Why bother commenting on something you haven't read? Also "wall of text" means no paragraphs in my internet parlance.
Wall of text means a pointless amount of text for a minor point to me but you can use whatever label floats your boat. You made up some numbers and place some faith in a company that hasn't done so well at generating profit historically, I'm not sure what more I should be discerning there.
There's nothing to really debate there beyond how opposed to your own usual opinion it is. You're always worried about Steam taking over the market and claiming that games need to be on Steam to be successful. But suddenly EA will make a lot more money selling direct because Steam isn't that important after all? And yes, we all understand that retailers take a percentage of sales but if Steam is as prevalent as you claim then surely there is at least a serious risk of losing money on a venture where it's ignored. You make it sound like its some minor little platform, "pretty easily made up by selling to your consumer direct". If it was that easy then everyone would do it. It's certainly possible but definitely not a foregone conclusion.
It is a pretty simple problem. Does the market of consumers on Steam potentially equal the percentage you would need to give up? I say yes it does because Steam is the oldest and most successful digital distribution platform. I think the core audience of Steam who are playing that kind of game are all still there and while I'm sure some if not many would buy it someplace else, I think the difference is more than enough to justify the markup Steam takes particularly when you also add the casual gamers, sales promotions and so on to the equation.
The other stuff about ease of distribution is all debatable and most of it hidden from the public so I don't see any value in bothering with that.
This comment was edited on Jul 20, 2011, 14:19.