UK Games Retailers Threaten Boycott of Steam Games

RogueyWon writes "Games industry trade site MCV is reporting that two major UK video games retailers are threatening to ban Steam-enabled PC games from their stores. The as-yet-unnamed retailers are apparently concerned that by selling Steam games, they are pointing their customers towards a competitor and will by trying to bring pressure upon publishers to strip Steam functionality from their games. This could prove an interesting test of where the real power lies at the retail end of PC gaming."

Comments

Structural Unemployment for Middle Men

[eldavojohn]

The boss of the UK game retailers said:

Publishers are creating a monster – we are telling suppliers to stop using Steam in their games.

No, publishers are finding new innovative revenue streams that cater to the customer. The only reason it's a 'monster' is because you perceive it to be a threat to your business model and, surprise surprise, you're not a part of that revenue stream so it's the devil. And you don't understand it, that is painfully evident by the 'stop using Steam in their games' part of your statement. They don't use Steam in their games anymore than they use Wal-Mart in their games.

If you understood that this is increasing revenue and profits to the publishers, you might also start to see that it increases the number of copies sold. Now, if more people are buying the game it is possible that Steam will expand this market and leave some of the sales to the brick and mortar stores. It is, however, a possibility that you are correct in that your model will become obsolete -- such is the nature of business. You can either respond by being a jerk about it (although you're holding aces backed with eights as a large middle man), you can attempt to become part of that distribution model (have you thought about selling steam gift cards?) or you can do nothing. If you lose your business, well that's just some good old structural unemployment where the hostile market of capitalism violently guides you to better serve the consumer in a new and -- here's the scary word -- innovative ways. Seriously though, when is the last time you did something new and interesting aside from unboxing the latest game and paying some high school student minimum wage to set up the Halo display and cardboard cutouts?

Hey man, if you want to make me pick between you, the distributor, and the publishers that actually make the games I cherish ... you aren't going to get very far in my book. I mean, Steam has DRM but it saves me gas and money and puts me a little closer to that little developer that spends countless nights slaving away over code. That's where I want the bulk of my money to go when I purchase a game -- to that guy.

Re:Structural Unemployment for Middle Men

[Beyond_GoodandEvil]

Having recently purchased Fallout:New Vegas, and discovering Steam needed to be installed, I've yet to see the value added proposition that Steam brings to New Vegas. Did I miss the button I'm supposed to press and someone from Steam will arrive with a pizza or some other form of bribe so I'll run around proclaiming Steam the greatest thing since bread came in a slice? I only ask since I'd manage to avoid Steam for so long while still purchasing PC games.

All the wrong reason

[wjousts]

Although they are doing it for all the wrong reasons, I applaud any effort to stop this Steam juggernaut from becoming the de facto DRM monopoly and the single point-of-failure for entire game collections. It's just not healthy.

One day Steam will go dark, and then you won't be able to reinstall any of those games.

Footnote: "blah, blah, blah,...but they said they'd release a patch....blah, blah, blah". Please show me the legally binding clause in the Steam TOS that guarantees that.