The Game Will Be Released at 5 PM UTC

[Grogg]

Haha, last 3 hours of work will be hell!

[Mameluk]

The Witcher 2? Don't make me laugh. That game was going to succeed whether on steam or not. I got my copy from GoG because it was soooooo much cheaper for me.

Why don't you read this before making such comments?

Visionary's, programmers and artists kept PC gaming alive. Doom had people updating their computers , the few great games made over the years had people buy themselves a PC.

What has suffocated PC gaming near to death, was over aggressive DRM. Now, thankfully all that rubbish is near enough behind us.
Steam had nothing to do with the success of pc gaming, its a fast food outlet for games, nothing more. There are plenty of outlets, to rival steam and actually offer a better and cheaper service.

You have no evidence backing your claim.

The undeniable fact is that Steam owns a ridiculously large share of the digital markets. It makes more profit than all the other distributors combined.

Anyway, digital distribution in general is an excellent opportunity for starting indie game companies such as Almost Human. It's cheap 'n' easy, and you still get a large share of the profit. Steam is pretty much a surefire way to make your game sell well. There's no reason to hate them for that.

SpoilerShow

This is indeed quite off-topic. But we do need something to blow off the stress with.

[telgor]

Not going to get involved in the debate, but you all have valid points. You guys should read this.

[EtrianO]

Steam Shmream. Like most "if not for X we wouldn`t have Y" arguments it doesn`t make sense. Do you have a time machine to predict what would happen without it? I`d say digital distribution would take off anyway -what`s wrong with people selling games from their own servers, with word spread through news outlets? Nothing.
What`s wrong with indie shops selling indie games? Nothing either.

But hey...it`s so convenient. And these sales. Well convenience can be another word for laziness, and these sales - great but also the same like any other sales - on impulse, often unnecessary. Forums are littered with "jeez my backlog`s so huge i`ll never play these games" kinda posts ...and yet..you..have to...it`s so cheap...arrghhhh.

Steam is a TESCO/Walmart of gaming unfortunately - stupid, unnecessary DRM in the shop - but okay, I could live with that since you have to be online to buy anyway - and downward vicious & nasty Steamworks on boxed games. Now this, is criminal. It makes retail games exclusive to people with internet connection - how can that be a good thing?
The fact that it has the largest share of the market is a plus? Lol, it`s just another monopoly, with all its pitfalls. And I`m supposed to believe it saved PC gaming from "dying"? The very "dying" that was always a myth anyway, propagated by journos and big game publishers? Please.

And so on - it`s preaching to the converted of course, but hey.

[Karkarov]

And so on - it`s preaching to the converted of course, but hey.

Not really. I absolutely hate everything Steam represents. The only time I ever get a game on it is when A: It is required to play the game (thanks Bethesda), or B: It was the only digital distributor I could find that sold a game I wanted for a sane price. You think that might mean I buy alot of steam games what with their awesome sales, and you would think wrong. Most of the games they have on sale frankly aren't normally great games to begin with, are downright old, or are games that massively underperformed at full retail (bulletstorm anyone?). All three things lead to games you can normally find at other online distributors for the same or near same price minus the drm.