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Is Valve's Steam Anti-Competitive?

Posted by Soulskill on from the either-that-or-it-isn't dept.

Absolut187 writes "Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford says Steam's domination of digital distribution is 'dangerous,' and exploits small developers. 'Steam helps us as customers, but it's also a money grab, and Valve is exploiting a lot of people in a way that's not totally fair. ... Valve is taking a larger share than it should for the service it's providing. ... There's so much conflict of interest there that it's horrid.' Pitchford's comments came as part of an interview with Maximum PC, and he thinks Valve should spin off Steam to its own company. Is he right? Is there a better answer?" Update: 10/10 at 02:00 GMT by SS: Randy has clarified his remarks in a comment here at Slashdot. He makes it clear that he likes Steam a lot, and for several reasons, but thinks stronger competition would benefit the industry as a whole.

7 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. ...should we be outraged? by maugle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Steam gives you an easy way to reach customers, and takes a cut of the profit in return. You think they're taking too much, don't put your game on Steam. Where's the problem here?

    1. Re:...should we be outraged? by Red+Cape · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No physical media involved, it makes a copy of your folder so you can keep all your games/maps/etc. From there, you can move the backup anywhere. If your drive fails, well, you'll lose your personal game files if u didn't copy your backup somewhere else. But with Steam, you can download the entire game again unlimited times. The only restriction is that you can only be logged into Steam on one computer at a time. This is makes it hard to share accounts with people, which is expected. Personally, I think Steam is extremely useful. Like many others have said, if you don't like the distributor, distribute your game with someone else. Valve doesn't have a monopoly on online distribution, they just happen to be good at it.

      --
      I Hate Allan
    2. Re:...should we be outraged? by Mister+Xiado · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So, you should be required to have internet access to purchase and play a singleplayer game that you purchased in a brick and mortar store? In ten years, every version of Quake and Doom that I own will still work. I won't be able to play Portal.

  2. so do something about it by magarity · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Valve is exploiting a lot of people in a way that's not totally fair
     
    So start a competitor with policies you consider to be fair.
     
    And stop whining, btw.

  3. Re:are our brains leaking out of our heads? by maugle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Re: Digital distribution that's keeping PC gaming alive

    There's one other thing that's revived PC gaming for me, and digital distribution does it by default. Apart from games I bought on Steam or from GOG, only one of them doesn't force me to insert the %^&*ing CD in order to play. This is despite the fact that games load just about nothing from CD these days because it's too slow!

  4. And there are alternatives by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He might have a point if Valve really had a monopoly. If they because the only way to do digital distribution, ok maybe a problem. However, that's not the case. My personal favourite for digital games is Stardock's Impulse (impulsedriven.com). Same idea basic as Steam. What I like about it is it is better on DRM. They don't apply their own DRM to all games, so some have none at all. Others use Impulse GOO, which is kinda like Steamworks but you don't have to be logged in or run the client, others use 3rd party DRM like on Steam.

    Yet another option is Direct2Drive. I'm not such a fan of this one, but it works. I've bought a couple of titles from it.

    So if a publisher/developer doesn't like Steam, well then don't use them, use one of the others. Nobody is making you use Steam. Or, for that matter, you could always use Steam but offer a better deal to the others if you like them better. Have your game for $50 on Steam and $40 on Impulse. That way you still get sales from Steam, but you can point customers to the platform you like better.

    The other funny thing about the whining is that though the digital distributors take a cut, it is way less than retail. Retail is about a 50% markup. So if you buy a game at Target for $50 the publisher sees $25. Digital distributors don't take nearly that large a cut (it is more like 20%).

  5. Re:Unfair competition? by moon3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Anyone who doesn't like it is welcome to start up their own, competing service.

    Sure and LOL, they were the first carrying titles like Counter-Strike and Half-life, pretty much forcing people to install Steam in order to play these highly desired games. NOBODY would install Steam without some good game already in. You can try to start a competing company with no such games, good luck.