Steam, Playstaion Network and other digital distribution platforms...

[Katphood]

I was wondering which one has a stronger user-base and is likely to die last in your opinion. I use Steam, PlayStation Network and nintendo.com to buy/play the games I want.

 

Now I came across certain things in the past which made me wonder if there is any platform of choice at all.

 

Take Titanfall 2 for instance: you can play them on all 3 major platforms(PC, Xbox, PlayStation) but if you want a slice of the multiplayer you have much better luck at finding a match in PSN but good luck with that on steam...

 

But then there are oldies, classics and indies such as Blood, Turok, Underrail, Tyranny, System Shock Enhanced, Planescape: Torment, Baldurs Gate and other games that are mostly exclusive to PC(Steam, GOG, Origin etc.).

 

The way I see it, there really isn't a platform of choice if you are interested in most games like I am. Others might narrow their choices to only one platform because of preference, work, lack of time, family...

 

But what I want to know is whether these platforms can always co-exist like this and what will happen if someday one of them bites the dust?! What will become of people and the games they have purchased?! 

 

P.S: Sony recently decided to block cross-platform play with Xbox One and Switch.

[Mamoulian War]

The only platform, which I use is GOG. I have PSN account as well, but I have never purchased any digital only game on PS system, due to DRM, and it will most likely stay that way, unless they make it little bit more competitive with GOG in terms of sales. I rather pay 50 EUR for physical game than 10 EUR for digital game.

 

Cross platform works only when developer/publisher decides to allow it. Crossplatform between GOG and Steam works in maybe 20-30% of the MP games. Crossplatform play between different consoles and PCs is more in the wishful thinking area, than something they want to provide.

 

Because of possibility, that some platform might bite the dust, I buy 90% of my games SinglePlayer, and on PC only DRM-free releases. Whatever will happen with any platform, I can play my games even if the service goes down.

Edited June 26, 2017 by Mamoulian War

[Gfted1]

I buy digital products from Steam, GoG and Origin. I really dont care much whos selling it but a slight nod to Steam just because most of my stuff is there anyway. I dont lose any sleep at all of a mythical store closure which locks me out of my products and I love the fact that its all digital and I can access it from any PC.

[Labadal]

I'm 99% digital on Steam/GOG/Origin

 

I'm 70/30 on PSN/XBLA in favor of physical

 

I'm 100% physical on Nintendo systems

 

My bet is that Steam will last the longest. Source: Tales from my butt.

Edited June 26, 2017 by Labadal

[Bartimaeus]

I stick to Steam and GOG. My opinion on Steam and Valve in general has soured somewhat over the years, and I use it more as messaging platform these days than anything else. I have a relatively high opinion of GOG, and I would think that'd be the platform of choice while being supplemented by Steam for PC. Beyond that, I don't really consider other platforms (especially seeing as I'm not on current consoles).

[Amentep]

The continuance of Nintendo eStore, PlaystationsNetwork and XBoxLive is probably tied to the existence of the stand-alone console market that they support.  Similarly, something like Origin will probably last as long as that publisher wants their in-house system.

 

Steam and GOG are pretty diversified, so can probably withstand a lot of change in the market.  Unless the majority of publishers want their own Origin, a Steam or a GOG should do well without the intervention of a better competitor.

 

I'm not sure worrying about the long-term future of these really makes sense.  Its about like worrying whether my PST, BG, and IWD discs are going to suffer CD rot.  Odds are, eventually, they will.  And I won't have access to the data on them.

[SonicMage117]

Origin and GoG would definitely die far before Steam ever will. DRM and/pr additional DRM's have nothing to do with the longevity of the platform but only a very VEEY small portion of the user base will not use a platform because of DRM. It's all about the games and what it pushes. Steam is the leader for that and always will be.

 

On the other hand, Windows Live gaming platform has less users than any of those and makes the least money but will outlive everything because... Microsoft owns it.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Ubi suddenly got rid of uPlay one day and gave a free game or two to all of its angry users because of it.

 

PSN and XBL will outlive Origin and GoG for sure. There's a huge social aspect that beats both and that's exactly why. It's user friendly and easy to get into.

 

I'm not too sure about Nintendo. I don't have alot of experience in their store, online systems, etc to give enough of an opinion on that. I know that it's not as developed as any of the other ones I talked about but that's all I can really say atm.

 

I think we can agree that Steam has a clear safety met advantage over everything else. The fact that it's consumer market alone could keep the platform afloat, add to that the fact that Steam doesn't just sell games which people tend to forget - it also sells engineering tools, school/education products, movies/showss, editing software.. It's the most developed platform, there's no question about it.

[Majek]

HUmble bundle will be the last one standing.  There's no reason to expect anyone to die out anytime soon anyway.  Especially not GOG. And Steam still needs an overhaul even more than any other service.

 

And i'm never buying a physical copy ever again. Whethere is pc or console games.

[Hurlshort]

Steam and Playstation Network are pretty entrenched, and it is hard to see them going away anytime soon, unless there is some dramatic change in the market. Nintendo is a bit of a wildcard, they haven't been afraid to shutter stuff and go off in entirely different directions.

[Katphood]

And Steam still needs an overhaul even more than any other service.

 

 

Yeah, that is something I always wonder. There are a whole lot of games on steam that get abandoned by the developers and when a new operating system hits the stores people will see compatibility issues and games that don't run unless you fiddle with them with patches, mods and tools which is bothersome. 

 

GOG for some reason doesn't suffer from this problem. Their games work 99% of the times right out of the box. 

[Zoraptor]

GOG actively supports/ curates stuff that they sell, while Steam doesn't. That's the basic reason why stuff off GOG works most of the time, they literally won't sell it if it doesn't while Steam tends to only remove the most egregious stuff and rely on 'the community' and refunds. GOG's approach can have some problems as well though, eg they have removed explicit WindowsXP compatibility listings from a number of games since XP is not supported any more (plus Galaxy doesn't work on XP, so any game using it for MP etc won't have those features work), but they almost certainly still actually work with XP.

 

As for digital distribution itself, I must have games on about ten? different platforms. Don't use any of the console ones, don't use Steam either since it's a software console, don't mind using uplay/ origin etc as single vendor platforms but wouldn't buy 3rd party from them.

[Malcador]

Mostly GOG but a decent chunk on Steam as they were cheaper at the time.

[Fenixp]

I do prefer GOG to Steam quite a bit. Steam's monopoly which allows Valve to do pretty much anything they want without any fear of repercussions does rub me the wrong way quite a bit - no need to curate games, community will do it.

 

Why hire professional translators, community will translate the client for free! Why bother with a proper tagging system, community will gladly tag for us. And I'm not even talking about the whole gambling thing that Valve kinda just shrugged at and went "Yea, we get massive profit margins from this and have created infrastructure allowing for such use, but we ain't seen nothing" while they just sit with a thumb up their ass when it comes to all non-cutting edge features... Eeeeeh. Yeah.

 

Basically, when I can choose between Steam and any other platform, I choose that other platform. Naturally, Steam's monopoly has lead to a rather unhealthy state on the market where not having a game on Steam essentially means death for a developer, effectively rendering Steam = PC platform.

 

That said, I find Origin's Access feature really cool, allowing me to access a whole array of games at once. I find GOG's curated approach rather fresh and their store is still just fun to browse. Then there's uPlay which... Yeah.

 

And yes, I'm all-digital at this point.

[ShadySands]

I don't play any games unless I have to tinker with my config.sys and autoexec.bat files to get them to run.

 

I'm all digital everything but I think Steam and PSN are clunky even though I have a lot of games on both of them. I have no brand loyalty so if you give me a good experience at a good price then you have my custom.

[SonicMage117]

There's no reason to expect anyone to die out anytime soon anyway. Especially not GOG. And Steam still needs an overhaul even more than any other service.

This is not the real case. In reality, GoG would probably be the first to go out against Origin, Steam and uPlay because GoG has a far lesser audience and probably makes the least money. If anything I'd say GoG and Origin are the ones in need of an overhaul because they are far behind Steam is sales and marketing representation but enlighten me, which part of Steam needs an overhaul?

 

If you're talking anout getting rid of the crappy RPGmaker games, that's already been fixed. It's called Valve Direct. I wouldn't worry about crappy $0.99 games anymore, besides that it's really hard to take anyone seriously who complains about them when you can filter them out so easily to where you literally never see them.

HUmble bundle will be the last one standing.

Wrong. Humble Bundle is a vendor, not a platform so you can't compare it to the likes of Origin, Steam, Origin. Wothout Steam, Humble would sieze to exist. Just look at how many Steam users buy from Humble and you'll see.

 

I'll just say that aside from a few clssics and being DRM-free, GoG is at major disadvantes and won't ever be able to compete directly with Steam. For every 1 game that GoG offers that's not on Steam, Steam has like 100 lol And while someone here will say "I'd rather have that one good game than 100 bad ones" well that's biased nature and again, shouldn't really be taken seriously. After all, everyone has their own likes and dislikes. Steam is better suited for the modern gamer who wants a good social experience and a broader selection of quality games but seeing how this forum is nade up of people who prefer GoG, I'll just leave it at that.

I'm all digital everything but I think Steam and PSN are clunky even though I have a lot of games on both of them. I have no brand loyalty so if you give me a good experience at a good price then you have my custom.

Same here. I use Steam, GoG, Origin, Windows Live, PSN, XBL. I use Steam more than everything but am nt biased to any one in particular. Edited June 26, 2017 by SonicMage117

[Blodhemn]

Probably Steam, but who knows? Most people need multiple services any way. If I could start over I'd have more of my games on GOG, but then again Galaxy doesn't work on my Win 7, and I like keeping track of hours played and such, so Steam wins by default, unfortunately.

[SonicMage117]

Steam wins in alot of ways. That's why Origin and GoG will definitely lose before it ever does (aside from the active user count). There's no competition here. I know that alot of people here want Steam to fail so badly because of certain things but let's face it, PC gaming is dependent on Steam, it's not dependent on GoG.

[Blodhemn]

Don't care for them to fail unless it forced them to actually produce a game worthwhile, but eh, I've stopped caring about that side of Valve long ago.

[Fenixp]

PC gaming is dependent on Steam, it's not dependent on GoG.

If Steam disappeared overnight, people would be hurt and upset for a few months - and then a different digital distribution platform would become dominant (I'd say Origin, but I'd not be surprised if Humble Store rose to prominence due to their acceptance of DRM, provided they'd manage to create a client quickly enough.)

 

It's also worth noting that when Steam did become dominant, digital distribution was already on the rise - Valve just had the leverage they needed to become the dominant platform. It's not like distribution would not get revolutionized without Valve considering similar services already existed before Steam, the trend was already set at the time. Pretending that Valve is some sort of savior without whom PC gaming would die off is ignoring an entire market that was already growing at the time.

[majestic]

This is not the real case. In reality, GoG would probably be the first to go out against Origin, Steam and uPlay because GoG has a far lesser audience and probably makes the least money.

Eh, GoG has a unique approach and offers services that are not really found elsewhere - most notably they untangle distribution right knots and write wrappers and fixes for old games, and according to interviews with CDPR the platform has been profitable since its launch.

 

Unless something happens to CDPR I don't see GoG failing. Sure they have been expanding and trying to get market shares from other platforms by introducing Galaxy and inDev but that really isn't their core appeal, at least not for me and I suppose a lot of players like me. I signed up for GoG for the awesome nostalgia trips they offer and they keep on doing that.

 

Where else would I get a replacement for my Eye of the Beholder 2 disks?

[SonicMage117]

If Steam disappeared overnight, people would be hurt and upset for a few months - and then a different digital distribution platform would become dominant (I'd say Origin, but I'd not be surprised if Humble Store rose to prominence due to their acceptance of DRM, provided they'd manage to create a client quickly enough.)

 

It's also worth noting that when Steam did become dominant, digital distribution was already on the rise - Valve just had the leverage they needed to become the dominant platform. It's not like distribution would not get revolutionized without Valve considering similar services already existed before Steam, the trend was already set at the time. Pretending that Valve is some sort of savior without whom PC gaming would die off is ignoring an entire market that was already growing at the time.

This is only easy to say because you know it won't happen, nobody said or is acting like Valve is the savior to PC gaming but it's more ignorant to act like PC gaming would be anything without Steam. Steam holds the majority of PC gaming plain and simple, Origin is basically known as EA, GoG is a couple hundred classics... That said, alot of today's best developers/publishers have exists only because of Steam. Let's not forget that truth. It's not like Origin or GoG ever did anything good for PC gaming. Would PC gaming really thrive without Valve? Who exactly would take over or take the place? I doubt it, it would barely survive at best. Realistically developers and publishers would forsake PC gaming and switch 100% focus to consoles, I mean why would they risk more loss of money and trust anyone else after Valve gets shut down? It wouldn't make sense. Hmmm... almost seems this thread is becoming more and more of "Who should get shut down?" vs "Who would get shut down?" but as I said before, alot of people here are anti-Steam or would love for it to die. Thank God it won't!

[majestic]

This is only easy to say because you know it won't happen, nobody said or is acting like Valve is the savior to PC gaming but it's more ignorant to act like PC gaming would be anything without Steam.

 

You do realize that you just contradicted yourself in the same sentence?

[SonicMage117]

 

This is only easy to say because you know it won't happen, nobody said or is acting like Valve is the savior to PC gaming but it's more ignorant to act like PC gaming would be anything without Steam.

You do realize that you just contradicted yourself in the same sentence?

Steam isn't Valve and I never said that Valve saved PC gaming so no, I didn't. However, PC gaming is where it's at because of Steam, whether people want to admit that or not, that's up to them. Edited June 27, 2017 by SonicMage117

[Katphood]

One feature Steam has that most others don't is the community. There are groups, achievements, trading cards(which aren't the same anymore), Steam greenlight(which isn't what most people thought it would be but hey...) and Steam Workshop(which is a great idea that has its own share of flaws in execution).

 

I don't know how good GOG Galaxy works but one reason it was introduced was that it wanted to attract people that are into community features. I am not sure if you can do both 100% DRM free and the 'optional client' thing at the same time. 

 

Steam will remain dominant because people have gotten used to it. It is sad because Valve makes a whole lot of money and it spends it on Steam OS, Big Picture Mode, Steam Controller and Steam machines instead of spending it on game compatibility issues and a sequel to Half-Life 2.

Edited June 27, 2017 by Katphood

[Fenixp]

Steam isn't Valve and I never said that Valve saved PC gaming so no, I didn't. However, PC gaming is where it's at because of Steam, whether people want to admit that or not, that's up to them.

PC gaming is where it's at because of rise of digital distribution, which Valve most certainly did not invent. It's like saying there would be no computers without IBM. Attributing success of PC as a platform to Valve is completely ignoring evolution of the platform itself. A different company would rise with the same concept if it weren't for Valve, and indeed, even back at the inception of Steam there were several competing digital distribution platforms - Valve just had Counter Strike and Half-Life so they had position on the market they could abuse. Edited June 27, 2017 by Fenixp