EA's shuttered Facebook games a cautionary tale for online-only play

[PowerYoga]

You could just go out and pirate all your Steam games if they actually did shut down and lock you out of your games, and do it with a clean conscience since you actually paid for the game.

It wouldn't be pirating. You'd be getting your game.

 

[wanderer27]

Has anyone actually sat down and down a little math on this Steam issue I brought up or even given it much thought?

Let's take a quick look at this:

Say . . . I'm a Corporate Raider type dude, or someone that just has more money than I know what to do with . . . but I want even more money.

Hmmmm,

http://steamunpowered.eu/ea-wants-to-buy-valve-for-1-000-000-000/

Interesting, but it's really a low ball offer when you look at this:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...l-at-50-million-users-500-000-use-big-picture

Time for a little math:

1.) 50,000,000+ accounts . . . these are all basically hostage to the Steam service in that they essentially won't work without Steam.

As our premise stated, I've got more money than God, but I want more, so . . .

EA at $1B, ha, I'll go at $2B . . . twice what EA's initial offer was.

I just bought 50M slaves . . . er, customers . . . I think I'll charge them a piddly $1 a month (and that is piddly when you look at EVE, WOW, etc.) just to have a Steam account and access to all the games they bought.

. . . so let's see, that nets me $50M per month, or $600M per year . . . on a $2B initial investment, that would be a 30% annual ROI per year . . . not too bad in today's Economy.

And that's just for having an account - it doesn't include additional game sales . . .

Potential suiters?

EA
Microsoft
Google
some other RMF?


Folks, even at $6B, that would net them a 10% ROI, which is nothing to shrug off.

What really surprises me is that no one has done this . . . yet.


If I had that kind of money, this would be the easiest investment I could think of today.



.

 

[BladeVenom]

I agree $1 billion is a joke. Even $2 billion would be a great buy. EA is only worth $5 billion, and expected to decline. So EA can't afford what Valve is actually worth.

Microsoft has abandoned PC gaming and is putting everything into consoles.

I don't see any reason for Google wanting them. Steam is still mostly Windows users. How much good would that do Google who is pushing Android and Chrome?

If Apple wanted to get into gaming, they could afford it, but Apple seems more about devices with less concern for the desktop now.

Maybe a large entertainment company might want them? Walt Disney could afford Valve. Games and movies aren't than unrelated. I don't think they'd want Valve, but it's not inconceivable.

 

[Elixer]

I agree $1 billion is a joke. Even $2 billion would be a great buy. EA is only worth $5 billion, and expected to decline. So EA can't afford what Valve is actually worth.

Not so fast, as I said before, once publishers find they no longer need steam to sell things, then steam is going to tank, and tank fast.

Microsoft has abandoned PC gaming and is putting everything into consoles.

I don't see any reason for Google wanting them. Steam is still mostly Windows users. How much good would that do Google who is pushing Android and Chrome?

Google would most defiantly want them, they are control freaks.
While steam is pretty much all windows now, that doesn't mean it has to stay that way, they would have much more access to everything on people's system, and everything about the machine that steam is running on. Steam has this info already, and they actively request this information about *everything* installed on your system any time you have a support request.
That means google can do targeted ads based on if you need a faster CPU or more RAM or..or...

If Apple wanted to get into gaming, they could afford it, but Apple seems more about devices with less concern for the desktop now.

Apple could care less, they live in their own world, and they are happy in it, it seems.

Maybe a large entertainment company might want them? Walt Disney could afford Valve. Games and movies aren't than unrelated. I don't think they'd want Valve, but it's not inconceivable.

That would be a bit of a stretch for them, they have tried before to get into games, and haven't done too well.

Cable companies on the other hand...they want content control, and steam could give them that easily, at least, while steam is still popular.

 

[Craig234]

That reminds me of Motor City Online. My parents gave me a copy when it came out, but I only had dialup so I never was able to play it. By the time I moved to a place where I could get cable, the game was dead.

Ya, I never got to play other games I own, either - Auto Assault, Earth & Beyond, Sims Online, Uru, and more.

Actually, this happend with Meridian 59 - and I called up 3DO not pleased, and their office was not far, and they invited me to come over.

I handed them back the boxed copy of Meridian 59, and they gave me a boxed copy of Dark messiah of Might & Magic . They were very polite.

In fact, Sony did sort of similar - when I couldn't log on when I should have been able to, they offered me a pick of a game, I couldn't decide right away, but they marked my account for a copy of DC Universe. But almost immediately after, it went free to play, so never really got anything.

In theory I can still ask for a game, I guess.