Shops slam Steam "monopoly"

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 11 November, 2010

"Publishers are creating a monster."

At least two "major" shops will demand publishers remove Steam functionality from PC games, a new report claims.

If publishers refuse, those retailers will not sell PC games with Steam integration at all.

"Key retailers" fear Valve's digital service has a "monopoly" on the download market, according to MCV.

Sources claimed Steam serves 80 per cent of the PC download sector, and shops are worried that selling games with Steam tech built-in pushes users towards only buying games through Valve.

"If we have a digital service, then I don't want to start selling a rival in-store," the digital boss at one of the biggest UK games retailers told MCV.

"Publishers are creating a monster – we are telling suppliers to stop using Steam in their games."

More than 30 million people have Steam accounts, according to Valve.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (81) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • Subi #1 2 years ago

    Heh, I've been looking forward to this battle for quite some time. Any guesses as to when the tit-for-tat about second hand games is going to start?

  • charming_fox #2 2 years ago

    Since when do high-street retailers give a flying shit about the PC gaming market? Last time I checked you have to sneak into a back room like some kind of pervert to paw through their overpriced selection of turds.

  • Bagpuss #3 2 years ago

    "If publishers refuse, those retailers will not sell PC games with Steam integration at all. "


    What you mean all 2 shops in the UK who still pay more than lip service to retail boxed PC games in their stores?.....

    The reason steam is now so successful is because the shops stopped stocking PC games and sold their souls to kiddy console la-la land years ago.

  • McBradders #4 2 years ago

    I wonder if publishers will be all "Yeah laters retailers" thus enabling a more competitive day 1 digital pricepoint on Steam?

    This is your reward for not caring about PC Gaming outside of the Sims, retail!

  • dsmx #5 2 years ago

    How is it a monopoly? Steam lets you buy the game in any store and just add the key on the store.

    Having been in places like MCV, Game and the like publishers are just going to say "go ahead, make my day" because the amount of shelf space that those stores gives PC games is pathetic at best, in fact tesco offer the best selection of PC games in my local area as they get the same shelf space as any of the consoles.

  • Lord_Gremlin #6 2 years ago

    Look, Steam dominates PC gaming, live with that. I have steam and buy from it, 30 millions have steam, there is no going back. Fat Gabe is the King of PC gaming, face it.
    It's not a monster... Yesterday I've bought Day of Defeat Source for $2.50. It's almost like getting a free game.

  • StolenGlory #7 2 years ago

    Hey, I like this monster.

    Leave him alone you sour twats.

  • MrFlump #8 2 years ago

    I was in Gamestation during my lunch hour today and i'd say 95% of the content in the store was console based. There is a little section in the back tucked out of the way which basically has a load of older games there.

    High street retailers don't give the PC as much love as it gets online. The trade in culture has changed the approach in the high street. With services like steam it's all about the PC. Valve provided so many extra features like the steamworks integration and friends chat that the value of the service is a lot more than encountering some spotty teenager who's been told what the latest thing to try and presale is.

    My only real involvement now with retail stores is to buy consoles and pick up the occasional game in the sales and even then, its only for console now. They can't have it both ways...

  • the_inchworm #9 2 years ago

    Stores can get bent on this one. When Steam was new, they didn't want to know. Now it's been successful and they are trying to close the stable door after the horse has bolted. No sale!

  • MiniAmin #10 2 years ago

    Retailers created this "monster" by removing PC games from general sale as soon as they realised they couldn't resell preowned copies.

    Why the fuck are they complaining anyway? Are there even PC sections in gaming shops anymore? This isn't being said due to some altruistic desire to prohibit a monopoly; it's merely a selfish desire to retain control.

  • mkreku #11 2 years ago

    As long as Steam keeps up the $=€ conversion rates, I don't want a Steam monopoly either.

  • IronCladChicken #12 2 years ago

    'Steam serves 80 per cent of the PC download sector'
    So... That's 80% not being accounted for when PC sales are tallied?

  • TeaFiend #13 2 years ago

    Oh noes! Competition!

  • Lord_Gremlin #14 2 years ago

    @mkreku: Sure, you've got a point. But remember this: everybody does the same. Look at prices in PSN, XBLA, look at prices of retail games for all platforms. The sad $=€ shit is everywhere.
    The only exception is gog.com. Which I do use, but they sell only old classic games.

  • Hermiod #15 2 years ago

    Since when did bricks and mortar games stores start caring about PC games again anyway ?

    All they care about is buying and selling used games.

  • sneetch #16 2 years ago

    @mkreku
    As long as Steam keeps up the $=€ conversion rates, I don't want a Steam monopoly either.

    Publishers set the prices, Steam does not, so it's the publishers who use $=€ conversion rates. That's also how you know it's not a monopoly btw, because Steam don't control things like setting the prices.

    If they did Valve would sell the games cheaper than the B&M stores do, look at their track record with their own games.

    Edit: Yeah that's it, anonymous negger, neg away, you can't neg away the truth! Well, you obviously can. ;)
    Edited by sneetch at 11/11/10 @ 15:38

  • bratmandu #17 2 years ago

    Translation: "WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

  • LazyDan #18 2 years ago

    The world's moving on - just as no one buys film for their cameras anymore, people are finding downloading games online a much simpler and more sensible experience than going through installation and putting up with invasive anti-piracy software. It's really their own fault that none of them were progressive enough to offer their own online platform. It's only a matter of time until the online-distribution platform grows to such a level where a major publisher will decide they're not interested in retail anymore and start offering extremely competitive prices for their titles online.

    You can't stop the world from turning, either adapt or die - just look at Blockbuster's current state of affairs in the face of Lovefilm/Netflix.

  • bratmandu #19 2 years ago

    Seriously, the sooner I don't have to put up with some moron clueless game or gamestop employee asking me if i need anything every 6 seconds the better. If they could answer basic questions like "Why is the pre-owned version of gameX more expensive than the new version of the same game?" then I'd have some sympathy, but no, fuck em - let them die!

  • hello_fi #20 2 years ago

    Woah, woah, woah! Hold up a second!

    You mean to tell me that there are some PC gamers who brave the outside confines of their parent's basement, to walk out of the front door, shielding their eyes from the harshness of natural light with one hand while brushing Doritos' crumbs from their ill-fitting Deadpool T-shirt with the other, and walk to their nearest computer games retailer (pausing every ten steps to catch their breath after the physical exertion of moving their gigantic frame), arriving hours later to waddle to the counter clutching the latest MMORPG in their spunk-encrusted hands?

    I thought all these nerds just downloaded the games straight to their computer on their mother's credit card while bellowing "Mom! Bring some more Dr Pepper to The Fortress Of Solitude, and change my poop sock while you're down here!"

  • FogHeart #21 2 years ago

    Hang on, gents, I want to quote the article:-

    "If we have a digital service, then I don't want to start selling a rival in-store."

    So a shop is saying that if they ever start their own download service, then their shops would be selling games which install a rival download service...you can see how that's going to lose them money. They can mouth off about that but can't really change it.

    Is Valve guilty of anti-competitive behaviour then? Maybe...buy a Valve game, then you must install Steam, another product in their portfolio. Just like buy an iPod, install iTunes, buy stuff from Apple. Or buy Windows, use Internet Explorer. The major difference is, in the latter two cases a company is using the leverage of a popular product to get their customers to use an inferior one. While, bless 'em, Valve don't see their monopoly of the download games market as a reason to slack off in Steam's development, support or performance. Hope it remains so.

  • sneetch #22 2 years ago

    Thanks for another wonderful contribution hello_fi. Your trolling attempts are legendary 'round here.

  • arcam #23 2 years ago

    @hello-fi

    Wrong country mate, we don't have many Moms or basements or Deadpool fans.

    The waddling fat boys covered in corn chips just sounds like you are describing your fellow countrymen I'm afraid, not PC gamers in particular ;)
    Edited by arcam at 11/11/10 @ 15:51

  • ManicDrunkMonk #24 2 years ago

    I suspect the bundling if software might get the attention of financial authorities at some point much like Microsofts inclusion of IE with Windows.

    Bricks and Mortar retailers are bound to lose out eventually though.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #25 2 years ago

    So stop selling those games then. Although I wonder how much those shops will like it if they are getting no sales at all compared to the ones they are getting now. Sure, they might not sell as much as they used to but making at least some money has to be better than making none at all?

  • Zephro #26 2 years ago

    Ha, which retailer is doing it's competitor to Steam? Fine maybe a competitor in terms of sales but can you really see Game/Gamestation/HMV etc providing game servers, achievements, friends networks, messages, cloud saves?

    Retail dropped the ball years ago with PC and PC needs a platform defender like Steam to provide consistent online services like cloud saves across different games.

  • paulf #27 2 years ago

    not as much as a monopoly as the xbox or ps3 where there are no other alternatives available

  • Perfecto #28 2 years ago

    The sooner GAME go out of business the sooner we can get on with our lives and forget they ever exsisted. A Steam only future is a bright future in my book.

  • thefold #29 2 years ago

    The last PC game I bought at retail was Starcraft 2 and that was only because it was £10 cheaper than buying on Battle.net and it wasn't on Steam.

    GAME's PC selection is pants anyway.

  • retr0gamer #30 2 years ago

    Always by my games boxed since the steam prices are silly. Also get them online because high street stores are stupidly expensive. These guys are just jealous they didn't think of it before valve.
    Edited by retr0gamer at 11/11/10 @ 16:01

  • arcam #31 2 years ago

    For too long people have given the excuse that download prices are artificially high because the don't want to piss off the retailers by undercutting them

    I have my doubts about that theory, but lets call their bluff. Whether it makes any difference or not, I won't miss them. They've done nothing for PC gaming for years, so I see no reason to give them a say in its future.

  • munki83 #32 2 years ago

    This is a desperate move from the retailers. The PC sections for games in Glasgow tend to be smaller or about the same size as the playstation 2 section and the selection is rubbish. If I want a PC game I go online to either amazon, play or steam. Im sure the majority of pc game sales in B&M stores come from the sims and football manager and I'm sure they wont stop selling football manger in shops despite their claims.

  • IronCladChicken #33 2 years ago

    @retr0gamer
    But Steams weekly offers are often pretty sweet!

  • bad09 #34 2 years ago

    Ah screw retail I can hardly buy any PC in the high street.

    Although....I've said before I have come to mistrust Steam of late as offline is not 100% and can fail you leaving you locked out of installed and activated games. I in no way want Steam intergration in all my games. I am branching out in terms of DD sites and going back to boxed for new retail and waiting for MS to dazzle me with the new Marketplace.

  • arcam #35 2 years ago

    I am branching out in terms of DD sites and going back to boxed for new retail and waiting for MS to dazzle me with the new Marketplace.

    A nice example of why Steam is not a monopoly anyway.

  • borkedconsole #36 2 years ago

    Steamworks only games are a detriment to people who want to play the games but do not want to install the Steam DRM on their PCs to do so.

  • GooseUK #37 2 years ago

    I'm sure the publishers will be like " Well there's still the other stores, supermarkets and oh yeah STEAM... Fuck them!"

  • Seoh #38 2 years ago

    Steam is almost single handedly saving PC gaming (non mmo PC gaming).

    HMV, Game, Gamestation all don't give a crap about PC games as they can't resell them due to DRM and with EA's $10 club maybe the same will happen to console games too.

  • MisterHands #39 2 years ago

    Steam isn't a monster, it's a giant. A big, friendly giant. A BFG. And what acronym is more synonymous with PC gaming than BFG?

  • Bleh #40 2 years ago

    I know a lot of people like steam but I hate it. So hopefully the shops win this battle :p.

  • darleysam #41 2 years ago

    That's cool GAME, we weren't going to buy from you anyway, considering how you stock about 5 titles at the back of the shop.
    Edited by darleysam at 11/11/10 @ 17:00

  • ouchio #42 2 years ago

    Steam is the Digital download service that I like and trust more than any of the others. I trust them more than I do XBL or PSN. I hope Steam is the way of the future and that the glorified pawn shops on the high street die a painful death. It willl happen , they know it and I know it. AND GOD KNOWS IT.
    Edited by ouchio at 11/11/10 @ 17:06

  • glottis0 #43 2 years ago

    GAME and HMV can fuck off. Last time I bought a game from Steam it didn't:
    - Ask me a bunch of stupid questions.
    - Try to recommend me a shit mainstream alternative with a condescending wink.
    - Berate me for not preordering, pointing out that I could've got an extra hat for some auxiliary character. "Oh great, I'll just go the fuck back in time and do that then."
    - Try to push a pre-owned version of the same game on me.
    - Make me leave my chair to buy stuff.

    GAME employees do these things frequently.

  • Ryboy #44 2 years ago

    So, like the Microsoft bollocks before this, you're pissed off that Valve thought of an amazing idea before you.

    Wow. What a huge cunt you are.

  • Haue #45 2 years ago

    Well I kinda agree with the retailers here. If there is no competition, the publishers can put any price on the game.
    I don't mind having to install the game via Steam, but I prefer to buy my games at my local Gamestop, they have a decent selection of the games I want to play.

  • Spekingur #46 2 years ago

    It is only a "monopoly" if games on Steam are cheaper than in the retail shops!

  • drxym #47 2 years ago

    Steam isn't a monopoly but its well on its way to becoming one. The service is sticky so the more games you buy on it, the less likely you are to switch to another service. Doing so would mean losing games, or having to run two clients which is a pain in itself.

    The fundamental problem I see is that Steam the store is tied to Steam the platform. If Valve licenced Steam the platform so that anyone be they Amazon, GAME, Play.com, Walmart etc. could sell games from their own site for their own prices (i.e. true competition), but using the Steam platform, then I don't think there would be so much fuss. That is assuming stores were free to purchase game licences for a "wholesale" price and sell them for whatever they thought they were worth retail. i.e. none of the scummy price fixing / setting we've seen in the digital domain so far. Valve would still make money by virtue of charging a couple of bucks to the vendor for the download bandwidth & services the platform.

    And if Valve don't do this then I sure as hell hope the industry rallies around another platform to do the same. Impulse or Games for Windows for example both could be repurposed to support this. Monopolies are not healthy and frankly Steam is a very expensive service as-is. If you think it's bad now, just imagine what it will be like if there are no competitors at all.
    Edited by drxym at 11/11/10 @ 17:28

  • Sharzam #48 2 years ago

    Well if retail shops actually sold good pc games and the ones that do should actually price decently. Although saying that i guess they cant compete with weekend deals but there not normally chart titles and that's all retail care about anyway.

  • IkariW #49 2 years ago

    All I can say, is they'd better get used to it pretty quickly!
    So it won't be just PC games that are being sold digitally... console games are going to go the same way in my opinion, once BB is up to the job for the majority. You can almost see Xbox live, for instance, taking on the Steam business model, its not a million miles away now!

    Retail have made far too much money out of the industry to start complaining now.
    They are just scared that their little 'pre-owned' cash cow will soon disappear. Sooner the better I say, so a bigger share of the profits go to the creative people behind the games, more games get made, and less Devs get closed down. :(

    Retail, adapt or fail, simple as that, its the way of things.

    Edited by IkariW at 11/11/10 @ 17:49

  • Notallowedhere #50 2 years ago

    So the monster that publishers have created is bigger than the monster that retail have become.

    Not sure too many tears will be shed.

  • layleeloo #51 2 years ago

    More than 30 million people hold a steam account? And? How many people actually use it? I created one at first, bought one game thorugh it and havnt touched it since. Prefer shops thanks. So how many of that 30m actually frequently use it? Considerably less I think.

  • hello_fi #52 2 years ago

    Thank you sneetch, it's always nice to hear praise from the little people.

    arcam however, your insinuation that I am a Yank makes me more sick to my stomach than that unique stench of semen-encrusted tissues and weeks old pizza remains that emanates from the average PC gamer's sordid little grief hole.

  • Tyronne #53 2 years ago

    One minute they dimish the amount of Pc game space on the shop floor resulting in buyers having to go elsewhere for their games and when the buyers do so they start complaining that steam has got such a high penetration into the pc game selling market and want their sales back?

    You cannot have it both ways and I happen to like steam, the only complaint I have with it is that the price of certain games for a digital release are stupidly high but people appear to like buying games at that price BUT I can live with that as long as it does not effect other titles prices. If ( or when depending on how you look at the market) it does then it will not make me buy more , just less as I only have a certain amount for a gaming budget regardless whatever the title is.

    Too little too late

  • Chufty #54 2 years ago

    Lots of people are complaining that Game and the like hardly stock any PC games. This is an effect, not a cause, of declining bricks-and-mortar PC game sales.

    Obviously if they had hordes of punters swarming into their stores to buy boxed PC games, then those games would get more shelf space. The fact is, this isn't happening, and Steam is one of the two big reasons why (sorry, but piracy is the other).

    The retailers have no right to complain though, as the reason Steam has a monopoly is because it's the best. They're not anti-competitive, there's just no competition that's good enough.

    Also, it's funny that the two "major" game retailers have not been mentioned, but there are only two "major" game retailers in the UK, and they're both the same company. :D

  • dsmx #55 2 years ago

    Well steam does count how many people are online at any one time for all to see and it gets up to around 3 million every night.

  • sneetch #56 2 years ago

    @Haue
    Well I kinda agree with the retailers here. If there is no competition, the publishers can put any price on the game.

    People don't seem to realise this so I'll just say it outright, the retailers compete with one another but the publishers also compete with one another.

    If a publisher attempted to charge €100 for "MegaShootyMan 15: MegaShootyMan's Steel", how many people would pay for it? How many would instead by "UltraShootyMan the Shootening!" instead at €50? I mean sure, some games are pretty unique, but if the publishers try to charge too much they simply won't sell. CoD has shown how much people are willing to pay however (that said I don't know anyone who spent anything like full price for it, there seems to be a fair bit of competition over those damn near guaranteed sales).

  • hiddenranbir #57 2 years ago

    It already is a monopoly(near enough). Hooray for monopolists.
    Edited by hiddenranbir at 11/11/10 @ 18:13

  • greenfanguy #58 2 years ago

    Steam may be a monster, but it's OUR little monster.
    Edited by greenfanguy at 11/11/10 @ 18:27

  • Shadders #59 2 years ago

    So far as I can tell Steam is the best option for all parties except Game and the other highstreet retailers..

    It's cheap, easy to use, you stuff lasts forever.. Steam wouldn't have a monopoly if highstreet retailers weren't so shit.

  • Kragh\'Zyl #60 2 years ago

    As long as Valve doesn't force publisher to only sell through steam, retailers dont have any right to complain. and I think its highly unlikely that all stores are gonna stop selling steam-games so they will only hurt hteir own business.

  • makeamazing #61 2 years ago

    Considering the crap service most retailers do with PC games these days, i dont think games publishers will be that bothered? I mean if i want to go to Game and buy one of a hundred £5 hidden object game, then its a problem, if i actually want any good games i will buy it direct or from a online retailer.

    Retailers (highstreet) have been helping damage the pc market by removing them from the shelves anyway.

  • TexMurphy01 #62 2 years ago

    Hey retailers, here's a spoon with which to eat my ass. You drove PC owners elsewhere and now they're staying there. Keep eating.

  • brod #63 2 years ago

    So retailers are going to try and demand that publishers stop using a certain form of DRM - the same publishers that are currently accusing the retailers of robbing them of console game sales via the retail preowned games racket... good luck with that.

    These retailers must be insane if they think they have any power of persuasion over anything to do with PC games, given that they've all but abandoned the market themselves.
    Edited by brod at 11/11/10 @ 20:36

  • bionutz #64 2 years ago

    I already do that (buy only through steam, only physical media when not available on steam). you see, the difference is that I trust Valve and the prices are correct.

  • Freek #65 2 years ago

    Retailers also requisted games to be shipped to them via horse and cariage.

  • TitusCrow #66 2 years ago

    Steam launched through the almighty trojan horse of HL2. That's when I installed it and I would think many others. It was broken at at 1st and very little worked. But this is valve, they keep on updating religiously to stuff does work, they keep adding functionality and making good stuff ever better.

    Within 2 years steam was very good and I started to use it to DL games like TF2 etc. I was dubious at 1st but it worked great. Wipe your pc and leave it on and you can dl all the stuff on your account again no hassle, stuff updates automatically it just works.

    And this is not to mention the social aspect and achievements on it or the sales ...omfg the SALES! I look forward now to the summer and especially winter sales where they damn near break me with game after game at prices where you can hardly afford not to buy!

    Steam created an opportunity with the auto install to play HL2, it is as successful as it is because is good! Nuff said!

  • GreatBlackthorn #67 2 years ago

    As far as I'm concerned, Steam is a platform in of itself like Xbox, Playstation or Wii. The PC is simply the tool for displaying the image, much like a television is for consoles. You cannot claim a PC is a platform the same way a console is as there are infinite variations on the hardware itself, especially with Steam now available on Mac. Valve have every right to promote exclusivity, especially when the exclusive features it offers are not available anywhere else.

  • dirtysteve #68 2 years ago

    Black Ops - E59.99 on Steam. Let's assume a hypothetical situation where I could only buy a digital version, are there any other services that can beat this price? If they can't or won't, then there's no point in blaming Steam. If they can, but Steam is somehow stopping them, then the claim of a monopoly seems justified.
    Of course I do have a choice, and Steam would only be chosen over Brick stores or mail order in the case where it has a product that can't be got anywhere else.
    (Again, if this is by choice of other shops not stocking it , fine, but if Steam is muscling it's way in to exclusivity - problem.)

  • Caimbeul #69 2 years ago

    I agree the retails stores can go fuck themselves as they didn't want anything to do with PC gaming BUT BUT BUT! whilst defending Steam lest not forget two very important issues around the service.

    1) Pricing in excess of boxed retail by as much as 50%+ in some cases i have seen. new releases are a joke and often at least £10 cheaper on-line.
    2) Their tech support is legendary for being one of the shittiest serviceso n the planet. it takes weeks to resolve a problem with a game and that is no exageration.

    Also gifting games to friends is very touch and go. I have gifted about 8 or 9 games over the last year almost half of them have had issues getting through. Steam support cant be bothered to help and two of them have been sitting in Limbo land for 5 & 11 weeks now respectively.

  • Stop-gap #70 2 years ago

    I bet these are the same "key" stores whose COMPLETELY VITAL commitment to the PC games market extends to only stocking three games - Sims, WoW and sometimes either Civ or CoD. I can't see it being anything other than the tiniest portion of PC gamers who don't either use digital distribution or buy from Play and the like.
    What's left of that market moved away from the high street because the high street treated it like shit. Don't come whining now that someone else is supplying the demand.

  • kestral #71 2 years ago

    So, is this what happened to Codemasters F1 2010?

  • jumpdeveraux #72 2 years ago

    I cannot remember the last PC game I bought in a bricks and mortar store. I occasionally order the odd one off play.com when they have a decent sale price.

    I love steam, I'm getting on in my years and still remember the hassle of checking for patches for every PC game etc then trying to find a download site that offered a decent download rate. Now I just sit at my desk with my face planted in a bowl of Doritos while Steam takes care of all game updates.

    I'm not a big user of the community features but the sales they have on have some terrific bargains even if most of the everyday prices are a little steep which as others have highlighted is the publishers fault not Valve's.

    I'd rather not see Steam opened up to other providers to "sell through" as it just ends up with a more confusing and messy user experience. Similar to Apple's stance in their strict control over the user experience - if people don't like it they can find a better alternative if the so wish.

    Love live steam. Bye bye retail your time is coming to an end (MS and Sony will also see to that with more downloadable titles from their own marketplaces in the next 5 years or so).

  • dsmx #73 2 years ago

    Incidentally people the steam Christmas sale is coming, be prepared for games at up to 90% off.

    Get your wallets ready.

  • yagisencho #74 2 years ago

    Any retail chain pushing publishers to stop releasing games via Steam will automatically lose my business. Permanently.

  • Frostiken #75 2 years ago

    "Any retail chain pushing publishers to stop releasing games via Steam will automatically lose my business."

    This isn't about selling games via Steam, it's about the Steamworks DRM (that's all it really is). You buy a game from Walmart or wherever, go home to install it, it tells you in order to play, you have to install a digital store, create an account, and proceed to be sold similar products while circumventing the store - and thus the store loses sales.

    Then again, back in my day? If a piece of software demanded that you install third-party software, register to it, and it then proceeded to try to sell you stuff, we'd call it adware. But because it's Steam it's okay! Yeah you can fuck right off with that one.

    Not to mention... you want to talk about Steam being crap? My friend bought a copy of New Vegas from AAFES - since it's on a US military base they have American release dates. He went home and tried to install it, but because it was packed with DRM it wanted to talk to Steam - which it did. And Steam saw that he lived in the UK and forbid him from installing the game until the UK release date. Finally, when he could install it, Steam elected to instead download the entire game rather then install from the disc.

    Quality product there.
    Edited by Frostiken at 12/11/10 @ 00:28

  • azic #76 2 years ago

    @hello_fi
    You are sure are the thickest cunt around. Your seemingly outward obsession with seamen is rather worrying.
    Of course I can assume you speak from experience, mummy finding your encrusted tissues If your not using a sock must be troublesome.

    You must single for all your talk and knowledge of the encrusted tissues!

    Perhaps you should use a PC to browse the net, so that you can get yourself laid... Oh I forgot you like wanking over multiplayer COD on your console.. That must get boring with 8-16 players. Still if you had a PC you would have 32 players.... to wank over. But then I guess kleenx would go bust and your seamen encrusted room would become a rather large recycling plant.

    Now wipe down your pad, put away the sock, and do the washing up... It's nearly past your bed time... And no you can't have any more tissues!

  • dirtysteve #77 2 years ago

    @Frosiken - that sounds like it would induce a fit of rage in even the most mild-mannered person.

  • Late #78 2 years ago

    Monopoly? That's the pot calling the kettle black. The Game Group must have at least an 80% market share of the games specialist retail market given that they also own Gamestation.

  • smelly #79 2 years ago

    well maybe if shops hadnt been so greedy in hiding brand new games in order to pump 2nd hand ones for 5 quid less.. Then maybe the publishers wouldnt feel the need for steam.

    They only have themsevles to blame...

  • DeadlyErnest #80 2 years ago

    Will. Never. Happen.

    What's the threat here? "If you don't buy games in our stores we won't let you buy games in our stores"? Well, fuck you, I'll just get them off Steam then. Oh, wait...

  • Loghorn #81 2 years ago

    @drxym: I agree with you. That's one of the things in which I hope doesn't happen.