Steam Should Be a Seperate Company?

simoniker writes "As part of a larger in-depth interview over at Gamasutra, 3D Realms' Scott Miller has called for Valve's Steam digital distribution service to spin off as a separate company, suggesting: 'I would rather there emerge a leader in the market that isn't associated with a game company.' He further adds: 'I'm not a big fan of using Steam, because I'm not a fan of a strong competitor of ours having access to our download stats and revenue totals. I'd rather keep that private. Not only that, but we're lining their pockets as well.'"

Re:Then he should fund a startup

[Nos.]

While that's true, he does make a valid point. If Steam doesn't separate from Valve, they may not see as many publishing opportunities. If users like the distribution method (and I think most do ... I certainly do), then there is a need for it. As he said, other startups are working on similar products, Steam could become the loser in all of this, if an independent, but similar product is available from a third party, instead of a competitor.

Re:Then he should fund a startup

[88NoSoup4U88]

I remember there also being a online distribution system that had the possibility of buying Prey online (I think it was even offered at closing of the demo of Prey), with a service which name eludes me now: Since the name was new, I wouldn't be too surprised if 3DRealms had their own system set up, failed miserably, and are now a bit sour about it.

I agree that lining the pockets of your competitor isn't the smartest thing to do, but nor is -not- being able to properly distribute your content online.

There are a lot of independent developers that don't give a rat's ass at this stage as Steam offers them an excellent platform, and why wouldn't you want to reward the company who is doing it succesfully ?

And if Steam actually becomes 'another' company: Why wouldn't its success -not- be beneficial for Valve too? It's not as if it isn't allowed to throw money in between companies.

Steam should be..

[matt me]

1. Less sluggish
2. Not spam you with adverts for games
3. Consume less disk space
4. Allow you to trade games / sell your account
5. not be a prequisite to playing a game
6. not hog memory
7. be less ugly -eg blend in to native widgets
8. be ported to *nix
9. not use internet explorer
10. not download so much shit