Should Retailers Stop Selling Games that Require Steam?

[Rob Williams]

A couple of weeks ago, news got out that certain UK retailers were planning to stop selling games that require Valve's Steam platform to play, citing that by selling such games to their customers, they'd essentially be sending them to a competitor. Being that Steam is getting bigger and bigger all the time, these retailers might have a point. But is this the solution?

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Read the rest of our post and discuss it here!

 

[BigJohn]

No, but i wish they stop selling games with that requires window live, them games always turn out too be junk no good never working, and non-returnable after opening. pain in the arse.

 

[Richard Searle]

I can see why a retailer would not want to sell somebody a game that requires Steam to play...But seriously how much extra traffic would this drive into a retail store. If some of the best titles out there are on Steam would that not cost them foot traffic in there PC gaming sections?

Do the retailers sell the actual hard copy of the game or is it just a game voucher to apply on Steam. That could be a small alternative alot of people out there do not want to purchase the game directly online,

 

[TheCrimsonStar]

Do the retailers sell the actual hard copy of the game or is it just a game voucher to apply on Steam. That could be a small alternative alot of people out there do not want to purchase the game directly online,

They already do that. CoD: Black Ops I bought at GameStop but when I went to install it opened steam, and said steam is required to run this game. Same thing when I bought Portal.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

Civilization 5 and Falloutout New Vegas, both require steam to play. Buying the disc just means you don't have to download several GB of data, though any DLC still needs to be activated via the corrosponding publisher sites. You have to create a steam account if you don't have one to play the games, which means an internet conenction is required to activate the install initially. A lot of retailers still sell these steam only games cheaper than steam itself. Compare the Amazon price listing to most steam listings (even while on sale).

 

[Richard Searle]

Wow you would think that Steam would have the lowest prices available.

 

[Kougar]

Supreme Commander II also required Steam to play... for different reasons. The game disc shipped to stores only had ~2GB of content on it, users had to install steam and download another ~2GB of content. SCII shipped before the game was completed, and as a consequence they resorted to using Steam to install the finished game. Users that bought the game in a store only discovered this after they opened the box to see a paper note included with the game.

No, but i wish they stop selling games with that requires window live, them games always turn out too be junk no good never working, and non-returnable after opening. pain in the arse.

Ugh, I could not agree with you more! I bought one game via Steam that required Windows Live as to play with some friends that had it... Flatout Ultimate Carnage actually. The game itself was fine, but it was just a console game very poorly implemented on the PC. The menu system is still designed for a controller and even after resorting to grabbing a USB controller I couldn't get the controls to handle responsively as I'd have liked. It wasn't a bad game, but it was definitely one of those to enjoy on a console, or not at all. But because of that I have never bought another game for the PC that required Windows Live.

Wow you would think that Steam would have the lowest prices available.

I used to think the same... until a few months ago. Once games have been on the market for awhile, I have noticed Amazon typical discounts hard copies of them first. The digital downloads at Amazon don't even get discounted until much much later, but Amazon surprisingly often will sell a hard copy of a game for less than Steam is selling it for a digital download. I believe this is due to digital download agreements Steam had to sign with many publishers that gives them less leeway on discounts, as opposed to hard copies.

For example, for months Amazon had Star Trek Online Deluxe for $9 when Steam was selling it for $30. This one caught my eye because over the holidays one could buy a digital copy (non-deluxe) from Amazon for $2.50, yet was $20 on Steam. Even after all sales have expired... today STO costs $7.26 for a hard copy or digital download at Amazon... but costs $20 via Steam. That's just the one game, too!