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How doe you expect Steam to "adapt" to being near-totally shut out of their primary market? Steamworks is a moot point when Win8/MountainLion comes with Xbox Li

How doe you expect Steam to "adapt" to being near-totally shut out of their primary market? Steamworks is a moot point when Win8/MountainLion comes with Xbox Live/Game Center integration as a selling point. Like it or not, Steam's days as-is are numbered and Valve needs a new platform. Could be Apple, could be their own but they have to do something if they want a chance of surviving.

tzaman 15y ago
Let me answer that with a question: How was Dropbox able to "survive" when Apple has their cloud (and I'm sure Windows will feature something similar as well)? If I remember correctly, Apple wanted to buy them and they said no. The bottom line, it can be done. Others have proven it.
- ConstantineXVI 15y ago
  iCloud (and SkyDrive, Microsoft's equivalent) is capable of co-existing on your system with Dropbox. Dropbox even has features that iCloud lacks (files aren't limited to a single app, proper cross-platform support, photo archival, etc.) Windows Store, by design, removes the ability for Steam to function. It's technically possible to run Steam on Win8-x86, but constrained to the "legacy" desktop and denied integration of any kind with Metro. They'll be shut out completely with ARM. Their momentum will carry them for a while, but provided Metro isn't a massive failure Steam's current business model will be unviable within 5 years of Win8's launch. If they are to survive, Valve /must/ get off the PC.
talmand 15y ago
As a Windows user who uses Steam as the primary method to purchase games I would say, from my experience, that Steam won't have to adapt at all. When I eventually have a Windows 8 machine one of the first things I'll install is Steam. Why would I change? I've already invested a great deal of money into it. It works quite well as a platform and for me to switch would require a superior platform to take its place, which I don't see coming in the near future. Plus, considering Microsoft's history with PC gaming it would take a great deal for me to switch to their platform from Steam. Game for Windows Live anyone? Unless Microsoft ups their game (bad pun!) in terms of actually supporting PC gaming then I would think Valve will be just fine. I'm willing to bet Xbox Live integration on Windows 8 is not a selling point to Valve's market. If someone from Microsoft suggested I should switch from Steam to their platform I would laugh in his face.

tzaman 15y ago

Let me answer that with a question: How was Dropbox able to "survive" when Apple has their cloud (and I'm sure Windows will feature something similar as well)? If I remember correctly, Apple wanted to buy them and they said no. The bottom line, it can be done. Others have proven it.

ConstantineXVI 15y ago
iCloud (and SkyDrive, Microsoft's equivalent) is capable of co-existing on your system with Dropbox. Dropbox even has features that iCloud lacks (files aren't limited to a single app, proper cross-platform support, photo archival, etc.) Windows Store, by design, removes the ability for Steam to function. It's technically possible to run Steam on Win8-x86, but constrained to the "legacy" desktop and denied integration of any kind with Metro. They'll be shut out completely with ARM. Their momentum will carry them for a while, but provided Metro isn't a massive failure Steam's current business model will be unviable within 5 years of Win8's launch. If they are to survive, Valve /must/ get off the PC.

talmand 15y ago

As a Windows user who uses Steam as the primary method to purchase games I would say, from my experience, that Steam won't have to adapt at all. When I eventually have a Windows 8 machine one of the first things I'll install is Steam. Why would I change? I've already invested a great deal of money into it. It works quite well as a platform and for me to switch would require a superior platform to take its place, which I don't see coming in the near future. Plus, considering Microsoft's history with PC gaming it would take a great deal for me to switch to their platform from Steam. Game for Windows Live anyone? Unless Microsoft ups their game (bad pun!) in terms of actually supporting PC gaming then I would think Valve will be just fine. I'm willing to bet Xbox Live integration on Windows 8 is not a selling point to Valve's market. If someone from Microsoft suggested I should switch from Steam to their platform I would laugh in his face.