Interesting article on Steam

[Inspector Jihad]

Text

"We're talking about Valve becoming the platform holder and guardian of the PC as a gaming system over the next two years," says Stephen Gaffney, Business Development Manager of Splash Damage.

The Enemy Territory: Quake Wars developer is responding to Valve's announcement of Steamworks, a suite of publishing apps that will enable developers and publishers to use Steam's many tools for free.

Valve are giving away the tools that make up 80-90% of Steam. With 15 million customers, their digital delivery platform has already taken on a life of its own: through it you can buy all of Valve's releases and over 250 third-party games, while it also takes care of multiplayer matchmaking, voice chat, stats collection, anti-piracy measures and sales tracking.

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Now they're going to give everyone in the industry the opportunity to use that functionality, solving at a stroke many issues that burn up development time, incur costs and hit sales. Steamworks could place PC gaming back at the forefront of the videogame world and make it a more viable platform than ever for developers to focus on.

Valve announced Steam back in 2002, after a troubled beta process where it seemed to many users that Valve were anything but ready to ship a game through this software.

The initial idea was to keep the Counter-Strike community rolling along and provide a timely way of releasing updates, and eventually games. Erik Johnson, Valve's product manager, was there at the launch: "Counter-Strike went ballistic, and there was a pretty acute issue of getting patches to the customers. We had one of the big download sites at the time send me an email that said 'Sorry, we can't host your updates any more because it just cost us too much money.' Well, shit!"

Valve's numerous game updates presented a problem. They were releasing huge updates for Counter-Strike that were approaching full game development costs four times a year, and with those updates there were four or five days of confusion as the players attempted to find the patch and update.

Their own popularity was the problem. The solution was to release incremental updates, more often - thus Steam was born. And when it finally launched, the size of the Counter-Strike community, coupled with those waiting for Half-Life 2, broke it.

Erik explains: "It was gut-wrenching, because we had invested a ton of time into building this userbase and we were putting them into this situation where, internally, we saw the long term plan for Steam and they were happy there, but they were not happy the first time they showed up. We were terrified: we had a bunch of unhappy customers, and at that point Valve had never had unhappy customers. Truly, we were delivering a bad experience. And we had a lot of confidence we could fix that... but we'd better get there as fast as we can."

Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of marketing: "The first products we launched on Steam in 2004 (March for CS: Condition Zero, then HL2 in November) taught us a lot about offering full products over the wire. Most of that can be chalked up to teething pains on our side, and much of that was solved by investing in more hardware and people.

"In addition, there were some minor pains incurred due the lack of broadband penetration around the world at that time. Luckily, four years later, we're attacking interesting features and have moved beyond the 'just make it work' phase."

Which is where Steamworks comes in. Steam's tools have been so successful that publishers and gamers have been begging Valve to release them. Steamworks is Valve's response.

In opening up Steam they're attempting to champion the PC as a platform in the way no one else has ever tried. They're trying to address genuine, industry-wide problems, and they're using the greatest asset the PC has: broadband. As well as giving away the tools, they're handing over their own bandwidth to support it.

Why? Doug Lombardi fills us in: "Once you get up to serving 15 million people games the size of BioShock, Call of Duty and, God help us, the Orange Box, you're pretty much maxing out on bandwidth." Remarkably, Valve are doing it just because they can.

Developers wanting to use the service only need to contact Valve to get access to the secret sauce. Valve will provide the application process interface (API) to anyone who wants to hook it into the code of their game. The sheer number of tools available is mind-boggling, but there's one clear benefit outweighing all the others: Steam has killed Valve's day zero piracy problem.

Day zero piracy is where a game is released for free by pirates before the official release. It's disastrous for the developer and publisher because whatever route gets the game out to the gamer first will be the favoured choice, so a game uploaded to the internet before the release date will have a huge impact on sales.

Erik Johnson emphasises how Steam technology killed this problem for Valve: "We draw a pretty hard line because of how damaging day zero piracy is. The bits on the disc, before release, are absolutely worthless. No one can use it at all, unless they were to break into Valve. So they have to talk to Valve to get the key for that. At that point, once we've unlocked, the whole world unlocks at once, then you're free to go ahead and play."

Regardless of when Valve release a game into the world, either through Steam or on disc, it's only playable when they release the game's exe file - through Steam.

Now Valve are offering developers the same degree of control: they'll encrypt their games and deliver the executable, so that even if the game disc is leaked and mass duplicated before release, no one can play it. Not until Steam delivers the exe. A side benefit of this form of delivery is sales tracking: Valve will provide up-to-the-hour stats on how many copies of a games are being unlocked and where they're being purchased, enabling publishers and developers to target their advertising campaigns.


Aside from this, there are benefits such as Valve's very capable server browser, the automatic updating of games, voice-chat, and strong community features. These are tools that took 20-30 Valve staff over four years to perfect. With such solutions to hand you only have to hook them into your code, then get back to working on your game.

Valve have already presented Steamworks to publishers. Jason Holtman, director of business development for Valve, has gauged their reactions. "When they see it they say 'this solves a whole bunch of tech and customer problems I have. And also solves this business problem I have'.

They run around trying to put these things together and it happens towards the end of their development and they're now like 'wow, the things I get in CS, Half-Life 2 and Orange Box are all just there and working.'"

PC Gamer asked the opinion of a few other developers who'd perused what Steamworks had to offer. Miles Jacobson, Managing Director of Sports Interactive, makers of Football Manager, was more cautious: "It's obviously of benefit to smaller developers to be able to get a suite of tools like this for free, and will help to encourage more people to start using digital distribution methods, which is the likely reason for Valve doing this.

"However, there are still massive pockets of the world where broadband penetration is small, and as long as there are boxed copies of games, the tools won't do much to stop piracy. There are also still issues with online authentication of software, as it is limiting for those who play games on laptops.

"So whilst it's a good decision from Valve, both for the PC developers and for themselves, it's not the Holy Grail, as you aren't able to get to enough consumers to negate the need for traditional distribution methods, leaving a choice of selling fewer games by only hitting a small part of the market, or selling fewer games by having your game pirated, as the suite doesn't work for traditional boxed copies of the games."

But Splash Damage's Stephen Gaffney had a more optimistic view. "It's partly self-serving for Valve, having invested so much in Steam, but the upshot for gamers is that there is someone with active interest in the future of PC gaming and continuing to make the platform viable for gamers, publishers and developers.

"While we haven't seen the full rundown of how it all works, for independent developers distributing their own games, it looks great. The back-end systems for community, piracy prevention and distribution that Valve are offering are solid, and it would take years to build something similarly effective on your own.

"There might be some resistance at publisher level due to possible conflicts of interest - they're a secretive lot - but the tools and APIs Valve are making available are could save so much time and hassle (particularly when it comes to running beta tests and protecting games from piracy) that it's difficult to see any technical reason not to
use Steamworks. And the price is right."

With last year's release of the Orange Box and Steam Community, the promise of Steam was finally fulfilled. But Steam is more than a digital delivery platform to Valve. It represents half-a-decade's problem solving. How to connect with gamers. How to protect games from being pirated. How to track sales. Valve took the time to engage with all these problems, and now every developer in the world can benefit from their work.

Post-Orange Box, Valve are hoping to add to the community features. They have plans to store screenshots, config files and save games. They have a long list of ideas that will feed back into Steam and Steamworks. All this for free? Is there a better investment?

I like the fact that SteamWorks is available for everyone to use. I think atleast smaller developers will embrace it but I'm not sure about the bigger guys.

 

[videogames101]

I <3 steam

 

[coloumb]

Originally posted by: videogames101
I <3 steam

me too.

However... the games should be ~$5-$10 cheaper than the store versions...

 

[StevenYoo]

Originally posted by: coloumb

Originally posted by: videogames101
I <3 steam

me too.

and me

 

[narreth]

steam could save pc gaming IMO

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I'd hate to think of a company like EA having the full power of steam behind them. I suspect with a little modification it could be used for great evil.

 

[zerocool84]

Steam is good and bad. I hate that it's bloated software. It still leaves a bad taste in people's mouth from when it was first released. I have bought many games from steam. Vavle games of course but many other games I probably wouldn't have bought at all. Like I just bought Prey for $5 and the GTA collection.

 

[lupi]

Thanks but I'll take my game in a box.

 

[Zenoth]

I've never had a single issue with Steam, well... not exactly, perhaps one or two times when the Valve servers went down and such things, absolutely understandable stuff, but other than those minor hitches, nothing ever went wrong with Steam for me. The one problem I have with Valve is their so called Episodic content... I thought that the time between the release of Episode One and Episode Two wasn't anywhere as "acceptable" as they made it out to be. It takes so long to get there that you just forget about it at one point and tell yourself "well, Episode 'x' is finally out... too bad I was interested by that a year ago".

 

[KillerCharlie]

Originally posted by: zerocool84
It still leaves a bad taste in people's mouth from when it was first released.

I love it now, but I remember when Steam came out. I've never heard that much complaining about software in my life.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: KillerCharlie

Originally posted by: zerocool84
It still leaves a bad taste in people's mouth from when it was first released.

I love it now, but I remember when Steam came out. I've never heard that much complaining about software in my life.

Yea I remember when Steam came out. It was pretty much universally hated but now it is well done and you can get so many different types of games that no one would be able to get otherwise. I do like steam but I just wish it wasn't so bloated.

 

[Piuc2020]

Steam is great for what it is but I think actual physical copies of the game (box, manuals, DVD, etc) are much better and make for much better game collections, when you buy a game through Steam you don't feel like the developer is really caring for you, you pretty much get something like a pirate would and even worse because you are treated like one.

However, I'm afraid Steam and Digital Distribution systems are going to be the way of the future, I really wish it wasn't that way, sure it's extremely convenient but the added value besides the actual bits and bytes of the game is completely lost. Not to mention a few inconveniences like needing a fast internet connection and not being able to apply offline upgrades or even install games offline (even The Orange Box retail discs have to download a helluva amount of stuff before you can play).

 

[RESmonkey]

Originally posted by: lupi
Thanks but I'll take my game in a box.

x100000000000000000000

I hate downloading games. I want the box, manual, disc, etc. I want that MATERIAL!

 

[JustaGeek]

Originally posted by: RESmonkey

Originally posted by: lupi
Thanks but I'll take my game in a box.

x100000000000000000000

I hate downloading games. I want the box, manual, disc, etc. I want that MATERIAL!

And placing the original CD/DVD in the drive just to play...?

I hate that MORE than anything.

 

[novasatori]

my problem is you pay basically the same prices, it should be cheaper...
not to mention, when you buy a valve game you accept the fact you will never be able to trade, or resell it.. Imagine if all games were like that. Never can trade/sell your games or let a friend use em without compromising your entire steam account.

Its ok for valve games for now, but I wouldn't consider buying every single game I wanted through steam, even if it was available.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: zerocool84

Originally posted by: KillerCharlie

Originally posted by: zerocool84
It still leaves a bad taste in people's mouth from when it was first released.

I love it now, but I remember when Steam came out. I've never heard that much complaining about software in my life.

Yea I remember when Steam came out. It was pretty much universally hated but now it is well done and you can get so many different types of games that no one would be able to get otherwise. I do like steam but I just wish it wasn't so bloated.

Bloated?

I have to admit, I've lost countless games through the years from moves and damage to the media but I haven't had any problems with digital distributions like Steam or Tell Tale Games. The only problem I foresee is if the distributor goes under.

 

[GundamW]

Never had any problem with Steam.

I wish I can put all of my existing games thru Steam so I don't have to worry about bad disc, lost disc, lost cd key, cd loading or storing them.

I wish Steam can let us sell our digital copies or pass them to friends like the HL2 gift idea.

 

[Lonyo]

Concept: Good.
Prices: Atrocious (in the UK at least, EVERYTHING on Steam is more expensive than I can order from etailers).
Lack of resale: Bad
Bloat: Bad
Regionality: Incredibly annoying. When you stick something online, everyone has the same access to it, unlike boxed stuff, and people expect reasonably equal treatment, not a release for region A but not region B, or one price for region A and a different one for region B, or a sale in region A but not region B. And in terms of Valve specifically, don't even mention the German versions of games.

 

[Elcs]

I have an issue with Steam. More than likely its nothing to do with them and more to do with me... but I'll be darned if I know the answer.

I have an issue with a stable download stream from Steam. I can get speeds of 100-200Kb/s however that may only last for a few moments and it stops stating "Downloading XX%" rather than "Downloading XX% - 100kB/s".

I have used all of their FAQs and tried various settings on my router to try and remedy this to no avail.

Saying that, I have managed to scramble down around 15 Gb from Steam andI like it besides the download issue. With EA Stores... I can achieve 300-400kB/s easily and downloading through it is extremely simple.

 

[DangerAardvark]

Originally posted by: lupi
Thanks but I'll take my game in a box.

I'll take my game permanently backed up on Steam servers without ever having to deal with DVD's.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: DangerAardvark

Originally posted by: lupi
Thanks but I'll take my game in a box.

I'll take my game permanently backed up on Steam servers without ever having to deal with DVD's.

yeah i dont see what the big deal is with boxes other than reselling. burn a backup copy to a cd if you really want something to touch and feel.

 

[TBSN]

I have so much love for valve and steam. I used to HATE it when it first came out. Stopped using it for a while, came back and it was MUCH better. It may not be perfect, but it's pretty damn good. I'll try to have sympathy for those without internet/ broadband access... but WHY? Get with it ppl and get the internetss!!

 

[ja1484]

Steam is not perfect yet, but it's getting closer all the time, and it's something I want to do well so badly.

I don't need graphics on my UI Valve. Can you give me a bit more control over the look so we can speed this thing up? It's a little slow to load at times.

This is definitely the future of gaming, and all software in general really...essentially having it stored at a central source and usable from any capable PC. No more need for CD Keys, CDs, or those fucksticks at GameStop who pretend to actually be running a game retailer.

Consoles will switch to this model within two generations. You heard it here first. Xbox Live has already been moving in that direction to an extent over the past several years, with consistently more content offered through bandwidth.

 

[ZzZGuy]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
Steam is great for what it is but I think actual physical copies of the game (box, manuals, DVD, etc) are much better and make for much better game collections, when you buy a game through Steam you don't feel like the developer is really caring for you, you pretty much get something like a pirate would and even worse because you are treated like one.

However, I'm afraid Steam and Digital Distribution systems are going to be the way of the future, I really wish it wasn't that way, sure it's extremely convenient but the added value besides the actual bits and bytes of the game is completely lost. Not to mention a few inconveniences like needing a fast internet connection and not being able to apply offline upgrades or even install games offline (even The Orange Box retail discs have to download a helluva amount of stuff before you can play).

Or it could go the way of Stardock Central (download manager) which carries games like Galactic Civilization 2 and Sins of a Solar Empire. You only need the manager to download content/patches/a game, you do not need it to play the game. It even allows you to back the game up onto a CD/DVD.

Originally posted by: novasatori
my problem is you pay basically the same prices, it should be cheaper...
not to mention, when you buy a valve game you accept the fact you will never be able to trade, or resell it.. Imagine if all games were like that. Never can trade/sell your games or let a friend use em without compromising your entire steam account.

Its ok for valve games for now, but I wouldn't consider buying every single game I wanted through steam, even if it was available.

The reason for the price hike is part greed and part bending over and taking it up the @$$. The best example of the later is Sins of a Solar Empire where the developers are new and unknown (IC) with little to no hype. They have stated that they had to have the digital download prices above what you will see the box selling for on store shelves to avoid competing with the distributors, and considering that no one will carry it in Europe they need all the lub...er i mean help they can get.

Then there is greed, if everyone else is doing it why shouldn't I.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: TBSN
I have so much love for valve and steam. I used to HATE it when it first came out. Stopped using it for a while, came back and it was MUCH better. It may not be perfect, but it's pretty damn good. I'll try to have sympathy for those without internet/ broadband access... but WHY? Get with it ppl and get the internetss!!

well i am back to 56K and i can live with it .. it just takes a week to get 1GB

Steam is vastly improved ... and they are *smart* - investing in the future of Secure PC gaming

Kudos to them! and best of luck
.. maybe they can get Valve to hurry with their "episodes" now