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Digital Distributors Refuse To Stock PC Modern Warfare 2

Alex Wiltshire's picture

By Alex Wiltshire

November 6, 2009

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Mandatory installation of Steam for the game's use of Steamworks deemed a "Trojan horse" by Direct2Drive; Impulse and Gamersgate follow.

Direct2Drive has told Gamasutra, "We don’t believe games should force the user to install a Trojan Horse." The PC version of Modern Warfare 2 will use Valve's Steamworks to manage such processes as installation, DRM, patching and save games, but this also means that Steam itself needs to be on players' systems.

The online retailers feel that selling a game that carries a storefront for a competitor is against their interests.

Impulse told IGN PC site VE3D, "We share some of the same concerns as Direct2Drive over the bundling of the Steam client with the game. The most obvious issue is the forced inclusion of a competitor's store that blocks us from carrying the game."

But the retailers emphasise that their issue is not with Modern Warfare 2 or Activision. "Our issues with the game are solely with the Steamworks bundling. We enjoy a great relationship with Activision and would love to sell the title, but not with Steam," said Impluse, while Direct2Drive will be offering US$5 off coupons to some Activision titles as recompense to customers.

The news follows Gearbox's Randy Pitchford's claim that as a developer Valve has a conflict of interest regarding Steam, and called for Steam's move to being an independent business.

JohnC's picture
On November 7th JohnC said:

They do have a perfectly valid point, though. Microsoft lost an antitrust suit against it for arguably less.

scorpion_mai's picture
On November 6th scorpion_mai said:

Steam caused my laptop to load slower since I was forced to install it when all I wanted to install was football manager, so perhaps they have a point. When my pc died with my copy of the game inside and irretrievable without forcing it out, imagine my surprise when I used steam to download, play and even use my old save. I honestly nearly cacked my pants with excitement. The system is very useful, but not for all, and given the way it piledrived itself into installation I can see how this would annoy a lot if people, the benefit I found is but one of many though, I am sure. Now gimme some freeware Valve, get me to use it other than for football manager and I'll probably be tempted to splash my cash - which is obviously the real concern of the retailers. Truth is, I hate paying full whack for games and usually buy second hand anyway - seriously, 59p on an iPhone game is too much for me. Gimme Dead Space, secondhand, for ten quid at Game or HMV anyday. Digital download has it all to prove for most tight fisted consumers such as myself.

toadwarrior's picture
On November 7th toadwarrior said:

For starters you don't need Steam to load with your computer upon booting. In fact it's unnecessary unless you use your computer solely for gaming and slowing down your computer does not make something a trojan. Otherwise a fair chunk of all software would be classed as a Trojan.

Assuming you bought your computer pre-built then it was probably already loaded down with a load of rubbish from the manufacture and it's specs were probably only acceptable.

The biggest reason PC gaming sucks (for most people) is because most PCs being sold are shit and most people aren't interested in building their own.

scorpion_mai's picture
On November 7th scorpion_mai said:

Guilty as charged. If Football Manager wasn't as morish as crack, I'd never boot it for gaming. I bought a two grand pre-built from a local retailer in 2004, it wouldn't even play Doom 3, the latest game on what was supposed to be the latest software. After that it was Footie Manager or nothing, with my PS2 getting it's slice instead. Still believe console gaming is the best way, building and maintaining (particularly calibrating) is a slow nightmare. Plug and play, all the way.

toadwarrior's picture
On November 6th toadwarrior said:

They simply don't want to give consumers the option to buy from Steam. That's fair but to lie and call it a trojan horse, which will scare consumers is just out of order.

This is no surprise though. Direct2Drive is part of IGN which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch's companies, like Fox news, are all about douch bag scare tactics, in my opinion.

I wouldn't support them because of Murdoch and this will just futher my conviction to never buy from them.

Peter_Pesic's picture
On November 6th Peter_Pesic said:

In the end it's D2D's loss and understandable, but do they really have to be overly dramatic and make a stink about it? Calling Steamworks a "trojan horse" is largely inaccurate, especially since the Steam framework is probably one of, if not the best PC game DRM solutions (as far as its flexibility and end user experience).

And this story is evidence that Activision certainly doesn't see Valve, a competitor, owning Steam as a conflict of interest, as they apparently are leaning on it for MW2's DRM. But that may have been more of an Infinity Ward choice than an Activision one.