Valve's Gabe Newell has disclosed some of his company's ambitious plans for the future of Steam, a future that actually involves the past. The PC game service has some large retro scheming in mind, as Newell himself revealed.
"...I expect we'll go back in time and eventually pretty much every game that's ever been available will be on there 24/7," confidently claimed Newell. When asked about old LucasArt's games, he was similarly eager. "Sure, those are some great games. I mean there are some real problems, where the waters are muddied and companies have gone out of business. That makes things difficult."
Newell hints that he would like game developers to take a look at their roots rather than try and copy "the flavor of the month," and stated that playing old PC games, the kind that got he and many others into game development, was refreshing.
I can't think of a single valid argument as to why bringing back old adventure games and giving them a second life on Steam is a bad idea. In fact, anybody who would complain about such plans should be considered a pariah and a traitor to the crown, and should be executed in the town square at midday. So it has been decreed, so it shall be so.
[With thanks to Aerox]
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
11:56 AM on 11.22.2007
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That would be absolutely amazing to have the entire Lucas Arts catalog on steam. I would so buy for $150
@sabreman dosbox can fix anything :D just like they did w/ the old id Software titles on steam.
That would suck so much. I would like die.
I fully support this!
Steam is kind of balls for buying stuff, since they still charge full retail for everything.
Yeah, but these are old games we're talking about. I seriously doubt they would charge much for them. I got all five Commander Keen games on Steam for $5.
The main reason digital distribution isn't cheaper is because of retail. Publishers and regular retail chains hate digital distro, they don't get a cut.
Time for a hypothetical
if Valve sold Halflife 2 at stores for 45(15 bucks approx to Valve)
and on Steam for 30(30 bucks to Valve). People would more likely buy online, and the shops would lose out, 'screw them', you might say, but if they start loosing out, they will refuse to carry Valve products in their store. Right now, digital distribution accounts for about 50% of the profits(not sales, this is important, it shows that retail sells alot more copies to make up the difference).
Digital Distro needs to get a lot more popular before anyone gets the nuts to charge less for the online version then the box version.
The reality is, people still _expect_ to pay retail prices, even when there is no overhead creating it. As long as that is the case, they have no reason to lower the prices.
Sorry you can't see it, but that is how it works, ask the folks who made Galactic Civilizations 2, in interviews they said they wanted to charge less for online, as sort of a fan service, they were stopped because retailers threatened to pull it if they didn't play ball. Their profits(not sales) were 50% online and 50% retail. It would be silly to assume that everyone would get it online, so they would still loose a large portion of the sales.
If a Publisher pulled the rug out from their retail market, they wouldn't make up the difference regardless of how much greater the returns they expect are. And you could kiss the very lucrative console market goodbye.
Will the growing Digital Distribution trend eventually take over retail, eventually, but right now, due to the low (_current_) acceptance, companies simply cannot afford to take that hit in sales.
I buy online, because it is cheaper for me, with the Canadian dollar as it is.
Also, it's a buggy pile of crap.
I see where you are coming from, and thats the main argument against digital distribution, you don't get the $0.50 DVD and the ever shrinking manual. Both of which I would forgo for the ability to have a library of games available anywhere with internet. The problem is the price is locked in a holding pattern until games are no longer hot in stores, after that, its often dropped. Sure Valve games always sell well, but if they are unable to sell either XBox360 or Playstation 3 versions, they would loose their new market that they are trying to tap.
Game tap looks cool, but it seems like a quick grab for games that didn't/arn't selling well, I might join, maybe. But I would rather give money to Valve then Turner broadcasting.
I find Steam to be more stable then most other similar services/MMOs.