Certain "bullying" UK retail chains ARE refusing to sell PC titles that come with a Steam client in the box - as the fierce rivalry between digital platforms and the High Street begins to explode.
The admission confirms a report in trade bible MCV from last year, in which the mag claimed that the globe's pre-eminent digital distribution platform was "under attack" on the High Street.
Major franchises which traditionally carry a Steam-enabled component in their PC box include Call Of Duty and Fallout.
Speaking in a fascinating new CVG interview on the subject of how Steam and digital distribution has helped 1C flourish, UK publishing director Darryl Still told us:
"Steam do not dictate at all. They are supremely easy to deal with and superbly competent at what they do.
"Their confidence in their offering, which pays no heed to any rival in-store activities, compares very favourably to that of the retail chains - who recently sent a command to publishers that if they include Steamworks in their title it will not be stocked. Those guys need to grow up, stop bullying, and focus their attentions on making their offerings as attractive as the people they are obviously looking over their shoulders in panic at."
In the interview, Still boils down the difference between selling a game on store shelves and selling online, via Steam or its other partners such as Green Man Gaming and Gamersgate.
"But if we sold the same game through someone pushing the download button at one of our digital partners' websites for the same £20, we would net £14 - twice as much - into our bank by the end of May; three or four months' sooner."]
1C, the second-biggest European owned publisher in the world, is the creator of bestselling PC series such as IL-2 Sturmovik, Men Of War and Kings Bounty.
Comments
24 comments so far...
Frogster8 on 21 Jun '11 said:
A lot of people don't read the box, don't have internet/don't trust Steam, and then try to take it back. On the tech support lines we get so many calls of people who ring up going "What is this Steam malware" and people who call themselves computer technicians and stuff, who then want a refund for the game because they don't trust it and say they weren't informed even though its stated on the box. Retailers probably get sick of people bugging them about that. Also, a lot of people don't understand what Steam is and think they need to be connected to the internet whenever they want to play the game, I wouldn't be surprised if the people in the retailer thought the same thing even though its the same as a one-time internet activation, then you just set Steam into offline mode.
gobbybobby on 21 Jun '11 said:
Can you really blaim them??
Steam is taking business away from the retail, its killing the traidtional brick and morter shops on the high street
I buy all my games in steam, never in my local game store. I went down there the other day it was supricingly busy.
PC section, is the smallest section in there. the PS1 games have more shelf space than the PC section thats shoved at the back of the shop under the light that does not work.
MerseyMal on 21 Jun '11 said:
In my opinion. This is bloody blinkered of them because:
a) I'm more likely to buy a non-Steam enabled game from Steam than retailers, for the benefit of not requiring the disc in my machine when I play it even if it costs a little more.
b) I'm far more likely to buy a Steam-enabled game from a retailer than from Steam as they're more competitively priced on the whole than Steam AND I get the benefit of not requiring the disc in my machine when I play it.
Yellow6 on 21 Jun '11 said:
Breaking news just in:
Family restaurant refuses to let MacDonalds customers use it's car park while eating in MacDonalds.
MacDonalds spokesman Ronald said "the BULLYING restauarant owners need to let people shop where they want".
When asked if MacDonalds would compensate the small family run restaurant for the used car-parking Ronald said "no comment".
gilly83 on 21 Jun '11 said:
all this is doing its pushing more people to buy directly from steam,so their so called solution is aiding the problem.
It appears to me that the likes of game have given up on the pc market already with a small selection and not competivte prices
Random Hangman on 21 Jun '11 said:
Very nice analogy, Sir
lmimmfn on 21 Jun '11 said:
erm theres barely any retailers stocking PC games, theyre only shooting themselves in the foot because its inevitable that its all going to go digital eventually
AJDarkstar on 21 Jun '11 said:
I agree that all they're doing is fuelling "the problem", as they obviously see it. Let's be honest: how many PC games do GAME sell anyway? It'd be nice if they stocked more Mac games, but now that Steam have hopped on that train things are beginning to move along nicely. I got Portal 2 on PS3 because it came with the Steam code, and the Mac version is amazing, but it's nice to have the option to play it co-op on PS3.
superfruit on 21 Jun '11 said:
I don't really care about the highstreet for gaming anymore. I remember buying Mickey and the castle of illusion for my jap import megadrive from a proper independent games store and that was the sort of place I wish still survived - informed, passionate and supplying you with a little bit of magic that wasn't even released in the UK.
I Couldn't care less about Game or Gamestation (since the merger), they are big businesses run poorly (read the merger report if you can to see both only had about a 1-2% profit margin) with staff that are more intent in interupting you with robot training phrases whilst you browse than actually being of help.
Once Game finally goes under hopefully more online content delivery like gog.com will be common place with nice DRM-free unlimited downloading. It's not like you get any real tangible product other than a disc these days anyway. GTA is about the last of games to actually give you anything of note inside the box and that's only a map. PC game boxes used to need a spare room to themselves.
KMakawa on 21 Jun '11 said:
Sure they dont... So removing various Electronic Arts games from the Steam store purely because they are sold on other sites like Direct2Drive, Gamesgate, ImpulseDriven they refuse to sell it on Steam
THAT is the reason why a few EA games have dissapeared from distribution on Steam, not because EA removed them but because Steam declined to sell something that is not exclusively on Steam.
How exactly is that not dictating? Yeah.. I thought so too.
SCREW Steam.
ColaFlavourChew on 21 Jun '11 said:
I think that it is a rather poor analogy; it implies that the family restaurant (who I presume represents the retailers) are being exploited by McDonalds (Steam), who are allowing customers to use the car park (games) provided by the family restaurant without compensation, which is not the case.
A more proper analogy would be that the family restaurant provides the food, receives payment for said food and then the customers go and eat the food in McDonald's whilst seeing their advertising. Or better yet; the family restaurant offers not only their own menu, but also the same food as McDonald's served on plates with cutlery rather than as fast food, and once prepared the customers go and eat their meal in McDonald's. The product is ultimately the same, but the delivery method is different.
In this analogy both restaurants offer the same product, bought from the same supplier, but the family restaurant incurs additional costs while the other does not. These additional costs are then passed back to the supplier who must accept lower payments for their supplies than that which were sold through McDonalds.
The family restaurant then states that it will no longer sell McDonald's products in it's restaurant despite making a profit on each sale as it feels that the customers going to eat their family restaurant-bought food in McDonald's decreases their marketshare, as a customer may go to McDonald's next time rather than to the family restaurant.
A more fitting analogy, though long-winded. But then the current situation is hardly as simple as "Retailer good, Steam bad" or vice-versa.
@KMakawa Steam did not decide to remove the EA products from the store; it appears instead that EA removed them in preparation for the rollout of its new Online Store. Since virtually every game that is on Steam is available via other online distributors then according to your claim (that Steam removed the products as they were not Steam exclusives) then the Steam Store should currently be barren, which it is not.
richm74 on 21 Jun '11 said:
Nobody has pointed out the big white elephant in the room ....
He's over there ............ look!
It's the fact that Brick & Mortar stores (Mainly Game and Gamestation) are p**sed that they cannot resell PC games that use Steamworks. Once bought, that game code is tied to your Steam account forever (unless your a bit tricksy with emails and various Steam accounts), so preventing resale.
The stores want their cake and eat it basically. They get more money out of reselling due to the fact they do not have to pass on costs to the publishers.
So when little Jimmy buys the new CoD for £50+ for the 360, he plays it for a month, trades it in for £25, they then resell for £40. With Steamworks you can't do that.
It's good old fashioned book balancing. The stores know their losing out. The only thing keeping them going is the reselling market. Once the publishers crack that nut, people will just download or order online for delivery.
Idgaf on 21 Jun '11 said:
Your kidding me right?
ONE game (Crysis 2) was removed to which the specific reason has yet to be known and Valve has yet to say anything on the matter. All the other games are still for sale on Steam currently and are available on other services as well. EA broke some sort of term of the agreement for that game specifically and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with where else EA sells their games. I'll wait to hear from Valve as to why the game was removed before making a judgement on it.
If you hate Steam that is your business, but to try and lie about what happened is just stupid.
liveswired on 21 Jun '11 said:
Steamworks - that says it all. I don't buy retail PC games anymore so it doesn't bother me.
The_Hun1 on 21 Jun '11 said:
Well maybe if game shops stocked actual pc games like they did, then people would buy them there, i love pc gaming, but can't for the love of it buy titles i want to play in my local game or gamestation, so steam it is for me and you know what it's great
Polarwiseman II on 21 Jun '11 said:
The only thing that annoys me is when I buy from a game shop, then go home and find out I haven't bought anything other than a code to download the game. It's annoying when your internet is either down or your speed had tanked for some reason. If I buy from a shop I shouldn't have to go home and wait on the download before I can even start installing.
KMakawa on 21 Jun '11 said:
Incorrect considering I work with EA.
wasted-again on 22 Jun '11 said:
Don't forget that Steam is still a shop. You wouldn't get Tesco selling anything that includes ads and coupons for Asda, so why should retailers sell games that introduce their customers to a rival store? And as for "Game" stoking less and less PC titles, they're not the only game retailer, Amazon and Play are two of the biggest online retailers of PC games(and yes, they do count as retail, even though they trade online), and I'm sure they're not happy with Steam either.
Yellow6 on 22 Jun '11 said:
This.
The crux of the matter.
ricflair on 22 Jun '11 said:
Not meaning to be arsey, but would a 19 year old EA Forum mod and EA possibly game tester for all I know, know the details of business decisions between EA/Valve/Origin/Steam???
KMakawa on 22 Jun '11 said:
You receive the same information as I would do in most cases, Press release from EA should of covered much of that information. The reason it was removed is because agreements were made with other download services. If Steam in general start invoking the practice that you cant make deals with other download services(be it in terms of exclusive content or just general sale of the item) then it clearly shows Steam is starting dictate and manipulate the power they have with the model and platform.
People think due to the EA Store having a rebirth as Origin, and having so many EA-games made exclusive and whatnot - as this came around the time of removal of Crysis2 from Steam, people are automatically thinking OH, Thats EA removing things!!! -- but it truly isn't the case. It is Steam starting to alter how they operate.
wasted-again on 22 Jun '11 said:
Not having your game on Steam these days is like PC game suicide, so I can't see why EA would not want it there.
foxdragoon on 22 Jun '11 said:
Retailers haven't made a fuss about any sort of DRM before, including Ubisoft's always online DRM, and customers have always complained about DRM. This is predominantly a matter of retailers not wanting to sell a product which includes a rival direct download store, which makes sense from a business standpoint. However, the message comes from large chain stores who have neglected PC gaming for years in favor of consoles, and have themselves driven small, independent stores out of business in the past, so their wailing causes very little sympathy from me. Steam, from a distributor's point of view, has played an undeniable role in keeping PC gaming viable in a variety of ways, in a world where consoles dominate.
Thanks, Mr./Mrs. EA Employee. We have already heard from the EA Press Release concerning why Crysis 2 was removed from Steam. Supposedly, Steam is changing business practices all of a sudden and wants exclusivity from 3rd parties, even though the new game lists on Steam and other direct download sites plainly contradict this claim. I am sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the launch of EA's spanking new direct download service, of course. I love your customer service, EA, but your business practices from higher-ups precede you.
Zero_One on 8 Aug '11 said:
Retailers still stocked PC games? Well... I'll be damned.
I thought they completely disappeared after the 360 and Ps3 engulfed the PC section at my local Gamestation and Grainger Games.