Valve Go Into The Console Market

[Vendetta]

I don't see a problem with most of the DD market being represented by one platform, especially one that's as accessible and functional as Steam. Why would a person want to launch different programs to access different parts of their game library?

That's because you don't want to sell anything in the DD market. If you did, and you couldn't get your product on to the one platform with the ubiquitous reach because the phase of the moon wasn't right when you submitted it, possibly even despite generally positive critical reception (Mutant Mudds is a good example of this, critically acclaimed, on the 3DS eshop, not on steam because Valve said no without giving coherently useful feedback as to why), then you'd see the problem.

[CaptHawkeye]

I don't see a problem with most of the DD market being represented by one platform, especially one that's as accessible and functional as Steam. Why would a person want to launch different programs to access different parts of their game library?

The problem with this assumption is that it's based on the belief that no one could design a better DD service than Steam and/or make it more accessible to consumers.

[weemadando]

But as we've said, no one has managed to beat Steam's functionality yet.

Steam even has third party game support, so I don't even look at my windows start menu anymore for launching games, I set them all up to exist as launch options in Steam and have the Steam overlay accessible while playing. For me to be willing to do that, it's a big victory for Steam because THEY HAVE MADE SOMETHING THAT WORKS.

No other DD publisher/retailer has come close.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

I get the argument that a single platform is detrimental to small developers whose games might get effectively blackballed because an unshaven, fat Valve employee's mail-order Ukranian bride packed her bags and retreated back behind the Iron Curtain and he didn't get his dick sucked that morning. From the standpoint of a consumer who prizes convenience, however, Steam is the best thing that's happened to PC gaming market since DOS 6.2.2. It may not be perfect, but for the moment gaming on PC is legitimately just as convenient as gaming on console thanks to Steam.

[CaptHawkeye]

Cult.

[Steel]

(And also it's a bizarre system that includes concepts it shouldn't, why, for instance, would you include downvotes, a button which says "I don't want to buy your product and I want to actively sabotage your ability to sell it to others by making it less likely that you will get a distribution agreement").

While I agree with other things, this, afaik, isn't true. The "no thanks/not interested" button in Greenlight takes no votes away from the game submission and does not otherwise hurt its chances of being Greenlit.

In which case it basically does nothing at all, it's not useful feedback to developers, any more than a three year old repeatedly saying "no" because they can't articulate what they actually dislike is useful information.

So there's still no reason for it to exist, a button to vote for "I want this" is useful and relevant to the ostensible point of Greenlight, but a button which just says "I don't want this" is of value to no-one because it doesn't include the critical information, which is "I would want this if..."

The point of the no button is that then the game doesn't get presented to you for voting again. Otherwise how do you mark which ones you've already seen? Additionally you can leave comments on pages, you just aren't required to for either yes or no votes, and really how useful are 99% of people's unstructured ramblings?

[bilateralrope]

"Everyone's doing it" does not make it more ethical. And as far as I know a class-action lawsuit never was filed with regards to the ME3 ending, just a lot of butthurt fattynerds talked about doing it. Based on everything I've read, Terms of Service are considered legally binding agreements, and the fact that all you need to do is click "I Agree" and that there's no capacity to read and understand the entire agreement is no different from someone signing a contract without bothering to read and understand it, but that varies from region to region, with some courts saying "Yes it is binding" and others saying "Nahh, it really isn't."

You're overlooking the fact that, if you refuse to click agree, you are unable to play games you have already paid for. Thus some courts view that the same as a contract signed under duress.

Still pretty scummy to ban class actions lawsuits though.

You still run across idiots on various forums everyday who think the very existence of services like Origin and GoG is some kind of insult. Ironically these are often the same people who complain that the market for PC gaming is now too small.

There's not much you can do about such idiots. Pity they make so much noise that it's hard to tell their idiocy from actual problems with the platform they are complaining about. They should just move over to consoles where the console manufacturers store is the only option.

[Zaune]

Content Patch has a bit more information. Reading between the lines, it sounds like Valve are just pushing out a Linux version of the Steam client and a custom distro to run it on and letting the hardware manufacturers take it from there; it might even be available to download and install on a homebuilt gaming PC.

[Xisiqomelir]

Hey now I can try out this "Half-Life" thing since there's a Steam client for an OS I use!

Dunno if I'll buy a Steambox, but more than happy that they're putting offerings out on platforms I own.

[Scrib]

I don't see a problem with most of the DD market being represented by one platform, especially one that's as accessible and functional as Steam. Why would a person want to launch different programs to access different parts of their game library?

That's because you don't want to sell anything in the DD market. If you did, and you couldn't get your product on to the one platform with the ubiquitous reach because the phase of the moon wasn't right when you submitted it, possibly even despite generally positive critical reception (Mutant Mudds is a good example of this, critically acclaimed, on the 3DS eshop, not on steam because Valve said no without giving coherently useful feedback as to why), then you'd see the problem.

See:The MPAA for why this is a problem.