Gearbox's Randy Pitchford on Valve and Steam

Evo

Evo

Tank
Joined
May 6, 2005
Messages
6,517
Reaction score
7
Gearbox's Randy Pitchford has talked at length with Maximum PC about Borderlands, piracy and Steam. His comments about Steam, well they make for very interesting reading. Here is what he has to say about it:[br]
MPC: The download services, like Steam, are helping make it easier to buy games though, right?[br]RP: I’ll tell you what. Steam helps. As a guy in this industry though, I don’t trust Valve.[br]MPC: Because they’re competitors?[br]RP: Right.[br]MPC: You guys have worked with them a lot![br]RP: I know. And I, personally, trust Valve. But I’m just saying, honestly, I think a lot of the industry doesn’t.[br]MPC: So you think Valve should spin off Steam?[br]RP: They should! It would be much better if Steam was its own business. There’s so much conflict of interest there that it’s horrid. It’s actually really, really dangerous for the rest of the industry to allow Valve to win.[br]I love Valve games, and I do business with the company. But, I’m just saying, Steam isn’t the answer. Steam helps us as customers, but it’s also a money grab, and Valve is exploiting a lot of people in a way that’s not totally fair. Valve is taking a larger share than it should for the service its providing. It’s exploiting a lot of small guys. For us big guys, we’re going to sell the units and it will be fine.
Click to expand...
[br]You can read the whole interview here.
 
This newspost was generated properly using wordpress, so it's on the front page. I'm not sure why Shakermaker used a 'new thread' in this forum, since it only generates a forum thread and doesn't add the story to the RSS feed either.

Anyway on topic:

He mentions Valve are exploiting the smaller developers. Smaller developers who are being given the opportunity to sell their games globally and distribute it easily without major retailing costs which these little companies can't afford. Steam provides an extra option for those companies to get somewhere. If they were being truly shafted by Valve...they wouldn't join.

He is right that Steam has bias to Valve games, but why wouldn't it? It feels a lot of 'damn I wish we'd thought of Steam!'
 
Well I'd argue that you can easily provide a direct download for whatever title your selling. Bandwidth is cheap. The problem is you then need to create or use some ordering system and provide support for it for when something inevitably breaks. Using steam you really only have to focus on the game as everything else is handled by Steam. Conflict of interest maybe but it's not like Valve are the only ones.

/looks at Stardock.

It’s exploiting a lot of small guys.
Click to expand...

Utter nonsense. They make the decision to sell on Steam. Valve does not in anyway co-erce people into using Steam and Steam alone.
 
It's weird of him to say that valve is exploiting the small developers... What I mean is that I would probably never had bought Red Orchestra and Killing Floor in a retailer, even because I can't find these games anywhere(I'm from Brazil). Also, many games are much cheaper through steam(at least here). For instance... I payed U$19 for the Unreal Deal pack if I'm not mistaken... UT3 was never released for the PC here, and the PS3 version is like U$180!!! I payed for Left 4 Dead 2(in a four pack) 2/3 of what someone pays for L4D1 in a retailer here. For me, Steam is the best solution... Maybe they are getting a supposed bigger share on each sale, but they are selling more then retailers would sell... And all publisher companies do is record the discs and print some(low quality lately) useless bunch of paper... Steam saves the problem.
 
Shaker knows nothing about Wordpress and thought it was automatically linked to the front page. I get a bit daft later on in the evening.

My 2 cts on the interview:
Like Barnz said in the other thread, trust is very important and Valve has earned that. People wouldn't be regular customers if the prices and / or the service sucked. Pitchford knows this as well, so I detect hints of sour grapes in his remarks.
 
I know Randy since 90s, I read his all his interviews/.plan files (it's dead now). He's a honest guy, not a tool of some publisher. If there's someone out there you should trust in the industry, trust Randy.

:)
 
MaximusPM said:
It's weird of him to say that valve is exploiting the small developers... What I mean is that I would probably never had bought Red Orchestra and Killing Floor in a retailer, even because I can't find these games anywhere(I'm from Brazil). Also, many games are much cheaper through steam(at least here). For instance... I payed U$19 for the Unreal Deal pack if I'm not mistaken... UT3 was never released for the PC here, and the PS3 version is like U$180!!! I payed for Left 4 Dead 2(in a four pack) 2/3 of what someone pays for L4D1 in a retailer here. For me, Steam is the best solution... Maybe they are getting a supposed bigger share on each sale, but they are selling more then retailers would sell... And all publisher companies do is record the discs and print some(low quality lately) useless bunch of paper... Steam saves the problem.
Click to expand...

Shakermaker said:
My 2 cts on the interview:
Like Barnz said in the other thread, trust is very important and Valve has earned that. People wouldn't be regular customers if the prices and / or the service sucked. Pitchford knows this as well, so I detect hints of sour grapes in his remarks.
Click to expand...

Randy is talking about the producers getting exploited, not the consumers. Although I do agree that Steam, as well as XBLA and PSN, allow smaller companies to get their games out more easily, which contradicts what he said.

As for Steam's bias to Valve games, it's called buziness.
 
Barnz said:
I know Randy since 90s, I read his all his interviews/.plan files (it's dead now). He's a honest guy, not a tool of some publisher. If there's someone out there you should trust in the industry, trust Randy.

:)
Click to expand...

I think I'll stick with trusting Gabe. Sorry I think Valves done wonderful thing with Steam over the last few years and for RP to bitch them out, when its abundantly clear that no one else out there really was making an effort in the digital space is out of order. Also I guess RP really doesn't spend much time going to game stores these days. If he did he'd have realised that PC shelf space is becoming increasingly smaller Vs the ubiquitousness of the consoles.
 
Publishers have been exploiting small developers for years, they take them over, absorb their assets, then shut down the studio making the original developers unemployed and farming the product out to someone who says they'll make it cheaper. How many times has EA or THQ done something like that?

Valve is committing no where near that level of exploitation, all Valve asks is for a relatively small percentage of the buys.
 
mortiz-Redux said:
Valve is committing no where near that level of exploitation, all Valve asks is for a relatively small percentage of the buys.
Click to expand...

Which is perfectly acceptable. That's how business works.
 
Kyorisu said:
Unless you live in Europe or Australia or insert other countries with annoying price differences here.
Click to expand...
Even when they decide to put in annoying price differences (something which appears to be controlled by the publisher/developer rather than Valve), it's usually cheaper or in line with most of the prices I see at retail in Australia. If there is one particular reason I like steam it's because of the sheer savings I have made by paying the US price for the majority of my games.

Of course the European issues are something else I can't speculate on because I don't know the facts.
 
Exploiting small developers? If anything they're extending their arms out to them. God knows how much money that one guy is worth that made audio surf because Valve sold it on Steam... i always kinda liked Pitchford but really, no need to be a douche. Gearbox was always like Valve's jealous little brother.
 
The only issue I have with Steam: for european customers, the games are way overpriced. Retail is often much cheaper, and I'm not sure that Valve is not to blame for this. You know, a lot of fans are loyal customers that want their games from Steam, whatever the price is. This is a scenario where loyalty can be exploited for more profit.
 
So as a guy in this industry, he doesn't trust Valve. But personally, he does. What?
 
I really have no idea what he's trying to say.
 
I think he's saying he personally likes Valve but he's rather afraid of the market share and power they may get if steam takes over as the largest seller of pc games. He recons it could get to a situation where valve might refuse to sell a competitors games and completely **** them over because steam sales would have been the bulk.

Kill gabe to win, randy pitchford.
 
Avoidist said:
Even when they decide to put in annoying price differences (something which appears to be controlled by the publisher/developer rather than Valve), it's usually cheaper or in line with most of the prices I see at retail in Australia. If there is one particular reason I like steam it's because of the sheer savings I have made by paying the US price for the majority of my games.

Of course the European issues are something else I can't speculate on because I don't know the facts.
Click to expand...

I never said retail Australian prices were good either. I don't buy retail and I don't buy from Steam. There are cheaper options. Anyway http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?cid=29700607&sid=1399359&tid=64

Steam has plenty of competitors. I think this guy is of his rocker. If you want to have a go at anti-competitiveness just have a look at XBL or PSN.
 
Kadayi said:
I think I'll stick with trusting Gabe. Sorry I think Valves done wonderful thing with Steam over the last few years and for RP to bitch them out, when its abundantly clear that no one else out there really was making an effort in the digital space is out of order. Also I guess RP really doesn't spend much time going to game stores these days. If he did he'd have realised that PC shelf space is becoming increasingly smaller Vs the ubiquitousness of the consoles.
Click to expand...

True, sometimes I have a hard time even finding the PC game section, and when I do, I see that they're still selling old games for high prices. Steam generally lowers the price of old games to something reasonable/cheap that I would actually be willing to pay (e.g. Rome Total War). If Steam weren't around, I probably would never have bought games like Darwinia or Braid just because I wouldn't have heard of them (I don't really read any game review websites or whatnot anymore).

The only times I buy games are via Steam, Half-Price Books, and Best Buy's day-after-Thanksgiving sale. So I don't see people getting "exploited" when they probably wouldn't have sold their game (to me at least) otherwise. It's not like they didn't know about Valve taking a portion of their sales in the first place.

[edit] Just read the article above on making Steam a separate company. That's kind of weird because... who would own it? Are they supposed to split a couple of people off from Valve and let them go off and own Steam? Do they have Valve people continue to manage it but just legally (or whatever, I know nothing about business/law) make Steam a separate entity? Do they sell it to a complete third party? It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.
 
People don't trust Steam, they trust people behind Steam: Valve. They're gamers, just like you and me (or that's what I want to believe). Like I said in previous thread (now gone), most people are afraid of using other download services. Price nor other elements aren't really that important when it comes to trust.

Yesterday, my friend was bitching how he had to download 2GB patch (which is actually the game patched) over Steam for some game. Original patch for non-Steam version is only 200MB. Even if it's publisher's responsibility to create a solution for such problems, etc. he said Steam should improve service quality for non-Valve games.
 
He's talking about Valve building up a Monopoly position in Digital Distribution of Teh Vidya.

They do have a near monopolistic position.

Monopolies are never a good thing.
 
Pitchford has what he wants to say on the tip of his tongue, but he's not quite there, and for some reason, isn't getting any closer. I don't think his argument holds much validity in the grand and glorious scheme of things - the march of the Steam revolution, as it were, generally has a more concrete grounding than Randy Pitchford's half-baked argument of "I do this but not this and therefore ____"

Weak. Like Brothers in Arms! Ooo, errr, ahhh.
 
Good job at showing comments from developers of popular titles. I love when people blindly trust something, and not criticise it
 
i_liek_shootan said:
Monopolies are never a good thing.
Click to expand...

And they kill free competition. Where's the struggle for the lowest price? All digital platforms have the same prices, and they are way too high for games without boxes, printed manuals and maps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

TechnoHippyChic
EA games returning to Steam
Replies
0
Views
1K
TechnoHippyChic
TechnoHippyChic
Hectic Glenn
Valve and Perfect World Announce 'Steam China'
Replies
0
Views
20K
Hectic Glenn
Hectic Glenn
-smash-
Valve at GDC 2019
Replies
0
Views
25K
-smash-
-smash-
Hectic Glenn
Kerbal Developers Depart Valve
Replies
4
Views
27K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
Hectic Glenn
Moondust Tech Demo by Valve [Video]
Replies
1
Views
21K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
Back
Top