These are all very simple features relatively easy to implement.
Ideally, some awesome group of programmers would build a free or nearly-free Amazon/Google cloud hosted alternative and liberate game developers from having to beg for crumbs, sign over rights, and hand over large cuts of revenue 
People forget sometimes its not just what you can get on the service, but also what you canât get. That is if its on steam its probably of at least a particular standard, or at the least will âmostly workâ. While any free or almost free implies no curation (that costs time and money) which means any old piece of crap, and malware gets on.
Thatâs not really the case; there is some surprising dross released on Steam.
Steamâs greatest value now is in the value-added community features.
Cas
Aha, a good reason to use the overlay since very recently:
Arh, but I donât use the guides, videos or maps either. xD Though admittedly itâs cool that itâs available within easy reach.
Itâs worth pointing out that all the Steam value-add stuff is actually of great benefit to us developers as well - theyâve got global scoreboards, achievements, stats on achievements (you donât realise how important that is until you, er, realise), forums, in-app-purchase stuff, DRM, custom executable generation, etc. Itâs all good. There is of course the massive fear that they are now âthe gatekeeperâ and they can literally choose whatever % they should choose to and thatâs the end of it. You know that we make <10% of all our money through direct sales? And that figure is falling monthly. Steam have completely won, and it would be fair to say that Puppygames is no longer an indie developer; we are fundamentally dependent on Steam for our survival now, which sucks on so many levels I donât even want to think about it.
Make hay while the sun shines.
Cas
You know for most people the distributor they sign with becomes the master of their destiny. It is highly unlikely that you can get another deal if the first deal turns sour.
As for a gatekeeper. Yea they are a bit. And its a concern. If they really stuff it up and do something stupid. I think you will see different services popping up. And lets face it, its better than amazon being the gate keeper. At least for now.
Valve are entirely non-exclusive and hands-off in their approach. Itâs actually the âwisdom of the crowdsâ which is perpetuating their market dominance. There are competitors but honestly, theyâre nowhere, just microbes in Steamâs pond.
Cas
Funny how Valve was once praised into the heavens because they created Half-Life (and HL2, epicness) and now they are automatically turning into an evil organization because Steam has exploded in popularity
Thereâs some saying about things turning evil by default whether they realise it or not⌠a bit like how we, no matter how angelic and good we think we are, canât help but tread on ants and kill them just walking along.
Cas
Itâs just the usual âthey get big, they get evilâ. Sometimes deserved, sometimes not. Google was once the underdog, now theyâre the all-seeing panopticon of the internet. Hell there was once this plucky upstart company taking on IBM, called themselves Micro-Soft or something like that.
I think Valveâs got a long way to go before it gets even a tenth as bad as EA.
Didnât we already have this conversation? Oh yes, I started the thread :persecutioncomplex:
http://www.java-gaming.org/topics/preferred-os/26651/240/view.html, 1/3 down
They are still praised to the heavens. Half Life 1/2 were completely mediocre FPS games but I never felt the need to object to other people enjoying it.
I do object to this notion that Steam has some rightful ownership of the marketplace of all PC games. I am not calling them âevilâ, that is unnecessarily emotional and dramatic. Steam is just grabbing more power and money than is healthy for the overall ecosystem. If I ever make a game, I donât want Valve taking a cut of the revenue, and I donât like this attitude that Valve somehow deserves to be the primary gatekeeper of the entire ecosystem.
I donât see a valid reason to claim that either EA or Valve is immoral.
I do see a reason to claim that Valve is taking more control and money from the overall PC gaming ecosystem than makes sense. Iâd like to see better, more dev friendly options. EA really doesnât do anything like this.
No company should have so much control over a certain market.
Unfortunately, they do (Microsoft, EA etc.)
Once they get control, they stop caring about helping the market/technology in the market, and just try to make loads of money, destroying anyone who tries to take some of that power away.
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On the other hand, Microsoft is what keeps Apple from destroying âopen-systemsâ, but with the direction Windows 8 is heading, who knows what will happenâŚ
(Personally I hope it all falls to pieces (due to developers not supporting a platform they canât use) and everyone ends up using Linux ;D)
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The only solution is indie developers.
They get one (or maybe a few) hit(s), things go forward, then they drop back and someone else picks it up.
EA have no control whatsoever. They are not gatekeepers; Valve are. This annoys EA a lot.
Cas
Yea, but google certainly isnât like this.
What control does EA have over anything? They have power over EA internal game studios and their publishing relationships with devs like Bungie⌠That level of power seems very modest.
EA only makes money on new games they create or games they help fund/create.
Valve rarely makes actual games and is now largely making money by charging rents on games from other developers.
The âinfluenceâ of such publishers (Iâm not targeting EA specifically, theyâre all just about the money) is quite profound, to gamers and game developers. Take Westwood as an example. Bought out, ordered to work on shady projects outside of their comfort zone, low success rate, closed as a result of it. I donât know about you, but the developers at Westwood lost their team and the gamers lost a quite profound and loved game development company and that hurts. I certainly shook my head when that happened. Eidos + Looking Glass Technologies, same thing really and that one hurt me because I adored all LGT games. Microsoft + Ensemble, etc. etc.
Thatâs why I fear a company like EA. They destroy good things through management decisions disregarding any sense.
That is true. However not every company has stock to buy, and a company makes a conscious decision to join the stock market.