Rigs wrote on Jul 1, 2011, 13:17:
[...] I recall all the bitching and complaining that STEAM got when it was released and was required to play Valve's games and then others...but now most prefer to have it as an option when buying a new game... [...]
Yeah but initially it was crap but then it came good. Quite quickly. And it kept getting better. Pretty much every way you get (or used to get) fucked over by nearly all download movie, music etc services, Steam never did that but instead thought of something better.
It's still not perfect. For example, offline mode. The ramifications being rather excessive if you screw up entering payment details. There being some 3rd party games on there that could effectively be taken away if the publisher decides. OK so that's not really Valve's fault, but I do tend to just assume game's follow the Steam standard if I'm buying on Steam, and feel like Valve are allowing some publishers to ride on the goodwill of the publishers who have done the right thing and gone with the Steam standard.
But GfWL, what does it offer? I can link my PC gaming to my Xbox account. That's a nice but token thing. And that's it. There is no good reason for it to exist, and it wouldn't but for the MS muscle. MS claims to support PC gaming then lumps in a "service" which has cons but no pros, merely serving to detract from other actual and potential services.
The thing is exactly that they are
not trying. It must almost take an effort for them to have ignored Steam's good ideas. When I think of GfWL offices I can only imagine all the staff actually work on something else and have this thing as some unwanted side project lumped on them that they have no interest or time for.
If they're not going to do it properly, they need to get out of the way.
This comment was edited on Jul 1, 2011, 14:05.