Prey dev wants Valve to split Steam into a separate company

Now I know many won' t be hugely interested in this more PC oriented news, but it' s got some thoughts about what direction buying console games is heading. Today Live Arcade - Tomorrow Live AAA.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=11895

Basically, Scott Miller wants to buy games from Steam but not give Valve any money! Giving the argument that Steam would be better off independent and therefore more flexible to what games it can take on.

But the line up of games on Steam is great and diverse including some niche games that really benefit from Steams popularity. I just bought a game called RACE: WTCC off there, which is awesome!

Add to that that Prey is actually going to be sold on Steam (!) I can' t see Valve just giving up perhaps its biggest asset just cos now Miller has to pay Valve to buy his own game!

Bizzare... This is going to be interesting, if not necessarily critical to the industry. I can' t see there being any huge reprocussions as far as it goes in the long term. OFC, other than the fact that Valve isn' t going to be making uber-money off of steam anymore.

Well, Miller' s only voicing his opinion here of course. I doubt Valve would actually give up Steam in a million years.

But he' s saying other independent digital distribution companies will rise up and eventually take over from Steam, since other big devs like 3DRealms would obviously prefer not to line Valve their competitor' s pockets!

Steam' s great for niche games that can do with the exposure, but devs who consider themselves rivals to Valve will obviously go elsewhere. I dunno what was going on with Prey though! Talk about making a point by doing the opposite!



Ofc, a service like a hypothetical Live AAA wouldn' t be a problem, as console devs supporting their console parent company is no bad thing...

The full interview is really interesting.

Well, I see his point. He' s basically saying that he, as a developer/publisher is leary about giving his IP to some " rival" game company to handle, and he feels like other developers/publishers might feel the same way (and rightly so). As such, he thinks Steam would be more profitable if it wasn' t associated with a game company.

Makes sense. He also feels like there are a couple of start-up digital distribution companies that make take the lead in that field based on the above mentioned observations. I wouldn' t doubt it. Perhaps it would be a shrewd move on their part.

steam should become independent, it' s in our best interest (pc gamers)

-= S + A + I + M + I + R =-

all the non valve games on steam can be bought independantly...so if they dont want to pay valve open ur eyes and go look for a copy...

- Phoenix|Slash
- A.K.A. HumpY...Gimme' A Leg

Killer you' re Alive...!

Yeah, where have you been Killer? I actually thougth about mailing you to hear if you died or something? I miss that Avatar of yours around here ;)

Steam' s great for niche games that can do with the exposure, but devs who consider themselves rivals to Valve will obviously go elsewhere. I dunno what was going on with Prey though! Talk about making a point by doing the opposite!

yeah, because theyre anywhere near Valves league to consider Valve a rival....

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

Heh, got a point there. Duke Nukem vs Gabe Newell!

Scott Miller doesn' t seem to agree though!