What's the Best Video Game Download Service? 227
ThinSkin writes "Who needs a brick-and-mortar game shop when you have the world wide web of video game download services? Joel Durham Jr. over at ExtremeTech examines some game download services to decide once and for all which virtual storefront has the best deal for gamers. Among the services reviewed are: Steam, Impulse, Direct2Drive, Good Old Games, and WildTangent Orb. The most popular site in the roundup, Steam, was also the most favored because of its wide selection of popular titles, while Direct2Drive also scored top marks because it has 'just about every title in the universe.'"
Which service(s) do you like the most, and what have your experiences with them been?
Re:Bah,. (Score:4, Interesting)
Steam being bloated? Steam takes up under a hundred meg of the 12 gig of steam games I have installed.
Have a louder cry about the DRM. I'm sure you'd love games costing several million dollars to develop shoved up on FTP with an honesty box, but someone with any brainpower whatsoever would realise that its fucking retarded.
The entire friction the steam DRM setup gives me is having to type a password once, and then tick the "remember me" box. Its a hell of a lot more convenient than CD-keys, its a hell of a lot more convenient than CDs, and I can happily play games offline (despite what the whingers say).
The biggest selling point is they have put in just enough protection to attract A-list games for distribution, rather than the rather crappy lineup Impulse offers.
I guess it also means that in ten years when valve shuts down and the person that buys their platform, decides that out of maliciousness they don't want to continue offering the service, and also that at that stage I am too poor to afford 3D Virtual Lesbian Extravaganza on my VR rig, then I might be saying "Well, damn, I can't play TF2 against the other three people that are still trying to play it". But thats fairly unlikely.
Re:Bah,. (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree that it's actually easier then piracy. Not that piracy is hard, but Steam just makes it so easy. It auto-installs everything and WORKS with no problems.
My only issue with Steam is that you need to have steam running which could effect game performance on weak computer. If you have a nice rig, don't expect any issues.
That list is pointless though. They give everything a high ranking and doing explain much. "They offer AAA games and it work". What about things like customer support? Valve has a cryptic customer support system. Basically you write a note and you hope they get to it within a few weeks. No phone calls, only the message system.
Sure the systems work, but why write an article if you don't actually get down to the dirty issues. What about the whole "WildTangent is spyware" issue? The lack of information makes the article useless.
Re:Bah,. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not sure I agree. Let's examine a game's path from store shelves to your hard drive *queue cheesy music*
1a) Game is purchased
1b) Game is somehow acquired pre-release
2) Game (images or discs) are transferred to one of a few skilled crackers/hackers (the line is fuzzy here) who enjoy breaking DRM for the challenge and pseudonymous credit.
3) Crackers break game for fun, and probably don't really play it. (This is why the DRM that sabotages you after only 20+ hours of play is actually not as brain-dead as most of it). Some do though.
4) Game is transferred to script kiddies/people in non-fascist countries. People who don't know/don't care/aren't affected by DMCA and foreign friends.
5) Product reaches final consumers, often before if not at the same time as the retail rental version from which it was produced.
I'd argue that the only people affected by DRM are primarily in it for the fun and rush, so really DRM only /helps/ piracy.
Re:Bah,. (Score:5, Interesting)
I provide people who buy games with a direct, no queue, no fuss link to an installer exe. They can use a download manager or grab it however they like, they can then install it, or burn it to a disk for backup, they don't need an internet connection on the machine where they install it, and they don't need an account with me, or have anything else installed on their machine or running in the background. There is no DRM or limitations or restrictions.
The download is direct and fast from my website, and in case of tech support, you email me, the games creator directly. I always reply within 24 hours, normally within 8.
There are no middlemen, just a payment provider, so 90% of the money goes direct to the creator.
Explain to me how the pirate system beats mine? ...unless perhaps you don't care about anything but getting commercial software for free?
direct from the developer? (Score:3, Interesting)
Is there a reason why people are so keen to stick a middleman between them as gamers and the game creators?
How much effort is it to just remember who you bought the game from, in case of needing any tech support. For multiplayer I can see how a buddy list might be nice, but for singleplayer, why add a new layer of middlemen, precisely the thing that the web was supposed to free games developers from?
Every service you mention takes a cut off the money and gives a royalty to the actual game developer. Many devs support direct sales, and they ALL want you to buy direct, as they often get 90%+ of the money then, rather than the 40%+ they get from the mentioned services.
Re:Bah,. (Score:5, Interesting)
"The one outstanding question is "what happens if Valve shuts down," but they have promised to unlock everything in such a case."
A couple points:
Can you document this claim? The legal contract you sign when renting a game from Steam says otherwise. The only reference I find is that if they cut you off from access to Steam they "may but is not obligated to" provide a stand alone version.
If Valve/Steam fails there will likely be a transfer of ownership to people who didn't make the claim and have no intention of honoring the claim.