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[water_wendi]

The most popular games on the platform say otherwise.

Outside of a handful of titles (and most of those are F2P or MMO) Steam is the de facto monopoly in PC gaming. If a PC game is sold it is either through the Steam store directly or is otherwise entangled with it via DRM.

 

[DryvBy]

Yes. My friend and I have talked about this for a while. Before Steam, it felt like the quality of PC gaming had tanked. Everything felt like a port of a port of a console game. Now it feels like I'm getting real PC games again.

The only thing I hate about it is the megaton of indie junk. I'm talking about mediocre "look, SNES graphics!" 8/16-bit trash. I'd rather get old PC games that matter on Steam than "Flash Game convert to Steam!" junk. Or "games" like Proteus.

 

[water_wendi]

Yes. My friend and I have talked about this for a while. Before Steam, it felt like the quality of PC gaming had tanked. Everything felt like a port of a port of a console game. Now it feels like I'm getting real PC games again.

Exactly what are you giving Steam credit for here? PC exclusive titles?

 

[DryvBy]

Exactly what are you giving Steam credit for here? PC exclusive titles?

Letting the gaming world know PC gamers like 1st rate games instead of scraps. Plus, let's not forget the route some companies were taking us down. Limited installs. It's what turned my m/kb into a controller. Steam has basically eliminated this as far as I know.

 

[DrSlek]

I don't think Steam "saved" PC Gaming, but it certainly strengthened it.

 

[VSigma]

I wouldn't say that Steam SAVED PC gaming, but Steam did have a part in it. It definitely helped me get into PC gaming.

 

[water_wendi]

Letting the gaming world know PC gamers like 1st rate games instead of scraps.

This is pretty much still the reality of the day. Most major (non-indie, non-F2P, non-MMO) PC releases are multi-platform. Now while most of the games perform best on the PC, almost none of them are developed for the PC platform first and designed to actually utilize the hardware available. They are kept at a console baseline. Most of the time they dont even have an options menu or a font that the correct fucking size. On top of that the games usually launch weeks or months after their console counterpart. That sounds like scraps to me.

 

[Joezie]

Letting the gaming world know PC gamers like 1st rate games instead of scraps.

This sounds more like modern PC gaming. Where companies will invest in next gen fish AI and doge fur physics, but can't properly implement FOV.

The time you describe was not lacking quality wise.

Before, around and even a bit after steam we were still getting a lot of quality PC games.

Command and Conquer was doing was, as were the Age of series(s)
PC RPG's were love letters to the platform.

Even RPG's which shared console occupation such as Morrowind and the KOTOR's still were very PC centric and had UI's to accommodate the M+KB. Most RPG's today don't do as much.

We had our shooters such as Doom 3, UT 2004 and Battlefield 2/2142 which were still very PC centric.

Simcity 4 had awful performance issues, but was still very clearly designed for the platform.

It's sister game, The Sims 2 was also an amazing success sales wise.
---------------
So the lack of PC quality games before Steam happened is puzzling statement to me.

 

[EmptySpace]

uhhh...it doesn't need saving.

 

[Sentenza]

That sounds like scraps to me.

In a world where Mount & Blade 2, Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, Project Eternity, Divinity Original Sins and Age of Wonders III are scraps, I will gladly be called a cheerful garbage eater.

 

[water_wendi]

In a world where Mount & Blade 2, Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, Project Eternity, Divinity Original Sins and Age of Wonders III are scraps, I will gladly be called a cheerful garbage eater.

It looks like crowdfunding is responsible for this upcoming burst of "Letting the gaming world know PC gamers like 1st rate games instead of scraps" and not Steam.

 

[Sentenza]

It looks like crowdfunding is responsible for this upcoming burst of "Letting the gaming world know PC gamers like 1st rate games instead of scraps" and not Steam.

I don't give a shit of who's responsible. You are the one claiming that good games aren't coming and we are getting just scraps and console ports, which is what I'm taking issues with.

And yet here's what I'm seeing instead: a massive wave of PC-centric or P-exclusive titles coming, of which many [potentially] extremely good, plus more multiplatforms consistently reaching our computers than ever in the last 20 years.
But let's keep making delusional statements about how the platform is agonizing, falling into "a spiral of death that's impossible to fix" and calling everything "scraps".

 

[water_wendi]

I don't give a shit of who's responsible. You are the one claiming that good games aren't coming and we are getting just scraps and console ports.

Is that what i was claiming? Here is the conversation.

Yes. My friend and I have talked about this for a while. Before Steam, it felt like the quality of PC gaming had tanked. Everything felt like a port of a port of a console game. Now it feels like I'm getting real PC games again.

Exactly what are you giving Steam credit for here? PC exclusive titles?

Letting the gaming world know PC gamers like 1st rate games instead of scraps.

This is pretty much still the reality of the day. Most major (non-indie, non-F2P, non-MMO) PC releases are multi-platform. Now while most of the games perform best on the PC, almost none of them are developed for the PC platform first and designed to actually utilize the hardware available. They are kept at a console baseline. Most of the time they dont even have an options menu or a font that the correct fucking size. On top of that the games usually launch weeks or months after their console counterpart. That sounds like scraps to me.

In a world where Mount & Blade 2, Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, Project Eternity, Divinity Original Sins and Age of Wonders III are scraps, I will gladly be called a cheerful garbage eater.

It looks like crowdfunding is responsible for this upcoming burst of "Letting the gaming world know PC gamers like 1st rate games instead of scraps" and not Steam.

edit: and why so hostile? TeamSteam has won. i would think you would be a little more chill but you seem downright pissed.

 

[vxXJordanXxv]

PC gaming saved PC gaming.

 

[ElectricKaibutsu]

Personally I wouldn't have gotten back into PC gaming without Steam. Steam simplified everything and certainly made it easier for predominantly console gamers to get into PC.

 

[SparkTR]

I'll say no. Most of the major benefits of the platform, and the biggest games, don't have anything to do with Steam. It's a constantly evolving platform, if Valve weren't around it would have adapted some other way and still offered many of the same benefits that attracted gamers to it late last gen. I think it says a lot when the 'decline years' were actually pretty fucking good in terms of games.

PC gaming makes no sense now, its lack of exclusives and being only a plattform just for the sake of visual improvement makes PC a totally worthless platform unless you´re a graphic whore.

Golden age of PC gaming is long gone, and mainly thanks to Valve.

You have a really skewed view of the platform, it still gets the most exclusives outside of Mobile and the majority of them run on modest rigs.

Some upcoming ones I'm interested in are Wargame Red Dragon, Grim Dawn, Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2, Divinity Original Sin, Planetary Annihilation, Torment Tides of Numenara, Legend of Grimrock 2, Galactic Civilisations III, Age of Wonders 3, Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, Book of Unwritten Tales 2, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Homeworld Shipbreakers, The Forest.

It's quite literally one of the last platforms that produces games with meaningful depth outside of grimdark movie-like narratives, especially in regards to WRPGs and strategy games.

 

[Fularu]

Steam was still prety small at WoW's height (more than 12 million subscribers).

I would say WoW did more to bring back PC gaming than steam, then Steam took advantage of it.

 

[Sentenza]

Is that what i was claiming? Here is the conversation.

Yeah, that's precisely what you are claiming. And I already read the conversation.
I'm not saying I agree with DryvBy, but you weren't arguing about who should take the credit for it. You explicitly said that we are getting just scraps.

I get why, it was your attempt to blame Steam for it, but still, that's a silly thing to say in the current scenario.

 

[water_wendi]

And yet here's what I'm seeing instead: a massive wave of PC-centric or P-exclusive titles coming, of which many [potentially] extremely good, plus more multiplatforms consistently reaching our computers than ever in the last 20 years.

The indie scene has always been one of the PCs greatest strengths. Always. The main issue is with large budget PC exclusive games is that the original computer gaming giants (EA, Sierra, Lucas, Interplay, etc) have all pretty much left the PC side for one reason or another (console focus, bankruptcy, etc). When they fled the large budgets left with them. The ports that the major game pubs have done since 2005 have barely taken advantage of the PC platform technological advantage. Kickstarter and crowdfunding has changed things though. Not only has it lavishly funded games that would have never been seen the light of day but the funding success alone has been enough to jostle the larger corps into exploring previously believed "dead genres" (see Might and Magic X).

But let's keep making delusional statements about how the platform is agonizing, falling into "a spiral of death that's impossible to fix" and calling everything "scraps".

i absolutely believe that Steam will be the death of PC gaming. Theres too much power in one place for it not to go horribly wrong. And its a problem thats impossible to fix because short of driving an EMP into the Valve server building once someone is locked into Steam it is for good. Valve could do anything they wanted and most people will not abandon their libraries of games. We saw this with the Red Ring fiasco and they could still sell their games.

Yeah, that's precisely what you are claiming. And I already read the conversation.
I'm not saying I agree with DryvBy, but you weren't arguing about who should take the credit for it. You explicitly said that we are getting just scraps.

If you think that the state of multiplatform PC games is "1st rate" and not "scraps" then i dont know what to tell you.

I get why, it was your attempt to blame Steam for it, but still, that's a silly thing to say in the current scenario.

You get why? i dont beat around the bush when it comes to blaming Steam. i will (and have) make a thread doing so. i dont blame Steam for the state of PC multiplatform.

 

[Dire]

It looks like crowdfunding is responsible for this upcoming burst of "Letting the gaming world know PC gamers like 1st rate games instead of scraps" and not Steam.

Steam and crowdfunding go hand in hand. Making a great game isn't the beginning and the end. You need to make a great game and then get it into the hands of players. In the past that was a complete pain in the ass. Going about it indie was expensive and rather impractical. There were a wide array of "indie publishers" but similar to the console industry they often had shit terms and were more than happy to try to exploit their developers or start working to influence the products. The hands-off distribution centers (like download.com) were mostly just dumping grounds that offered nothing except the most bare minimal means of allowing centralized access to a product that people typically must already know about.

Steam is huge, offers extremely reasonable and standardized profit sharing, aids in marketing/consumer interaction, and does not influence products. I mean Star Citizen is already huge and has a 40million+ budget yet Robets has said he will likely be sending it to Steam as well. The fact a game of that scale views Steam as a fair distribution outlet basically means its a godsend for the other 99.99% of games that aren't self-driving marketing behemoths.

Lastly I also think Steam's raw numbers and data are really encouraging more PC development. It's easy to say something like "There are 80million XBox 360's out there. Most are still potential purchasers of your product." With PCs it was never anywhere near that simple. Steam not only gives you numbers, but representative demographic data like system configuration, trending games, etc.

 

[water_wendi]

Steam and crowdfunding go hand in hand. Making a great game isn't the beginning and the end. You need to make a great game and then get it into the hands of players.

i dont see how they go hand in hand. The Kickstarter games i have funded have all been DRM-free or had DRM-free tiers to them.

 

[epmode]

Star Citizen is already huge and has a 40million+ budget yet Robets has said he will likely be sending it to Steam as well.

No chance. We'll only see a Steam release if the game tanks at launch.

But just in case I'm mistaken, I'd like to see a link to Roberts being positive about Star Citizen on Steam.

 

[Robot Pants]

Yes

 

[Basileus777]

Digital Distribution "saved" PC gaming, at least in NA. Steam was at the forefront of that, but someone else would have filled that void if they hadn't been.

This is pretty much still the reality of the day. Most major (non-indie, non-F2P, non-MMO) PC releases are multi-platform. Now while most of the games perform best on the PC, almost none of them are developed for the PC platform first and designed to actually utilize the hardware available. They are kept at a console baseline. Most of the time they dont even have an options menu or a font that the correct fucking size. On top of that the games usually launch weeks or months after their console counterpart. That sounds like scraps to me.

This is how development works for every single platform now. By that logic, everyone is getting scraps.

 

[Skelter]

MOBAS and MMOS...

We used to have great exclusives FPS and RPGS where are thou?

Well Witcher 1 started on PC. Thanks to Kickstarter we are seeing old school games like Divinity Original Sin, Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity and we even see the big like Ubisoft release a good M&M game. Hell look at Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous! PC Gaming has made a huge comeback and I feel its going through sort of a renaissance. Can't speak about shooters since I don't enjoy them and yet there is a new Wolfenstien and apparently a Doom beta included so who knows what could happen.

 

[water_wendi]

Digital Distribution "saved" PC gaming, at least in NA. Steam was at the forefront of that, but someone else would have filled that void if they hadn't been.

This is how development works for every single platform now. By that logic, everyone is getting scraps.

The conversation with DryvBy.

Yes. My friend and I have talked about this for a while. Before Steam, it felt like the quality of PC gaming had tanked. Everything felt like a port of a port of a console game. Now it feels like I'm getting real PC games again.

Exactly what are you giving Steam credit for here? PC exclusive titles?

Letting the gaming world know PC gamers like 1st rate games instead of scraps.

This is pretty much still the reality of the day. Most major (non-indie, non-F2P, non-MMO) PC releases are multi-platform. Now while most of the games perform best on the PC, almost none of them are developed for the PC platform first and designed to actually utilize the hardware available. They are kept at a console baseline. Most of the time they dont even have an options menu or a font that the correct fucking size. On top of that the games usually launch weeks or months after their console counterpart. That sounds like scraps to me.

In a world where Mount & Blade 2, Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, Project Eternity, Divinity Original Sins and Age of Wonders III are scraps, I will gladly be called a cheerful garbage eater.

It looks like crowdfunding is responsible for this upcoming burst of "Letting the gaming world know PC gamers like 1st rate games instead of scraps" and not Steam.

 

[Dire]

...i absolutely believe that Steam will be the death of PC gaming. Theres too much power in one place for it not to go horribly wrong. And its a problem thats impossible to fix because short of driving an EMP into the Valve server building once someone is locked into Steam it is for good. Valve could do anything they wanted and most people will not abandon their libraries of games....

Two big things here:

#1 - At some point you have to assume that a company's future actions will likely be similar to their past actions. We know EA will continue to not even think twice about dicking over players or developers if there's even a remote possibility of it meaning they can show 0.021% more profit for their next fiscal quarter. On the other hand though Steam's actions over the past years have shown themselves to be far above petty profiteering. They've shown a primary interest in players and games over and above all. This changing is of course a possibility at some point -perhaps Gabe steps down and is replaced by satan in a suit- but that leads to #2.

#2 - Steam is thriving because of their good will. The reason they are an attractive distribution outlet is not just because of having a trillion players, but because they treat their developers extremely well. A standard ballpark Steam revenue share is 70/30 in the developer's favor. Flip those numbers and that's what a favorable revenue share used to look like! Still does for most publisher-tied console developers, in fact. Steam doesn't have a monopoly in the sense that Windows is a monopoly. Developers have to target windows since that's where all the users are and if you release a *nix game, windows players (which is the vast majority) cannot run it. Developers do not have to target Steam - they choose to. A player with Steam can just as easily run a game without Steam. Steam even provides tie-in functionality to allow them to add non-Steam games to their Steam library should they just like the interface. There's no coercion whatsoever. Compare that to Origin which, in typical EA fashion, is attempting to compete through coercion as opposed to good will. The point being is that if Steam loses their appeal - their good will, they lose their developers and they lose their games. They basically end up as another EA trying to coerce players into coming back of "DotA3 - exclusively on Steam" and it will flounder, as Origin is. They wouldn't die or kill PC gaming. They'd just become destroy Steam as a desirable destination for new games and be replaced. The process of replacement would be painful and slow, but it'd happen and we'd all move on.

 

[Dire]

No chance. We'll only see a Steam release if the game tanks at launch.

But just in case I'm mistaken, I'd like to see a link to Roberts being positive about Star Citizen on Steam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsLhACc194Y&feature=youtu.be&t=13m30s

From the man himself.

 

[Armaros]

When will people learn to stop responding to Wendi in any Valve thread, it always devolves into this.

 

[Wiktor]

]

DRM, MMOs, and former PC exclusive developers chasing console sales are my top 3 picks of what hurt the AAA side of PC gaming the most for a couple years.

You make it sound like hurting the AAA side of PC gaming was universally bad thing. To me it was one of the best things that happened to the platform in previous decade.

 

[Armaros]

You make it sound like hurting the AAA side of PC gaming was universally bad thing. To me it was one of the best things that happened to the platform in previous decade.

Everyone jumping off the MMO train (well not everyone...bethesda) was a good thing for the industry.

 

[Wiktor]

So, again, what were they? I can't think of anything popular that came out that wasn't a Valve game. There was Call of Duty, WoW..and nothing else I can think of. Maybe Sins of a Solar Empire? That sold well for it's time considering its budget, but I honestly can't think of any games you say existed and you have yet to list any.

Why would they need to be popular? Big blockbusters are exactly what almost killed pc gaming. From 2005 onward we started to get more niche games back. Games that weren't big sellers, but sold more than enough to give their devs a nice profit. Stuff like Galactic Civilizations II, Mount & Blade, King;s Bounty, Blackwell, Take Command, Ankh, Silent Hunter V, Black Shark or GTR. Just to name a few.

So it was the return to late 80s/early 90s style of pcgaming, of smaller teams making games with specific audience in mind and capturing that exact audience.

Not that there weren't big sellers either, like Anno series, Guild Wars, STALKER, Company of Heroes, Total Wars, Command & Conquer 3, Sins of a Solar Empire or Witcher. But those, while great, aren;t my argument. Ressurgence of old school and more niche pc games is.

 

[EVIL]

No!

... Explain why. This is a discussion forum, not the YouTube comment section where single word responses are the norm.

 

[FritoBandito]

Why would they need to be popular?

Because that's what this thread is about. We're looking at PC gaming now vs roughly a decade ago. Nearly all those games, the developers either shutdown or most people never heard of them because there was almost no audience for it. Granted, some of those games were fairly, like Guild Wars, but all of them were around during a time when most didn't care to know what PC gaming is. If those games came out today, they'd do much better.

In fact, I'd argue that unless you're from a major publisher, if you're a game developer you're almost certain to not find any success unless you're on Steam.

 

[AntiFacebook]

- Brought PC gaming in-line with consoles in terms of social/game features

But Steam launched before the 7th gen consoles,so it's the other way around.

Also, pc gaming was never dead,can't imagine why anyone would say otherwise.

 

[elhav]

I think that it did.

Piracy was out of control with PC games, but Steam sales managed to attract more people that didn't want to pay big prices for their games.

Though piracy is still big, it has become more convenient for pirates to just buy a game cheap at a steam sale and have it available for download whenever they want. I got a couple of friends that actually do that, and they used to pirate all the time.

Steam also brought the digital future to the gaming industry, besides the obvious positive effects on PC games sales, which can be seen both a positive and a negative.

 

[Acti]

Steam is PC gaming now.

Correction. Steam is a BIG part of pc gaming.

 

[StayDead]

PC Gaming was never dead. Western media however seemed to want to make it look that way to help push console sales though.

 

[elhav]

PC Gaming was never dead. Western media however seemed to want to make it look that way to help push console sales though.

You are ignoring the fact that piracy went rampant with PC games

Because of this piracy developers and publishers stopped caring about PC gaming and indeed lots of the best games in the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era were consoles exclusive.

Only last gen you began seeing multiplats becoming more popular with PC, and now many big games last gen are being ported to the PC. I don't think it's a coincidence.

 

[Acti]

You are ignoring the fact that piracy went rampant with PC games

Because of this piracy developers and publishers stopped caring about PC gaming and indeed lots of the best games in the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era were consoles exclusive.

Only last gen you began seeing multiplats becoming more popular with PC, and now many big games last gen are being ported to the PC. I don't think it's a coincidence.

I was going to say the same thing.

 

[immortal-joe]

I'd like to think it would have remained active at a niche level. What Steam did is give it mainstream relevancy.

 

[Acti]

PC gaming saved PC gaming.

Wise words.

 

[Wiktor]

Because that's what this thread is about. We're looking at PC gaming now vs roughly a decade ago. Nearly all those games, the developers either shutdown or most people never heard of them because there was almost no audience for it.

Actually no.There was plenty of audience for them and their developers thrived. Its during 2001-2004 when there was no real audience for many pcgames and most of the classic PC devs were closed down.

You;re simply paiting 2005-2008 in untrue negative light when it was great time for pcgames. Devs stopped getting closed down en masse, new ones moved to fill the void left by big companies, many classic genres were ressurected and revenues were growing.

 

[Arthea]

I'm not so sure about saving part, as some of your points seem like wishful thinking to me. PC saving middle tier developers, for example. That didn't happen, I wish it did, though.

OTOH, steam is nice service to have, and flexible price policy made much more for PC gaming (including pirating problem) than anything else, steam had part in this, that's true.

In some sense PC gaming is now steam, as it has largest userbase and most games, but it wouldn't have worked if people didn't stick with PC for they gaming needs even in hard times, I think.

 

[Wiktor]

I'm not so sure about saving part, as some of your points seem like wishful thinking to me. PC saving middle tier developers, for example. That didn't happen, I wish it did, though

Well, it's not so much that it saved them. But it allowed them to survive just fine, while they went almost extinct on consoles.

 

[scytheavatar]

Exactly what are you giving Steam credit for here? PC exclusive titles?

Steam's biggest credit ultimately is being able to get companies to lower the prices of their games, which is the best and only viable way to fight piracy. Piracy had been what that brought PC gaming close to its deathbed and while it certainly is still a problem Steam has done a remarkable job in fighting it.

 

[Wiktor]

Steam's biggest credit ultimately is being able to get companies to lower the prices of their games, which is the best and only viable way to fight piracy. Piracy had been what that brought PC gaming close to its deathbed and while it certainly is still a problem Steam has done a remarkable job in fighting it.

This is true, but again..only for few select richest countries. One of the biggest reasons why pcgaming is so popular around the world is that in many poorer countries local distributors were able to convince publishers to lower the prices, long time before Steam happened. Because that was the only way to fight with piracy. Even today Steam prices often are ridiculously high compared to boxed games in many countries.

 

[Dolor]

Steam and crowdfunding go hand in hand. Making a great game isn't the beginning and the end. You need to make a great game and then get it into the hands of players. In the past that was a complete pain in the ass. Going about it indie was expensive and rather impractical. There were a wide array of "indie publishers" but similar to the console industry they often had shit terms and were more than happy to try to exploit their developers or start working to influence the products. The hands-off distribution centers (like download.com) were mostly just dumping grounds that offered nothing except the most bare minimal means of allowing centralized access to a product that people typically must already know about.

Steam is huge, offers extremely reasonable and standardized profit sharing, aids in marketing/consumer interaction, and does not influence products. I mean Star Citizen is already huge and has a 40million+ budget yet Robets has said he will likely be sending it to Steam as well. The fact a game of that scale views Steam as a fair distribution outlet basically means its a godsend for the other 99.99% of games that aren't self-driving marketing behemoths.

Lastly I also think Steam's raw numbers and data are really encouraging more PC development. It's easy to say something like "There are 80million XBox 360's out there. Most are still potential purchasers of your product." With PCs it was never anywhere near that simple. Steam not only gives you numbers, but representative demographic data like system configuration, trending games, etc.

I came here to post this, but will just quote as it is quite accurate in my opinion.

Two big things here:

#1 - At some point you have to assume that a company's future actions will likely be similar to their past actions. We know EA will continue to not even think twice about dicking over players or developers if there's even a remote possibility of it meaning they can show 0.021% more profit for their next fiscal quarter. On the other hand though Steam's actions over the past years have shown themselves to be far above petty profiteering. They've shown a primary interest in players and games over and above all. This changing is of course a possibility at some point -perhaps Gabe steps down and is replaced by satan in a suit- but that leads to #2.

#2 - Steam is thriving because of their good will. The reason they are an attractive distribution outlet is not just because of having a trillion players, but because they treat their developers extremely well. A standard ballpark Steam revenue share is 70/30 in the developer's favor. Flip those numbers and that's what a favorable revenue share used to look like! Still does for most publisher-tied console developers, in fact. Steam doesn't have a monopoly in the sense that Windows is a monopoly. Developers have to target windows since that's where all the users are and if you release a *nix game, windows players (which is the vast majority) cannot run it. Developers do not have to target Steam - they choose to. A player with Steam can just as easily run a game without Steam. Steam even provides tie-in functionality to allow them to add non-Steam games to their Steam library should they just like the interface. There's no coercion whatsoever. Compare that to Origin which, in typical EA fashion, is attempting to compete through coercion as opposed to good will. The point being is that if Steam loses their appeal - their good will, they lose their developers and they lose their games. They basically end up as another EA trying to coerce players into coming back of "DotA3 - exclusively on Steam" and it will flounder, as Origin is. They wouldn't die or kill PC gaming. They'd just become destroy Steam as a desirable destination for new games and be replaced. The process of replacement would be painful and slow, but it'd happen and we'd all move on.

I agree with this. Too many people have the attitude that one company is the same as all the others while ignoring each company's actions. Valve has shown through their actions that they view their best way of making money is by giving customers what they want. Ignoring this fact and treating all companies the same only hurts those companies like Valve that try to make money in a more customer-beneficial way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsLhACc194Y&feature=youtu.be&t=13m30s

From the man himself.

This is a lovely bit of news that I didn't know.

 

[1st Course]

Steam is a non factor in the two largest PC game markets (China and S.Korea), so no.

 

[altez]

I remember playing valve games through WON or whatever it was and seeing steam coming out. A ton of people didn't like the idea of using it and I think for nearly the first year of its release I avoided it. Eventually it became necessary if you wanted to play valve games and the mods associated with them so I disliked steam even more so. It wasn't very great when it first came out, it took a little while before steam was any good.

It was a good server browser eventually and really did make things better by creating a user interface for the games and an overlay. It's funny though, the nostalgia of thinking about everything makes me wish steam was that same pretty awful rendition of itself. There were only a few games to play and I felt more involved in each one. That's just nostalgia of the past though, steam played a really big role in moving PC gaming forward. There is absolutely no denying that, in fact Steam changed the whole industry a little.

I never remember getting sales like you get on steam and once everyone saw these sales happening we started seeing them through other game purchase sites. And now days we're even starting to see Sony and Microsoft follow suit on consoles, I feel like these large sales would have never happened if it wasn't for steam.