Say farewell to Steam

More and more major publishers are deciding to end their cooperation with Steam, promoting their own sales platforms and gaming environments instead. As a result, every publisher may soon get its own digital distribution platform – and that doesn't bode well for Steam.

[xboxcult]

My answer is......
#1 lower Steam's commissions on per game sold (30% is too high, 15% would be more reasonable),
#2 Half Life 3,
#3 Left 4 Dead 3,
#4 Counter-Strike:GO 2.

[CorndogBurglar]

As much as I would love those 3 games, I don't see how making them would make all the other publishers stay on Steam.

Your 1st point is pretty solid though! I didn't realize Steam made that much in commission. That's a bit crazy.

[NewMonday]

that's the downfall from turning your back on your original bread and butter 1st party games, Valve should have used all those years of market dominance to build a big 1st part catalog that holds player loyalty. now it may be too late.

[roadkillers]

^ Meh, the most successful games have been tiny developers. Battle Royal changed the whole landscape of games with everyone asking if their game will have a BR mode. ARMA2's zombie mod changed open world survival, and ARK did well as well. I think they have become Steam's bread and butter. Not to mention all the mod support and VR helmet support.

Edit: Didn't Monster Hunter sell 2+ million in a week? Steam is fine. Yes I would love those games though..

[Mea Maxima Culpa]

I think something to be more concerned about is Steam dropping support for Windows 7 (eventually due to pressure from Microsoft).

They just stopped supporting pre-Windows 7 with few complaints, mark my words Windows 7 is next.

I have been burned over and over with these services starting from heat.net (I still have the t-shirt), On-Live, Games for Windows Live and even a few others.

Digital copies of games, especially a Steam library of 441 games like I have, are a gamble.

[Skull521]

The don’t need to continue to support old operating systems, Windows 7 should be next. Windows 8 was better, and Windows 10 even more so. Dropping support for outdated products is nothing new and should be expected.

Oh, and bye Steam! Always fun to see a monopoly fall from grace

[Servbot41]

Releasing those games would increase the concurrent users on Steam. The more people on Steam all the time the more eyes on the advertisements of third-party games. Not saying that that's even a great argument, but its one that could be made.

[crazyCoconuts]

@skull, I don't think Steam qualifies as a monopoly... There have been other stores for quite some time, Steam is just the most successful.

[EpicFruityPie]

@roadkillers did you really mention Ark? lol

[Muzikguy]

@Skull

You have a strange way of seeing things. How is Steam a monopoly? You can buy and play games many ways other than through Steam. I'm also completely baffled how someone would constantly want to upgrade all the time just to keep a service, wasting all that money. It's not worth it man. It really isn't

[maybelovehate]

Those things would definitely help. But major studios will still be wanting to use their own services. That doesn't mean Steam is dead though, still a great avenue for Indie games which are a huge part of this industry and not going away.

[GUTZnPAPERCUTZ]

#5 Bring Steam to my X... ok, I will keep dreaming lol

[rainslacker]

Eventually, if not quickly, people are going to get really tired of having all these logins. It's annoying as it is if your a gamer.

Publishers can forge their own way, which will work for those with enough content to fill their own store, but not all of them are equipped to handle their own store and policies. There is more to.these stores than just selling stuff.

Ea and Ubisoft haven't used steam for years, and steam is still growing. I don't think people need to bid farewell to steam any time soon, and steam will adapt.

[fr0sty]

Steam is just going to become a portal top play Valve's games.

[joab777]

Poor Valve. They may just have to do what every other company has to do and actually develop and publish games again. It’s how Sony, MS and Nintendo sell hardware and ultimately make money. Valve has been fortunate with lower up front costs, but it is a smart move to deregulate, if only to force Valve’s hands.

What is another site that could challenge them regarding Indies and smaller games?

[badz149]

Steam is the reason PC gaming is thriving. but with more publishers moving away from it especially the big ones and they start to use their own launchers, it's not gonna look good for PC gaming scene! say goodbye to those sweet deals on big 3rd party games because now they are only going to be available from their own publisher and they will keep the price as high for as long as they could! and what's the point of having so many launchers anyway? it's annoying and gaming on a non-unified platform is the last thing the PC need for its growth. seriously, this doesn't look good!

[SR38813]

I don't have steam but I do want half life 2 ep 3!!!

[SegaGamer]

Imagine how horrible it would be if every company moved away from Steam.

These are my reasons why I would hate it.

1) Bloatware. Having so many different launchers on my PC would be irritating. So many different updates, so many different UI's to navigate and get used to. They would be all over my PC and I would have shortcuts everywhere. It's messy and inconvenient.

2) Games no longer being in one place. I like my games being tied to one account, same goes with my achievements, the amount of hours I have put in, my friends, the community forums (Steam's is a bit of a cesspit though). Everything is there in one place and easy to get to. I like loading up Steam and clicking the play button on my games, it's as close to plug and play as PC gaming has ever been.

3) Prices and sales. I don't think anybody can deny it, you won't find better prices or sales than what we get with Steam. I'm not just talking about from Steam themselves. Humble Bundle and Fanatical do amazing sales on games for Steam. The prices of these games are often cheaper on release too and get discounted more often and sooner than any other platform. If all companies were to move everything away from Steam, I don't think things would be as good. Uplay and Origin sales are very poor, I haven't bought one game from their sales yet, It's just not tempting enough.

4) Tons of new accounts and passwords. The last thing I want to do is create more accounts and have more passwords, it's bad enough as it is.

5) Credit card, debit card, Paypal etc etc. I don't want to share any of this stuff with any more companies. It takes one account getting hacked for everything to go wrong, and with so many accounts holding your details, the more likely it is that this will happen.

If they all branch off and do their own thing, they will probably find themselves losing a costumer. I'm not signing up and creating multiple accounts just to play the odd game or two now and then.

[DaReapa]

@ Sega
Agree with every major point made here. It's just not feasible to the consumer to have independent distribution from every major publisher.

[PapaBop]

I agree completely and you make some great points BUT, if what the guy above said is true and that Steam take a 30% cut on commission, you can't exactly blame publishers/developers from moving away from Steam, that's an excessive amount.

[HeyNavi]

I agree that it seems like a large commission amount, but think about how many games are purchased in the first place simply from browsing Steam and seeing what's new or looks interesting? Steam is a huge hub for a myriad of games that would otherwise go unnoticed.

[rainslacker]

It can be as low as 15%. Indie devs pay 30%, but most major publishers pay 15-20%. That's about what they pay selling through own or X box store.

It's not really that outlandish when you think about the work steam puts into their service. The marketing they do for their service, and on behalf of the publishers, hosting and distributing data, some moderarion assistance for the devs and pubs, and of course, providing easy access to the largest customer base in pc gaming.

[agent4532]

Is about control for too long AAA game publishers were selling their games cheaper. They want to sell their games at $60.00 plus tax, no mod support, littered with microtransanctions and keep PC gamers from having competition like GOG, Greenmangaming to want to buy Capcom games need Capcom launcher., want Activison games get battlenet.....

[darthv72]

You know... I seem to recall a time before Steam where I had lots of games installed to my PC and the ability to create a folder in the start menu to put all the respected shortcuts into. That way there was no clutter on my desktop and all the games were installed to the same drive and things were easy to find.

All Steam did was create an online way to manage digital downloads and installs which is an evolution of what I was already doing back on win 95 and 98. Hell... I still have my old Win 98 machine with games like Quake 3, unreal tournament, SHOGO, Kingpin, Half life, Need for Speed 2.

It's a tricked out K6-3 400 with 128mb ram and 16mb TNT2 as primary and a pair of 3dfx V2's for dedicated GLide games and a SB AWE32 for Duke 3D in DOS mode (got to love that wavetable synth)

[Tross]

@SegaGamer Yes, like 99% of my PC software is on Steam. I have a GoG account that I've barely used, but I prefer to keep all my games in one place, hence why I haven't branched out and tried the plethora of other services. I'd also add that I fear the possibility that the end of Steam would mean the end of the client, and therefore, the end of access to my games. Thankfully, the title of this article is clickbait and I don't think Steam is going away anytime soon.

[crazyCoconuts]

Agree with Sega. I like the flexibility and power with a PC, but I still want to have a "console-like" experience for most things, and Steam is as close to the whole package as you can get. But to be honest if there's a game I want to play badly I'll succumb to going to another store to get it. I wonder if Steam cuts side deals with the bigger players to reduce the cut in order to keep them on the platform.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I really wanted storefronts like GOG to be more popular, just to break up the monoply and give people a choice on where to shop (GOG doesn't have all the games Steam does, but Steam does have a lot of junk mixed in with everything else). I hope the Discord store evens things out, I'm not completely happy with Steam myself but use it out of necessity.

[Muzikguy]

Those are all legit reasons for sure. I haven't been a player on Steam yet and if it goes away I will be sad by it. I have actually thought about getting an account I just haven't yet. If it turned out that I didn't like where next gen was heading I was going to then. It's probably good I've waited this long though. I'm running Windows7 and I'm sick of companies forcing me to upgrade just to keep using their service. I do like the idea of having all the games in one place, but definitely don't like it tied to a service that could be severed at any moment

[Ogygian]

6. Steam goes bust and we lose all the games we already have.

[Finch]

Well I play a lot on pc, and to be honest if I can't buy the game on steam I normally avoid it. I just don't trust going outside of it. So in turn it will be mostly a skip or get on console. Pretty plain and simple.

[Razzer]

Why wouldn't you trust buying a game directly from the company who developed it?

[Lynx0207]

Because:
1. we trust that steam will not disappear suddenly. Most other platforms I'm not sure if the game I bought will be available to download next day.
2. has nice download speed.
3. has already big community and it is easier to find help if needed.
4. has trustworthy cloud saves.
If there is no other option, I buy somewhere else (uplay, origin) but I completely don't trust gog (it is Polish company) or Telltale (it is small company and I don't know when they shut down they online service) and avoid Rockstar (I have too many problems with cloud saves, downloading and some additional codes that I had to insert many times - but it was with Max Payne 3, it probably got better since that time).
And I don't like mess on my PC, I prefer to install less software, I don't like the idea to have different company soft to every other game.

[Cueil]

You don't trust GoG? The company that allows you to download your whole game and back it up separately?

[Razzer]

Seriously. GOG is the most trustworthy of any of them. They don’t even require you to use their client. You can download direct from the website.

Some folks here need to do some research.

[Lynx0207]

@Razzer, Cueil
Of course, I know it. I know exactly how GOG works. But I don't want to store my games backup - what is the point of digital then? Some years ago I went full digital with games (on both PC and PS4). I want to be able to download a game any moment I want to and don't have to store/search/swap any discs.
Some time ago my backup HDD died with no specific reason, I lost anything I had on it but my games on Steam were save. Discs can stop working to. If we are talking about games, I don't trust physical storing at all.

[FGHFGHFGH]

@Lynx0207

GOG is owned by cd projekt (witcher devs)

[Razzer]

@Lynx

I have no idea what you are talking about. You can download your games from GOG at any time just like Steam. And who is talking about discs.....at all? Either you are totally confused or you are just explaining yourself very poorly.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I trust GOG more than I trust Steam.

@Lynx0207,

Why would you even be worried about backups? Storage is stupidly cheap now, there's no excuse to not have at least one copy of everything. I got a pair of 6tb hard drives for 299 AUD each, you can get smaller hard drives, but storage is still cheap enough that you can backup any game you download and it's relatively easy to swap to the backup if needed.

[Segata]

Ever use GoG? Owned by CD Projekt Red.

[JTGA]

I think it's more likely Valve will inevitably refocus their efforts back to software. Make Steam the ultimate digital platform for exclusives. That would easily be enough to mitigate any loses from third party publishers doing their own thing.

[RememberThe357]

Every publishers wants their own Steam. But the fact is most people aren't willing to be the kind of consumers publishers want them to be. I think most of these new service that will be coming online in the next few years will crash and burn, frankly. Most people want deals and most people want flexibility, things most publishers hate.

[JTGA]

I agree. Steam also has the huge draw of being a one stop shop for most games, which is a massive selling point for a lot of people.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Personally I just want cheap prices/sales and no DRM (I like the fact GOG doesn't force you to use their client if you don't want to).

[ninsigma]

Hmmmmm don't think it's farewell to steam. Sure the big games may jump ship so that you gotta use their launchers, but tbh that makes complete sense for them to do. Why pay a distributer when you can do it yourself? But devs not part of big pubs will not be able to do this and they will stick with Steam. Also, Ubisoft does it's own launcher as well as steam, it's possible that's how other pubs will do it too.

[rainslacker]

Ea and Ubisoft jumped ship a while ago, and steam still does fine. Losing Bethesda and R* could be a blow....mostly because they have some majority popular titles, but it won't be enough to shut down steam.

Being privately held, they aren't beholden to investors to scramble to do a bunch of stupid stuff to maximize profits, and for as much as they make, and have made, they can outlast even the publishers who seem to be struggling as of late.

[gamer7804]

I'm all for more competition, hopefully steam gets more of it, pc's were designed to be open.

[Rude-ro]

That is not the way pc is going.
It is the complete opposite in fact.
The more control per company, the tighter the grip.

[Razzer]

What do you mean "tighter the grip"? Companies have full control over their own games whether it is on Steam or not. Explain what you mean.

[Rude-ro]

I guess, @Razzer
The reason pc was open was because of more parties involved. This allowed back doors making it easier to open up.
In the current direction, it is direct connections and system/account checkins would it not? Ie drm policies per developers with very little room for back door access.
I mean, the overall push in pc has been to combat piracy..
I guess I am connecting your “open” to piracy..

[Razzer]

DRM policies do not change because a company decides to use their own distribution method. So Steam isn’t making any difference in that regard. But when I think of “open” then I see companies who can deal directly with their customer and not have to pay a middle man like Steam. And this is good for gamers, imo. Steam is going to have to do more to keep gamers coming to them (like make games again) as they are no longer the one-stop-shop for PC games. For a while, Steam was a PC gaming monopoly and that is never a good thing. More marketplaces are a natural occurrence of an open platform.

[FGHFGHFGH]

open platform just means anyone can develop software for it

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

If Discord store is just as good as GOG but has Steam's library, I'll shop there instead, multiple store fronts are best for competition.

[ILostMyMind]

That's the trend. Microsoft is now in this market and probably Sony will also be in the next ten years

[ShadowWolf712]

This has pretty much nothing to do with Microsoft and Sony's not gonna be in the PC market.

[rainslacker]

Microsoft would probablyn struggle more to get a foothold for pc gaming if these publishers start their own services. Ms doesn't offer anything more than steam does in terms of benefits, outside of providing an xbl account attachment to pc gaming, which most devs and pubs don't care about.

So, you are right this particular topic has nothing to do with ms, ms would surely be affected the same, if not worse.

I don't see going for their own pc store anytime in the future. Maybe if they enable cross buy for pubs and possible start porting their games to pc. Or maybe having some kind of content delivery for psnow.

[Spartacus10]

Sony is already in the PC market. Their games just never reached the popularity required to make Sony a well known player in PC gaming.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

[FGHFGHFGH]

@ Spartacus10

Sony's pc games were done by SOE. I think they sold them or closed it down, but they had a few very popular games. Everquest used to be huge and was subscription based so they made a lot of money from it. It was the biggest mmo before world of warcraft

[TheColbertinator]

Microsoft has been on the market for years. Microsoft Game Studios brought Fable,Age of Empires and Flight Sim

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

But no one uses the Microsoft store, even for those few games they do have.

[CDbiggen]

How many identical articles can we expect to see on this issue? 3 this week so far I think.

[MaxiPower90]

all valce had to do to cement tbe steam client was to continue putting games on it that gamers could only get there and it woild uave strengthened it as a whole. then they stopped making games and got lazy. if left fot dead and half like 3 and other games like that had continued to come out over the years... article like this would never have happened. never give an inch when in front. whe you give an inch... you risk them taking a mile.

[chris235]

steam will still have craptons of crapware. people only want cheap and sales. they will get cheap and sales. everybody else does not really care.

[Father__Merrin]

For general indie titles the 30 percent is ok. For blockbuster titles like assassin's creed etc why give 30 percent to steam? All AAA games publishers should have Thier own client.

If next gen consoles do 4k/60 combined with all AAA publishers having separate client I think we'll see a big jump from pc to consoles imo

[ShadowWolf712]

Uh, quite the opposite tbh. Indie games are gonna hurt a lot more from that high a fee.

[rainslacker]

It's more like 15-20% for big games. Those big pubs can negotiate with steam over such things. Same as they can negotiate with the console makers over licensing fees.

In any case, that's about the going rate for any 3rd party service like this. Steam gives access to the largest pc gaming market In the world, and that is worth something.

Otherwise, those indie games are hurt more by the higher fees, since a lot of licensing fees for game engines are based on revenue, not profit. For instance, the standard license for unreal is 50% of revenue. Add the 30% of a steam.cut, and the dev is only making 20% of the total revenue. There are other options for unreal, but they're not always accessible to smaller devs. If the dev also has a publjsher, then it can take quite some time to see any.money after the release of the game

[mezati99]

fuck this entire shit man

as if gaming on PC isn't a slug enough with DRM bullshit, hacking, and multiple game launchers

[Cobra951]

What? You have far more control over your gaming environment and your games on PC than you do on consoles. And how does hacking affect PC more than anything else?

[FGHFGHFGH]

You don't have to run all the game launchers at the same time. PC gaming is actually much faster than console gaming, the controller can't keep up with mouse.

[bluefox755]

I'm not getting a launcher for every game, screw that. I'll pay for the game then get the pirated copy.

[Godmars290]

Say hello - again - to GOG?

The only real worry about Steam going away is that all of the games you supposedly bought go away too. Should yo need to DL them again.

[Cobra951]

GOG isn't going to get wide distribution of AAA. The lack of DRM scares most of it away. That is usually the best place to get the games it does distribute. You download your full game as an installer, and no DRM. Install, play, copy the installer to an external drive or thumbstick, and have it forever, for any compatible system. You know, the way things used to be.

[Razzer]

Steam isn’t going anywhere. That title is just hyperbole.

[howiewowwee]

This is just speculation.

[Cobra951]

Oh, absolutely. It's a sensationalist headline. "Steam will die!" Yeah, no. Not anytime soon. We all die eventually.

[pleasuretokill]

Good luck with this. Unless you have a major, Witcher 3 style AAA title that I absolutely HAVE to have without question, I will pass on your game unless it's on Steam... so, devs, think long and hard about that. Thousands and thousands of us will just pass up that game we would have bought on Steam if you make your own horrible DRM that no one wants to sign up for. Your call.

I want my games all in one place. I have like 3 games on Origin and have passed on quite a few just because of that. I refuse to sign up for another besides Steam/Origin. You aren't going to make things inconvenient for me, you just won't see my cash anymore. I won't support it, and I know a LOT of others won't either. Good luck with 1/4th of the normal game sales! :-)

[Vegamyster]

Exactly, Convenience drives sales which is why Steam has over 100 Million active users, that isn't going to change because a game here and there doesn't come.

[FPS_D3TH]

Steam is just another platform for Valve too. Seems like the most logical strategy for any other publisher not looking to pay another company to sell on its platform. Maybe itll force them to utilize Valve again and make some actual games again. I don’t know how PC gamers can respect that company. I guess they’re just really desperate to save $5 on a game.

[Platformgamer]

gabe: "i don't fell so good"

[D3athc3ll]

Oh well, guess pirating will be higher then. If I can't find a game on steam for my pc, I don't buy it. May miss out on a game or 2 but I've got a ps4 for best exclusives anyways. 30% is a bit much, but pc gaming is all about steam for me. So I'll just play more dota 2 and console then. Not gona install 700 launchers just to play pc games. Screw that. I think pc sales will go down too so good luck to publishers not wanting games on steam.

[staticall]

Origin
Uplay
Steam
Battle.net
GOG Galaxy
Epic Games Launcher
New Bethesda Store
Xbox Games Store
Probably a new 2k Games Store
Rockstar Games Social Club

and this list keeps on growing.
I love me some more useless accounts for a few games and to add my credit card there too /s

[PowerOfTheCloud]

Lol looks like a list on a n4g article on how to increase your chances of getting your credit card/ paypal info stolen on day or another.

[2pacalypsenow]

Great.

I always wanted 10 different launchers.

[Razzer]

Try the Start Menu. Works great.

[2pacalypsenow]

All that does is opens the launcher so that I can launch the game, as opposed to going into steam and launching the game.

[Razzer]

Wrong. It opens the game. The client may open in the background or the system tray, but you still go right into the game.

[Casepb]

Every publisher getting their own digital distribution platform doesn't just bode well for Steam, but for PC gaming as a whole. Nothing good will come from having to install 20 different programs just to play 20 different games.

[JBlaze226]

This is crazy im not going to download a bunch of launchers, computer will be cluttered, that means less space for games

[StormLegend]

And if this happens I’ll just stick to emulators for old games and consoles.

[TheHan]

Steam is gonna take a loss for the simple fact that they can’t take heavy sales all the time. To compete with the competition. Doesn’t mean steam won’t be around it just won’t be as relevant to the PC community sense there will be other stores to buy from too. But Valve can always make it into a service like Xbox live and PSN.

[King_Noctis]

Jumping the gun abit too early ain’t we? Steam isn’t going anywhere soon. Not every devs/pubs can just suddenly launch their own platforms you know.

[ShadowWolf712]

That doesn't bode well for consumers either...

[Shineon]

So are we gonna have a bunch of launchers now I prefer Dinner

[Shineon]

Time to buy a console that dosent make my eyes hurt, shruggs this is gonna be rough

[Eagles83]

I don't know about anyone else but the answer to this is pretty simple to me. I'm only going to buy games that are on Steam. I'm tired of everyone creating their own ecosystem so I have just decided that I don't need to play those games. If enough people did this then they would go back to using Steam. Sure Steam needs to cut their commission rates but honestly that is their problem. I'm coming at it from a consumer perspective and having 15 different platforms is not ideal and I refuse to do it.

[TheColbertinator]

Steam,Origin and occasionally GOG. The rest of those have no interests for me.

[otakuapologist]

Steam just needs to lower their cut and they're back to being a monopoly.

[ClutchManeuvers]

Steam will be juuuuuust fine.

[WickedLester]

Doesn't bode well for gamers either.

[Twinblade]

I don't plan on cluttering my pc and laptop with a bunch of launchers. Sorry, if a game isn't on Steam or Origins, I'm not buying it on pc.

[Codewow]

Steam won’t die. people don’t want to have 30 different platforms just to play 1 game each. Which is why consoles are so popular.

[GrizToof]

One of the main reasons why pc gaming blew up in the early 00's was because of Steam. If all these studios start making there own platforms to buy and download games it might have a negative effect on PC gaming as a whole. I'm not some Steam fanboy, I just remember those days before and after steam and man did PC gaming get a huge boost when steam started to add games from other developers and not just valve.

[milohighclub]

F#$k steam, its shit anyway It's bad for gamers and that's what's important.

[Ricegum]

How is it bad for gamers?! It's one of the best things to happen to gamers.

[milohighclub]

Publishers starting their own platforms? Cos it will cos more for gamers...

Sorry I was referring to the topic

[-volt-]

Steam isn't going anywhere so stop with the BS articles.

[Smokehouse]

Damn that sucks.

[noxeven]

Well those other companies need show me a reason to switch. They need to have a return policy. I'm not gonna spend 60 dollars to play a game that in year time will come out on steam. If they gonna stay exclusive they need to give me a reason to spend my money

[gutteranthems]

that doesn't bode well for anyone. More platforms means less accessibility between them. Multiplayer servers would be a pain in the ass for anything on multiple platforms

[Elda]

Bye.

[kevnb]

lmao, competition means they will just die out?

[WitcheRivia]

Should change this from "Opinion Piece" to "Satire".

[agent4532]

Was the author of this article drunk or something. AAA game publishers are so greedy that they want to sell their games at $60.00 or more littered with microtransanctions. They don't want PC gamers to have choices like able to buy keys or a AAA game on Amazon, GOG, etc. for they have to sell it at a lower price. Once again the media wants PC gamers to be docile and be more like console gamers 😠

[SAFYIIR]

PC master race lol okay

[battlegrog]

I have a feeling that this xbox cloud streaming service is going to turn out very well and will become main stream. I see even a lot of pc users using it other then the hardcores. Even today most pc gamers have a powerful pc but its simply to play the pc games.If these same people could just have a successful xbox streaming services i see them moving away from steam. Look at even all the new girl pc gamers now. Thats a perfect example. The market for sure will be heading in that direction in full swing 5 years from now. 2 years from now it will start

[-Gespenst-]

If every single game company is going to have some f-ing client I have to install to play their games, I'm done with PC gaming. In fact, I'm done with gaming, because I don't gaf about consoles. They'll stay on Steam if Steam lowers its commissions, which it'll probably be able to do once Artifact comes out and starts generating loads of money for them. What they lose from lowering the commission they'll get back from Artifact, and maybe other stuff that they're making.

[PurpHerbison]

So I would have to download a shitty launcher like Origin for damn near every big game? No thanks. Steam is enough. Refuse to add anymore.

[Seafort]

Bethesda putting Fallout 76 on their own launcher is not going to end well for them. They have to prove themselves first and most of their games are a bug ridden mess at release. Their launcher is worse than Windows Store and that's saying something.

The modding community on PC fixes most of the problems and adds to their games so they become great games.

I have 5 clients to get games from for different publishers so I won't be adding another one to the list any time soon.

Good luck Bethesda you're going to need it. No sale here.

[ccgr]

I think discord's gamefront will be huge

[Knightofelemia]

Simple business practice why pay the middle man to sell my product when I can launch my own system and keep all the profits to myself. Thing is Steam is well established and a 30 percent commission it a little steep even for an indie developer who is just starting out. Steam needs to rethink their business practice and make Steam attractive to developers and publishers again as a format to sell their games on. In away developers going their own route with their own service can also hurt them as well I doubt they will throw the game on sale the way Steam does with their sales great games sometimes at a cheap price. I'd also hate to see self publishing indie game developers have to go to Activision or EA to get their game published and put on sale on the EA or Acvtivisions version of Steam I think the indie developers would get screwed of even harder then the 30 percent Steam charges.

[joab777]

Brilliant titlle...

[Teflon02]

If steam dies off. I'm done with pc gaming. I'm already annoyed needing to have steam, battle. Net, epic, and origin. But I link the games into my steam so they all launch through steam. I'm only okay with it as origin is only for battlefield v on release, fortnite for epic and overwatch for battle. I'm already annoyed with that and part of the reason I started taking pc gaming serious this year is because steam is a great dedicated platform for it all. They need MS to enforce something if it's falling apart. I don't mind if it's even thatt you have to buy games on MS store going forward. I just want a single dedicated platform on pc. It's one of the reasons I love gaming on consoles. It makes it all so simple.

[Blu3_Berry]

This is my biggest fear of PC gaming and Steam. I don't want to be required to have multiple launchers for different games. I rather just have it all on one app. If Steam does indeed see major publishers back out, then Valve needs to decrease the pay cut to 15% as 30% is alot, especially if that's what is being charged for indie games.

[mrdeli]

I play on Good Old Games now. Because I am good. And old.

[neomahi]

Um.... Steams not going anywhere. Steam is preferred by most PC gamers, this writers an idiot, what does he know?

[Xb1ps4]

Screw valve... left me hanging with half life, never got the full episodic content they announced way back in the 360 day with orange box..

[jbrock11]

Lol, this guy honestly doesn't know business very well. Steam won't be going away as long as digital sales is such a booming market. At worst they'd be forced to sell to a huge company like Microsoft, Sony, EA, etc. and they would continue the business but prioritize their products. Steam isn't going anywhere.

[masterfox]

Maybe they can finally can go back to work, and by that I mean create god damn games!

[Aaroncls7]

it is only beneficial for us if the game price drops, if it is about they money they make, either outcome bodes the same for us.

[lollord]

Valve has pretty much shitted away a lot of the goodwill people had towards them. They have had failures like steam machines, steamOS, and steamlinks. They have failed to regulate the marketplace well, and as a result there are piles of trash games inside it. They take a huge amount from the game sales(30%), and have just all around been shit, but no one will care since they own a monopoly and have no real competition.

[Donjune]

FudgeValve!

[Jon_Targaryen]

I will always support Steam. Have like over the 350 games on it.

[kitano1947]

Lol, Bethesda trying to develop their first online game and an online platform at the same time. Do we honestly believe they are up to the task of delivering something that can handle millions of people downloading an 80gb+ game? Having a good anti cheat system in place? Being able to support mod uploads and downloads and on top of all of this run online servers?

Look at origin, its 7 years old and still a shit.

Its getting removed off steam because its going to get hit hard with refunds and bad reviews due to bugs and connectivity issues within the first few months.

Hope the 30% saving per copy if worth it zenimax