GamersGate CEO: Steam Dangerous For Publishers

In an interview with Blend Games, GamersGate CEO Theodore Bergquist explains why Gearbox's Randy Pitchford was right when he called Valve's digital games store Steam "dangerous".

[cyguration]

Let the corporate toppling begin!

[SupaPlaya]

try High Voltage...

/jk

[ThanatosDMC]

So basically the article is saying... nothing. Steam has been fair as far as im concerned to us as the consumers. It's actually not charging us to buy games at $59.99 but instead cheaper at $44.99.

Steam is great. I dont want it to ever go down and i hope it stomps out competition mainly due to the fact that i've probably spent over $300+ on games on it... hehehehe.

[RAYMEISTER]

Does sound kinda dangerous. Does lock you in to joining steam if u want to play the game. Does give valve bigger profit margins d/t all the other developers on there. But, does help the developer sell their games. Look at Lucas Arts and EA w/ there recent additions to steam....more profit and sales for everyone.

[EvilCackle]

The thing is, I don't get how you're really "locked in" simply because you downloaded a client. It's a bit of an annoyance to have to boot up a game through the Steam client but it doesn't hinder you from using some other similar competing service.

[Saryk]

I have to agree with GamersGate (even though I don’t like their system). I wouldn’t mind a central system where a gamer has an account and any game that they have purchased is listed. So if a digital retainer goes under, I don’t lose my games. Currently I have over 70+ games with Steam, I could lose a lot of money if they go under. But I am now spreading the wealth to D2D and Impulse.

[EvilCackle]

Well, fortunately we won't need to find out what happens to our games if Steam shuts down because, well, it probably won't close shop anytime soon. Does give me pause, though. I've been looking at services like GOG that let you download the whole game to your hard drive.

[Pandamobile]

Garry Newman disagrees.

http://www.gizmogamer.com/c...

[Elven6]

Newman!

(Seinfeld reference)

I personally use Impulse, on a consumer end the two are essentially identical with the only difference being Steam has more bundles and sales. I also use GFWL for DLC which works good since it ties my purchases to my gamertag.

[kaveti6616]

The only way the pubs are getting hurt is because they're not allowed to raise the prices, right? The developers can distribute the game over steam for much cheaper. If that's the case, screw the publishers. They're like the goddamn middlemen. Steam is still the middleman but at least their method of distribution is efficient so the prices for games are reasonable. I bet next generation the publishers will start charge 70 bucks a game, tax not included. And they'll make up some bullshit about high production costs and training for new technology.

[TABSF]

use both Steam and gamergate

Steam is much better

Bad for publishers like EA, Ubisoft and Activision

I'm all for this, Developers get nothing from these money hungry corporation if it cuts out the publisher its all good
More money to the people that make the game.

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

As Newell has expressed various times, before Steam would ever go under, he would personally see to it that all gamers would be able to keep the games they purchased on Steam.

[Pandamobile]

And Valve is probably the highest earning independent developer. They're not going under any time soon.

[herukuti]

good, some publishers (activision) degrade the work of developers; now if the service was on multiple formats then that would be the icing on the cake.

[chak_]

randy pitchford would agree