Modern Warfare 2 Shunned by Several Digital Distributors Due to Steam 'Trojan Horse'

This is so stupid, I can't imagine what good these folks think will come of it. All they're doing is driving more customers to Steam. Whereas if they sold the darn game, they get to keep the revenue and Valve gets to deal with the activation and such.

Its not like Valve is sitting there hoping that MW2 causes them to have more Steam users when given the sheer number of Steam client installs already, my guess is that you'd be hard pressed to find more than a few gamers who didn't already own a Steam activated game.

This is just silly and they’re just shooting themselves in the foot. There are two sides to this. As someone who has games on Digital River, Steam, Gamers Gate, D2D, Game Streamer, Metaboli/GameTap, Real Netoworks (+700 affliliates) etc – but not Impulse (guess why that is), here is my take on what is really going on.

Publishers don’t have to us Steam for distribution. But if you want your games on their marketplace, you have to use it. This is no different from Microsoft enforcing Games For Windows compliance where you can pick and choose how far you want to go – though you have to be in some mandatory compliance regardless.

With Steam, all you need to have games on there, is to use their SteamWorks wrapper. You do NOT have to use their DRM (SteamWorks CEG) as that is optional – just like leaderboards, Stream Cloud, voice chat etc etc. You only have to use the Steamworks wrapper which is mandatory for the game to be authenticated, sales tracked etc. This is why you see some SecuROM games on Steam.

If you want to use the SteamWorks DRM (aka CEG), you have that option too. Must like all ther other SteamWorks stuff you get for free.

On Direct2Drive, Gamers Gate, Real Networks etc – you have a choice of which DRM scheme to use. The most popular being SecuROM. Though some Starforce, Tages and even SafeDisc games are on there. These publishers all have licensed (from Sony DADC, Starforce etc) backend which allows them to authenticate and generate serial numbers. They pay a per unit royalty to Sony, Starforce etc.

Impulse is similar – though imo is sub-par compared to the likes of integrated solutions like Steam, Metaboli/GameTap etc

ALL publishers who want their games on various sites, HAVE to adhere to the standards set by those publishers or they can’t (or won’t) carry your game. e.g. you can’t insist on using SecuRom on a publisher site that does not support it. You have to use what they support or your game won’t be sold there.

Steam games can be sold at ANY publisher site – even on retail discs. What makes this possible is that Valve generates the serial numbers for the product, then gives it to the developer who then hands it over to the publisher who adds it to their server backend so that each purchase is given a unique key. This is how come you see some Steam authenticated games on D2D. When the game is installed, the Steam client downloads it and asks for the key. In this case, the authentication is done by Steam servers, not – for e.g. Direct2Drive Sony DADC licensed servers.

Unlike Steam enabled games, you CANNOT sell ANY other DRM enabled game to other sites in this manner because they would have to setup their own authentication servers (e.g. SecuROM) or rely on a third-party (in this case then DRM developers) for authentication. Steam just makes is easy and seamless. Valve handles the authentication and auto-patching automatically.

So for baseline Steam use, you only have authentication and auto-patching. Here’s the really kewl thing. Since Steam has a FULL image of the game on their servers, if you wanted to sell direct, all you have to do is give out keys. The end user fires up the Steam client, enters the key and downloads the game. Directly from Valve. In fact, thats how we sell Steam versions of our games through BMT Micro (our store frontend) and Digital River. We populate the dB with keys and give out a Steam key with each purchase. If you have Steam installed, it is a no-brainer. If you don’t, you have a link (in the purchase email) showing you where to download the Steam client from. You install, enter key, download game.

Steam is by far the best scheme to date. And in this Shacknews post*, I explain in detail why Steam remains popular. And why some are rightfully jealous and/or worried.

This about face by Direct2Drive et al – while understandable – is foolish. If they sell a Steam game, THEY get the revenue. NOT Valve. What Valve gets is possibly a new Steam user. And this is just free advertising for them. And given that they have 20m+ Steam users, my guess is that only very few gamers out there don’t already have at least ONE Steam game already installed.

So all they’re doing is saying that they don’t want to continue to support Steam’s continued growth. Well gee, since the genie is out of the bottle, its kinda late for that.

But here is the kicker. With Steam, you get SO MUCH stuff – FOR FREE – that is not even funny. PLUS not only is it all trivial to implement, the royalties that Valve doles out to Steam publishers is on par with what these other sites give out. And THEY have NO added value whatsover – unlike Valve which gives you all this stuff and everything you need to be successful on the platform.

Which is why they’re all worried. They can’t undercut Steam – nor compete – in any, way, shape or form because they were all sleeping at the wheel. The only way they are going to compete is to provide a better service (lol!!), better pricing, games that you can’t get elsewhere. e.g. You can only get Stardock games on Impulse.

So this has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that they no longer want to help increase Steam’s client install base.

IF the publishers want to have their games on D2D, GG etc, they can do a SecuROM build. Obviously they see more value in a single solution (Steam) than in multiple solutions (ALL of which can be cracked on Day One and with ease). This is no different from e.g. Best Buy having the exclusive on something like Crime Craft. That can be either because Best Buy gave out concessions to have the game exclusively or because other retailers didn’t want to carry it.

My guess is that Activision is not going to cave in because while this is only news now, it has probably been brewing for awhile now. Both the online and retail versions of MW2 – like Valve’s own games as well as others (e.g. Killing Floor, Fear 2 etc) use Steam. My guess is that the combined sales of the game on these other services pales compared to Steam. So why bother with the extra work of having different DRM schemes?

From my perspective, the ONLY danger (and concern) that I have about Steam is that Valve gets to choose which games go on there. When you have situations like this MW2 thing happen, small devs like us can’t even pull a stunt like this because if we do – thus alienating our other partners – there is a chance that they won’t carry our games. And if Valve passes on publishing them, we’re farked. Thats the real concern that I see here regarding Steam. e.g. to have a game on D2D, GG etc – all I have to do is contact my a/c manager, give them the details etc. The game goes up.

With Valve, they are more of a traditional publisher in that they get to pick and choose which games they want on there and which they think would do well with their subscribers.

Is this wrong? tbh, I’m not so sure.

I personally ran into this issue a few months back because apparently Valve doesn’t feel that space games do well on the service. Its their service and I trust that they know it better than I do. So I left it at that. After all, my space games are sold everywhere else – so if someone wants those games bad enough, they know where to go. They don’t have to be on Steam to be sold nor to be successful. On Steam – despite their install base – you’re only as successful as your game. Just because its there doesn’t guarantee sucesss. Its not like we’re comparing Walmart to Best Buy which, in those two instances, takes volume into account. With ESD, you don’t have that luxury due to the type of goods being sold.

After all you either want 1000 games on Steam, with 50% crap or you want 500 games on there with 10% crap. Valve still has to foot the bill of those crap games and they don’t ask you the publisher for anything in return.

Unlike retail publishers who can pull non-performing products from the shelf, throw them in the bargin bin, return them to the publisher etc – while issuing chargebacks to the publisher – you can’t do any of that with ESD games. So once your game is on there, thats it. The distributors (e.g. Valve) has to hope that good, bad or ugly, the game sells enough for it to a) pay for the resources it is using up b) pay Valve for hosting it

And with Steam, you get world class tools, real-time reporting, an AMAZING publisher support staff etc.Apart from competent support staff (I can only speak for the services that sell my games), you get more – in terms of publishing tools and such – by going with Steam, than you do elsewhere. It is a one stop shop. And thats why it is powerful and popular all at once.

Think about this for a minute. Paradox Int. a publisher that also owns Gamers Gate. Yet, you can find Paradox games at all the competing sites – including Steam. Same with the likes of EA, Atari etc. Guess why that is.

So them not carrying MW2 because of the Steam client is akin to biting your nose to spite your face. At the end of the day, you lose. And its not even about competition because, quite frankly, none of them have anything to compete with the VAS that Steam offers developers.

Disclaimer: My games on all these services, use different DRM schemes – and so, no Steam. Only our games sold on Steam and through our own web store (powered by BMT Micro and Digital River – who don’t give a rat’s ass either way – as well as the upcoming retail releases) use the Steam version. I’m not stupid. :)

* http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=21097820#itemanchor_21097820