Is Steam becoming the main way for pc game distribution?

[mb]

I've always liked Steam and with fios I like it even more! I downloaded TF2 on my newly built PC at speeds ranging from 1.8 to 2.3MB/sec. Yes, megabytes per second!

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

I wish Steam was out for OS X (Mac) and Linux. I have TONS of games on Steam but I just got a Macbook Pro and don't dualboot into windows that much (as its a pain to have to dualboot just to game). It would be nice if Steam was OS independent so I could atleast message my friends, see what games they were playing, and play games for OS X that are available on Steam (i.e. Enemy Terrirtoy: Quake Wars, UT, all the Quakes, EVE Online, World of Goo, etc.) Oh well..

 

[Eeezee]

I only started using steam maybe a month ago and I love it. I wish there were more distribution systems like it, but it's currently the best.

 

[4537256]

pay same price for no box, no manual, no disc?? screw that. i'm not lazy, i can run to the store and buy what i want and be back within 20 minutes....far shorter time than downloading most games.

 

[Qbah]

Originally posted by: shrumpage
The one issue i do have and it may be an ID issue and not steam, is Quake I & II and the mission packs do not have the original sound tracks.

What?!?!?!?! NOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[videogames101]

Originally posted by: 4537256
pay same price for no box, no manual, no disc?? screw that. i'm not lazy, i can run to the store and buy what i want and be back within 20 minutes....far shorter time than downloading most games.

What, I can download my steam games to any PC, what was that? Can't use a CD to install somewhere without a CD, needs a key, what? Sounds like CDs are BS to me.


Steam ftw.

 

[4537256]

Originally posted by: videogames101

Originally posted by: 4537256
pay same price for no box, no manual, no disc?? screw that. i'm not lazy, i can run to the store and buy what i want and be back within 20 minutes....far shorter time than downloading most games.

What, I can download my steam games to any PC, what was that? Can't use a CD to install somewhere without a CD, needs a key, what? Sounds like CDs are BS to me.


Steam ftw.

install, nodvd crack, backup to flash...presto, now works on any computer regardless and still can do all that faster than can be downloaded once.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: 4537256

Originally posted by: videogames101

Originally posted by: 4537256
pay same price for no box, no manual, no disc?? screw that. i'm not lazy, i can run to the store and buy what i want and be back within 20 minutes....far shorter time than downloading most games.

What, I can download my steam games to any PC, what was that? Can't use a CD to install somewhere without a CD, needs a key, what? Sounds like CDs are BS to me.


Steam ftw.

install, nodvd crack, backup to flash...presto, now works on any computer regardless and still can do all that faster than can be downloaded once.

Yeah, that's a solution. Pirate the software and buy memory to back it up on.

Steam does give you the manuals and you can backup the game files to disc or what not if you want. Hell, I have 15 games on Steam alone, I wouldn't want to keep the damn boxes for all of those.

 

[SpunkyJones]

Originally posted by: 4537256

Originally posted by: videogames101

Originally posted by: 4537256
pay same price for no box, no manual, no disc?? screw that. i'm not lazy, i can run to the store and buy what i want and be back within 20 minutes....far shorter time than downloading most games.

What, I can download my steam games to any PC, what was that? Can't use a CD to install somewhere without a CD, needs a key, what? Sounds like CDs are BS to me.


Steam ftw.

install, nodvd crack, backup to flash...presto, now works on any computer regardless and still can do all that faster than can be downloaded once.

I can't be bothered with all that, I download my game and play it, Steam works very well.

 

[Piuc2020]

Having a physical copy is nice but Steam does its job quite nicely, you could always buy dvd cases, print out manuals and backup your games on dvd (Steam lets you do that legally) and still have a nice physical collection.

I'm still not sold on the digital distribution thing because my connection is not fast enough to be downloading games all the time, I still prefer nice boxes with that fresh smell of "new".

 

[GhettoFob]

I've definitely purchased a lot more games because of Steam. I love not having to find my CDs to install a game.

 

[4537256]

Originally posted by: Born2bwire

Originally posted by: 4537256

Originally posted by: videogames101

Originally posted by: 4537256
pay same price for no box, no manual, no disc?? screw that. i'm not lazy, i can run to the store and buy what i want and be back within 20 minutes....far shorter time than downloading most games.

What, I can download my steam games to any PC, what was that? Can't use a CD to install somewhere without a CD, needs a key, what? Sounds like CDs are BS to me.


Steam ftw.

install, nodvd crack, backup to flash...presto, now works on any computer regardless and still can do all that faster than can be downloaded once.

Yeah, that's a solution. Pirate the software and buy memory to back it up on.

Steam does give you the manuals and you can backup the game files to disc or what not if you want. Hell, I have 15 games on Steam alone, I wouldn't want to keep the damn boxes for all of those.

lmao, why are you arguing about my preference. i'm buying the game so its not pirating. it also a sale for the store i'm buying it from.
i like it cause i can do all that faster than i can download it and i like having the box to go on the shelf with all my other games. i back them up and if i changed computers i can easily slap it back on there without messing with steam's slower solution.

its a preference, you dont have to like it but you sure wont change it by arguing.

as far as storage, well everyone should have backup mediums for all kinds of things. i backup music, data..etc as well. its called planning ahead and being prepared.

Having a physical copy is nice but Steam does its job quite nicely, you could always buy dvd cases, print out manuals and backup your games on dvd (Steam lets you do that legally) and still have a nice physical collection.

lol..why bother when i can run to the store and have all that a heck of alot easier than trying to make stuff.

if you guys like steam then use it

 

[warpigeon]

Is steam sluggish for anyone? Not in terms of downloading, but for things like scrolling through lists like achievements or all action games, etc? If it's just me I'd like to fix it as it's annoying as hell.

 

[AlgaeEater]

Originally posted by: warpigeon
Is steam sluggish for anyone? Not in terms of downloading, but for things like scrolling through lists like achievements or all action games, etc? If it's just me I'd like to fix it as it's annoying as hell.

Yes, but only during "peak" times like when I log on after work. Since their program is essentially just a bunch of fancy windows around their own web browser, the pages get spammed and take longer to load and basically become quite sluggish.

----------------

As a side note on people commenting on physical copies; I agree to an extent. As a retro gamer of sorts, I like having the box, manual, and do-dads around for games I buy. Like any product really. It should be noted however that I find Steam highly more efficient of organizing my games into one place, and removing the overly stupid DRM schemes most disc based games have of course.

Times are changing I guess.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: ultra laser

Originally posted by: Czar
Now that EA and Ubisoft have joined Steam, who is left?

Blizzard? as long as they have world of warcraft they have no reason to use steam

Who else?

I think Blizz has a more cost effective game distribution setup. They just use bittorrent. You can download WoW and all the expacs, as long as you have an account.

It's a horrible experience though. Performance is not contstant and firewalls give it fits unless you do some manual configuration which is frankly a hassle.

 

[darom]

Steam is functional and provides goods to customers for a price. Now, I would like to sell the games I purchased through Steam. Valve needs to develop a system where I can generate a unique unlock key for a buyer which would A) enable the game for him/her and B) disable the game on my system (example of giving away passes to HL2 episodes comes to mind). Games are a merchandise, some people pay sales tax on them. The games should be allowed to be traded/sold via Steam.

 

[Glavinsolo]

Originally posted by: darom
Steam is functional and provides goods to customers for a price. Now, I would like to sell the games I purchased through Steam. Valve needs to develop a system where I can generate a unique unlock key for a buyer which would A) enable the game for him/her and B) disable the game on my system (example of giving away passes to HL2 episodes comes to mind). Games are a merchandise, some people pay sales tax on them. The games should be allowed to be traded/sold via Steam.

It's been discussed often. I think if the steam community all pushed for it, it would be possible.

Take this Used/New scenario:

Steam adds a tab for used games. Steam would need to force used game prices. Since the buyer would get the same game at the same time from all sellers. If sellers competed with prices it would drop used game prices to near 0.

Steam now has a tab for used games and set prices. New obstacle.
Who gets the sale? first listed first served is the most reasonable

Steam takes a 10% cut.

Used games would obviously be less expensive than new games, so what if there are more used games for sale than new. Steam would lose money on new game sales.

Now Take this Steam Buyback Scenario:

on your My Games listing you can sell your game back to steam, removing all licensing to your steam account, you get a set price for each game, say 50% off current sale value, steam retrieves your cd-key etc etc.

You now have a steam credit to use towards a steam game purchase.

This scenario is most beneficial to steam if in actuality steam has an inventory of keys for their sales.

It also eliminates the reasoning behind selling a steam account with games on it.

Thinking about it there must be some games on steam that would be unavailable for buyback if this system were to occur. Being that they have no record keeping of cd keys given out or no cd key period. No cd key, no online activation, would result in a worthless buyback from steam and it wouldn't be in their best interest.

 

[darom]

You now have a steam credit to use towards a steam game purchase.

Let's leave Steam store out of this picture. I shouldn't have mentioned the 'store' term. I don't need credits (caps, stars, points etc.) Give me an unlock key that I can give away or sell for a profit. Why should Steam benefit the second time? It is like a State which benefits numerous times from a sale of one item (like a car) in the form of the sales tax which gets sold over and over again.

I do agree with you that we all should request this feature which is _not_ in the interest of the Valve company since there will be electronic cheaper versions of the software floating around Internet.

 

[4537256]

i can just ebay mine

 

[KeypoX]

yeah steam is great if you like to pay more for games. Its convenient and you never have to leave your house that type of thing. But you could order online and have it delivered to your door. I just dont like the idea of not being able to resale it.

 

[coreyb]

i dont make a lot of money and i could care less about selling my games.

 

[Hugh H]

I have around 20 retail games and over 30 STEAM games... I love STEAM. I understand how people with a slow internet connection may feel frustrated with STEAM; however, we have to keep in mind that internet connections will continue to get faster with time.


I am sort of a video games collector so I don't care about reselling.

 

[shingletingle]

Originally posted by: coreyb
i dont make a lot of money and i could care less about selling my games.

So you do care about selling your games. Or did you mean you couldn't care less?

 

[4537256]

games usually arnt worth much at all, from my experience, console games usually sell better.
though some classic games are worth a mint...i saw an adventure game made in 1992 for pc called adventures of willy beamish sold for $256

 

[quadomatic]

Originally posted by: Czar
Now that EA and Ubisoft have joined Steam, who is left?

Blizzard? as long as they have world of warcraft they have no reason to use steam

Who else?

Well, Blizzard is now Activision-Blizzard. Activision sells its games on Steam. Given that, it's probably only a matter of time until Blizzard distributes games on Steam.

I'd guess that the Blizzard will hit Steam (heh heh, blizzard jokes) once Starcraft II rolls around, but I don't think World of Warcraft will ever go on Steam, since DRM and distribution are irrelevant when you use Bittorrent to distribute files. It's far more efficient than a server.

I wouldn't be surprised if P2P becomes the distribution method for Steam once it gets really big.