Valve wins the internet (Distribution)

Robert Hallock 5 Aug, 2007 at 8:37am ET Article published in Tech

ID Software dropped one hell of a bomb on QuakeCon ’07: Steam is now offering the complete library of titles, all the way back to Commander Keen, for ID Software. They can be purchased individually or in a package of titles. This denouement for Valve steels their Steam platform as the most title-diverse publishing and content delivery system on our wee planet.

Here be news.

Comments

5 Aug 2007 ~ 9:51am CB I'm gonna play me some Commander Keen today! I wonder how much these games have been modified from the original... Since I tried to play Commander keen in Windows 98, and it wouldn't run slow enough. If they didn't at least modify the games to run in a modern environment, this will be useless.
5 Aug 2007 ~ 9:59am CB Well, Downloading Commander Keen didn't take long, and it seems to run fine.
5 Aug 2007 ~ 11:19am Thrax Keen runs swimmingly with the DOSBOX DOS emulator, if not downloaded through steam.
6 Aug 2007 ~ 4:04am Leonardo Please explain the significance of this news to me, someone who doesn't game, but someone who likes to keep up with business and internet trends.
6 Aug 2007 ~ 9:19am Linc Valve distributes its games through Steam, which is basically a web-store-in-a-program, like iTunes. Yeah, I like that analogy: Steam is the iTunes of video games. It started with the Valve flagship, Half Life, and has since been steadily expanding.

Announcing they now have ID on board (which is one of the most prestigious game dev companies) is like when Apple announced they got Disney & ABC to put their shows and movies on iTunes - a big step toward solidifying their position as the only show in town for purchasing and downloading games.

Blizzard and EA are the other two heavy-hitters that come to mind besides Valve and ID... I'd bet Valve is working on them.
6 Aug 2007 ~ 9:29am primesuspect The significance is that Valve (sort of) pioneered online distribution of video games, and now several years later one of their biggest competitors has signed on with said service, validating it and boosting it.
6 Aug 2007 ~ 10:11am Thrax It's more like Microsoft becoming the publisher for MacOS.
6 Aug 2007 ~ 1:48pm BuddyJ Not quite that big of stretch. What it does do is further validate the digital distribution of games by the big dogs. By having Valve and id on Steam, they've made a very marketable (and profitable) product distribution channel. I suspect this will snowball (Katamari?) and grow in popularity as more and more game companies hop aboard the Steam train.
6 Aug 2007 ~ 1:51pm primesuspect First Capcom, now Id, next....?

Don't discount Gametap, however. They just got the exclusive online distribution of all Codemasters games.

I've always loved Steam, and from the very first time I ever used it, I knew it was the future of game distribution. Given the choice between buying a game on Steam and buying a physical disc, I'll always opt for the online version. I can download it and play it on any computer I want.
6 Aug 2007 ~ 1:58pm CB When I can , I like to buy the physical game (cause it's usually cheaper) then register my copy with Steam, so that I can then play it as easily as other steam games... This doesn't work with every game however (for example, you cannot register Take 2 games with Steam unless you buy them from steam, since Take2 doesn't do install keys)

Oh, and I noticed that Commander Keen is running in DOSBox when it runs from Steam.
7 Aug 2007 ~ 7:26am RWB

primesuspect wrote:

First Capcom, now Id, next....?

Don't discount Gametap, however. They just got the exclusive online distribution of all Codemasters games.

I've always loved Steam, and from the very first time I ever used it, I knew it was the future of game distribution. Given the choice between buying a game on Steam and buying a physical disc, I'll always opt for the online version. I can download it and play it on any computer I want.

Too bad EA doesn't hop on board, as much as I hate them my friends still play Battlefield 2 and I lost my CD1 and a no-cd hack gets me kicked off punkbuster servers despite me having a fully legal copy. Which has no need for a CD requirement if you ask me becuase it has a damned CD-Key and obviously punkbuster is doing a good job at preventing people from playing, including guys like me who already bought it and I'd hate to give EA more money for a game that still has glitches that should have been fixed by now.

Anyways I went off topic, but the concept of downloading games is fantastic, not needing a CD is even more fantastic!