the death of steam?

[moj]

Is steam going down? It seem like all the high end games are coupling or doing it themselves. I honestly have not used it in a long time. It had a great run but seems to me it's going to slip away. I think they really shot themselves in foot and squandered a real lead on the market. Valve use to make great games then the started messing with hardware and trying to cut out Microsoft.  I think they would have been so much better served had they just focused on games, and cloud gaming/hosting. They had all this potential and then just kinda stalled and lost momentum now all the big players are pulling out and doing it themselves. Will steam just be a for small and indie games? That might not be bad, but kinda sad considering how ahead they once where.

[Captain Video]

I don't think so but all the games I like to play are on there.

It seems to me a few popular 1st person shooters are on other services but what else?  I cant think of anything high end except Sims 4 on origin.

Also the Vive blows all other VR away in my opinion so steam is needed.

[Ah.hell]

I hope not, all of my games are on steam, granted, I haven't bought a new game in years. 

[moj]

Epic, Bethesda, Electronic arts, blizzard all push there own games out with our own digital distribution now. There is no reason for any of them to continue to work with steam. There was a time when it made sense for them but now the cat is out of the bag. Its everyone for themselves or making deals like bugle is with blizzard where they do distribute instead of steam.

[wastrel]

Epic, Bethesda, Electronic arts, blizzard all push there own games out with our own digital distribution now. There is no reason for any of them to continue to work with steam. There was a time when it made sense for them but now the cat is out of the bag. Its everyone for themselves or making deals like bugle is with blizzard where they do distribute instead of steam.

Triple A games can go suck a dick, I hate their shitty distribution platforms and use them only when I am forced to.  Steam DRM sucks, but apart from that they have given indie developers the capability of wide distribution, and I don't see that going away any time soon.

[Rai]

Epic, Bethesda, Electronic arts, blizzard all push there own games out with our own digital distribution now. There is no reason for any of them to continue to work with steam. There was a time when it made sense for them but now the cat is out of the bag. Its everyone for themselves or making deals like bugle is with blizzard where they do distribute instead of steam.

Triple A games can go suck a dick, I hate their shitty distribution platforms and use them only when I am forced to.  Steam DRM sucks, but apart from that they have given indie developers the capability of wide distribution, and I don't see that going away any time soon.

This.

Also, Steam competitors from AAA studios are rubbish. No-one will ever have Origin, Uplay, Bethesda.net, etc. as their main source of PC games, and even the publishers know it, that is why these clients are parasitic organisms that cling to your Steam purchase from the studio.

The future is indie and half-indie, and Steam remains the best platform for that (if you ignore the frauds and asset flippers that infest the service). The big studios are going down the drain with their gambling-infested repetitive releases anyway.

[Captain Video]

There are no "new" games on EAs origin that I would want to play other than Sims but that is so expensive with all the expansions that I will never give the greedy company any money for it.  They do have some older game licences which are still fun to play like Command and Conquer.

Likewise with blizzard

Bethesdas recent game fallout 76 is dedicated to consoles and they do have their own system for Elder scrolls online but I doubt any future PC releases would exclude steam. That is where their base lives.  Has anyone heard any different?

[moj]

I haven't heard anything different, just wanted to see others perspective on what I noticed. Admittedly I play a lot less PC games then I once did but seems like steam is loosing steam  fading in need and innovation. Back in the day it was all I thought I needed gaming wise.  Now its not even getting all the newest games. Team fortress 2 was my fav and played hundreds of hours. It was great but then became an early adopter to in game microtransations. Fucking keys and creates where you have to spend real money on the keys...Over watch has become my new TF2. I prefer the merit based loot creates, you win a few rounds you get a create, I'm cool with that, no extra money required. Valve has not created a new game since 2013 I guess I'm just lamenting how they use to have such a dominant position and seem to have squandered it.

[Sawyer]

Epic, Bethesda, Electronic arts, blizzard all push there own games out with our own digital distribution now. There is no reason for any of them to continue to work with steam. There was a time when it made sense for them but now the cat is out of the bag. Its everyone for themselves or making deals like bugle is with blizzard where they do distribute instead of steam.

I don't know how big the market of "mildly OCD gamers that feel warm and fuzzy when all of their games are listed in a single distribution platform" is, but I'm pretty sure it's not zero (ie, I am in that group).  Seems silly that large companies would squander a reliable distribution system, especially considering the massive amount of negative PR every one of those companies you listed has gotten for "doing things their own way" over the past few years.

[moj]

Here are a couple of articles I found

from August 18 but still relavant

https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/27/17785946/steam-usage-fallout-fortnite-amazon

From jan19
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-07-31-steam-users-on-the-decline-in-2018

It's normal for Steam to see a bit of a decline in its users over the summer, but this summer has seen a surprising drop-off. Both the number of players running Steam on machines and share of those actively playing games on Steam has been on a uniquely steep decline since January 2018.

Steam Spy noted the dip on its Twitter account, taking data from SteamDB. The graph shows that though Steam saw its highest active user count over the recorded three-year period peak at 18.5 million in January of this year, the drop-off since has been substantial. In the last seven days, peak active user count was around 15 million.

The Steam Spy tweet additionally noted a drop in the share of active users playing a game at a given time over the same period, from 38% of active users to 31%.

The January surge and subsequent drop may be attributable in part to PUBG's full launch in December of last year boosting the numbers higher than normal. PUBG's player count drop since January accounts for around 2 million, nearing half of the total player loss across Steam. Whether those players are simply going on vacation or heading to Fortnite (which has its own launcher) is unknown.

I don't want steam to end. I've loved and used them for a long, long time. Not mentioned but also wonder how much people gaming on mobile is eating into it? Are people spending more times gaming on phones and tablets that a PC? I do, I still like PC gaming and don't think mobile is ready to take over but in combination with everything else could help lead to its down fall. I hope I'm wrong, I hope it prevails. I just think it could do more to get in front of things and miss when it made its own great games. Maybe they should have spun off Valve in 2013 to just focus on making a never ending supply portal/tf2 and half life games?

[Guillermo]

Maybe if steam does very poorly, Valve would consider making HalfLife 3 to earn a living.

[The Latinist]

Steam has been great about supporting the Linux desktop community (and contributing its code upstream to Linux, as well) as well as the MacOS gaming community, with their latest efforts bringing literally thousands of new games to Linux. I do not have confidence that any of the new distribution platforms will put similar effort into bringing Triple-A titles to Linux.

[moj]

https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/15/ubisoft-steam-epic-division-two-sales/

Ubisoft recently became the latest big gun to challenge Stream's status quo by jumping ship to the Epic Games Store. And it claims the decision has already paid off by diverting more players to its Uplay portal, where they purchased even more copies of The Division 2. Pre-orders for the sequel are higher than the original overall, and "six-times higher" on the Ubisoft store, noted Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in yesterday's earnings call (per Rock, Paper, Shotgun).

"With this deal, we saw an opportunity to increase player exposure to our own store while at the same time supporting a partner that greatly values our games and provides better terms," said Guillemot. "Early indications are supportive, as PC pre-orders are higher than for the first Division, and pre-orders on the Ubisoft store are six times higher. We believe this deal is a long-term positive for Ubisoft."

It's clear who Guillemot is subtweeting in that statement. And the spike in sales is a notable side-effect of its shift to Epic's store that could cause more upheaval in the industry. Of course, Epic's chief selling point is a higher revenue share than most of its competitors, which sees it take a 12 percent cut of sales, with devs pocketing 88 percent.

As part of its Ubisoft deal, Epic also promised to integrate "key components" of Uplay with its online services to offer smoother social features and interoperability. That mix of higher profits and a willingness to provide compatibility with third-party platforms was always going to be a big draw for publishers. And now that Ubisoft is touting a concrete sales boost, they may not need much more convincing to leave the safety of Steam.

[Sawyer]

https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/15/ubisoft-steam-epic-division-two-sales/

Ubisoft recently became the latest big gun to challenge Stream's status quo by jumping ship to the Epic Games Store. And it claims the decision has already paid off by diverting more players to its Uplay portal, where they purchased even more copies of The Division 2. Pre-orders for the sequel are higher than the original overall, and "six-times higher" on the Ubisoft store, noted Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in yesterday's earnings call (per Rock, Paper, Shotgun).

"With this deal, we saw an opportunity to increase player exposure to our own store while at the same time supporting a partner that greatly values our games and provides better terms," said Guillemot. "Early indications are supportive, as PC pre-orders are higher than for the first Division, and pre-orders on the Ubisoft store are six times higher. We believe this deal is a long-term positive for Ubisoft."

It's clear who Guillemot is subtweeting in that statement. And the spike in sales is a notable side-effect of its shift to Epic's store that could cause more upheaval in the industry. Of course, Epic's chief selling point is a higher revenue share than most of its competitors, which sees it take a 12 percent cut of sales, with devs pocketing 88 percent.

As part of its Ubisoft deal, Epic also promised to integrate "key components" of Uplay with its online services to offer smoother social features and interoperability. That mix of higher profits and a willingness to provide compatibility with third-party platforms was always going to be a big draw for publishers. And now that Ubisoft is touting a concrete sales boost, they may not need much more convincing to leave the safety of Steam.

Uh .... why?  Does the Epic Games Store come with a free hooker?

[moj]

Its cause all the young people are on epic because of fortnight?

Here is a good article about linux gaming and how epic is going after that to. I won't quote the whole thing, it's long but worth the read. Steam should be very worried. Epic is offering dev's a much greater cut at 88% instead of 70% of sales. That will cause a lot of dev's to jump.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/19/linux-gaming-steam-valve-epic-games-store/