Steam Doubled its Profits in 2011

[Gabbynaruto]

I mean, the games cost almost double the price of a retail version

lolwut?

I bought bioshock 1+2, dead space 1+2 and Amnesia for $5 each.
I got Grand Theft Auto 1, 2, 3, San Andreas, and Vice City for $10 total.
Terraria goes on sale for 75% off every so often.
Blah blah blah blah

I suppose the Bioshok and Dead Space sales were worth it. Otherwise, the GTA games, no matter how many of them are out there, aren't worth the money (for me at least). And, I don't think Terraria is available for retail, so, I guess it's out cause I can't compare it with a shop price (and it isn't exactly a attractive game. Played it, got bored after 10 minutes)

Okay, uh, can anyone explain me why Steam is so popular? I mean, the games cost almost double the price of a retail version from a normal online shop (at least here they do).And, please, no "cause it does online" explanations. You can play a game online even without buying it on steam...

Umm... They where selling Total War Shogun 2 one day for $22 AUD... Meanwhile at EB Games $99 AUD

If I remember well, I found a collection here with Shogun 2, and some earlier games in the series, on a online shop, at about 15$. And that game as a stand alone was never more than 20$ here anyway. So, I suppose that online retail shop is better than steam here. The steam only has the advantage in the first 2 weeks when the game is launched, as I noticed that the prices tend to be a bit higher on the online shop than on steam, but after 2 weeks, prices go lower than on steam.

So, yeah, I still don't see why steam is so popular. Just cause it has great sales sometimes still doesn't make it a great platform. Digital distribution is not better than retail anyway... Just saying.

 

[Schlupi]

It's because of their great service, awesome sales, and the awesome way they treat their customers. Valve has simply created the greatest medium for PC gaming, and the sexy prices and instant delivery (why buy Skyrim for 360 off of Amazon for 60 bucks when I can get it NOW for 45 on sale and still use my 360 controller?) and it shows.

God... it's no joke when people say Valve has to be rolling in dough. Think about it, between Steam, their own software, and TF2HATS... OH GAWD THE HATS. ;O;

 

[MasterPenguin]

Over the steam christmas sale, I got 15 games for free.

Honestly, you can't say retail can match that. You just can't.

 

[Hells Malice]

Okay, uh, can anyone explain me why Steam is so popular? I mean, the games cost almost double the price of a retail version from a normal online shop (at least here they do).And, please, no "cause it does online" explanations. You can play a game online even without buying it on steam...

Where the fuck do you shop?
Give me directions, if there's a place that sells games cheaper than Steam, you've probably died and found it built on a fluffy white cloud.


EDIT: Oh I get it. I have no idea what currency Romania uses, but Steam has never been very friendly with conversions. USD/CAD or bust. I bought Total War: Shogun 2 and every expansion for $11.16 USD.

 

[ferofax]

Gabe Newell knows how to handle pirates and successfully convert them into paying customers mainly because at one point, like everybody else, he's been one. when you're pirating something, you justify it with whatever reason you can come up with. Gabe knows how you justify it, so he offered a service that makes pirating unnecessary and unattractive.

Best damn use of crowd psychology right there.

 

[spiritofcat]

Yep, steam showed me that I'm not a true pirate at heart.
I got steam earlier this year because I wanted to buy Terraria after having played a pirated version first.
Since then I've bought so many games that I'd previously pirated. AU$90 is more than I'm willing to spend on most games, but when they're less than AU$20 I snap them up quick enough.
I've even bought games that I already owned physical copies of just because they were cheap and it's easier than digging up the CD to install them again. That and DLC.
I bought the galactic edtion of Spore when it first came out, but I bought it again on steam this year along with the Galactic Adventures expansion pack.
Same thing with Oblivion GOTY edition. I already had the collectors edition of Oblivion from when it was first released, but it was easier and cheaper to just buy the GOTY edition when it was on sale rather than finding the DVD, installing and buying the DLC manually.

 

[chartube12]

With deals very often, is it any wonder? The big 3 companies need to take a book from Steam's library, especially Nintendo. Sony as deals once and awhile in the bundle section and even Microsoft does temp price cuts in the market.

 

[ProtoKun7]

Lol 780 petabytes!!
780,000,000 mb of data given to players
Its is a very good market.

That's 780 terabytes. Either change that to GB or multiply by 1,000.

 

[prowler]

Retail games are cheaper to buy at first than buying through Steam.

Example: Skyrim.
Retail - £30
Steam (the price it is right now) - £35

So you might as well buy retail, saves you having to download it and £5.
inb4: BUT SALES

 

[Hells Malice]

Steam and retail prices are the same at launch for me, and steam sometimes offers 10% off for pre-orders. Even if it was different, I don't mind paying for the convenience of not having to go outside and deal with people.



Before I pirate (PC games), I generally weigh price vs download size. If it's going to take me forever to pirate it, and I wanna play it now, i'll actually just buy it.

 

[Rydian]

I suppose the Bioshok and Dead Space sales were worth it. Otherwise, the GTA games, no matter how many of them are out there, aren't worth the money (for me at least). And, I don't think Terraria is available for retail, so, I guess it's out cause I can't compare it with a shop price (and it isn't exactly a attractive game. Played it, got bored after 10 minutes)

Just because you don't like the games I listed doesn't mean I'm wrong. I just listed the ones I'm sure on the price of, that are sold retail or go on sale often (there were two different bundles for the GTA series).

I'm not saying that games are always cheaper on steam (as some companies won't let the prices drop for a while, as hell's malice stated launch prices are almost always the same across the board), but a majority of the games available on steam are available at varying discounts, often up to 75% off.

Age of Empires III Complete is 50% off right now.
Fable: The Lost Chapters is $10.
Half-life 2 is $10.
Star Wars: KOTOR is $10.
Half-life 2: Episode 1 is $8. (Same for Episode 2.)
Fallout is $10.
Max Payne is $10.
Hell, they sometimes give away games like Portal.

And as far as recent releases, when they can discount they often do... Saints Row: The Third is $20 less on steam than gamestop's site lists it for.

Digital distribution has it's benefits in lower ovehead (which again means cheaper costs for the customer in many, many situations). This can be seen with other platforms as well, Gamestop's digital version of Sonic Generations is $20 less than the console versions (it matches up with steam's price).

So, yeah, I still don't see why steam is so popular.

Yeah, denial does tend to cloud your judgment.

Just cause it has great sales sometimes still doesn't make it a great platform.

Other than the prices, the ease of access is one reason people like it... and while there's other digital distribution platforms, they tend to be a bit messy (just offering standalone installer downloads) or restrictive DRM-wise. Steam also takes care of the download and install for you, without actually pulling any of the crapware add-on software or needing you to click along in a custom dialog box per-game... that's a benefit to it as well.

Steams' a digital distribution platform, you can't take just one aspect of it into consideration (though price is often the key selling point).

Digital distribution is not better than retail anyway... Just saying.

If you'd like to actually discuss things, then we will.

However if you have some vendetta and will just try your best to push your opinion ignoring counters (as evidenced by your closing line), nobody gives a fuck.

 

[Gabbynaruto]

I suppose the Bioshok and Dead Space sales were worth it. Otherwise, the GTA games, no matter how many of them are out there, aren't worth the money (for me at least). And, I don't think Terraria is available for retail, so, I guess it's out cause I can't compare it with a shop price (and it isn't exactly a attractive game. Played it, got bored after 10 minutes)

Just because you don't like the games I listed doesn't mean I'm wrong. I just listed the ones I'm sure on the price of, that are sold retail or go on sale often (there were two different bundles for the GTA series).

I'm not saying that games are always cheaper on steam (as some companies won't let the prices drop for a while, as hell's malice stated launch prices are almost always the same across the board), but a majority of the games available on steam are available at varying discounts, often up to 75% off.

Age of Empires III Complete is 50% off right now.
Fable: The Lost Chapters is $10.
Half-life 2 is $10.
Star Wars: KOTOR is $10.
Half-life 2: Episode 1 is $8. (Same for Episode 2.)
Fallout is $10.
Max Payne is $10.
Hell, they sometimes give away games like Portal.

And as far as recent releases, when they can discount they often do... Saints Row: The Third is $20 less on steam than gamestop's site lists it for.

Digital distribution has it's benefits in lower ovehead (which again means cheaper costs for the customer in many, many situations). This can be seen with other platforms as well, Gamestop's digital version of Sonic Generations is $20 less than the console versions (it matches up with steam's price).

Well, yeah, I never said you're wrong, it's just my personal opinion about those games. And the list you just put there looks rather impressive. It somehow makes me want to try steam. Somehow...

So, yeah, I still don't see why steam is so popular.

Yeah, denial does tend to cloud your judgment.

Well, it happens, I'm not perfect, I can make mistakes too.

Just cause it has great sales sometimes still doesn't make it a great platform.

Other than the prices, the ease of access is one reason people like it... and while there's other digital distribution platforms, they tend to be a bit messy (just offering standalone installer downloads) or restrictive DRM-wise. Steam also takes care of the download and install for you, without actually pulling any of the crapware add-on software or needing you to click along in a custom dialog box per-game... that's a benefit to it as well.

Steams' a digital distribution platform, you can't take just one aspect of it into consideration (though price is often the key selling point).

It sounds well, but, I still do prefer to choose the location where I install the game (if you can do that with steam, ignore this).

Digital distribution is not better than retail anyway... Just saying.

If you'd like to actually discuss things, then we will.

However if you have some vendetta and will just try your best to push your opinion ignoring counters (as evidenced by your closing line), nobody gives a fuck.

Never meant to make it sounds as a vendetta. I probably should be checking things before talking, though it rarely happens that I don't. Seems like I still need a lot more knowledge about steam though. So, I apologize!

 

[Rydian]

I do recommend you try steam, as multiple people here have posted they did and realized it's a nice alternative to piracy... not having to deal with finding the right kind of cracks or changing your HOSTS file or finding some seeded torrents or any of that crap, 'ya know?

As far as other features, steam has achievements, it's own IM service (you can even pull it up in-game as an overlay and it's cross-game communication), and all sorts of other crap people may or may not use.

As far as steam installing games to different directories, I don't know about that. It always wants to install them into it's own specific folder... but that doesn't mean that modding isn't available (I've got a few half-life 1 mod games installed) or that cheats/trainers won't work (for offline games) if that's your concern. If your concern is portability, then you can have a game from Steam installed on more than one computer (you can just only play on one computer at a time).

 

[Gabbynaruto]

No, not that. Steam is usually installed in the C:/ partition, right? That means that the games would be installed somehow like C:/Program Files/Steam/*game name*, right? I usually make my C partition smaller and have the tendency to install games in D, so, it would be better if steam would install them in my man game folder instead of manually copying them to that folder and risk them not working anymore.

And, yeah, I think I'll give it a try. Thanks!

 

[Defiance]

No, not that. Steam is usually installed in the C:/ partition, right? That means that the games would be installed somehow like C:/Program Files/Steam/*game name*, right? I usually make my C partition smaller and have the tendency to install games in D, so, it would be better if steam would install them in my man game folder instead of manually copying them to that folder and risk them not working anymore.

And, yeah, I think I'll give it a try. Thanks!

The partition that you install Steam itself will be the partition where your games are installed as well. I know this because I, too, have a partitioned hard drive, with C: being my smaller partition (for the OS).

 

[Joe88]

you can move your whole steam directory to another drive, it takes like 5 mins
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

 

[mameks]

His angry nipple's on fire.

 

[Jeff88]

I can't help but shake my head slowly as I read a few comments about "but PC gaming is dying, the end is nigh".
Yeah right, you have said that for the past 10 years.

 

[ProtoKun7]

I can't help but shake my head slowly as I read a few comments about "but PC gaming is dying, the end is nigh".
Yeah right, you have said that for the past 10 years.

BUT DUDE IT'S GOING TO END SOME DAY, JUST WAIT

 

[moose3]

No, not that. Steam is usually installed in the C:/ partition, right? That means that the games would be installed somehow like C:/Program Files/Steam/*game name*, right? I usually make my C partition smaller and have the tendency to install games in D, so, it would be better if steam would install them in my man game folder instead of manually copying them to that folder and risk them not working anymore.

And, yeah, I think I'll give it a try. Thanks!

As mentioned already, you can install steam itself onto any partition and directory you want and individual games go into that folder, though just for information if you are running out of space on the initial drive, you can use symbolic links to make steam think the game is still in the steam folder once you have moved it to another drive to make space. Probably have it install to a different partition also if you start the download, pause and exit steam, so you know what it calls the installing folder, and restart the download once the link is made. Should also work with *.gcf files too.