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Originally Posted by crossi
And you say it is popular, but do people like it or is it the only choice to get the games they want so they put up with it? You could only say it is popular if people were offered the same game in Steam and No-Steam versions and they could choose.
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That is often the case, actually. A lot of games are available in more than one digital store, and as retail as well. As far as I know, only Valve's games are exclusive to Steam.
I do dislike when other game developers force me to use Steam for DRM (Skyrim, Fallout New Vegas, Civ V), even if I bought the game somewhere else. I really do like Steam a lot, but it should be my choice, not forced on me.
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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
"Unfair" advantage? Being aware of customer preferences and putting effort towards maintaining a good relationship with them is an "unfair" advantage?
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I was being facetious. I'm trying to cut back on my smiley-addiction, but obviously I should have added one. My mistake. And I'm fairly sure Microsoft and EA think it's a very unfair advantage, since their own DD clients/services are not doing nearly as well Steam is. And that is obviously all Valve's fault, since neither of the other two can ever do anything wrong.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Or, of course, they could sell the lower-price books at their publisher site. If they can't draw customers to their own site, that's a failure in their marketing department, not an advantage that Valve has.
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In fairness, Valve forces you to run the Steam client, which means they never have to get you to their website. The news feed, sales, community features, and store, are all right there in the client.