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.
The Outerhaven writes: With multiple gaming studios, including Tango Gameworks, closing, the editor-in-chief of The Outerhaven shares his thoughts on the matter.
Honestly I was looking back and at the launch of the Xbox 1. With Don Matrick at the helm I was disappointed but therevwas something else. That fighting spirit of Xbox at its inception was lost. They stopped innovating, I lost excitement on what the next big new surprise was, because their weren’t any. Not like Halo 2 and Gears launch. You couldn’t really brag about it anymore.
So here we are and corporate MS has ruined what was a beautiful renegade project.
For everything that Xbox did, I was hopeful it would turn stuff around. Game Pass was a start, and the release of its upcoming titles was a nice way to return. I mean, I'm not going to say it was perfect, just like I wouldn't say PlayStation is perfect. Neither company is, but when Xbox goes and does this, it makes zero sense. The message of Xbox's plan had already had me frustrated, but I was like, "Maybe they'll fix this mess."
Now... yeah. Not so confident anymore.
That's how you know this is clickbait garbage. If you write about games for a living and didn't know Microsoft is a cancer on the industry until now than you are awful at your job.
"Right now"?
But not 11 years ago with the disastrous Xbox One reveal which they NEVER recovered from?
Man are you slow on the uptake.
No, Xbox never recovered, but Game Pass (which you're a fool if you deny the success of it), Xbox Cloud, the acquisitions, the reboot of Perfect Dark (which seems to be in the gutter now), the success of Forza Horizon, Sea of Thieves, and yes, Hi-Fi Rush (FFS).
Denying any sort of improvement only goes to show you don't pay any attention to the entire picture.
I think you missed the part where these things were spread years apart. Theres no consistency
Bullshit.
Perfect Dark IP was purchased along with many other games like Halo, Gears, etc. Perfect Dark needs help with Crystal Dynamics just to finish the game. That's pathetic. HiFi Rush was purchased and was probably already coming to PlayStation before the purchase.
If Game Pass was a success, these developers wouldn't be closing their doors. We told gamers it isn't profitable. It does make revenue. But revenue isn't profit. It hasn't changed Microsoft's position in the industry or increased hardware sales. If it did, they would be shouting from the rooftops like their arrogant asses always do.
Anyone can have a cloud service. And Sony's is more successful. It took buying major publishers just to increase their spreadsheet. But Xbox continues to fail even then. By having to place games on their competitors platform while still trying to compete. You don't see Nintendo putting their games on Xbox. And Sony was only forced because they don't own the MLB license. Which was forced behind the scenes by Microsoft to take away Sony's successful game and throw it on game pass to use it against gamers buying it on PlayStation. How is the acquisitions a success if they have to close companies they just bought and make many developers jobless? Are you serious? Unless you call it a success by taking away games from other platforms that made those developers more money. That's ridiculous.
Sea of Thieves took years to fix. How is that a success that you have an unfinished game for years that needs fixing? Games should be complete at launch. Just like Halo was an incomplete game that needed fixing. Forza Horizon is a good game but even that game hasn't improved Microsoft's standing at all.
Denying all that shows that you're not paying attention.
Success? They missed their own targets 3 years straight, stopped announcing numbers because they're so terrible and it's not profitable. Hence the closing 4 studios. There will be more consolidation too. Just watch the by the books garbage yearly releases too followed by more season passes and shorter games come out
I have been paying attention for past 11 years. That's why I made my fully accurate above post.
You're the one who hasn't, thus you made that completely worthless post.
- I don't care about a rental service for mid-tier (or any tier) games.
- I don't care about streaming services, I play on actual hardware.
- What is Perfect Dark at this point? Its just a name trying to have an easy win with nostalgia. The original developers and talent has long been gone once MS bought Rare in 2001. ITS JUST A NAME, nothing more.
-Don't care about Forza Horizon.
- Don't care about Sea of Thieves.
- I am interested in Hi-Fi Rush, but MS killing off Tango has pissed me off, so I don't want to reward them for their B.S. and now its guaranteed that the hard working devs won't see any benefit from me supporting them.
MS has done squat over the past 11 years. Nothing but the embarrassing stink of failure. I know this because I have been paying attention.
I never played hi-fi rush, even though I would have loved it from all I can see, but as it never came to playstation... Now it comes to playstation and I have no intention to buy it because they closed the developer and the money will only go to poor phil and his poor suits. Well I mean, what else is there to say.
Gamepass brought them into this position so you would be a fool to see it as a success lol
It's also foolish to deny the negatives gamepass is having on the industry as that is part of the entire picture as well.
I imagine smaller ABK studios like toys for bob and beenox are now feeling uncertain about their futures
Thankfully Toys for Bob managed to safely separate from Xbox and are independent now.
Beenox has been in danger for years now with Activision. Microsoft may act more ruthlessly to them unfortunately.
Cultured Vultures: Where would the PS1 be without RPGs? It’d no doubt still be a massive seller thanks to bandicoots, clones, and halfpipes, but half the cultural institution it is today? We’re not so sure.
While most of these games are great to amazing, most are not actual RPGs. Faux RPGs if anything. Turn Based Adventure Games for a more apt description, with Diablo, Brave Fence Musashi and Star Ocean as Action Adventure games.
Again, all great games without a doubt.
"While the 20 year anniversary edition of Nordic Game, NG24 Spring's homepage on 21-24 May in Malmö, Sweden, is getting closer, the organizers announced that more than 150 speakers are now lined up for the show." - Nordic Game.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.