Gamasutra is reporting that Direct2Drive is refusing to sell Infinity Ward's upcoming FPS, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, in protest of its Steamworks integration.
Quote:
IGN-owned digital game distributor Direct2Drive announced today it's refusing to sell Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on PC, protesting the game's integration with Valve's Steamworks.
"We don’t believe games should force the user to install a Trojan Horse," said the company -- referring to Steam, in a statement explaining its decision.
The company says its beef is not with publisher Activision -- in fact, Direct2Drive will offer a $5 coupon off of some of the Activision titles it sells as a compensation to its users.
Direct2Drive instead opposes MW2's Steamworks integration -- as an online storefront for digital download games, it competes directly with Valve's Steam service in some areas. In the highest-profile endorsement of Valve's digital tools to date, Infinity Ward will use the Steam client to update, support and authenticate the game.
I don't blame them for not wanting to sell a game with Steamworks integration, but it's too bad the folks at Direct2Drive don't feel the same way about SecuROM. I purchased an Atari published title, Test Drive Unlimited, from Direct2Drive and have to enter a manual activation code every time I play the game (the support staff there was helpful with partially resolved matter). Considering there is no mention of the game using SecuROM on Direct2Drive, I'd call that a "Trojan Horse."
I don't blame them. Steam is a competitor. I've never used D2D's service, but own 50+ Steam games. After all, Target doesn't sell Wal-Mart brand (Great Value) goods, do they?
good and bad at the same time, i didn't know steam was integrated into MW2 that sucks i hate that i have to play a game i own through steam, i don't like or trust a company that forces you to run their program just to play a game you own.
OMG, D2D is aweeesomeee. It takes a lot of guts to do something like that.
This forced Steam integration thingy has GOT to stop. It took me 2 seconds to write off Empire:TW and Fear 2 for that very reason. Steam is the worst thing to happen to gaming. It's like a cancer. Napoleon:TW isn't even on my radar. I am not considering Shattered Horizon, but I will pick up Torchlight when the boxed version is released.
Steam is terrible. It's a joke. Who wants their game to be tied to them for the rest of their life? Not to mention the inconvenience of their servers going down and the possibility of being locked out of your account (yes, it DOES happen. I've read horror stories).
There's only one company that going to suffer from this, D2D.
And I don't think anyone really cares they won't carry it.... well aside from Valve who is gleefully rubbing their hands together and saying, "Thanks for the influx of new customers and additional revenue D2D!"
I don't blame them. Steam is a competitor. I've never used D2D's service, but own 50+ Steam games. After all, Target doesn't sell Wal-Mart brand (Great Value) goods, do they?
I find this to be a fallacy.
Both Target and Wal-mart will sell Modern Warfare 2 and they are competitors.
Well, it's certainly presented as a lofty measure, but undoubtedly it was an analyst's decision weighing the short-term profit loss compared to the long-term cost of promoting and exposing a competitor's product. And they'll certainly get some press out of it, too.
Having said that, I bought a bunch of D2D games during their $5 sale, and I have to admit that I REALLY like it. It seems to allow for a lot more untethered freedom than Steam. Price being equal, I'd probably buy a game from D2D over Steam right now.
I don't blame them. Steam is a competitor. I've never used D2D's service, but own 50+ Steam games. After all, Target doesn't sell Wal-Mart brand (Great Value) goods, do they?
They don't have the option.
If Target could sell Walmart branded goods, which customers purchased at Target instead of Walmart; it would be idiotic to not do this.
Direct2Drive just sent every dollar from customers who want to buy this game to their competitors. They further burned consumer goodwill, and forced consumers who have no interest in using Steam, and maybe wanted to stick with having their purchases through Direct2Drive, to buy from some other outlet.
It was a very, very stupid decision.
"We don't want our customers to install Steam on their PCs, so we are going to refuse customers' business and require them to purchase the game through Steam."
Good for them, I too decry the balkanization of games in this fashion.
You used that word in the exact opposite of its meaning. If you were against balkanization, you would want the various competing online distribution systems to cooperate for consumer good. Which is exactly the opposite of what happened here.
So you support the balkanization of games in this fashion.
Direct2Drive doesn't even provide a comparable system to Steamworks for Activision to use. This was a nonsensical protest, a poor business decision, and only serves to limit consumer choice.
Maybe if Direct2Drive had the facilities to provide an alternative to Steamworks it would make sense. But they don't. Maybe they should quit crying about how unfair the world is and try to get service parity with their competitors.
Or they can drive all their competitors to Steam. That works too.
You used that word in the exact opposite of its meaning. If you were against balkanization, you would want the various competing online distribution systems to cooperate for consumer good. Which is exactly the opposite of what happened here.
So you support the balkanization of games in this fashion.
I don't think that's what he means. The balkanization is due to Steam-only technology being embedded into the game, thus making Steam the best place to play/purchase this game. The fact that D2D is refusing to sell the game reinforces the balkanization, yes, but that's not the root problem.
In a truly "open" market, the relative value of a game would be irrespective of the place you bought it. Of course, now that we even have things like vendor-specific preorder bonuses, that's probably a thing of the past.
I agree with them, I use steam and know that I HATE games that force you to use game for windows or third party services on top of steam. This is the same for them, game companies should ONLY use the services that the digital delivery provides and NOT add anything on top of that.
Eh who cares, no ones gonna buy it on the PC anyways. Amiriteguyz?
*highfive*
Can't believe you were the first to bring this up...PC version is totally castrated. Most likely there won't be any free DLC on PC either. No price break to boot(at launch anyways).
Hopefully D2D's stance will educate more people that MW2 is linked to Steam, which means no used game sales. So you are actually paying a lot more for the game.
