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The Age of Steam
A large part of Steam’s appeal to third parties lies with the company’s ability to consistently sell games in an era of widespread piracy. “The more features you can build in and the more that people want to be on your platform, the less they’re going to torrent things,” suggests Holtman.
“At the end of the day, pirates are just serving customers better, either getting a game out faster, or in a way where people can move it between computers. If you can do that, people won’t go to pirate sites.”
And it’s Steam’s facility to release games quickly and cheaply that attracts developers, particularly independents, whose titles may not have been possible with a standard publishing arrangement. It may not offer small teams the cash up front in order to develop their games, but it allows them to access an audience far less painfully than was previously possible.
“We never accepted any traditional publishing deals, because they were rubbish,” says Introversion’s Mark Morris. “Then Steam came along. Darwinia had been out for more than six months at this point, and we released it on Steam and had a massive sales boost. What Valve says is, ‘Put your game on our system, we’ll deliver sales to you, and you can have two thirds of the returns’. They don’t want any IP, or sequel rights. Valve saved the company, really.”
And so, the Steam of 2009 is almost unrecognisable from the Steam of 2002. Additions like Steam Community have added social networking tools, while Steam Cloud provides a way for users to manage cross-game data like settings and saves. Typically, when asked about the forces shaping Steam’s evolution, Newell suggests the customer is the crucial factor: “Consumers aren’t product designers, but they can tell you what’s frustrating. Steam Cloud comes out of our customers’ experiences of managing their own data. Steam Community’s the same thing – you look at what people are doing on their own websites and say: ‘How can we create an infrastructure that makes that easier?’”
One of the most ambitious additions so far is Steamworks, a free suite of development and publishing tools for the platform. “Steamworks is things we need to do for our customers’ games and for our own games,” argues Newell.
“That has made it a real value to other developers as well. With Team Fortress, we took the Half-Life 1 engine and turned it into a tool for other companies; that’s what we’re doing here.” And the strategy appears to be working. Dylan Fitterer’s Audiosurf, released in February last year, was one of the first games to be shipped with Steamworks, and the freshly minted millionaire suggests it was a valuable timesaver: “Audiosurf wouldn’t have achievements or a library of built-in music without Steamworks. Achievements were added in two days.”
Steamworks sounds philanthropic, but there’s a solid business case too, because Valve takes a share of revenue generated from games sold. It’s already scheduled to appear in Dawn Of War 2, FEAR 2 and Empire Total War. Quietly, Valve is making itself an important part of triple-A PC development.
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
For *new* games in the US, Steam is usually the same price as brick-and-mortar retail but a few dollars more than Amazon. I keep it around just for the sales on older games.
My only issue with Steam is Steamworks. Dawn of War 2 requires you to be a Steam user to do anything. So you'll never see it on another distribution platform because of that.
If we should have learned anything from Microsoft, its that giving one person all the keys is a really bad idea. But other then that, its a good platform these days and its success is good for the industry.
One thing I have always liked about Steam: I have never, ever been unable to download my games onto any pc I wanted. That in and of itself makes it valuable for me...at least until they go out of business.
Brian
www.brianwoods.com
To Wall_E:
I agree with you, but, from what I've heard, it is the publisher who fixes the prices of their products on Steam, not Valve. And, even then, there are Steam discount sales which offering very generous savings - the 'Bioshock' Christmas sale being a notable example.
SwiftRanger:
Yeah, I've heard many people on the forums complaining about the Steam rollout of E:TW. Luckily, I wasn't one of them; although, I feel it's pretty tough on people who bought the game game for a premium price and end up getting a flat-out broken service.
Also, I agree with the worry of Valve establishing a monopoly over online distribution. As a gamer I like to have my games in one place, and I also have a lot of goodwill stored up in Valve. As a consumer I don't believe that any company with that kind of dominant position in a market won't exploit it, just to keep the fanbase happy. Competition keeps companies competitive and sparks innovation: it's almost like a physical law of nature.
If anybody isn't aware, Stardock provides a fairly good distribution service called 'Impulse'. Unfortunately, it lacks the features which make Steam's service seem more like a community than a business model. If other distribution platforms want to compete with Steam, I think they will have to step up their game somewhat.
Who the f**k in their right mind would pay £39.99 for Total War on Steam when the game can be bought for £30, or even order it from some places online for £25.
Madness!!
Madness, this is Sparta!
sorry couldn't resist. :)
"and the service’s opening months were marred by bottlenecks and a frustrating online registration experiment. "
Well, that's still the case even now, both the DoW II and Empire launches didn't go all that smooth to put it lightly.
I like Steam but it's essential it doesn't become a monopoly or that the gaming press doesn't exclusively highlight certain Steam pricedrops and special deals. PC gaming should never rely on one company pulling the strings, like it's the case on consoles.
As much as i like Steam and the content it provides, i can't help but get annoyed at the price tag of some games.
For example:
Fallout 3 £26.99 on Steam - £16.99 for retail version.
Bioshock £13.99 on Steam - £10 for retail version.
Dawn Of War II £34.99 on Steam - £22.99 for retail version.
Empire: Total War £39.99 on Steam - £29.99 for retail version.
This is just a small example (there are loads) when comparing retail and downloadable games.
Considering there are no distribution costs for downloadable games i.e. no disc, no printed manual, no box, and no shelf space fees, these games shouldn't be price so high.
Games just aren't worth £30/40 and asking such high prices for downladable games is laughable considering the no distribution costs.
I for one won't be moved on my maximum £25 per title, therefore i'll go to the place where i can get the title the cheapest.
The future isn't digital downloads if they are priced at these ridiculous numbers
Hrm. Maybe the experience is different in the UK. Here, I first installed Steam when I thought about buying the orange box on special at a local office supply store. When I checked steam, it was cheaper. I ended up buying the valve complete pack.
Similarly, I have picked up things when they've been deeply discounted... like bioshock for $4.95.
Now Steam for us Canadians is in American dollars --- so the actuall price has become more skewed of late, but I still find that releases are cheaper on Steam... even FEAR2 at $49.95 vs. $59.95 (although that's awfully close with the current exchange rate).
There 's a big debate over the price of games within Steam over at the Steam forums (see link below). Most of Europe are at War with Valve over pricing.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=770231
Maybe the moaning idiots should have kept hold of their own currencies then?
//Sorry, double post.
Definitely agreeable.
And also--Gabe Newell really needs to lose weight.