A company that;
Otherwise, nothing can take Steam's throne.
EDIT: Thıs is illogical, that's the point.You have to go crazy and forget about short-term profit to compete with Steam.I can explain by detail to make it more realistic and feasible but I don't want to give ideas to Steam competitors.All hail Gaben.
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Saying that selling of stock as a sole or any sort of revenue stream is a terrible idea and you clearly know nothing about how a business should be ran. If you have to sell stock to make money, you are running a sinking ship. Selling of stock is done for VERY limited number of reasons, none of which includes your source of revenue.
Advertising on a game platform would be fucking terrible. It would be like BF2142 except in EVERY game you bought. Every page and tab in the client would be like the worst internet page youve ever seen.
Selling of user data.. why in the ever loving GOD are you even suggesting that? Bloody mental.
Steam's system is very nice for devs atm. Not only do they gain immediate access to MILLIONS of active users, they do not have to pay or even bother with hosting any game files if they dont wish to, this includes updating the game. Also, with the steam marketplace, devs get a cut from every item sold. A cent here and there doesnt seem like much, but the market sees MILLIONS of transactions a day. Steam COULD include a way for users to sell used copies and give devs a cut, though Devs actually prefer the current system that forces users to rebuy a game/pack for gifting/trading/ cases of bans and so on.
While at face value your point sounds perfect, you should already know that the cost of making a game that draws in those millions of purchases is on par with a blockbuster film. While actual profit per unit is much lower, at least on PC.
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Frontwards, I advocate none of the above. This is a thread about possibilities, not recommendations.
Stock Fees is also shorthand for Stocking Fees. Its a rentier thing. In order to stock a game on the shelf, you must pay X amount of moolah per day/week/month. And the store can charge extra for prime placement. In fact, if your trundle on down to your local supermarket and look at the freebie magazine rack, that's how that is run. A magazine rack company rents that space at the supermarket, and then turns around and rents stock slots to the magazine companies. It's quite lucrative.
Hop on over to the front page of Steam, and, boom, advertisement city. Load up an update, and, boom, more ads. The fact that you don't see this as advertising means Steam could safely do even more of it, which would mean even more loot for GabeN. (Hint: Uplay one-ups this and allows publishers to place splash-ads when you click play. So, there's another loot location for GabeN.)
I don't advocate datamining. But it is big business. Why do you think so many people want your gaming data? (cough Greenman Gaming cough)
And, once again, the point of this thread is not advocating what Steam should do, it's what it could do that would remove it from #1.
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That's the point.
If you can't make at least two of them, you can't compete with Steam.You gotta be freakn crazy to try to compete with it.
Some people say GoG is a competitor but I don't see the point of using it.It only differs from Steam with their DRM-Free policy but I don't even see Steam as a DRM.It's like a game organizor to me and I'd never choose DRM-Free over Steam.
I'm a Business Administrator, I know company policies better than most of you.According to EU Laws, point 2 and 3 should be DONE by every digital seller.But companies avoid it by adding some parts to their EULA.
Also we've been insisting on Steam to do the 4th part, make something like a discount calendar for BIG SALES like Winter Sale.We're tired of waiting for leaks on dates, they should release event calendar so we (our wallets) can be prepared for sales.
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Well, there is one thing about GOG is that their old games is updated to work on modern computers. I wonder how many steam games that will not work on Windows 10? There's already a few that won't work while the same ones on GOG does.
(Unless I'm wrong, if so, ignore this post)
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That's only because GOG works to supply supported games while Steam is just mass-adding of games to have a huge library of games for you to choose from. GOG IS superior in some ways but they're not big-time yet.
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should they advert the sales, people would just stop buying for days or even weeks. How they would make money ? people buying full price the day before is sad for them, but you know that sales are coming almost 3 or 4 times a year. You need badly to prepare for sales ? just wait... otherwise just spend that money knowing you could have made some economies if you had been more patient. I really don't get that point. You can't advertise sales, that's just killing your sales...
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Back in "the day", before steam was even a twinkle in Gabe's eyes, trading PC games was already being phased out by places like BB and GameStop.
I dont know about prices internationally, but in the US, steams full release prices are the same as in store and their sale prices are 75% less than in store.
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PC gaming is becoming increasingly popular, and it's on the way to becoming far more popular than Xbox and Playstation have ever been. You may want to rethink what you stated.
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Add 0.50$ to every game that devs puts up for sale, also take some profit from second hand market.Take your money from customers, not from devs.
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"Take your money from customers, not from devs."
Huh? In principle it already works that way. All you're proposing here is to change it to a flat $0.50 from each sale rather than a certain proportion of it (30% seems to be the number everyone believes). Maybe you're suggesting that revenue split needs to be more transparent to the customer.
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30% is around the same price that physical shops charge/mark up physical games in store. Places like Walmart, that have HUGE bargaining positions can get higher cuts. Its the same for any product that you buy in bulk and resell. Steam at least offers DRM for the publisher and backend support, which includes live patching and content hosting which can cost thousands in bandwidth alone. In the end, currently, publishers and devs receive a bigger share of new game purchases by saving money in the short and long term.
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I have many complaints about Steam... I hold it responsible for the death of PC gaming and Valve is currently my most hated company in all of gaming... But complaining about them asking for a fee from those who use their platform? That's just stupid, that's like complaining that a store wants money to let you sell your items on their property.
2 and 3 though, I definitely agree with you on that. I wonder how Steam would compete in a fair and free market... Probably not very well since they have to rely on a monopoly.
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Death of PC gaming? It brought about the rebirth, more like. Anyway, in that case, why do you have a Steam account?
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Even with your first suggestion, your proposed service wont see many sales. Its a chicken and egg sort of problem. You need an established brand with a critical mass of customers first. Plenty of market places have crashed and burned before and since steam that offered no fees from devs.
You would need a service that draws in many top devs, required no fees, took no cut, hosted/paid for all of your file hosting, advertised your product, allowed you open access to pricing, and offered DRM to appease your stock holders.
Yes, we have GoG and Uplay and Origin, but the vast majority of the products offered on those services are owned by the same company. Its akin to Steam's catalog only being Valve games with a small smattering of indie games to hide the facade.
Its kind of a good mental problem to think about what would/could replace steam in the near term. Short of Valve setting fire to the entire company for Gabe's viking funeral, I cant think of something that could replace steam.
EXCEPT, if a new service allowed you to import all of your other games at no cost AND drew in all of the big devs in some sort of new exclusive deal. Only person that could afford such a thing left Microsoft years ago though...
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33% that's a crazy amount they must be swimming in pools of cash
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The somewhat rabid defense, and that you had to add your edit should give you one more additional, marketing psychology based sub point.
Not only would a company have to do at least half of that stuff, but it would have to do so in a way that somehow strips people of their brand loyalty, something that Steam does a good job of.
It'd be like a new brand trying to take down Coca-Cola - It could look better, smell better, taste better, be cheaper and with more ethical business practices and eco-friendly packaging and the whole shebang - but good luck buying the loyalty that many years and countless millions of dollars has been spent on.
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Too many people have way too many games on Steam to have it fade away. The only way I can see it being dethroned is if another service that will not be at a huge loss in expenses (from what it does) comes up.. and that's not going to happen.
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NO. Don't you ever talk such evil things again!!!
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Nothing lasts forever. You say PC games will always be around, and while they will be around for the FORESEEABLE future, eventually the PC will go the way of the abacus, the typewriter and Showaddywaddy.
There's always something unexpected lurking around the corner to replace even the most ubiquitous devices, particularly in the field of technology.
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Steam is fine. I just hope that uplay and origin die like GFWL did.
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I don't, competition is always good for consumers
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Let me know when steam actually sees competition. Origin and Uplay are terrible comparisons to steam. Before either of them were around, Steam sales were much better. Both clients are also intrusive, though Uplay is the worst and every game I have that requires Uplay to run refuses to work correctly.
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I somewhat agree with Uplay but Origin are upcoming with the 'On The House' deals but yeah Steam is pretty much unstoppable!
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^This. It's like an old horror movie cliché, where everyone assumed GFWL was dead, but nobody had the gumption to go back and put a bullet through its skull just to make sure...
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What situation in which Steam is dethroned/toppled? Simple..
Nightmare Scenario 1 - EA buys Steam, begins overpricing games not in their development stable/family of EA Games, and hyping up their own games. At the same time, they stop Greenlight as EA demands partial ownership of games pushed through it.
It COULD happen...
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Steam will never run out of steam ;) They're too dominant to disappear and will always hold the vast majority of market share.
People complain about DRM and now having to use alternative accounts to access their games but before we had Steam every game you owned had to be updated manually from the publishers website – IF it was even online that week and IF you were even aware a new patch was out! Even uninstalling the game would leave loads of junk you had to remove manually. There was no real way to communicate the info of updates in those days, now people know about them in advance lol.
People forget Valve started Steam solely to allow them to update their own games with minimal fuss to us and to try and stop cheaters/pirates. Valve approached the big boys of the time and were laughed out of the offices so they did it themselves. Gabe earned his money by doing it himself, proving the big boys wrong and winning. A few years in and the Steam concept was working and the doors were opened to others. Build it and they will come, and they did.
Steam has done way more to create a community then it will ever to make it disjointed. Gaming has become more popular and mainstream than anybody thought it ever would (the figures involved are staggering now) and with successes comes money so of course Origin etc start to spring up, they don’t want to pay Steam when they see they could have a go themselves and keep more money. As for the fee Steam earn why shouldn't they? The money they make isn't unreasonable when compared to the cost of retailing in the old way (creating and shipping cd's, dealing with retailers etc etc), all that grief and cost of running it is gone with Steam. I’d love to know Steam's hosting fees.
The best chance of Steam being dethroned is another Gabe, someone on a mission to provide what they need and others want. The thing is now there is so much completion, the only way to directly compete (not just survive but genuinely compete) from day one is with big backing and then you are straight back into the land of profit/shareholders etc. Steam is here to stay and has proved it can move with the times and innovate (Cloud, F2P, Greenlight, Workshop, Big Picture, Home Streaming etc). A large proportion of the money they make gets put back into the business and we all benefit form it.
Gabe has no reason to sell his baby he's earned his fortune and I highly doubt he'd sell his soul to the devil. He's said as much a few times and also that if he had to pull the plug he'd fund the servers. Valve have enough money in the bank to be able to do so and Gabe seem like a man of his word. We are better off for having Steam even if it's just to drive the competition on to try harder.
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Anything can happen, not in the next couple years, but in 20-30? surely. Bigger companies went bankrupt before, and u can never predict whats going to happen in the world. We could have some big war for all we know, and that would pretty much kill the market for a while.
Also, considering competition, its always a good thing. Just looking how many games were given out for free in the last 2 years because of it shows how much its improving, not to mention better sales and service etc
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Exactly, if games were all being sold as physical copies companies would never be able to afford to do things like humble bundles in a million years, they just wouldn't be able to pull together the profit to make it worthwhile.
With steam, once you break even it is pretty much all profit from there, and if you keep developing the game then the profit will keep on coming in.
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Steam will only be dethroned when another company provides an alternate that can compete across the whole spectrum that Steam offers. At the moment, the best competitor is GoG, due to it's expanding amount of (modern) games as well as it's DRM-free ethic and comparable holiday sales.
The reason other online launchers can't compete with Steam right now, is because Valve has a better reputation for dealing with critical issues that crop, and tending to address it when big concerns are raised. They have a great track record, which creates trust. They have a massive selection of games and they were the parent of the massive PC gaming discounts we see today. The competitors do not have nearly the same variety, pricing and reputation that Valve's and their client does, especially not when it comes to crippling issues.
I don't think Steam will ever be 'dethroned' in full. Even if a different service manages to climb up and claim their place as the top dog, Steam (and Valve) will always be a big name and likely hot on the heels of reclaiming the first place prize. This is actually one of my thoughts on Steam. If there was more actual competition then perhaps Valve would be driven to hone their services more. GoG still has a lot of catching up to do on the size of their catalog but the DRM-free idealogy will hinder them there. Humble have made a good foundation for themselves after having basically founded the entire premise of modern 'bundle culture', and they also tend to have good sales during holidays and strong ties with indie developers and crowdfunding sites, as well as supplementing interest and income by supporting mobile gaming and doing audiobook, digital media and charity-jam bundles too.
I believe that Steam will always be in a high spot until the day it eventually evolves into a new platform (should anything drastic ever happen to Valve), and I also believe that GoG and Humble have great potential to be the next major competitor. Origin and EA are still lagging way behind in everything but their live customer support and using freebies to try net new users, with a tendency towards pretty bad pricing and sales plus a nasty habit of stumbling into bad decisions and minor controversy. UPlay is pretty much just a launcher without much else to offer, I think? GMG still remains an unknown at this point, and they seem entirely content to be just a storefront.
There is also a potential threat if any non-gaming big hitters like Amazon try their hand at Steam's position. Lots of funding, dispassionate attitude but big selection and moderate sales. They could compete based on resources alone.
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I find it interesting you include Humble Bundle as competition for Steam. They're really nothing more than a third party key retailer for Steam, uPlay, Desura, etc. I don't see any reason to think they'll ever branch out to anything more than that...
GOG I agree with though, it kind of depends on the success of their Galaxy client IMO. The fact they're emphasizing the "optional" aspect of using the client, means they'll never get the userbase cooperation needed to form a real community... especially given the general "loner, just want to be left alone" mentality that comes with the anti-DRM crowd that loves GOG as it is. And they'll never get the big publishers on board with them if they maintain their DRM-free philosophies.
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Well when you think about it, how did Valve get into the reselling business? Originally Steam was a platform solely for Valve's games, but they branched out, offering to host and resell products for other people. After they became well-established, 'steam keys' became a thing. Any online retailer has the potential to become the next Steam, as pretty much all games default to DRM-free and then have the extras tacked on afterwards for resale purposes.
Humble already sell DRM-free, Desura and Steam goods. It might be a conflict of interest and there may be a transitional period or some kind of inter-company agreement, but there is no reason we wouldn't eventually see "Humble Key" listed alongside "Desura" and "Steam" in the future, y'know? I suppose the biggest hurdle would be in hiring on enough staff and becoming familiar enough with the product line to deal with any problems.
The only things you really need to succeed is an ongoing supply of customers, and a good selection of products. Good customer service ensures customer loyalty, good discounts ensures you will always have customers (even if your attitude towards them is terrible), a good selection of products means you will always get hits and therefore potential new loyalties. Places like Amazon and Humble have the potential to transform into a Steam competitor with a little planning, but even then Steam still has an advantage in having a big head start. People are less likely to become exclusively loyal to another company when you hold a large number of digital items with them already.
I just don't think it's too far fetched, is all :3c
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Of course, anything is possible. Steam's humble beginnings began more than just a "buy this game" service though. It was intended to be a service to purchase, download and update Valve games... and to manage the online servers for their big ticket games like Counter Strike.
EA and Ubisoft kind of cover these angles with their services, which is why they are direct competition for Valve and Steam. GOG to a lesser extent, they don't act as a retailer for other services at least... but at the same time their distribution methods are archaic, updates to games are delivered to customers as manual executable downloads for example (which is why the success of their Galaxy client is important to their longevity IMO).
Humble and Amazon are completely hands-off at the moment. They directly provide files that publishers/developers give them. They aren't responsible in any way for quality, in-game server maintenance, update distribution. As I said, anything is possible, but these guys are the furthest from a real gaming service than anyone else, IMO.
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Regarding the "humble key" thing, that's already happened. Thief Town from Groupees Build a Greenlight Bundle 11 gives you a link you redeem to your Humble account.
I think you're right, they're shaping up to be the next big digital distributor. Rather than simply being a key retailer they already host many of their offerings as DRM-free downloads. It's almost like a mish-mash of Steam and GOG in that sense.
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You have a very good point there, my bet is currently on Humble cause they have the most competitive prices so far.
I would just like to point out that Amazon is availible in just a few countries, compared with the almost worlwide service Valve is offering they have no chance.
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I actually found that the handful of modern games GoG does stock actually come in at better prices than both Humble and Steam on the holiday sales. The only reason they don't aren't bigger is because Valve were clever with their economy, and introduced the trading cards. If there was a game you were interested in, on sale at both GoG and Steam. Next imagine that GoG had a better price saving you $2 (cheap title) or $5 (bigger title), but the game has trading cards on steam... which would you buy? It's a tough choice to be sure. Valve are clever, you have to give them that. Totally optional content that doesn't detriment a customer if they buy elsewhere, and yet it still acts as a substantial pull.
I suppose this brings up another point : Valve are clever.
Competitors wouldn't need to just have the resources, selection and customer consideration to compete, but they would also need the cunning. It's hard to generate extra slices of income without somehow alienating or hurting your customer-base, but Valve have this habit of managing to wring extra pennies out of you AND making you satisfied at the same time. The optional card-trading that gives you 'stats' and minor freebies (smilies, backgrounds, titles, etc), or tiny amounts of cash if you trade in. The holiday sales that generate extras for you, on top of good sales. TF2's entire optional crate system and then the MvM ticket system, including occasional free keys/tickets? All quite masterfully crafted, making a profit while maintaining good relations. A competitor is going to have to go directly up against the minds who come up with this stuff, haha.
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I don't see anything coming even remotely close to dethroning Steam. Quite literally the only thing Steam is missing is the ability to trade and sell games in your library. The DRM in their games is trivial at most to crack to anyone with the desire to figure it out or just hit GameCopyWorld and download one a group has already done.
Their only competition they have currently is:
1) Origin, which is just a Steam clone from a company that has lost most of its trust with their tactics. Honestly wish Origin would die and I could merge my stuff. If EA ever got full control of Steam, there is a good chance I would go back to bootlegging my games.
2) Desura, which again is another Steam but for mainly Indie titles but next to zero mainstream titles so doubt that will get anywhere unless mainstream starts to support them as well, which is small.
3) GOG which is their only real chance at competition but their complete and total lack of DRM where people can literally copy and past them with ease will make most shy away from them.
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While I don't think Origin is very good (and actively boycotted it for some time, until EA managed to nail me with a TOS agreement in a pre-Origin game's update), it does have the advantage of having better customer service. At least in the live chat system. The queues are big, but they at least make up for some of the hiccups by having live chat. It doesn't guarantee they will be able to help you, and they may have their hands tied just as much as any other customer service rep, but I found it speeded up my problem resolution the few times I needed to use it.
Origin also has a big company behind it that churns out games more frequently than Valve, and while they aren't exactly awesome, they do get a lot of attention, popularity and profit. That much alone means they'll never totally sink.
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I figured what you were saying, but that wasn't what I was talking about though.
I was talking about how EA tried to give out their console games with a one time use code that unlocked half the game onto a specific console so if you sold the disc later, they only got a glorified demo and had to shell out another $20 to EA to get another code to unlock the full game again.
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Keeping in mind, Origin has 1/16th the catalog that Steam does and easily half the userbase. If it grew to the size that Steam is, the servers would suffer, the live chat system would suffer, customer support as a whole would suffer... and I really don't see anything that would lead me to believe EA would "rise above it". They're shutting down online servers left and right for older games just to stay afloat.
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all that would need to happen is for EA to start taking origin seriously, which up until now, it hasnt.
add trading and social features, and expand your catalog to more publishers, and origin would already be a solid contender...
ALTERNATIVELY, in some golden perfect wonderful universe, ALL publishers could agree to using one IMPARTIAL platform, that is maintained by a third party. publishers pay a fee for hosting their games, and they all get their own store on the platform (so they can set their own prices, handle their own dlc, etc - basically what EA and VALVE have now, except without the hassle of maintaining it themselves) and ALL keys, no matter WHERE they were bought from, would activate on it. if THIS ever happened, not only would it be GREAT for publishers, but it would be PERFECT for all gamers, and it would crush steam.
but i think overall steam is pretty safe in its dominance... but i still maintain that the ONLY reason that this is so, is because no other contender takes digital distribution as serious as valve does. Origin is a massive failure NOT because its ANOTHER platform, but purely because EA has squandered opportunity after opportunity to make it something great... fuck knows they certainly have the RESOURCES to do it...
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Amazon could do it.
The thing is, Steam has incredible intertia. I generally don't buy games on GoG/Origin/Desura, because I already have 10 years of games on Steam. It's extremely convenient to be able to install a single client and have instant access to almost every game in my library.
So, the only way I would start buying games on some other platform is if it ALSO came with a Steam key. That is to say, the retailer is going to have to convince the publisher to let them sell games for two platforms simultaneously. To do that, they are going to need extraordinary pull in the market. Amazon has that.
Buy a game on Amazon and get it for Amazon's platform (let's call it Infinity so I can keep referencing it) AND Steam? That seems like a winner. It wouldn't happen overnight, but I would slowly start building up a library of games on the new platform.
But, it's impossible to catch up to my existing Steam library that way. They need to offer something MORE that Steam does not.
How about this: Buy a game on Infinity, and you get that game and all future versions of it. Steam doesn't do this. I greatly enjoyed Guacamelee Gold, but I didn't buy Guacamelee Super Turbo Championship Edition. It might be better, but I already have essentially the same game. So, picture two platforms, one where you can buy a game, but won't get future versions (existing Steam as it is today), and another that not only gives me a Steam key, but ALSO allows me to play all future incarnations of that game (Infinity). Which are you more likely to buy now?
Or what about this: Multi-platform games. I have games on Steam that are also on Android, but I don't have them on Android. I also have games on Android that are also on Steam, but I don't have them on Steam. But.... what if buying a game on Infinity let me access the different platform versions of the same game? Even if it's only one-way: buy the more expensive PC version, get the Android version at no additional cost. Amazon already has an existing Android store.
I'm not saying that they would, or should, do any of this. I'm saying that they could if they wanted to.
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Sorry, but working where I work I can assure you: amazon can't do it. Their business models are completely different and they would destroy the things that makes Steam what it is. Also, it's better for them to sell directly to the publishers and offer steam codes AND physical options. That way, they receive the same coin for both options.
Also, there's no money in the world right now that would convice Valve to sell their business. It's easier to think they'll lose their heads and lose the ability to be a business than make they sell it. Nintendo and Sony are struggling for more time with their consoles (talking about net losses here) and they never thought of selling their business units.
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Consoles are rarely sold at a profit. They may be sold at cost or slightly at cost for the first few months of release, but even then its not very likely. The reason this is, is to draw in the fan base which then goes off to buy games and accessories that are where the money comes from.
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Nothing in your reply makes sense.
Did you mean to reply to someone else?
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There are many methods which could dethrone Steam. AtomicWoodchuck mentioned one of the best ones. But there are also:
1) Steam goes public, and the board and investors begin demanding increased profits and increasing stranglehold on the service, leading to continuous reductions in service quality, server availability, and sale prices.
2) The introduction of membership fees, while the competition remains free.
3) A new service rises up with enough clout to pull exclusive deals on all the latest games to it, in the same way Microsoft muscled its way onto the console market. All it takes is a large enough install base to become a contender.
4) A now mobile device is introduced with a huge jump in quality, causing everyone to shift all computer work to the new handheld. Which has its own gated storefront. A company that headquarters itself in a country where monopolies are allowed.
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Most of my games aren't on steam to begin with. I never liked steam. The service has always sucked. When I first installed it I actually thought it was a virus because it slowed down my computer. So i don't see this as being on any kind of "Throne". Especially when its sales are equivalent to what I saw on PSN. You're better off finding a website that sells steam keys if you want a good deal. Sites like Bundlestars and indiegala.
GoG and Gamersgate are my favorite places to get games. Best deals around, and GoG emphasizes DRM-Free for everything. Which is good, because if steam ever goes, then all the steam games people own are gone forever. If GoG goes, then i still own my games.
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They can only be dethroned, if there is an open standard for games management library.
So all your accounts from different distributions come under the same library. This new software does not need to sell games. Just consolidate them in one library that can be easily shown off.
Once that happens, then competitors are free to promote cheaper games or better services. No one would actually care what user base steam has. If a program is better than steam, it will make it easy for it to thrive in the currently monopolistic market.
Realistically speaking, if some of the major developers come together to create a standard for such a software, it is entirely possible. This software would not be about a game store promoting themselves, but rather it will be created remove the dependency of people on Steam.
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One of the things I'm getting a bit fearful about when it comes to PC gaming and Steam, is how easily and quickly an Origin or a uPlay or a GOG Galaxy could be the client/service that dethrones Steam. Maybe all of these companies combined pulling their own games from Steam. When the day comes that Steam is no longer the top dog (and you know it will), it'll be hard to pack up my 400 games (far more for some people), and my thousands of achievements, and move on to the "next big thing".
The PC is not only striving to make it's mark in the gaming community against consoles... but companies are vying for power within PC gaming itself. Steam, Origin, uPlay, GOG... whatever Square-Enix and Rockstar are cooking up these days. It leads to heightened competition, yes... but also leads to disjointed communities, disjointed gaming libraries and in some cases several frustrating layers of DRM to access them. I can't count the number of accounts I have anymore just to have access to all of my games.
PC gaming will always be around in some capacity, but what would it take for Steam to be dethroned? Are we at a point now where there are too many gamers with too many games on the service for it to ever really fade into obscurity? Maybe all it'll take is a small company with a little gumption and a unique new twist on PC gaming to start stealing the attention of gamers and publishers away from Valve.
What do you think?
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