Splash Damage: “Steam is a third platform”

“There’s the 360, the PS3 and Steam” :: March 11th, 2008 :: Steamworks :: 10 Responses

I don’t normally post straight news, but this deserves reporting. Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

Jim Rossignol [RPS]: What do you think about Steamworks?

Steve Gaffney [Splash Damage]: It’s great. We need someone to look after the PC platform, and only Valve are really in a position to do that. There’s no downside to it.

Paul Wedgwood [SD]: And there’s a big upside for Valve – to control the PC platform via more Steam subs. But that is a positive thing for other developers.

Jon Hicks [Official Xbox Magazine]: You’re not worried that Valve could turn around and start holding the platform to ransom?

Gaffney: Perhaps, but Steam is like a third platform now. It’s that big. There’s the 360, the PS3 and Steam…do you not think?

Tim Edwards [PC Gamer UK]: I completely agree, I’ve just never heard anyone say it out loud. Every gamer I know has a Steam account, and uses it regularly.

That makes Splash Damage’s next game a Steamworks title in my book! There are some vague details about what we can expect from it in the full interview.

Needless to say, I also agree with Gaffney and the other Edwards that Steam is the PC platform now — it would be madness for a developer to forgo Steamworks, even if they were to employ only its simple distribution and update functions.

(The updated Quake Wars demo Wedgwood talks about was released on Steam unannounced. Oops…)

Tags: Splash Damage, consoles

10 Responses to this post:

Comments

March 12th, 2008 at 1:02 am ::
DavidR Says:

Am I the only one to make the leap to the obvious, here? What if Valve released a set-top box–ie, The SteamBox? Basically it would be the opposite of what MS is doing with Live Games for Windows, bringing their platform from console to a PC software layer.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:06 am ::
demm Says:

I don’t think Valve has any intention of doing that.

When Microsoft decided to enter the console market, they had to pour billions of dollars into it and for years the XBox devision did’t make any profit. Even though Valve has deep pockets, they’re not as deep as Microsoft’s.

They also wouldn’t have the manpower and expertise to pull something like this of. In a recent Interview Gabe was asked what he thought about the Wii and he said that he loved it and that he would like to make games for it. The interviewer then asked ‘Then why don’t you?’ and Gabe replied ‘Not enough hours in the day’.

Let’s just hope that Blizzard will jump onto the Steam-train and then we can definitively say that Steam ‘is’ the PC platform.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:43 am ::
Andy Simpson Says:

No, I don’t think they do either. Valve are a pretty small company, smaller than you’d imagine by their output. They don’t have the resources or the expertise to launch a console, and anyway, that would defeat the point entirely.

Things like Steamworks are an attempt to get all the best bits of console gaming (like IM and matchmaking built into every game, achievements, autoupdates, etc.) and use them on PC without having to jump through a platform holder’s hoops.
March 12th, 2008 at 4:02 pm ::
Tom Edwards Says:

Let’s just hope that Blizzard will jump onto the Steam-train and then we can definitively say that Steam ‘is’ the PC platform.

Unfortunately, they’re a subsidiary of Vivendi these days. Vivendi aren’t huge fans of Steam…
March 17th, 2008 at 3:25 am ::
Andrew Timson Says:

Vivendi wasn’t. But my understanding from reading the details is that the Activision/Vivendi “merger” was more of a buyout by Activision—who don’t have a problem with Steam, at least for their current releases.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:52 pm ::
Tom Edwards Says:

They merged with Blizzard, not Vivendi.
March 18th, 2008 at 8:14 am ::
demm Says:

Wow, Epic is on Steam. Now Steam is the platform for the FPS/action genre, but the catalogue still lacks in RTS and MMORPG games. That’s funny, because those are the genres in which the PC is typically stronger than consoles.

Regarding ‘Activision Blizzard’: Activision merged with Vivendi Games. Vivendi games is the owner of Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra Entertainment, Sierra
Online, and Vivendi Games Mobile. Blizzard is the only profitable, and by far the biggest division of Vivendi Games, so they decided to name the merged Company after it.

The combined Activsion Blizzard is quite a big Publisher and I guess since they already have some of their games on Steam, it would be possible that they decide to put even more on it.
On the other hand, WoW is so huge, it would warrant the development of an own distribution system. Why Blizzard didn’t do this already is strange. They have their BitTorrent downloader, but that is nothing compared to Steam.

My bet is, that Activision Blizzard is too greedy to use a 3rd party distribution system and that they will not use Steam for any of the Blizzard titles.
On the other hand, I really hope they would…
March 18th, 2008 at 10:06 pm ::
Andrew Timson Says:

[quote comment=”4466″]On the other hand, WoW is so huge, it would warrant the development of an own distribution system. Why Blizzard didn’t do this already is strange. They have their BitTorrent downloader, but that is nothing compared to Steam.[/quote]
The only reason I see Blizzard starting their own is because their games are cross-platform, PC and Mac. Otherwise, they’ve been more than happy to adapt existing technology for their uses so far (DivX, BitTorrent); why would they stop now?
March 18th, 2008 at 11:21 pm ::
Tom Edwards Says:

Because they don’t have to give a share of their royalties to either of those groups. 😉