The Valve Solution?

[Ronin Storm]

Valve claim that by achieving simultaneous release in multiple countries they substantially reduce piracy for their products.

Moreover, they claim that by releasing more content for their games for free that they see sales spikes across multiple games rather than serving just a single one for an audience interested in micro-payments.

The language that Valve's Jason Holtman uses is undeniably marketing but he presumably can't be making these sorts of claims without some ground in reality. Certainly, I find myself hoping that Valve's view of the world is accurate and that we continue to get new content for free because the developer/publisher knows they create new sales of old products as a result.

That and I do think that having games downloadable over Steam for competitive prices does encourage me to buy over Steam and not seek alternative sources (legal or otherwise).

Freetards aside ('cause nothing we do is going to encourage them to pay), do you think he has a fair point or is the future of gaming really in micro-payments and/or subscriptions?

(Source: Eurogamer; Original Source: Game Daily)

 

[thatbloke]

I think one of the main reasons for piracy as a whole, particularly in Europe is that we are always the last to get it. Some items (games, movies, TV, etc.) have massive differences in their release dates between Europe and America/Japan/Australia and there is absolutely NO REASON for it whatsoever. One of the main culprits for this is Rock Band - it pissed me off quite royally that Americans had it SIX MONTHS before we did, and for what?

It is similar with movies. Why o why is it that movies come out in America first? What is the reason? You then need to consider how long it takes for said movie to be available in what is considered a "legal" format on DVD.

The same with TV. Potentially MONTHS before its shown on TV over here. If Media companies in general weren't so bloody uptight about having their media available for everyone to experience straight away they would likely see more sales and less piracy ("why buy it when I already have it pirated???" as opposed to "oooh there is a new game out let me buy it").

There will always be a hardcore of people who will just never buy anything they can get on the net for "free" and they are the real culprits, not the people who just wnat to play/watch/whatever the game or movie that America seems to have but the rest of the world doesn't.


PS: Don't even get me started on US/Japan Only releases.

 

[Nanor]

Look at the way World of Warcraft works. They release content patches every now and again and it's the top dog when it comes to MMOs. It will be interesting to see how the new Star Wars MMO will fare against it seeing as it's transaction based.

I could also go into other reasons why people pirate but this sums it up quite well.

Valve certainly have their fingers on the pulse, that's for sure. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Also, is it relatively hard to pirate games that require Steam to run or just as easy as a game that requires no software?

 

[Traxata]

Valve claim that by achieving simultaneous release in multiple countries they substantially reduce piracy for their products.

Can I point out we had to wait for Far Cry 2 to be released in europe, two weeks after it was available in Northern America, and so far, the same is happening with Mirror's Edge. It's been released here on DVD. but Valve still have on their site, "will be available in other regions soon"...

For some older games, I find steam easier to use, but for new titles it's far easier for me to go out to a shop and buy them (they're also cheaper too)

 

[Nanor]

Yes, because Valve developed and published Mirror's Edge and Far Cry 2, Trax.

 

[Traxata]

Yes, because Valve developed and published Mirror's Edge and Far Cry 2, Trax.

They're distributing it Nanor, and there's really no valid reason why they've decided we, in europe, have to wait for them to release it on their service, considering Ubisoft, and EA had/have both, released their games on the DVD format, rather than the digital distribution service. In fact I can go on the EA store, and download Mirror's Edge on there...

 

[BiG D]

Trax. Read your last sentence again, then spend a minute or two thinking about why EA might delay the Steam release a bit.

 

[Traxata]

It's already available in Northern America!, why do we have to wait longer in Europe, when they've already released it on other mediums?

 

[BiG D]

Because it was available in America on those other mediums earlier?

 

[Traxata]

Because it was available in America on those other mediums earlier?

Not by as much as Steam.

Release date(s)

PS3 & Xbox 360
November 12, 2008
November 13, 2008
November 14, 2008
Microsoft Windows
January 13, 2009
January 16, 2009
January 16, 2009

(for release date's its accurate )

 

[Tempscire]

Ah game theory, delicious delicious game theory. My understanding is that, especially for the big games, the game companies like to make sure they have a firm advertising base for each new release in each territory that they're selling it. They sort of like to make sure they have the home territory covered in terms of advertising before moving onto the next one. Mind you I don't think they're keeping up with the times there at all, as most games advertising goes on online now which is, of course, global by its very nature.

I also don't really understand why the advertising thing has to be an impediment. Why don't they release the games at the same time and then start advertising. I doubt it's going to hurt sales if you have to start advertising before the games come out.

Anyway, back to the Steam issue. I think having a centralised distribution hub for all my games is an excellent idea. The platform itslef is sometimes rather flawed (as I saw tonight with the authentication servers going down every 5 minutes ) but the concept is sound. Having a large selection of games at competitive prices, a system that allows me to see what friends are playing and jump in at any time, and a policy of only having to pay once for a game is a policy that's going to see Valve getting stronger and stronger.