Stardock: "Age of Steam" May Not Last

[modeps]

The CEO of Stardock (not Starforce) Brad Wardell has come out and stated that the Age of Steam may not last. He claims that digital distribution is still in its infancy and that just because they're on top now, doesn't mean it'll stay that way. It should be noted also that Stardock has their own digital distribution service. Edge Online (http://www.edge-online.com/blogs/why-age-steam-may-not-last):

When one of these services has 20 million active users per day, then I think we can say that they have reached a critical threshold. Right now, however, by Valve's own statistics, about half of Steam users use it for just Counterstrike -- not including all of Valve's other games.

Steam certainly has a commanding early lead. Valve has made a number of shrewd business decisions such as acquiring Counterstrike and requiring those players to become Steam users. That instantly gave Steam a large installed base. Combined with Valve's outstanding releases of Half-Life 2 and Left4Dead have cemented Steam's position as the leading digital distribution platform.

As new titles come out bundled with Steamworks, which requires a user to become a Steam user in order to play the game (something I would normally think that the press would raise alarm about if this were being done by say EA or Microsoft or even Google), the Steam user base has continued to increase.

He makes several good points.

[Mantooth]

As new titles come out bundled with Steamworks, which requires a user to become a Steam user in order to play the game (something I would normally think that the press would raise alarm about if this were being done by say EA or Microsoft or even Google)

Personally I wish that every new game was bundled with Steamworks. The convenience of not having to put the game disc in the drive to play is worth it for me, especially since I am gaming on a laptop now. I would complain if it was forced upon me and I didn't receive what I consider to be a benefit.

[RMan]

So, beyond Stardock not owning Steamworks, what's the fuss about again? How is it different than what MS does with it's APIs? Are MS APIs now not designed for their platforms, did I miss a memo? Last I checked, consumers have to run Windows in order to use Window's services.

This just seems like sour grapes. I can understand the guy trying to say 'let's not call a winner, we still have a shot', but that should come with an interesting game plan other than the claim that steam is overrated. Steam’s early lead does, from a historical standpoint, go a long way to solidifying it’s dominance. Infrastructure generally wins when it gets a commanding lead, Steam will have no transitional elements (like generation ‘resets’ for console systems) that can really disrupt things. So unless they horribly drop the ball or bigger forces (MS) can effectively push them from the market, it’s almost assuredly a done deal.

[Zander]

Personally I wish that every new game was bundled with Steamworks. The convenience of not having to put the game disc in the drive to play is worth it for me, especially since I am gaming on a laptop now. I would complain if it was forced upon me and I didn't receive what I consider to be a benefit.

Exactly how I feel.

I understand that people find Steam annoying or even down-right invading, but I feel the benefits of being able to install the game to any machine that I own (especially after a Windows rebuild) and not having it tied to a piece of destructible/scratch-able media is worth the annoyance of having to maintain a login.

[vallor]

Personally I wish that every new game was bundled with Steamworks. The convenience of not having to put the game disc in the drive to play is worth it for me, especially since I am gaming on a laptop now. I would complain if it was forced upon me and I didn't receive what I consider to be a benefit.

Down that path lies Lawsuits. As good as it is for consumers once it reaches a critical mass of games requiring it we get into lawsuit territory.

I still don't have a steam or impulse account myself. I'd rather not get one, but I may not have much choice if they keep tempting me with all the gaming goodness they have...

[XxSATANxX]

Not a big fan of steam. It's okay but I can't really see any huge plus for me. The fact that it is forced on you hits me wrong. For now I like my physical media.

[biosc1]

I have quite a few games through Impulse. Many, many more through Steam. I am buying more through Impulse, lately, though.

I am pro-digital. I have only bought a few hard copies over the last year...and usually only because it was cheaper (Sins, Civ4:BTS, Witcher, King's Bounty). I despise having to having to have a disc in the drive, so for the games I can't register with an online service, I immediately put a no-cd crack in the install directory. What Steam and Impulse allow me to do is to not even have to worry about that. They also let me easily travel with my software from pc to pc.

Impulse has some pretty neat stuff coming up, very similar to Steamworks and integration of GfWL. The more competition the better.

In the end though, him saying his competitor may not be the greatest is not really out of the ordinary. Everyone thinks their service is the best. Impulse still has a way to go before it gets up to Steams level. Mainly game selection.

[Cutter99]

Not a big fan of steam. It's okay but I can't really see any huge plus for me. The fact that it is forced on you hits me wrong. For now I like my physical media.

I was the same way - and I was shocked at how quickly and easy it was to convert me over. After just a few purchases I was scrambling to register my non-steam-bought games and unify it all as much as possible. The unified friends-list and auto-patch acquisition just make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I mean, unless you pay careful attention, it's hard to even *notice* that games have been patched - much less have to keep track of it, find them and install them yourself.

I'm having a hard time envisioning a manner in which Steam can be unseated. It's not like there's a new console generation where install-bases are rebuilt anew. The more people purchase games on Steam, the more their friends lists get built up - the more they want *only* Steam to be the one service they have to go to.

[Inane Gamer]

Exactly how I feel.

I understand that people find Steam annoying or even down-right invading, but I feel the benefits of being able to install the game to any machine that I own (especially after a Windows rebuild) and not having it tied to a piece of destructible/scratch-able media is worth the annoyance of having to maintain a login.

Don't forget about those friggin' codes. No codes to input or write down and loose with Steam!

That has to be my favorite aspect of steam.

[biosc1]

Don't forget about those friggin' codes. No codes to input or write down and loose with Steam!

That has to be my favorite aspect of steam.

Exactly. I have to keep a backed up spreadsheet of codes after having a game go kaput because I lost the slip of paper with the code (yah, I should have jiffy markered the dvd with it).

[yutt]

I much prefer Impulse's DRM system to Steam, as it allows much greater consumer freedom. However, Stardock just doesn't have a comparable system to Steam, yet.

Steam has many more games, it completely gamer-centric, unlike Impulse which sells many other applications, has integrated voice and chat, has a powerful community and achievement systems. I can keep going.

Impulse has a terrible UI, and no chat client (no the IRC client doesn't count) or integrated community. Those alone mean I will prefer Steam for now. Randomly being able to see what my friends are playing and instantly join their game means a lot to me.

What do I mean by terrible UI? For starters, there isn't much to the interface but a glorified version of IE. The game launch panel is enormous. I have dozens of games on Steam, if I had that many on Impulse I wouldn't be able to navigate them.

Stardock needs to have an open Jabber/XMPP client (I'm dreaming) integrated into their system, along with a cleaner interface that doesn't require me to launch their giant bulky IE browser to browse my games list.

Stardock often proselytizes that their system is superior to Steam because it doesn't using their interface. That's great, but I like using the interface to organize my games, so not being required isn't an excuse for it being terrible.

[koorb]

Gamers will go where the content is.

[yutt]

I wish I could edit. My posts are unreadable as first drafts. I need to get used to EvAv's Nazi interface again. :(

[Baron Phineas Gifford]

I personally like steam. I just built a new rig and was able to install my games again with such ease. Plus not having to use the game discs is awesome.

[biosc1]

I wish I could edit. My posts are unreadable as first drafts. I need to get used to EvAv's Nazi interface again. :(

Meh, seems completely readable to me. As I mentioned, there is a new version of Impulse coming that will make it act a lot better. Sys-tray icon, etc...

http://frogboy.joeuser.com/article/339314/Impulse_Phase_3_Preview

[kickmybum]

He's got a point. Steam really really sucks ass at customer service and response. It has an absolutely ridiculous start-up time and it's installation system is not mod-friendly. I have no idea how anyone else's distribution systems fair in comparison. Really, all it takes is one big game to bundle with Impulse or something and for Impulse to be a better product and bam, Steam's got serious competition.

[zeonxavier]

Gamers will go where the content is.

/agree

The only things on Impulse at the moment I would pay money for are Space Rangers 2 and Sins of a Solar Empire. I bought Space Rangers 2 retail box once already, but the horrible DRM persuaded me not to install it from CD again.

[Syl]

I find it odd that he complains about games requiring steam to run; when I have multiple games that require stardock.

I use both; but I prefer steam for all of the reasons that yutt stated.

[Johan]

You know, as much as people may like a particular distribution model, or dislike another, I wish people would at least remember that just because YOU have a favorite, that doesn't mean it's naturally the BEST.

Steam is terrific for some people, but there are other options.

[yutt]

Just in-case any Stardock folks happen-by this discussion:

As noted on the left, I am from Michigan, and would love to funnel more of my disposable income to Stardock, a Michigan based company. Give me comparable features and a more streamline interface and I'm irrationally yours.

[Greeble]

I really like that steam has an agreement that if Valve ever goes bankrupt or whatever they will release all the games on their service. Makes me feel better about using it. Also its a hell of a lot better dealing with cd-keys. I hate those fucking codes.

[MasterEvilAce]

The guy says digital distribution might not last, but they have their own digital distribution servers?? Why would you talk down what you've already implemented?

Sounds to me like the guy is in a big fuss that steam is much better and much more popular

[kefka95]

The only way I can ever see Steam relinquishing it's position at the top is if the people in charge just do something incredibly stupid. It's not that the other services are bad, it's just that there's no compelling reason for either consumers or publishers to use another service over Steam. Right now the only "problem" with Steam is that some users encounter the occasional bug or slow download, but any service is going to have issues like that.

It would be a different issue if Steam was just loaded with massive problems, but as it is it's not, and I just don't see much that the competition can do differently or better.

[Jack9]

XBox Live works, google has nothing comparable. In each case, it's been a vendor lock-in since the first time WON went down. It will be many years before the tears start and players start demanding the sanity of Bnet imo. Of course a good many people run around with a google/yahoo/ask/whatever toolbar without thinking. Can't really blame them for not understanding how it CAN be.

[derjester]

I'm going to chime in and agree that content is king. Valve has an amazing first party line up and the third parties they have on board are producing amazing games. Coupled with the nearly every weekend sales, I'm completely sold on Steam. That said I'd still love to see support for more than just windows.
I think in a perfect world Steam would be the platform that has multiple clients available for different OSs. Like Adobe Air, except with a game library that can be managed between systems with different OSs. By making Steam platform agnostic it would entice plenty of developers to adopt the Steam API. You code one version of your game and it runs on three platforms instead of having to dedicate resources to cross platform development and having a lousy version for one platform and the "recommended platform" like consoles.

Also, as a bit of an aside, isn't this what the Phantom was trying to do in a console environment? Maybe if it wasn't in development by a con artist it would've been a pretty rad "all around" console.

[Ozymandias]

Gamers will go where the content is.

... and they'll buy where the experience and price is right. It's early days, folks... five years from now you'll be checking out discount sites to find the best deal on game foo.

[dirtbag]

I wish I could edit. My posts are unreadable as first drafts. I need to get used to EvAv's Nazi interface again. :( You wouldn't be from the Upper Peninsula, would you?

[ResistanceAddict]

I don't do much PC gaming so I don't have Steam, and I certainly don't see it as a competitor to anything, rather a great serviceable market in its own, and I greatly support it and think it's a wonderful thing for gaming overall. It comes down to preference. Personally I love physical ownership of a game, but many feel the opposite and Steam is a great alternative. Now, if there was somehow a way in the future for the same kind of thing that would allow downloads to systems and whatnot, perhaps the entire idea of physical media being eventually gone would be demolished (as I believe it should) and we would simply have two different (excellent) options.

Just my 2 cents.

[yutt]

You wouldn't be from the Upper Peninsula, would you?
Gaylord, not quite to the UP.