all new games are warezed on or sometimes before the release date steam is a refreshing change. More developers should go that route and use steam for their releases.
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That's the thing that really annoys me about Steam - they've not no revenue leaks from piracy, no publisher's costs, no packaging costs, no retailer adding their chunk to the cost, and yet they still try to charge you €20 for 5 hours of gameplay. Criminal :mad:
 
It's $20 not €20 (small difference :p ) and if the reviews are accurate it will be a quality 5hrs. Plus the "directors" commentary stuff. It's not a massive amount, if you like the series, pay it. Same as buying a DVD/Cinema/Special Comic.

There's little point in adding up Valves costs yourself - they can charge whatever they want as people will buy it. They still sell stuff in shops so there are packaging + support costs.

And as for piracy, I'm sure it's not impossible to bypass Steam. Maybe not before release date obviously.

Also mentioned above... Steam does not affect lag. Source might though.
 
I daresay that Windows Live may be laying the groundstone for this kind of thing especially if it gets a "marketplace" area like Xbox Live. Bill Gates has already said that he doesn't particularly think HD-DVD / Blu-ray Disc will be important in the future as he sees downloading all content to be the key.
 
Steam stops nothing , eveything that is available on steam can be pirated.

Personally I'm not a fan of steam , I prefer a physical copy and being able to download the updates when I feel like it and from a fast mirror , rather than the crippled steam servers when a new large update comes out.

Also the fact I couldn't play hl2 after buying it on release because as I could not activate it because "steam servers are too busy to handle your request" or something similar was not a very good start for me.
 
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