It's time for Steam to get serious

[Varsity]

Over the past few days I've been watching E3 and from the press conferences to actual event, it's becoming increasingly clear that gameservices such as Steam are going to become incredibly important in coming months and years. So much so in fact that Xbox Live is an entire third of Microsoft's strategy; Sony and Nintendo will both offer currently under wraps gameservices; UT2007 will have clans and matchmaking built into the game; even GameSpot is launching it's own gameservice. Gameservices are as much a part of the 'next generation' as hardware and software they will run on.

So where does that leave Steam? A very long way behind indeed.

Steam accepts credit cards and delivers content. That's it right now. Friends doesn't work, content streaming is barely functional, and the server browser isn't much to shout about in this context. The second largest collection of publicly-available service bandwidth on the planet and the largest group of connected gamers playing the most popular games ever made -- is wallowing at the bottom of the barrel, waiting for others to overtake it. It's got the unique advantage of providing the games. It's got the unique advantage of a far more massive established community than anything like us. It's got the PC itself. But the time is fast coming when that just won't be enough.

It's time for Steam to get serious. And it's time right now.

Click that link, read the ten points, say what you think, send it to your friends. Even if you don't agree with what has been written, it can't be denied that Steam has to start moving: in one direction, or the other. This isn't a wishlist, and it isn't about bugfixes. It isn't even about money. It's about ensuring we get the games we want, developers get the customers they need, and the industry gets to see the power of a whole new way of doing business before it is buried beneath it's competitors.

 

[Cole]

Steam and Xbox Live were made for diffrent things.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

content streaming is barely functional,

Sure about that?

 

[Shodan]

Yeah, it works fine for me.

 

[Steve]

No...I think Steam is where I'll continue to get my VALVe games and updates. Which is what Steam is for. VALVe games.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

No...I think Steam is where I'll continue to get my VALVe games and updates. Which is what Steam is for. VALVe games.

Exactly, VALVe doesn't need to compete with other companies on how they deal with their games. Steam right now isn't exactly not making them money, hell I bet they make at least $100 a day from it.

 

[AfternoonLemon]

No...I think Steam is where I'll continue to get my VALVe games and updates. Which is what Steam is for. VALVe games

Nail on the head right there....

I am a bit unsure of your point Varsity, I mean you can't be saying XBox Live and Steam are in direct competition, can you?

I don't think Steam is in competition with anyone really, it is a service created for use with Valve games only.
However, if Steam isn't performing, sales of Valve games will drop. So really it is Valve who are in competition with other PC game producers, with Steam being one of their assets

 

[bryanf445]

only thing im upset about is that friends never works

 

[clarky003]

only thing im upset about is that friends never works

one day, one day... then all shall be right.

 

[Lahire149]

the second largest bandwidth thing is crap to me...
I never get more than 1.2Mbps downlaod on my connection that can support up to 3.1Mbps down.

 

[DoctorWeeTodd]

one day, one day... then all shall be right.

Maybe they should integrate Xfire instead.

 

[Ennui]

Your list seems a bit unrealistic, in particular the whole thing about sharing game content between games, massive problems with that.

 

[Sn4tcH]

Maybe they should integrate Xfire instead.

Matrix online intergrated with AIM. I'm thinking if valve did it, they would try something more lucritive... say MSN... They are in the Microsoft graces with HL2 for Xbox... hmmm...

 

[Cole]

I like Xfire . It intergrates into games including Valves games .

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

I like Xfire . It intergrates into games including Valves games .

Nothing can be integrated into steam, it just won't happen.

 

[Varsity]

Sure about that?

You can't play Source games without all or nearly all the content. HL1 games are better but don't plan aheard and will freeze up as the new content is downloaded, for instance whenever anyone speaks.

No...I think Steam is where I'll continue to get my VALVe games and updates. Which is what Steam is for. VALVe games.

There's already games by other developers coming to Steam, and Valve aren't saying anything to suggest it will stop there. Just because today it isn't in competition, and just because today it only provides Valve games, doesn't mean that will and should never change.

in particular the whole thing about sharing game content between games, massive problems with that.

Steam is very flexible in that area. Move (or place in the first place) the content you want into a shared GCF like source materials/sounds/models and that's it. There's nothing unrealistic in the document at all. Long-term, sure, but not unattainable.

 

[Cole]

Nothing can be integrated into steam, it just won't happen.

What I ment was, I can use xfire while playing Cs:S.
I can chat with a friend and play cs:s at the same time with ease. I can see what a friends up to. I can do it all without ever alt tabing or anything of the sort.

 

[Cons Himself]

aren't you forgetting about Direct 2 Drive Varsity?

I downloaded Deus Ex for 5 quid off there the other day, and it was a 40 minute download.

very smooth, everything worked nice.

 

[aku ankka]

Please don´t make steam bloatware, valve.

 

[boglito]

aren't you forgetting about Direct 2 Drive Varsity?

I downloaded Deus Ex for 5 quid off there the other day, and it was a 40 minute download.

very smooth, everything worked nice.

Huge difference between steam and most other services offering content outside of retail: With steam you get an account and that account owns the game. With other delivery systems (itunes musicstore, direct2drive, more I'm sure) you get the ability to reinstall the content 0, 1, or tops 2 times. Then you have to swipe the credit card again.

I don't disagree that steam could and should be better, but when it comes to serving content for dollars it is unsurpassed so far (user friendliness, not quantity), and will probably stay that way for a while.

.bog.

 

[Varsity]

aren't you forgetting about Direct 2 Drive Varsity?

I downloaded Deus Ex for 5 quid off there the other day, and it was a 40 minute download.

very smooth, everything worked nice.

I don't think they intend to be anything more than a ditribution service. The games they distribute alreadys have their own multiplayer elements and their software consists of a downloader.

 

[Epsi]

Actually, you can play HL2 at 59% downloaded. Wouldn't call that nearly all.

 

[Asknoone]

No...I think Steam is where I'll continue to get my VALVe games and updates. Which is what Steam is for. VALVe games.

Word..

 

[MjM]

Well they said that steam will expand in terms of allowing some third party mods to distribute via steam, i think this is a huge step forward for mods/steam in general.

Steam succeeds in providing content and content updates, anti cheat, news updates etc.

They do need to get friends working. They do need to make steam leaner and meaner and auto update-instead of requiring a restart. They need a 'Pause' button for downloads, perhaps a scheduler as well.

Some sort of chat room with channels, similar to what Blizzard has for battle.net and IRC would also be cool.

But in general, its on the right track, and still miles ahead of any other PC dev/publisher. And all the upcoming ones are yet to be seen, so its unfair to compare two things when one is still untested in the real world. Its also important to note that steam has to cope with peaks of ~200,000 users simultaneously, so for a free service it cant offer any content willy nilly, it would blow any bandwidth/economic limitations out of the water.

EDIT I just read the article. The content streaming ideas do seem a little unrealistic to me. Especially as games reach higher fidelities in terms of sound, skins, with all their mapping layers, and general complexity of coding - Files sizes increase rapidly. In general it out stretches the uptake of high speed multi Mbit broadband, which would be required for any kind of next gen game streaming.

Its been a Valve prerogative for a while to let the community do allot of the things that add to the Valve franchise, so things like stats for servers etc, will probably be left as they are for the community to evolve.

The idea of matchmaking seems lame, kinda like nanny-ing imo.

Free spectate sounds abit like SourceTV/HLTV

Shared resources, already doable with GCFScape and a bit of tinkering.


Finally, the fact that Valve games are some of the best and most popular in the buisness, and the fact that buying through steam is cheaper than buying them in the store, imo, assures its future.

 

[Varsity]

Actually, you can play HL2 at 59% downloaded. Wouldn't call that nearly all.

Really? I've never been able to get that. But even if it is true: still far too high.

 

[Epsi]

Very much true.



But for the record I agree. It's better than 100%, but they could probably get away with much, much less for Point Insertion, especially as you don't need weapons, most of the enemies, etc.

 

[Noobulon]

For me, the best idea in that article was the last point. Steam could offer a huge library of PC games - Valve and non-Valve games - for cheap prices and easy access. It would be good for developers too. Publishers will be suffocatingly risk-averse in the next generation; many can see online distribution becoming the only way for developers to sell original ideas. If Valve offered Steam to developers as an affordable way of getting their game to consumers, it cuts out the publisher and we get the game the developer wanted to make. I think this is really important.

As for Steam being for Valve games only - why? I don't see why it should be Valve-only. If other developers decide to make their own Steam-like services, we'll have multiple versions of essentially the same thing on our PC's. Surely keeping everything inside the one service will only help to strengthen that network.


Having said that, Valve can forget it unless they fix the sodding Friends list.

 

[^Ben]

http://tripstertoo.blogspot.com/

I have started my series of articles on how I think steam should change.

 

[Epsi]

There is already at least one external developer who is planning to release their game over Steam.

www.piratesoftheburningsea.com

But yeh, Valve definatly has an advantage over any other game distribution service, and this is that it's in the marketplace today, and it's proven because Valve have actually distributed a game like Half-Life 2 over it successfully.

 

[azz0r]

Steams fine, fix friends and it'll be great.

fin.

 

[DoctorWeeTodd]

Very much true.



But for the record I agree. It's better than 100%, but they could probably get away with much, much less for Point Insertion, especially as you don't need weapons, most of the enemies, etc.

Care to share your settings?

 

[Koraktor]

I'm waiting for a real platform update since the "Browse Games" feature was added.

Steam has a lot of potential, but that can't be used without more updates to Steam itself.