It's nice to hear a guy with some clout in the industry saying the things that most of us have been saying for the past decade or so. But it would've been nicer had the industry not dug the hole that they'd now like to climb out of.
Cliff Bleszinski's Dire Industry Outlook
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Some people are making lots of money in that hole with games or game engines and others are losing their jobs and going bankrupt.
As for downloads only the cost of bandwidth is charged to the end user so is that balanced against the cost of a physical package?
Also this thing about servers disappearing in the future and end-users losing content is very worrying....
That's true. It's also true that a lot of people made a lot of money in the real estate bubble. That doesn't mean that the bubble wasn't real.
That's one thing I really have to disagree with Cliff, the iPad stuff and digital download and for once agree with the majority of the expressed opinions here. Steam will go down eventually, just like Gamespy did and other stuff. Besides since I began living poorly and with restricted connection acess, I cannot even enjoy such services as Steam, only in offline mode for now and it really shows how bad it is compared to physical copies and all the DLC shit, see DNF for example. If 3drealms didnt go bankrupt the expansions would stll be physical i would bet and they wnated to release the editor as well, but of course that goes against publisher plans.
You're just a lovely ray of sunshine, aren't you? ^
Steam is fine. Not everything is doom and gloom.
Steam is fine. Not everything is doom and gloom.
Steam will go down at some point, it's very much inevitable. There are also very few game developers (or indeed publishers, distributors or hardware manufacturers) that have survived for more than a few short years.
Don't count on Steam being around forever, because it won't be. For all you know, it may be ousted by the sales ecosystem in as little as five years time.
Don't count on Steam being around forever, because it won't be. For all you know, it may be ousted by the sales ecosystem in as little as five years time.
Kyllian
if (Driver == Bot.Pawn); bGTFO=True;
Assuming the global economy doesn't outright collapse, I don't forsee Steam going anywhere anytime soon, 5 years down the road or 50
Lol, my friend IRL said the same, that he is giving steam about five years before that goes down.. just like gamespy went down now.
My first "PC" was a C-64 and my first console was an Atari. I've been playing computer games my whole life. I will probably be playing them until I finally kick off.
I don't want what I can play and when dictated by whether or not Steam (or some other combine) eventually goes belly-up (although other technical limitations may have some bearing on what can be installed where).....
.... and, as someone said above, where's my friggin' DLC?
No to downloads only delivery. Absolutely not Cliffy.
I don't want what I can play and when dictated by whether or not Steam (or some other combine) eventually goes belly-up (although other technical limitations may have some bearing on what can be installed where).....
.... and, as someone said above, where's my friggin' DLC?
No to downloads only delivery. Absolutely not Cliffy.
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Half life 2, the game that launched Steam, will be 10 years old next year. I bought it digitally. I see no signs that I'm not going to be able to play it in the near future.
it depends a lot on the service provider. Steam has been around for years and shows no signs its going away anytime soon. Steam has many games that maybe a couple people have bought ever- but they remain in the catalog.
In most cases where digital products have been pulled, if you make a backup copy of it, you can continue to play it even if nobody else can buy it again.
But this issue has never bothered me much because with some games where i've put 1000s of hours into them, I've more than gotten my money's worth. If they stop selling/supporting it, it will be sad, but it's not like I didn't get what I paid for.
If worse comes to worse, the internet is resourceful enough that somebody will step up and invent a hack to make your games playable again. It's thanks to the internet that many old games that would otherwise have been more or less lost can still be found and played.
Valve isn't run by idiots. Even if this ever happens, which I don't think it will in the forseeable future, If Valve does go out of business, they will very likely unlock your games or do something that lets you keep playing them. You can't remove something from the internet, either. As mentioned before, Steam lets you make backups, so just make backups and you won't have to redownload.
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Of course Valve aren't idiots; that's why the are so successful.
Let's say sometime in the future that Steam does shut down. Usually what happens is the enterprise goes Chapter 7 so that the principles of the business can walk away with significant cash profits in their pockets.
Under those circumstances is Steam going to give each of it's users a 10 terabyte hard-drive with all their bought content on it? I think not.
So we're back to the whole issue of backing up on the internet and the cost of bandwidth and backup sites that is carried by the end-user.
The circle of life is complete.
oh please... I have boxed games older than Cliffy that still work on all my computers.
that said, I luv digital, but theres a big diff between angrybirds and UT
when is the iGeneration, especially those in the biz, going to learn the lesson of the real estate bubble? When the digital world bursts, when downloadable content isnt purchased, when no one is buying the microtransaction (are you kidding me?)... theres only one place to go.
" Bleszinski said. Right now he suggested the console market is 80 percent $60 retail titles and 20 percent cheaper downloadable offerings, but it needs to embrace virtually all genres and all price points. That means $20 horror games, $40 shooters, $60 AAA blockbusters, free-to-play, and everything in between, all easy to find for the audience who would be most interested in them..."
sounds alot like the old pc gaming market to me...
developers/publishers need to rethink the market (without their marketing people in the room!)
I can always hope anyway
that said, I luv digital, but theres a big diff between angrybirds and UT
when is the iGeneration, especially those in the biz, going to learn the lesson of the real estate bubble? When the digital world bursts, when downloadable content isnt purchased, when no one is buying the microtransaction (are you kidding me?)... theres only one place to go.
" Bleszinski said. Right now he suggested the console market is 80 percent $60 retail titles and 20 percent cheaper downloadable offerings, but it needs to embrace virtually all genres and all price points. That means $20 horror games, $40 shooters, $60 AAA blockbusters, free-to-play, and everything in between, all easy to find for the audience who would be most interested in them..."
sounds alot like the old pc gaming market to me...
developers/publishers need to rethink the market (without their marketing people in the room!)
I can always hope anyway
ALMOST, Not quite tho...
thats another thing publishers and devs forget. not everyone has broadband or even internet access...
of course one day Steam will be no more. I honestly think they will be around wayyy more than 5 years , more than 10 prolly.
The thing is, even if Valve was in dire straits, do you really think that nobody would scoop the Steam platform up? In userbase alone it is probably the platform with the highest profit potential among all platforms, PC and otherwise.
I'm not even worried. Where do you guys think Steam is going to go? What do you see as the weak points that are gong to lead to it's somehow obvious demise? There isn't some written rule that all companies ever are going to go under and disappear within a few years?
Valve is raking in money left and right. Even if that changed overnight for some reason (which it won't), there are probably 50 companies out there right now that would love to have Valve's market position even just in digital distribution. There is very little chance Steam is going anywhere in the foreseeable (and probably far beyond) future, with or without Valve.
I'm not even worried. Where do you guys think Steam is going to go? What do you see as the weak points that are gong to lead to it's somehow obvious demise? There isn't some written rule that all companies ever are going to go under and disappear within a few years?
Valve is raking in money left and right. Even if that changed overnight for some reason (which it won't), there are probably 50 companies out there right now that would love to have Valve's market position even just in digital distribution. There is very little chance Steam is going anywhere in the foreseeable (and probably far beyond) future, with or without Valve.
Kyllian
if (Driver == Bot.Pawn); bGTFO=True;
Things change and the market changes. Steam is strong now, but it won't always be unless it adapts; it may even become redundant as the climate changes. Thinking that this won't change is naive thinking.
Think about how the infrastructure surrounding the games you've played has changed in just 20 years. In 1993, you're playing Neverwinter Nights through CompuServe at a friends house - probably the first subscription based MMO. If you want to buy games, half the time you have to send a draft in the post. If you're lucky like me, you have a decent brick-and-mortar retail store nearby.
Five years later I have a 56k dial-up connection and a significant proportion of games have an online component. Despite having 4000% more players, AOL pulls the plug on NWN and the game is no longer available. People still buy their products through brick and mortar stores. Postal game ordering at this point almost no longer exists.
Come 2003 and almost everyone and their auntie is online. I'm no longer using AOL, but 25 million people are. I'm buying games through Amazon - a company that's been around for a decade and has all of a sudden risen from nothingness to a major retail player. Most people still buy their products through brick and mortar stores, but it's changing.
Only five more years sees many brick and mortar stores closed. Steam has been around for only three years and other online retailers are taking control of the market. The Internet has changed significantly in only 5 years and I'm now on a fast broadband connection. AOL as it was is now dead, with more than 85% of it's previous userbase decimated and moved on. AOL is now trying to be an Internet media company rather than an Internet services provider. For the first time consoles now have a major internet presence and offer downloadable products.
Now we're in 2013. Between 2012 and 2013, over 45% of all brick and mortar retail stores closed. Digital distribution hasn't taken over but is a major player. Consoles take the Lion's Share of the boxed games market. Almost all games are purchased online - yet Amazon is declining. AOL is a distant joke and now noone really knows what the company even does any more (it still exists as a multimillion dollar multinational, after all).
Think about things. Do you really think Steam will still exist in 20 years time? It will close, but it will also be gradual, it will not be overnight.
You won't be able to backup your stuff. It's services will simply close if Valve ever file for bankruptcy; as a customer you're no longer important. All services will immediately cease to reduce losses. Steam probably won't be sold because it's userbase (including half of all you in these forums now) have moved on to something new - it's outdated, redundant and no longer valuable. Like Myspace.
Think about how the infrastructure surrounding the games you've played has changed in just 20 years. In 1993, you're playing Neverwinter Nights through CompuServe at a friends house - probably the first subscription based MMO. If you want to buy games, half the time you have to send a draft in the post. If you're lucky like me, you have a decent brick-and-mortar retail store nearby.
Five years later I have a 56k dial-up connection and a significant proportion of games have an online component. Despite having 4000% more players, AOL pulls the plug on NWN and the game is no longer available. People still buy their products through brick and mortar stores. Postal game ordering at this point almost no longer exists.
Come 2003 and almost everyone and their auntie is online. I'm no longer using AOL, but 25 million people are. I'm buying games through Amazon - a company that's been around for a decade and has all of a sudden risen from nothingness to a major retail player. Most people still buy their products through brick and mortar stores, but it's changing.
Only five more years sees many brick and mortar stores closed. Steam has been around for only three years and other online retailers are taking control of the market. The Internet has changed significantly in only 5 years and I'm now on a fast broadband connection. AOL as it was is now dead, with more than 85% of it's previous userbase decimated and moved on. AOL is now trying to be an Internet media company rather than an Internet services provider. For the first time consoles now have a major internet presence and offer downloadable products.
Now we're in 2013. Between 2012 and 2013, over 45% of all brick and mortar retail stores closed. Digital distribution hasn't taken over but is a major player. Consoles take the Lion's Share of the boxed games market. Almost all games are purchased online - yet Amazon is declining. AOL is a distant joke and now noone really knows what the company even does any more (it still exists as a multimillion dollar multinational, after all).
Think about things. Do you really think Steam will still exist in 20 years time? It will close, but it will also be gradual, it will not be overnight.
You won't be able to backup your stuff. It's services will simply close if Valve ever file for bankruptcy; as a customer you're no longer important. All services will immediately cease to reduce losses. Steam probably won't be sold because it's userbase (including half of all you in these forums now) have moved on to something new - it's outdated, redundant and no longer valuable. Like Myspace.