[Valerie Marie]

Let's say I get in the mood to play some classic Fallout at a point in time many years from now. I can install 1, 2 and 3 no problem. Now I want to install New Vegas, it was a Steam game but Steam went out of business years ago. I put the disc in my machine for the first time in years, and it wants to connect to Steam. Oops! I forgot about needing the unlock tool! I use-to-could go to the Steamworks site and get them, but that site no longer exists, so now what? I'm sure that a quick search on the internet, if I still have it, will brinth up a plethora of links. But which can be trusted? When Steam closes their doors who gets the keys? I've emailed VALVe about this and some other issues, but I've never gotten a response. I guess they don't care about shunning a single potential customer when their business model brings in more customers everytime a new game is released.

Not being able to play a game many years in the future is always a danger, regardless of the format they come in. If your NES is old and rickety, how easy is it to find a place that will do the repairs? If a cartridge is becoming unreliable with age, how difficult/expensive is it going to be to find someone selling a new one? I made the mistake of letting my older brother borrow my copy of Okami; he gave it to his kid and now it barely works. I used to have Super Mario RPG, but it was somehow lost or stolen by one of my brother's friends. There are pros and cons to different systems, but it's not like the risk of losing games is unique to Steam.

[Nany Smith]

To those who are worried about Valve going out of business...

per employee, Valve is more profitable than Microsoft.

[Esther Fernandez]

To those who are worried about Valve going out of business...

per employee, Valve is more profitable than Microsoft.

So they'll never go out of business? Ok.

[Olga Xx]

So they'll never go out of business? Ok.

:huh: No I'm just saying that it isn't likely they'll go out of business any time soon.

[Marine Arrègle]

So they'll never go out of business? Ok.

No, they're just more likely to take over the world.

[dell]

Not being able to play a game many years in the future is always a danger, regardless of the format they come in. If your NES is old and rickety, how easy is it to find a place that will do the repairs? If a cartridge is becoming unreliable with age, how difficult/expensive is it going to be to find someone selling a new one? I made the mistake of letting my older brother borrow my copy of Okami; he gave it to his kid and now it barely works. I used to have Super Mario RPG, but it was somehow lost or stolen by one of my brother's friends. There are pros and cons to different systems, but it's not like the risk of losing games is unique to Steam.

Very true. My Final Fantasy 3 (which was actually 6) no longer holds save games. I can save but they get wiped out when I turn the power off. This is the main reason I have switched to PC gaming. I know that I can get a PC up and running, and the software can easily be transfered to new media.

As to Valve going out of business. Yes they are very profitable, right now. IBM, AOL and Netscape were all very profitable companies as well. One bad business decision, or a change in laws or a shift in technology could doom even the most sound of business models.

[Cccurly]

Why don't you just uncheck the "run Steam when my computer starts" option? :unsure:

Thanks, I didn't know that option even existed.

[Nathan Hunter]

To those who are worried about Valve going out of business...

per employee, Valve is more profitable than Microsoft.

And this is why everyone should be crapping a brick right now. That's a strong indicator Valve is already in too powerful a position for anyone's good.

[Arnold Wet]

And this is why everyone should be crapping a brick right now. That's a strong indicator Valve is already in too powerful a position for anyone's good.

I would agree with you if Steam was the only platform we can use to purchase games online, but they are not and the other service have really been stepping their game up. Microsoft is planning on introducing a re-designed GFWL as a competitor to Steam with the release of Windows 8.

[Sarah Knight]

And this is why everyone should be crapping a brick right now. That's a strong indicator Valve is already in too powerful a position for anyone's good.

They don't have a monopoly, and the digital distribution market still makes sure of that. Besides, Valve, becoming particularly evil? That seems somewhat far away.

[stevie trent]

They don't have a monopoly, and the digital distribution market still makes sure of that. Besides, Valve, becoming particularly evil? That seems somewhat far away.

no, it's not a monopoly at the moment but it could easily effectively become so as more publishers use Steamworks & valve broadens Steam's platforms, What's the point in using any other Digi-distro when the user has to go to Steam to use the game anyways?

[K J S]

Besides, Valve, becoming particularly evil? That seems somewhat far away.

I wouldn't make assumptions: they're a small company, takeovers happen, executives come and go, and so forth. Seen it happen plenty of times before, including one of my own employers: really nice company, 2nd biggest in the business, with over 100,000 staff, "too big to fall". After a boardroom coup, they became a very nasty company and went out of business within a few short years.

Bad things can happen very quickly, and my concern is that if the worst happens, an asset-stripper is likely to have no interest whatsoever doing anything in the interest of the now ex-customers: as far as they're concerned it's likely to be a large expenditure for no gain.

[Mason Nevitt]

I wouldn't make assumptions: they're a small company, takeovers happen, executives come and go, and so forth.

Valve is privately held, hostile takeover is pretty much out of the question, they make a nice amount of money, are having fun doing this... See, I'll worry when it's reasonable to do so. ^_^

[Julie Ann]

Valve is privately held, hostile takeover is pretty much out of the question, they make a nice amount of money, are having fun doing this... See, I'll worry when it's reasonable to do so. ^_^

I suppose it comes down to the fact that I'm not so keen on these sorts of whims and vagaries: I've had problems before when companies have either gone out of business and had a change of management, either of which tends to see the existing customer base a long way down the list of priorities. If I have the choice of not being reliant on them, I'd rather exercise that choice. So while I'm not going to be overly militant and say "I'll never buy a product from Steam" (or equivalent), if an alternative presents itself, I'll use that instead.

[Naomi Ward]

I would think that if for some reason Steam were to go out of business (unlikely) they would patch everyone's games so they could run locally. There are many ways they could do this.

Even if Valve, the company, were to go out of business the Steam assets would be snapped up by some other publisher. There is no reason to expect they would stop the service. Plus, Cloud gaming is coming. We will soon be playing games that are installed on a server somewhere and our PC will be little more than a TV with a Keyboard Controller for those games. The Steam system is a good way to run something like this with an existing customer base.

I think that the odds of Steam completely dissapearing and the games that you have to valiate or install from them becoming completely useless are right up there with winning the Powerball Lottery.

[Auguste Bartholdi]

I think that the odds of Steam completely dissapearing and the games that you have to valiate or install from them becoming completely useless are right up there with winning the Powerball Lottery.

1 in 195249053

[Natasha Biss]

I am not going to trust a company than can and has revoked access to peoples single player games. Sorry. Thats how it is.

[Kelsey Hall]

Plus, Cloud gaming is coming. We will soon be playing games that are installed on a server somewhere and our PC will be little more than a TV with a Keyboard Controller for those games.

Funny, that's how the first computers worked. Mainframe that did all the work, and the "thin" clients that just accessed the mainframe with having extremely limited computing capability (or none at all?) themselves.

Still, the network infrastrucuture required for something like that just doesn't exist in most places. And seeing how vehemently gamers oppose "always connected to server" type DRM i don't see this gaining popularity anytime soon.

[zoe]

Funny, that's how the first computers worked. Mainframe that did all the work, and the "thin" clients that just accessed the mainframe with having extremely limited computing capability (or none at all?) themselves.

Still, the network infrastrucuture required for something like that just doesn't exist in most places. And seeing how vehemently gamers oppose "always connected to server" type DRM i don't see this gaining popularity anytime soon.

What if we could do it with satellites? Have giant, orbiting computer stations that serve as a mainframe for the world's computing needs, connected wirelessly to clients everywhere.

[DAVId Bryant]

From what i've heard from people here, satellite-based internet connections svck :hehe: And personally i rather buy my own PERSONAL computer than pay a monthly fee for computing time

[Irmacuba]

From what i've heard from people here, satellite-based internet connections svck :hehe: And personally i rather buy my own PERSONAL computer than pay a monthly fee for computing time

That's just because we haven't developed it far enough yet. We'll get to a point where computing power will be free, just like energy. Not in my lifetime though, unless I'm Tony Stark.

[BethanyRhain]

That's just because we haven't developed it far enough yet. We'll get to a point where computing power will be free, just like energy.

Was that a joke? Energy is just artificially cheap at the moment.

[Leonie Connor]

The http://www.humblebundle.com/ is available for three more days.

[Mimi BC]

I think that the odds of Steam completely dissapearing and the games that you have to valiate or install from them becoming completely useless are right up there with winning the Powerball Lottery.

I think you're very optimistic; my feeling is that they're approximately the odds of there not being problems. Which may be somewhat pessimistic, but I've enough bad experiences of corporate entities to expect that such an occurrence is highly unlikely to be a smooth transition: those who endeavour to avoid causing problems seem to be a small minority.

[Kat Ives]

What if we could do it with satellites? Have giant, orbiting computer stations that serve as a mainframe for the world's computing needs, connected wirelessly to clients everywhere.

Until the next solar flare? :flamethrower: