I hate getting in on a 100+ post thread late, cause I fear what I say may just be parroting what someone else has written. But from what I have seen from skimming over the posts in this thread, I tend to agree with the majority sentiment of:
"Cry me a fuckin' river."
Everyone - EVERYONE - was calling the PC dead before Steam came along. Once Valve whipped Steam up into shape, I can confidently say that if it didn't single-handedly save it, PC gaming was surely helped the most by far by Valve's revolutionary model. I can see the gripe with Steamworks being so closely integrated with the Steam digital distribution platform (in effect, it is one in the same), but that can be fixed easily. I am reminded when I bought Metro 2033 via Direct2Drive and it installed into Steam. Does this hurt D2D's business? The customer doesn't see Steam until after the purchase is made, so D2D gets their money, but it IS admittedly giving Valve free exposure and advertising for future purchases, going so far as giving them the storefront and platform on which to run the game in the process. So yeah, I can see it hurting other DD sites down the road.
Aside from that, I don't really care much about how butthurt the other guys are getting over the fact that Steam is eating their lunch (and supper too). I would tend to think that one of the "big name publishers" that goes unnamed in the story is not Stardock simply because Brad Wardell has generally always attached his name to press releases of this nature in the past. My guess is Gamersgate and D2D; maybe even GFWL. (I would love to know if that last were the case - Microsoft complaining that Valve is killing PC gaming - oh the delicious irony!!)
As far as retailers go, I hope that they get out of the PC market entirely, since they treated PC gamers like shit for a decade. I almost never buy retail anymore anyway, and I wouldn't shed a tear to see all PC gaming go download only. Screw retail - they made their bed - now they can lie in it (and atrophy for all I care).
This comment was edited on Nov 11, 2010, 20:18.
"We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far."
"Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."