Steam Sale saves Introversion

[Minvaren]

Linky

Valve okayed the promotion and even though it didn't focus on DEFCON we were happy that we had achieved our core objective. This was the game-changer. When we started Introversion we'd had a string of successes and believed we were undefeatable, but it was a long time since we'd had a victory and we really needed one. Right on cue, Valve delivered. The promo exceeded all of our expectations and when combined with our low burn rate (no office or staff now) we had gone from being fearful about paying our mortgages to having a year's operating capital in the bank.

These guys have made some fun little games, glad that they got some help from the recent sale.

[Kageru]

And the comments complaining about steam having too much power as if these games would *ever* have gotten stocked and publicised by retail chains like EB.

Still, good story.

[kildorn]

And the comments complaining about steam having too much power as if these games would *ever* have gotten stocked and publicised by retail chains like EB.

Still, good story.

Steam has a massive amount of power due to the ease of purchase, built in sale advertising, and willingness to run sales on pretty much everything.

I just don't mind them having it, because it makes for a really really good market for both producers and consumers.

Seriously, the marketing folks at steam need huge bonuses.

[HaemishM]

Steam wouldn't have that power if anyone else had made a digital distribution platform worth a shit. No one has.

[NiX]

Steam wouldn't have that power if anyone else had made a digital distribution platform worth a shit. No one has.

In all the articles I've read on the Introversion story, it's sad how few have made this point. So many people keep screaming about how Valve has too much power, but it's not like they've gone out of their way to take out competition. To me it seems they've just naturally progressed the way they thought they should and its been an incredible success for them. I've bought more games in the past 2-3 years than I ever have because of Steam.

[Sir T]

I can say the same and I hate Steam and never use it. All my digital purchases have been from Impulse and Gamersgate.

Gamers are fucking lazy. You present them with something and they will stick with it whether or not there are better alternitives or not, simply out of familiarity.

[Malakili]

I can say the same and I hate Steam and never use it. All my digital purchases have been from Impulse and Gamersgate.

Gamers are fucking lazy. You present them with something and they will stick with it whether or not there are better alternitives or not, simply out of familiarity.

I dunno, I downloaded impulse because of Sins of a Solar Empire, and I never bought anything through it because I thought it just wasn't very convenient compared to steam.   If something better than Steam came along, I'd download it in a heartbeat.

[Musashi]

Gabe Newell is an Internet Super Hero, and I'm fine that he has all that power.  If he uses it to the detriment of the fuck faces that have been raking us customers over their ridiculous price points for the past twenty years, then good for him.  If they were doinitrite in the first place they wouldn't be crying.

[Ingmar]

I prefer Steam to Impulse by far, it is just a matter of taste really.

[Kageru]

And mass. Even if two services are roughly equivalent the one that achieves more mass and depth of stock has an immense advantage.

I'm glad there are challengers though, keeping steam honest and ready to take its place if they stumble... but at the same time I'm happy with steam (since my comparison is against EB and traditional retail) so I'm not that interested in finding a replacement at the moment.

[HaemishM]

Look at it this way. ANY of the big publishers in the PC gaming arena could have set up a competing service to Steam for their products alone. But you have assfaces like the ones at the EA store, who insist on not including features like the ability to redownload things you've already bought. Steam has a critical mass of great features and oodles of content all in one place, with a convenient interface. Once they started taking advantage of all those captive customers with their sales, how could they NOT gain the power they did? It isn't perfect, but it's become a daily ritual of mine to go to Steam and see if there's 1) anything I want for sale at a price point I'm willing to pay or 2) anything I've wanted but not bought yet is in my price point wheelhouse.

[Chimpy]

The reason Steam works so well from a business standpoint is that it is being treated by Valve as a service they are offering which is separate from their games. Every other developer seems to treat their digital distribution channel as an afterthought that is solely for pushing THEIR games out to an audience they loathe.

[Typhon]

They took a huge risk to develop Steam at the point in time that they developed it (which delayed HL2).  It was initially a disaster, but they had the vision and determination to get where they are now.  If anyone deserves it, they do.

Everyone bitching about Steams market share really just needs remember what it took for them to get there (first) and then they need to shut the fuck up.

I realize that this sounds like a fan-boy post, but I'm astonished that people are bitching about Valve having a commanding position in a marketplace that they essentially created.

[Mosesandstick]

I'm still not that big of a fan of steam. Sure they have had a bit of luck, but there's a lot they've done to cement their position (sale after sale after sale for a start).

[Pennilenko]

Yeah, it's a terrible horrible thing that they make us buy all kinds of awesome games at low low prices. How dare they!

[kildorn]

I prefer Steam to Impulse by far, it is just a matter of taste really.

Impluse has a number of really stupid "features" to it where they just fail at implementation of something Steam does well. The task bar ad popup? So much more annoying than the "open steam, see what's on sale", mainly because impulse isn't being opened as much as steam.

Their "while playing the game" ads? What the HELL, impulse? You crashed me out of a game once because said game didn't LIKE another window taking focus while I'm playing to tell me to buy more shit. Valve does that when I exit the damned game, like you should.

I think impulse has dropped the whole xbox "buy points that buy games" thing they did when I bought Sins, though. That was another "what are you thinking, this is a pain in the ass compared to the 500 lb gorilla of a game sales service you're trying to compete with."

Basically, people fail at making steam clones the same way they fail at making WoW clones: they try and do the exact same thing, but poorly. And then blame the better product for being too powerful or something.

While D2D has gotten better, Steam's client, interface, and presentation are all flat out objectively better products at this point. Impulse is pretty much treading water by having random games you can't get on steam.

[Teleku]

Yeah, Steam is awesome.  I actually can't think of many ways in which the service could be better.  I pretty much don't buy a pc game unless I can get it on steam now.

[Wasted]

I wouldn't mind Steam having more power and being able to say no to the publishers regional pricing.  The only thing stopping me from using Steam more is the mark-ups some publishers have for non-US customers.

[NiX]

I'm not so sure that's just the publishers fault. I imagine there are region specific forces at work that don't like digital companies circumventing their stupid markup.

[Lantyssa]

They could allow more early pre-order downloads.  Fighting the hordes on release day for bandwidth should never need to be an issue.

[Samwise]

I'm pretty sure that's down to the developers being willing and able to provide an early copy of the binaries.  All of Valve's own games (and a few third party games) have preloads.

[Fordel]

Steam has done something very important, it has made me trust them. Most of these download services, be it games or movies or music etc... I have this feeling of "but will you still be around in 5 years?". Steam has entered that area of "yea, Steam isn't going anywhere" so I feel more secure giving them my 5 dollars every sale or whatever.


-edit- Spell gudder

[Segoris]

I absolutely agree with Fordel. For that reason Steam is the only digital distributor I use for gaming. The only other digital distributors I'll use is Amazon (not going anywhere for a long time) and Amie Street Music (mostly because it's cheap and 66 or 75% of the money goes to the band).

Direct2Drive is the next best option I've seen for gaming. While I figure will be around for a long time, between my disliking of using their site, not finding anywhere near the level of convenience as steam, and IGN being involved (I never liked IGN and I still don't know why) I don't want to put trust in them. Steam is where my gaming budget goes, plain and simple.

[Ingmar]

I will occasionally duck over to D2D when they have some ridiculous holiday sale (Company of Heroes complete everything package for $5? Ok yeah fine you convinced me), but yeah there is a lot to hate about their downloader, interface, parent company, etc.