By Ben Kuchera
Plenty of PC gamers sit down each night without knowing what they want to play. Instead, they log into their Steam accounts, see what other people are playing, then jump into a multiplayer game. In many cases, they buy widely played games simply to be part of the community, or based on positive reviews from friends. Steam isn't just a store, it's also a meeting place. EA may have good reasons for
keeping Battlefield 3 away from Valve's service, but the company is still going to lose out in goodwill—and possibly in sales.
Stardock estimated that Steam
held 70 percent of the digital distribution market at the end of 2009, and it's likely that estimate remains accurate; what other services have stepped up to chip away at Steam's dominance? Steam is the market leader when it comes to selling PC games online, and gamers are largely comfortable with the service and with their place in it. While many argue that, like EA's own digital distribution service Origin, Steam started out in rough shape and only improved over time, the fact remains that Origin is fighting a service that is rock-solid right now.
Growing pains are over for Valve, and the company has built an amazing amount of goodwill with PC gamers. The facts of the skirmish between EA and Valve are purely secondary at this point; what matters is that PC gamers have many reasons to trust Valve, and just as many reasons to distrust EA. One of these companies
gave indie developers a home to sell their games and find success, while the other placed DRM into our vocabulary
during Spore's release.
When gamers think of Valve, they remember the last game they bought at deep discount during one of the platform's many sales. They think of all the friends they have on the platform, and the games they've been given or have gifted to others. They meet up with people online to play games because they know people will be on Steam when they want to play.
When gamers think of EA, they remember fighting with redemption codes to get their
Dragon Age content or having to set up another account to play a game online. They think of DRM. EA can make well-reasoned arguments about why it won't put up with Valve's DLC requirements all day long and it won't matter: the company has not put in the legwork to make friends with the PC gaming community.
This entire debate can be boiled down to the simple fact that people already use Steam, they like Steam, and they resent being forced to set up an account with another service to play a game. This is especially true when it's a brand-new, untested storefront that's being driven by a company that has given PC gamers every reason to be skeptical. It's unclear if
Battlefield 3 will be enough of a draw to make customers forget that fact.
For many gamers, Steam is PC gaming and, while threats of a boycott often seem hollow, in this case it will be as if the game simply doesn't exist for many Steam users.
