Gaming retailers blackmailing Steam

Krieg

TL;DR : Gaming retailers in the UK are threatening publishers that if they place games on steam, then they wont stock any of their games and publishers are starting to give in. though it maybe the uk only and not Ireland


There was an article from last year about the gaming retailers threatening publishers that they will not stock games if they are placed on the steam store. Looks like it maybe in effect

http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1119494-Game-UK-Why%20-these-guys-are-ruining-your-consumer-experience-on-Steam-in-the-UK.

Since roughly March this year UK Gamers have noticed that many games on Steam are "not available in your region" and it's left many wondering why this is occuring. The first game to be officially affected by this was Brink (http://store.steampowered.com/app/22350/ ) including any DLC pages related to Brink. Thankfully thanks to a minor bug with Steam many PC users were still able to preorder Brink up until roughly two weeks before the games launch when Brink suddenly became unavailable with no response from Valve or Bethseda (as they were publishing it) as to why this was the case.

Some time around the start of this year Game started talking to multiple publishers regarding their games being on Steam. This was somewhat out of the blue and surprising however their Goal was effectively to gain some monopoly or power over Steam. Heck their message was a pretty straightforwards one. They basically want (at least) one month from release date where the game cannot be purchased by those in the UK on Steam.. And this applies to all games released by that publisher. This doesn't include the time the game is up for pre-order either. If the publisher doesn't agree to (what I presume is a bluff as other publishers haven't done this) then they'll supposedly refuse to stock and sell that publishers games via their stores.

What makes this worse is that UKers can't even place a pre-order on Steam for that game. We can only look at media related to the game (not including demos) only if they have their own pages.

Publishers that have agreed to this -
- THQ
- Bethseda

Currently affected titles I'm aware of -
- Skyrim

Games that have been affected by said actions -
- Brink (confirmed, one month)
- Red Faction: Armageddon (confirmed, unknown duration)
- Homefront (confirmed, unknown duration)
- Darksiders (confirmed, unknown duration)

Titles thought to have been affected but are currently unconfirmed -
- Metro 2033 (unconfirmed, unknown duration)

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/308337/bullying-retailers-reject-steam-enabled-pc-games/

Speaking in a fascinating new CVG interview on the subject of how Steam and digital distribution has helped 1C flourish, UK publishing director Darryl Still told us:

"Steam do not dictate at all. They are supremely easy to deal with and superbly competent at what they do.

"Their confidence in their offering, which pays no heed to any rival in-store activities, compares very favourably to that of the retail chains - who recently sent a command to publishers that if they include Steamworks in their title it will not be stocked. Those guys need to grow up, stop bullying, and focus their attentions on making their offerings as attractive as the people they are obviously looking over their shoulders in panic at."

This is quite rage worthy. I dont know if it affects Ireland or not, ill try some pre-orders and see what happens

Edit:

GAME in the uk have come out and said that they made no such demand. THQ, Bethesda and Valve have yet to comment

drunkmonkey

Rightly So, if the internet purchasing continues to grow and grow there won't be a shop in the country left, you'll be buying your fresh milk from amazon.
Internet is handy but it's wiping out shops left right and centre.
Steam has the potential along without other online services to wipe out game retailing, not sure if you'd like to see that happen but keep buying online and that's where it's heading.

gizmo

BUT...Game denies forcing games off UK Steam.

Helix

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Rightly So, if the internet purchasing continues to grow and grow there won't be a shop in the country left, you'll be buying your fresh milk from amazon.
Internet is handy but it's wiping out shops left right and centre.
Steam has the potential along without other online services to wipe out game retailing, not sure if you'd like to see that happen but keep buying online and that's where it's heading.

i couldn't care less if i buy online or in a shop once i get the best price

drunkmonkey

Helix wrote: »

i couldn't care less if i buy online or in a shop once i get the best price

You should. How many Jobs will Stem create in Ireland? Feck all, and they have the potential to wipe out thousands.

Krieg

gizmo wrote: »

BUT...Game denies forcing games off UK Steam.

Sorry your right, I edited my OP

Jelle1880

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Rightly So, if the internet purchasing continues to grow and grow there won't be a shop in the country left, you'll be buying your fresh milk from amazon.
Internet is handy but it's wiping out shops left right and centre.
Steam has the potential along without other online services to wipe out game retailing, not sure if you'd like to see that happen but keep buying online and that's where it's heading.

Maybe shops should stop charging ridiculous amounts then.
Now, I quite liked it in the ROI, regarding prices.

But I'm from Belgium, step into any big or medium retail store for a new game (no special editions etc.) and you could easily pay about 60-70 euro for a console game. Why would I go to the store then, when I can buy it online for half the price ?

Daniel S

drunkmonkey wrote: »

You should. How many Jobs will Stem create in Ireland? Feck all, and they have the potential to wipe out thousands.

Have you seen the amount of people doing media and game development at college? They're better off making the games, earning more money than working in GameStop which is hugely overpriced.

Varik

drunkmonkey wrote: »

You should. How many Jobs will Stem create in Ireland? Feck all, and they have the potential to wipe out thousands.

So it takes thousands of employees through out Ireland to deal with the 1 shelf PC games get nowadays. These shops have almost stopped providing for PC gamers so **** em.

Jelle1880

Varik wrote: »

So it takes thousands of employees through out Ireland to deal with the 1 shelf PC games get nowadays. These shops have almost stopped providing for PC gamers so **** em.

Totally forgot about that, makes perfect sense.
Maybe now they can actually get rid of PC games all together, since that's obviously what they want.

ShadowHearth

Right.... Like wtf! Go to any gamestop and check how many pc games take place on shop grounds! 1 shelf max! So wtf do I do then?

Why they are kicking pc gaming in balls again?! Console games still will be sold in shop, but if they don't sale pc games in shop, where the feck do I buy it?

We are talking about pc games, but they black mailing to not sale console games too... If developer would say: okay Fu then so, we will sale it the games with businesses who want make money.

Steam should get a lovely law suit on these blackmailing bastards.

gizmo

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Right.... Like wtf! Go to any gamestop and check how many pc games take place on shop grounds! 1 shelf max! So wtf do I do then?

Why they are kicking pc gaming in balls again?! Console games still will be sold in shop, but if they don't sale pc games in shop, where the feck do I buy it?

We are talking about pc games, but they black mailing to not sale console games too... If developer would say: okay Fu then so, we will sale it the games with businesses who want make money.

Steam should get a lovely law suit on these blackmailing bastards.

Assuming they are doing it then it's got nothing to do with the current state of PC games sales via their stores. The stakes they're playing for are the future of Digital Distribution, at least how they see them, which will revolve around services owned and operated by them.

This is somewhat similar to what happened recently in the US with Gamestop removing OnLive vouchers from Deus Ex on the PC. People were initially baffled until it was pointed out Gamestop had purchased both Spawn Lab and Impulse earlier in the year and clearly have plans for them in the future.

Knowing this, is it any wonder these retailers don't want Steamworks built into games or OnLive vouchers coming in boxed copies at retail?

Varik

Digital sales were meant to have surpassed retail so why if this is true (not the onlive thing) are developers choosing to sell through the means that made them less money.

jaykhunter

Fighting digital distribution is a losing battle. Look at the music industry. Look at the shelf space for CDs in HMV compared to 10 years ago! Eventually, the majority of all media content (videogames, TV and movies) will be done via digitally downloading.

It starts with downloading PC games but downloading onto consoles will continue to increase. Of course there'll always be a place for physical copies; but it's demand will increase with the reduced cost of cutting out the middle men from developer to customer - which unfortunately for them, includes brick-and-mortar stores.

that said, these stores have foregone PC gamers by in large, so it's hard to feel to bad for them, but this will spread.

It's hard to think of what GAME and other stores could do to combat this. They'd have to get together and make their own Netflix, or streaming service. But I can't see a (relatively) small company doing this. But who knows, they're in deep trouble. With advances in technology, which won't stop, they'll need to find alternate means to survive...

Notorious

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Right.... Like wtf! Go to any gamestop and check how many pc games take place on shop grounds! 1 shelf max! So wtf do I do then?

Get yourself to a Game store then. Our shop has a lot more than just one shelf and PC games are fairly cheap in-store compared to console games. Granted you're not going to get every game you could possibly want in stock, but at the moment we've got a decent selection.

There is quite possibly also a correlation between the lack of PC games bought in stores and the lack of stock in certain stores... You could look at that in two different ways; a lot of stores have f-all stock so they sell very little, or that not many people buy pc games in-store therefore there are never many ordered. In my opinion (based on what I've seen), it's more likely the latter. A prime example being Football Manager games. FM is always a big seller and as a result it's nearly always in stock.

Stev_o

Game retailers can go f*ck right off. Having had PC sections pushed into smaller corners and then moved to a temporary stand shows exactly what sort of support they have with their PC customers. Not to even mention the amount of PC games that don't even get brought in. Sure most of the shelfs in Game contain Norton Anti Virus (which appears on their Top 10) and Flight Sim terrain enhancements.

Notorious

Stev_o wrote: »

Sure most of the shelfs in Game contain Norton Anti Virus (which appears on their Top 10) and Flight Sim terrain enhancements.

No actually they don't even sell anti-virus software. I'm not trying to fight the companies corner here, PC isn't anywhere near as well supplied as any of the consoles, but it certainly isn't that bad.

Helix

drunkmonkey wrote: »

You should. How many Jobs will Stem create in Ireland? Feck all, and they have the potential to wipe out thousands.

i dont care how many jobs steam create in ireland

gizmo

jaykhunter wrote: »

It's hard to think of what GAME and other stores could do to combat this. They'd have to get together and make their own Netflix, or streaming service. But I can't see a (relatively) small company doing this. But who knows, they're in deep trouble. With advances in technology, which won't stop, they'll need to find alternate means to survive...

I assume you're not referring to GAME there since they're owned by Gamestop who are anything but small these days.

degrassinoel

drunkmonkey wrote: »

You should. How many Jobs will Stem create in Ireland? Feck all, and they have the potential to wipe out thousands.

Maybe irish retailers should drop their prices and make a larger selection of PC titles available in their stores rather than just a solitary rack of the top 10 games which are constantly sold out/missing or old, like WoW or worse.
Or perhaps they should avail of steams crappy pricing system and implement a proper digital download section to their own websites, that'd create a few jobs and earn them the few extra bob they're missing from the PC shelves, small as they are.

Stev_o

Notorious wrote: »

No actually they don't even sell anti-virus software. I'm not trying to fight the companies corner here, PC isn't anywhere near as well supplied as any of the consoles, but it certainly isn't that bad.

Iv seen them being sold in the PC section in Game in Liffey Valley and being number 10 on the Top10 list consistently.

Antar Bolaeisk

drunkmonkey wrote: »

You should. How many Jobs will Stem create in Ireland? Feck all, and they have the potential to wipe out thousands.

I would agree with this to a certain extent however, well before Steam, a lot of bricks and mortar retailers stopped stocking PC games. As it stands you'd be hard pressed to find a game shop that stocks anything other than World of Warcraft and the gazillion Sims expansions. They didn't want us and now they don't want anyone else to want us either.

Well, depending on whether this is true or not....

Icyseanfitz

until game retailers can be competitive price wise i dont give a flying F*** about them

Healium

gizmo wrote: »

I assume you're not referring to GAME there since they're owned by Gamestop who are anything but small these days.

I don't know where you pulled that one out of....

B0X

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

until game retailers can be competitive price wise i dont give a flying F*** about them

Steam isn't exactly competitive when you compare it's prices to the likes of Game or HMV. You can usually get a new PC game for €40 in a shop while it's €60 on steam.

Overheal

drunkmonkey wrote: »

You should. How many Jobs will Stem create in Ireland? Feck all, and they have the potential to wipe out thousands.

Did you know, that in most places know they have these things called Supermarkets? It's unreal. You don't even need a milkman anymore. Or a bakery. It's all like, right there. Even the meat! Imagine! I was, totally shocked, as you can imagine, to find this out. And then I went to pay for this in cash but there was no teller at the bank to deal with my transaction I was like but fortunately they have these things called ATMs now. Even some drive-thru ones you can use from the comfort of your car. Which incidentally, is barely made by hand these days.

Ok I'm done being facetious.

Jobs don't last forever. If Brick and Mortar shops can't innovate and embrace change and change with it: they will die out. As it is, Brick and Mortar has nothing to offer the PC space. Not really anyway. Unless you're buying Console Software, or Hardware, you can do everything online.

I mean seriously why do you think so many people in Ireland are accountants or CPU fabricators now and not working at a printing press?

gizmo wrote: »

People were initially baffled until it was pointed out Gamestop had purchased both Spawn Lab and Impulse earlier in the year and clearly have plans for them in the future.

Overheal

B0X wrote: »

Steam isn't exactly competitive when you compare it's prices to the likes of Game or HMV. You can usually get a new PC game for €40 in a shop while it's €60 on steam.

And I'm beginning to suspect the reason for that may very well have something to do with this situation: if games were cheaper on Steam, retailers would not carry them.

As it is if a retailer can't sell their units they sit on their shelf for the full cost they wound up as. You can still walk into some Gamestops and find games that have no business there, at prices they have no business being at. Because anything less and they may as well give them away: probably being sold at or below cost. Whereas in the online space the cost is a very fluid thing, so the likes of Steam can offer sick deals on games without I am sure, having to worry about those types of overhead for stale product.

Jelle1880

B0X wrote: »

Steam isn't exactly competitive when you compare it's prices to the likes of Game or HMV. You can usually get a new PC game for €40 in a shop while it's €60 on steam.

No game shop can compare to Steam's sales.
For brand new games I'd agree, but give it a few weeks and the price on Steam will drop drastically.

gizmo

Healium wrote: »

I don't know where you pulled that one out of....

Hmm, seems you're correct, I always assumed they were the same entity due to the EB Games connection. Turns out EB UK is a separate entity whose only lasting connection to their parent is that they pay a 1% sales royalty to EB in the US who are in turn owned by Gamestop.

the_syco

The game may be €10 dearer on Steam than in the shop, BUT AT LEAST I'LL GET THE F**KING GAME when it comes out, and not be told some bullsh|t about it not being in stock. And as said, the lack of new games in stores happened long before Steam appeared.

Healium

gizmo wrote: »

Hmm, seems you're correct, I always assumed they were the same entity due to the EB Games connection. Turns out EB UK is a separate entity whose only lasting connection to their parent is that they pay a 1% sales royalty to EB in the US who are in turn owned by Gamestop.

If GameStop and GAME join, we're all doomed.