News - Retailers may boycott videogames if publishers continue to use Steam

[Terbinator]

Its pretty non-intrusive on the whole too as if doesn't limit you to a number of installs or any of that balls.

Look at the Batman Arkham Asylum page.

[Biscuit]

Look at the Batman Arkham Asylum page.

You have taken it out of context though, i was quite careful on how i worded my post

When Steam is used by publishers as a middleman for the actual playing of the game it becomes a rather effective method of preventing piracy on the PC. Its pretty non-intrusive on the whole too as if doesn't limit you to a number of installs or any of that balls.

Yes you can still pirate steam games however i imagine the % are very appealing to publishers.

In other words, if the publishers opt to use the steam platform as their method of DRM (so even if you buy the actual disk, it still installs it through steam. Examples are orange box or the new COD games) then its non intrusive. Those games which are published separately in stores and online retailers however steam gets rights to distribute them aswell (Bioshock and GTA 4 being other example problematic ones) then its a double layer of ballache as you have the securerom step after steam has installed the game.

[Terbinator]

Perhaps Steam/Valve should get in the gamers corner and say their copy-protection is enough.

Buying B:AA, even at their sale price and only getting three installs is like having the proverbial fingers shown at you, with one of those foam hands.

I can understand how its not Steams fault directly though, as you pointed out

[Biscuit]

Perhaps Steam/Valve should get in the gamers corner and say their copy-protection is enough.

Buying B:AA, even at their sale price and only getting three installs is like having the proverbial fingers shown at you, with one of those foam hands.

I can understand how its not Steams fault directly though, as you pointed out

Personally i think that the B:AA method of DRM actually almost encourages piracy. Especially when you compare it to the steam platform which i feel does exactly the opposite.

[Nelsaidi]

Typically you can buy physical copies of games avaiable on steam for less, unless I'm mistaken?

I have a large collection on Steam, but the last time I walked into Game, the PC games was one shelve unit compared to ~10 + tables for a console.

I dont know what they're arguing about, understandably it costs them busines but they're not providing much of one anyways.

If they're talking about boycotting all games from a publisher, then they'd be fed, i mean what if they boycott activision because codmw2 used steam? They wont :/

[Hicks12]

Lol at retailers... my local Game has loads of pc games, loads of the only £5-£15 games... however at least they have Diablo 2 +LOC and Starcraft and all those amazing classics!. Bar that they are pretty shoddy, i bought D2 6 or 7 years ago but its not like im going to buy a new disk when mine works .

I like steam a lot but at the same time the main thing that pees me off is the offline/dependency on steam servers, they went down twice a couple months ago and it left me unable to play on my day off! They had an "offline" mode but unfortunately that was broke at the time, you needed to be online to switch to offline for some odd reason (someone tell me if this is fixed now as its nice to know ). And the second thing is that i cant resell any games, this really is annoying as i think we can all agree there have been a crap load of complete flops this year and previous ones, for example Aliens Vs Predators, shocking game and ruined the overall series for me but i couldnt sell the game afterward so it was like £20 wasted!.

If i could sell it on then it would have been sold at like £10, not such a kick in the teeth then tbh. It is possible to have this system setup, look at GreenManGaming which is a small business but very similar to steam however they offer trade ins for the majority of their games. I dont mind not being able to "sell on" my old/crap games but if i could trade them back to steam /valve for some credit then i would do that!.

[tickedon]

One of the biggest U.K. games retailers told MCV:

“If we have a digital service, then I don’t want to start selling a rival in-store. Publishers are creating a monster – we are telling suppliers to stop using Steam in their games.”

I guess that quote must be from Game, given they have a digital service (albeit last time I looked it was simply a re-branded version of something else!)... Can't think of anyone else?


The only 'new release' games I have bought in the last year have been games I can load onto Steam and that support steamworks for the ease of use and updating. I also regularly buy the Steam 'weekend deals' or 'mid-week deals' that represent excellent value for money for some of the older (and not so older) titles (that often aren't even stocked in my local retailers). As much as people complain about the Steam 'DRM', I find it to be an excellent service with plenty of benefits to me - the customer and end-user. As far as I'm concerned these days, PC Gaming = on Steam.

Equally, I still tend to like having a 'boxed' retail copy with a physical DVD I can stick on the shelf and activate on Steam - e.g. Supreme Commander 2, Modern Warfare 2, Napoleon Total War, Empire Total War and countless other new games purchased at retail for activation on Steam. Where were these bought from? Game mainly. I really don't see the downside for anyone - customers get a better experience and as Steam is usually more expensive for new releases, Game and other retailers still get the sale.

With the Black Ops launch, I wanted to head down to Game and buy a PC retail copy, as normal, with a gift card I'd been given. Pity that when I got there they wanted £39.99 rather than the £34.99 off their website (where I can't use my gift card, typical!) - and after they refused to match their website or the PCWorld and Currys just down the road which were selling it in store for the PC at £34.99, decided not to bother out of principle. I'll either purchase online from someone like Amazon and find something else in Game to buy later, or, just wait for the price to come down £5-10 in hopefully not too long!

As long as a retailer remains competitive then I'll happily continue to purchase from them. The problem with Game is that they a) take your custom for granted b) have a tiny PC selection in store. Rather than blame a service that's useful for gamers, the retailers should look at their own value proposition (which, at least in Game's retail presence, I'd say is non-existent for PC gamers).

[I3r0k3N7FEET]

Maybe some of these retailers should step up to the mark and create a decent service to rival Steam and then perhaps they can all take a healthy share of the profits. The fact of the matter is: Steam provides a service that the modern day gamer wants and needs, and it does so very well. No one else comes close.

this

[miniyazz]

I only have it running when I want to play a game, maybe lots of other people do that?

DRM is what puts me off lots of hard copy PC games, except for a few you generally get games without 3rd party DRM on Steam, and their own system is pretty decent in comparison to the Securom monstrosity. If retailers have all this influential power they should ask publishers to ease off on screwing over PC gamers so much on hard copies. I can't think of much else that would put people off really, unless you want to have a game running the second it's released - hard copies are often cheaper albeit not by much and you can sell them on when you're done. But this and having to have the disc in the tray are both additional pains caused by DRM.

If the games need activating on Steam (which seems to be the way things are going) then no, you can't sell the games on, even if you have bought a hard copy.

Also anecdotally, my Steam account is inactive.

[watercooled]

Well I meant actual hard copy games, i.e. with no relation to Steam. But some DRM like SecuROM can prevent this on some games (the ones that get pirated the most, funnily enough).

[miniyazz]

Ah right. Still, more and more games are becoming related to Steam, and if the trend continues, there will be no second-hand games market.

[FoxdieUK]

I've not stepped inside game, or equivlant for over 2 years. Steam has been the single most important factor in my recent new found invigoration in the PC platform (including a recent £600 PC upgrade), so much so i've not turned my xbox on to play a game in over a year. I've now got 83 games available to me in my steam libary. And i check back every friday to see what their weekend offer is.

If the retailers boycott the publishers i hope the publishers tell em where to go becuase it'll just push more custom to steam, and eventually even the console manufacturers will want a bit of the action and concentrate more on their direct to consumer models - eventually killing the dedicated game retailer completely - so ultimately retailers will pursue there own demise. And i wish them luck! Becuase no retailers = cheaper games, and better margins for the publishers and studios which = better games

[Kotoa]

A lot of people are commenting on the price of Steam games compared to boxed games, but I have some thoughts on why they may be similar, or slightly higher costs.

You may think that buying the game from Steam, you're not getting a disc, or a box, or paying for distribution, or paying the wages for members of staff to sell them to you (at retailers) or work in the warehouse (at e-tailers). But don't forget Steam need to store the games, the patches, your saved games (if applicable), demos and videos etc on their servers, which have setup and running costs involved, as well as all of their staff.

So, you may end up paying a couple of quid extra for games at release, but you get a lot in return for it. And if you're like me, you can wait a while until the prices come down and are in line with retailers and e-tailers.

I agree with the perks which come when you buy through steam, but with some games, it doesn't matter where you buy it, it will have to be run through steam anyway. I don't understand why it costs more for me to buy it from steam, to download + play, than to buy it from another online store, like play.com, only to download through steam anyway.

[watercooled]

I've just though of something else that puts me off buying boxed copies from some shops; when they put the empty box on the shelf which gets battered and the discs are shoved into a cardboard sleeve or something and end up scratched and with fingerprints on them. Not all shops I'll admit and not all the time but why bother trying when you can often order it online for cheaper and they almost always arrive sealed.

[kalniel]

I've just though of something else that puts me off buying boxed copies from some shops; when they put the empty box on the shelf which gets battered and the discs are shoved into a cardboard sleeve or something and end up scratched and with fingerprints on them. Not all shops I'll admit and not all the time but why bother trying when you can often order it online for cheaper and they almost always arrive sealed.

If you see them doing that then just ask to have a look at the box contents before purchase. I used to do that quite often and they were always happy to let me. (Yes, I wanted to see how nice the maps were with games.. )

[watercooled]

Yeah but for me at least it's like - should I wait until tomorrow when I'm going near a game shop and possibly come back without it or just order it online and have it tomorrow. It probably wouldn't be so bad if the discs were handled more carefully but I don't really see the problem with either putting one or two dummy boxes or cardboard printouts on the shelf and having the sealed copies behind the counter. I've also some bad experiences trying to return damaged PC games to Game, arguing they couldn't do anything because either I'd broken the seal (well durr) or because the game wasn't sealed to start with.