In other non-news, Tripwire likes Valve.

[Mahnsikir]

More from Alan Wilson about IPs if you missed it, responding to some of the other comments http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AlanWilson/20091011/3291/Tripwire_IP_Ownership_And_Money.php including super secret new TWI project spoilers....not really...

 

[Tomcat_ha]

I wasn't talking about steam vs retail in regards to booklets and physical copies but in regards to the prizes. A 50$ game costs 50€ in Europe and vice versa yet people seem to only complain about this on steam, not in their stores.

I can actually get allot of games 10-15 bucks cheaper than from steam.

 

[LemoN]

I can actually get allot of games 10-15 bucks cheaper than from steam.

he wasnt talking about this, he was pointing out that noone complains that in the stores 25$=25€ and everyone complains when steam does this

 

[Xendance]

It's because Steam/Valve doesn't decide the prices of all games on Steam.

 

[Pharnakes]

But valve games alos follow this rule don't they?

 

[[TW]Wilsonam]

An interesting point raised in the comment section by 'Bart Stewart': While Valve may offer more attractive conditions compared to established "brick-and-mortar-publishers" now, will this status be maintained if they ever assume a position comparable to major publishers? Could a large dependency on Steam be a potential risk?
Sadly, Wilsonam's reply to this dodged the point almost completely. Maybe he could elaborate a bit on this subject here?

What question did I dodge??

If it is about dependency on Steam... well, if Valve turned round and started trying to screw us over (doesn't seem very likely, but then neither was the British taking over India, so who knows?) we'd simply head for a different service - theres plenty around who want to compete with Steam/Valve.

 

[fiftyone]

Diy.

EDIT:
I wanted to say DIY. in capital letters, the machine will not let me!

 

[Mr. Explosion]

My mistake, got the names 'David Barton' and 'Bart Stewart' mixed up. Not surprising that the response to Mr. Barton didn't address Mr. Stewart's points

If it's just a (presumably simple) matter of switching publishers like you said, that's certainly reassuring. A heavy reliance on Steamworks/high level of integration could complicate this step, which might be one reason why Valve provides these services "entirely free". Ramm's obvious enthusiasm had me slightly worried there

 

[[TW]Wilsonam]

Oh, for sure - replacing all the Steamworks stuff would be a pain in the proverbial. But it wouldn't be impossible. Can't say we are exactly anticipating Gabe & co to suddenly metamorphose into the board of EA or anything in the short term, mind you

 

[Zetsumei]

My main issue with steam is not that they arent undercutting retail retail is undercutting steam.

A lot of games selling for 50 euros on steam, can be bought for 30 euros in retail.

-----

Since TWI is now a publisher TWI might turn into EA you never know what the future can bring

 

[LemoN]

Since TWI is now a publisher TWI might turn into EA you never know what the future can bring

good god beware!

 

[Psycho_Sam]

tbh its not just small devs Valve are helping, look at all the mods they have helped by distrobuting then through Steam. MN and DH have directly benefitted from this.

 

[fiftyone]

Oh, for sure - replacing all the Steamworks stuff would be a pain in the proverbial. But it wouldn't be impossible. Can't say we are exactly anticipating Gabe & co to suddenly metamorphose into the board of EA or anything in the short term, mind you

When Steam kicked of it was limited to just their own stuff, plus one or two mods that were updated (CS1.6 & DoD 1.3) I may be mistaken about that.

It was not a serious suggestion that I made but looking back over the last few years "isn't life wonderful".

 

[[TW]Wilsonam]

When Steam kicked of it was limited to just their own stuff, plus one or two mods that were updated (CS1.6 & DoD 1.3) I may be mistaken about that.

It was not a serious suggestion that I made but looking back over the last few years "isn't life wonderful".

Yes, when they launched it was just Valve IP. It was originally them opening up a new route to market, after getting butchered by their then-publisher. We were one of the first non-Valve IPs up there - helped prove the concept!

 

[Murphy]

I still remember all the newbies who thought RO was on the Source engine because it was on steam and back then only Valve's games were on steam.

 

[Skew]

Would it be nice to benefit from the dollar-euro conversion rate? Sure, but why should steam be any different than retail stores?

Because steam's products are digitally distributed, and their prices were exclusively US dollars before. Not only that, but the british prices scale somewhat equally with the north american prices, while the rest of europe gets shafted, countries that haven't even adopted the euro are forced to use it.
This is just blatant thievery, nothing else. But I won't write and complain, create boycott groups or anything else, I just won't buy games at their prices, and if needed be, I will have a friend abroad buy me a particular game as a gift, rather than this ridiculous scheme.

 

[Grobut]

Because steam's products are digitally distributed, and their prices were exclusively US dollars before. Not only that, but the british prices scale somewhat equally with the north american prices, while the rest of europe gets shafted, countries that haven't even adopted the euro are forced to use it.
This is just blatant thievery, nothing else. But I won't write and complain, create boycott groups or anything else, I just won't buy games at their prices, and if needed be, I will have a friend abroad buy me a particular game as a gift, rather than this ridiculous scheme.

Indeed, for thouse of us who don't use Euro's, but haven't been given the same considderation as the Brits (even though that's exactly what Valve said they wanted to do, have us all see the prices in our own currency), Steam's prices are all higher than our retail prices, lets just look at 3 freshly released titles:

OFP2 Dragon rising:
Steam: 48,99

 

[Shadrach]

For the big titles you mention Grobut they're probably on some initial sale? At least thats how it works here. Games have become a bit cheaper over the years in Norway but the big titles still are about 400-500 Kr (50-60€) in shops except for an initial sale period for "blockbusters" where they are about 300 kr.

Edit; games have been that "magic" 500 kr since I started buying games 20 years ago so take into account inflation and they've gotten a *lot cheaper*

One of the reasons retail is cheaper I think is just that the ancient physical distribution chains that are already in place and actually work like expected, i.e. if the big chains order large amounts of the big EA titles they get big discounts from distributors.

Yes, its bloody stupid that Steam isn't cheaper than retail, for the big titles mind, but as long as people (including myself) are willing to pay for the convinience then thats just the way the market works... But don't make the mistake of blaming Steam/Valve for it, like TWI said they are just a distributor, so they (at least should) have no say in pricing a title.

 

[LemoN]

what i use the steam shop for is small games, like secret of Monkey Island SE or similar

got monkey island for 3 euros i think

 

[Crusher]

Steam makes my disk crash, really. I can't open it anymore, sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn't. Reinstalled Steam but still the same problem.

Seems it was my HD's fault, not steam. Anyway, bought 1TB HD now. hooray for steam.