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Is PC gaming turning into a civil war? (DD Clients)
- Thread starter MRORANGE
- Start date
AShep said:
Go back to consoles. That's what I'd probably do at least. The PC industry will suck if all the big console publishers are running it with their shitty services and practices. Then everyone who's been hating on Valve during this fiasco will wish they had a Steam monopoly.
BobsRevenge
I do not avoid women, GAF, but I do deny them my essence.
To be fair, they did destroy a few great PC developers after they bought them...confused said:
TheShampion
Member
I'll probably end up playing Solitaire 95% of the time instead of playing games I bought, like what I used to do before I got back into PC gaming.AShep said:
That's a very unlikely scenario. The set of games I actively play in multiplayer is very small (maybe 5 at most), and I believe that this is the same for most people. And on top of that I never uninstall games. But yeah, I guess in the maybe 2 cases in my lifetime it could be a few seconds more work. Truly civil-war-like terror.Taij said:
soulassssns
Banned
competition is always a good thing.
I already got a free game out of this competition LOL. TY Origin for Deadspace 2.
I already got a free game out of this competition LOL. TY Origin for Deadspace 2.
Confidence Man
Member
soulassssns said:
It's not really competition if the same products aren't available, or at least it isn't going forward.
MustacheBandit_
Member
although it would be convenient for it to be through steam, it isn't and I will live. a lot of you are blowing it way out of proportion. its not that big of a deal.
FieryBalrog
Member
Steam-only future will save PC gaming!!!!1bangai-o said:
soulassssns
Banned
Confidence Man said:
Yes it is.
BF3 is available on many different DD systems. Just not Steam.
I think it's stupidity, to be honest. I think publishers like EA are being morons.
I think people comparing it to 'the old days' are missing the point entirely. The PC saw a decline in the market place for a reason. People got tired of the wild west nature of the platform, and saw an opportunity to shift over to consoles and not lose access to their favourite games, because Microsoft were money hatting every American based PC developer in sight to put their games on the Xbox. Previously PC-strong genres, FPS and western RPGs shifted to the Xbox. Quick aside, I'm talking purely in a market sense here, sales and stuff. Not quality or even quantity of content.
I think even the most ardent PC supporters (my man ghst) would admit that in the middle of last decade, for better or worse (I'm going with for worse, because game design suffered) the PC had reached a low point in terms of its position in the marketplace. The incredibly annoying droning of "comfy couch!!" was getting louder. The PC retail market, in the US at least, was dying a pretty quick death.
Enter Valve, Steam, and the rise of digital distribution. This dramatic shift, along with a general slowdown (once again, for better or worse. Make your own judgement) in the need for upgrades (my last machine lasted three and a half years) and a pretty healthy decrease in costs, things started to shift back in favour of the PC. From both a user standpoint and a developer standpoint.
Practically everyone, except for that small minority who will hate a small program running in the background no matter what, agrees that Steam has been great for the consumer. It's a form a DRM sure, but in this case the benefits outweigh the negatives. Unlimited downloading, unified friends list, great sales, etc. There's an ease of use that has never existed on the PC platform before, but it hasn't come at the cost of the advantages of the platform. The only time that customisation/freedom we've come to expect from PC games disappears is when the publishers/developers are dicks.
For the publishers/developers, Valve basically said "Hey, we're going to give you a place where you can sell your games directly to your customers. We're going to take a lot of that previously spread out PC audience and bring them all together. They're basically going to look at the storefront every single day. You'll get up to the minute sales information. You'll be able to control the price of your product directly. We'll even let you continue being complete dicks and keep ripping off your non-US customers. We'll even give you access to free development tools that will let you add a whole bunch of neat features to your games like cloud saves. And for this, we'll take 30% and deal with all the infrastructure. 70% is still much more than you get at retail, so it's a pretty good deal."
Now, basically every single publisher has delusions of grandeur, thinking that if Valve could do it, there's nothing stopping them from doing it. Except none of them have seemed to stop and wonder if they even need to do it. Is the extra 15% worth it (30% - 15% of actually having to run the DD infrastructure themselves. Wild guess, but seems reasonable). Steam already offers them a much better proposition than retail ever did.
It's as if they are looking a gift horse in the mouth, and then proceeding to stab it to death. Because I'm telling you, if all these publishers think that they'll all be able to make their own digital distribution platforms and everything will just be fine and dandy and continue growing as it has the last 3-4 years, they're in for a shock.
I think people comparing it to 'the old days' are missing the point entirely. The PC saw a decline in the market place for a reason. People got tired of the wild west nature of the platform, and saw an opportunity to shift over to consoles and not lose access to their favourite games, because Microsoft were money hatting every American based PC developer in sight to put their games on the Xbox. Previously PC-strong genres, FPS and western RPGs shifted to the Xbox. Quick aside, I'm talking purely in a market sense here, sales and stuff. Not quality or even quantity of content.
I think even the most ardent PC supporters (my man ghst) would admit that in the middle of last decade, for better or worse (I'm going with for worse, because game design suffered) the PC had reached a low point in terms of its position in the marketplace. The incredibly annoying droning of "comfy couch!!" was getting louder. The PC retail market, in the US at least, was dying a pretty quick death.
Enter Valve, Steam, and the rise of digital distribution. This dramatic shift, along with a general slowdown (once again, for better or worse. Make your own judgement) in the need for upgrades (my last machine lasted three and a half years) and a pretty healthy decrease in costs, things started to shift back in favour of the PC. From both a user standpoint and a developer standpoint.
Practically everyone, except for that small minority who will hate a small program running in the background no matter what, agrees that Steam has been great for the consumer. It's a form a DRM sure, but in this case the benefits outweigh the negatives. Unlimited downloading, unified friends list, great sales, etc. There's an ease of use that has never existed on the PC platform before, but it hasn't come at the cost of the advantages of the platform. The only time that customisation/freedom we've come to expect from PC games disappears is when the publishers/developers are dicks.
For the publishers/developers, Valve basically said "Hey, we're going to give you a place where you can sell your games directly to your customers. We're going to take a lot of that previously spread out PC audience and bring them all together. They're basically going to look at the storefront every single day. You'll get up to the minute sales information. You'll be able to control the price of your product directly. We'll even let you continue being complete dicks and keep ripping off your non-US customers. We'll even give you access to free development tools that will let you add a whole bunch of neat features to your games like cloud saves. And for this, we'll take 30% and deal with all the infrastructure. 70% is still much more than you get at retail, so it's a pretty good deal."
Now, basically every single publisher has delusions of grandeur, thinking that if Valve could do it, there's nothing stopping them from doing it. Except none of them have seemed to stop and wonder if they even need to do it. Is the extra 15% worth it (30% - 15% of actually having to run the DD infrastructure themselves. Wild guess, but seems reasonable). Steam already offers them a much better proposition than retail ever did.
It's as if they are looking a gift horse in the mouth, and then proceeding to stab it to death. Because I'm telling you, if all these publishers think that they'll all be able to make their own digital distribution platforms and everything will just be fine and dandy and continue growing as it has the last 3-4 years, they're in for a shock.
EA knows there are alot of steam users who only want to use steam and the only way to pry them away is great exclusives..
if they both carried all the games and were undercutting each other's prices, then yes that would be great, but now everyone wants their own client and with that comes exclusives to attract people to use it.
obviously, i wish i could have everything on steam just out of shear convenience, but looks like it's not going to happen.
i mean, blizzard has never used steam and i won't be surprised if they get their own platform too someday.
if they both carried all the games and were undercutting each other's prices, then yes that would be great, but now everyone wants their own client and with that comes exclusives to attract people to use it.
obviously, i wish i could have everything on steam just out of shear convenience, but looks like it's not going to happen.
i mean, blizzard has never used steam and i won't be surprised if they get their own platform too someday.
BobsRevenge
I do not avoid women, GAF, but I do deny them my essence.
I think everyone just prefers steam, and then if there's a good sale somewhere else they'll take advantage. And it is a bit nerdy, but nerdiest? Dunno man. I don't know much about Star Trek, but I feel like that would be a better place to look for nerdy Civil Wars. Or comics. Probably some mad nerdy X-Men civil wars. Warhammer too.Forkball said:
:lol
Confidence Man
Member
soulassssns said:
EA already had the EA Store. The "civil war" is a war of platforms. If I could choose to play BF3 on Steam or Origin based on which had the features and functionality I prefer, then that would be competition. As it is, regardless of where you buy BF3 from, you're playing it on Origin.
It's not about the game's release date, it's the DLCs release date no?Cptkrush said:
I can't say for a fact certainly. Someone posted it on GAF the other day and seemed very sure of their sources.
Regardless I think EA would have done this anyway. They might be just using it as timely excuse.
soulassssns
Banned
FieryBalrog said:
No thanks
soulassssns
Banned
Confidence Man said:
Read the article again and get back to me.
Sapphire Dreams
Member
Back in the old days we did not need any clients. just buy retail, install and play. Kinda miss those days 
soulassssns
Banned
angelfly said:
^^^This
MaddenNFL64
Member
It's just capitalism mang.
Vaporak said:
This is factually incorrect. Origin carries with it no DRM (so far, this could change for future games), each game on Origin has its own DRM system. Most EA games do use SecuROM which have a limited # of machine activations but most (all of the recent ones I've ever bought) also allow you to revoke the activation when you uninstall (in fact most games FORCE you to revoke the license before you uninstall in my experience although I'm not sure what it would do if you aren't connected to the internet). If you forget to uninstall before you reformat, I believe there is a utility you can use to revoke the licenses as well but this part I'm not sure about.
Most of the games have a limit of 5 activations so I'm not even sure where you're getting the #3 from. Spore maybe?
I actually prefer this system to Steam. Both require initial activations when installing the game, but SecuROM doesn't require a client running while Steam does. And I don't ever have to install a game on more than 5 machines at the same time.
Confidence Man
Member
soulassssns said:
Article?
lastplayed
Member
More choice is always good. I love shopping around for the best price.
And more opportunities for sales!
And more opportunities for sales!
Gully State
Member
Still doesn't explain dirt 3StuBurns said:
soulassssns
Banned
Confidence Man said:
I believe its posted on BF3Blog.
edit:
http://bf3blog.com/2011/08/origin-required-to-play-battlefield-3/
lastplayed
Member
Derrick01 said:
I'm talking about DD services in general. GG sales, D2D sale, Steam sales... it'd be pretty boring if it were just Steam.
jim-jam bongs
Member
soulassssns said:
Pro tip: right click and copy links rather than copying the truncated version.
I H8 Memes
Member
It's not so much being a steam loyalist, as some posters would love to frame the issue, it's about being a customer of a privately owned company vs. a publicly owned company. Ask customers who bought Madden 10 how their online is working out for them now. Yeah putting as much control of their product as possible into EA's hands is what really smart customers want.
But hey I'm just a steam loyalist what do I know.
But hey I'm just a steam loyalist what do I know.