Gearbox's Pitchford Discusses "The Problem with Steam" - Polidicks

[QUOTE=power-mad;17719993]How are they "exploiting us in a way that's not fair"? Uh, as far as I know, it's just like any other shop, only cutting out a lot of middle men and delivering us great deals a lot faster than other stores do. [editline]04:20AM[/editline] I did read it and gave thought to it, but I just don't see it. I think there's the potential for valve to rip people off and become a big business jerk, sure. But valve doesn't seem like the kind of guys to do that.[/QUOTE] I think that if Valve had been ripping off the developers who sell their games on Steam, you wouldn't see the unbelievably large list of games. And considering the publisher usually takes a major portion of the profits which is why video game prices are slowly increasing, removing those expensive publishers means that they can sell games cheap, and while the major ones are still around their retail prices if not at least a little cheaper, those major developers are actually gaining a larger profit from going through Steam. I get the feeling something has happened between Valve and Gearbox over Borderlands, and Gearbox is nerd raging on the business level.

[QUOTE=power-mad;17719993]How are they "exploiting us in a way that's not fair"? Uh, as far as I know, it's just like any other shop, only cutting out a lot of middle men and delivering us great deals a lot faster than other stores do.[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure he was saying that from a viewpoint of a developer, not a consumer. [QUOTE=power-mad;17719993]I did read it and gave thought to it, but I just don't see it. I think there's the potential for valve to rip people off and become a big business jerk, sure. But valve doesn't seem like the kind of guys to do that.[/QUOTE] I agree, I was mostly talking about the people with 'lol Pitchford is dumb' snipes. Randy himself said that he trusts Valve and does business with them etc. What he was doing was pointing out different reasons why, as a developer, steam is a bad thing, and why in his opinion steam won't be the future of digital distribution. I don't agree with him fully but he does bring up some interesting points for discussion. Though it sounds like he's mostly worried about Valve becoming the next EA, and even if steam was independent from valve it seems like that could happen anyway :/

Steam is like the best distribution method and if a game isn't offered through it I barely consider buying it.

The only thing I hate about Steam is its currency conversion for Europeans, which still hasn't changed after a fucking year.

Interesting discussion. This sounds like getting ripped off by still paying $50 for GTA4, when you can find it cheaper retail. Taking advantage of lazy people that don't have a way to go up to the store and buy it in a box.

[quote=Randy Pitchford] RP: I don’t trust Valve. RP: And I, personally, trust Valve. [/quote] :raise:

You guys sure know a lot about business.

If I was garry at the time Valve asked for 50%, I would've asked for 55%, and them 45%. That way it's still alot of money for garry. Only just a little more.

I didn't know that Valve exploits midgets,bout big guys,well,it's obvious that they dominate there

[QUOTE=Amateur;17723773]I didn't know that Valve exploits midgets,bout big guys,well,it's obvious that they dominate there[/QUOTE] What the hell do you mean, because I do not understand your broken grammar. And Randy Pitchford is awesome.

[QUOTE=Zips;17719083]What you guys fail to realize is that he's speaking from the standpoint of ANY business owner. All businesses in the game industry view every other company as a threat and have some "problem" with how they conduct business, especially as they are all competitors. Which is why he makes the distinction between how he personally feels as a person, and how he feels as a business owner in direct competition with another company. Understand any better?[/QUOTE] I think almost all of us understood that, but his reasoning for not trusting STEAM as a business owner is incredibly stupid.

[QUOTE=Bloodypalace;17719178]Just look at poor garry and how valve is taking %50 of his money....[/QUOTE] i think that's only a special case for garry, since i think the 50% that goes to valve actually goes into garry's source engine license.

[QUOTE=gngbng;17728134]i think that's only a special case for garry, since i think the 50% that goes to valve actually goes into garry's source engine license.[/QUOTE] That's what I'm thinking. He is marketing a game built on their software. It has to probably do more with licensing and proprietary rights more than anything.

[QUOTE=Bloodypalace;17719178]He has a point, Steam is ripping off indie developers. Just look at poor garry and how valve is taking %50 of his money....[/QUOTE] Garry was the one who made it to be $9.99 USD for Gmod10, i'd love to say that Garry isn't in this business for profits but i'd be spewing shit through my teeth if I tried. Garry still gets a hefty paycheck for not having to pay thousands of dollars to get the engine as Unreal Developers have to.