And with Steam, you are paying for convenience which retail games do not provide. You give up a box and case for a system that allows you to install and play your game on any computer anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection.
Retail stores provide plenty of convenience for most people, some people actually enjoy getting up from their computers and going into town to do something. I know i do. And jeez, "play anywhere any time as long as you have an internet connection"? Really? How many people have computers that they use to play games at seperate locations? How many people don;t have a USB stick on their keyring that can't just put the game on there? How many people might go over to their friends' with the game to play multi-player and install on multiple computers?
Steam will only survive because of the die hard gamers (who can't wait to own the game the minute it's relased), those with enough money not to care, and the lazy. A vast majority of people enjoyed using steam because it was cheaper than retail. At the end of the day Stream will still profit, even with the loss of customer base as they will be able to make bigger profits from a smaller customer base - Do you believe the company wouldn't have thought of this? It will also turn a lot of gamers to piracy (the lazy+poor) who will think, "hey i can get the same service (even better sometimes) if i use torrents, whih will be bad for the industry in general."
So in summary this move is bad for everyone apart from Steam.
The original steam users lose out on the steam service because they will not pay an inflated price.
The people still using storm lose out for obvious reasons.
And the industry loses out in general as more people move to piracy.
Another knock on effect is that the dev loses out as they are getting less $$$ as previous steam users move to piracy.
Ok so your point - "Don't use it if you don't like it, or vote with your dollars" is valid, it insn't taking into account the big picture, you are only thinking of the individual users who use steam.
This is the first step in a troublesome trend, It seems the video gaming industry is moving in the direction of the music industry where developers/artists get the smallest slice of the pie. And games will be knocked out as fast as one-hit wonders with about as much quality and we will have to accept that fact as the publisher will be in control.
I still remember the days when anyone with a speccy, tape recorder and enough free time could become a developer and the games back then were some of the best i have ever played. (do i sound like an old man?)
At retail the prices are not different here or the US, NOT for the publisher, who gets the same or almost the same money. Most of the 50€ cake goes for the people in the store, truckers, etc. I don't care if you don't apreciate those, but that's why the game costs more in the EU. I apreciate the human interaction in my deal and with steam you get NONE. Without those only the publisher gets all the pie and there's no freaking reason they sould aim for a higher margin in the EU than in the US. They make the game for x amount, they sell it for x+y EVERYWERE, just as ANY OHTER PUBLISHER does.
Yup, i agree. The dev are not seeing any of the extra money which is not a good thing. i believe credit should be given where it is due. As i said above i think this can only hurt the developers.
Most people do not mind spending extra money for something when they understand where the money is going. In this case there will be a lot of confused people.
To mailmain> calling them Greedy isn't a knee jerk reaction. What does every publisher or every corporation want at the end of the day? To make their share-holders happy. How do they do this? By making as much money as possible and then spending as little as possible. I would call this the definition of greedy.
Greedy =
strongly desiring more than required: having an overwhelming desire to have more of something such as money than is actually needed
I would define most big companies as being greedy (although not all).
And no i don;t go round complaining about every company under the sun, but when it is happening right under your nose and just to brush it off as saying "that's life" or "that's ok, every one else does it" is not acceptable.
I am unhappy with the situation and steam give a good example of what is happening. Seeing as individuals alone have little chance of effecting what is happening it is upto the people who represent us to do something about it. the people that represent us being the governments, whom to which we pay taxes. But seeing as people are happy with just saying - "Well that's capitalism" this will never happen. So for our governments to step in and stop excessive greed on our behalf does not represent socialism.
I am familiar with socialism, i live in a socialist country. It is not, by the way Mailman, in transition to becoming a communist country (that period has come and gone). And at the moment, the small business owner is king. It is still actually possible to run a business here and make a profit (although things are rapidly changing). And things are much cheaper when the corporations are not given too much leeway to do as they wish by using the excuse"that's capitalism!"