02-22-2013, 11:58 AM
It was somewhat clear that the exclusivity would create a shitstorm, although I am surprised at the amount of bullshitting about steam I read. Even from people I actually respect.
I can understand some concerns, but I take Civ V and Skyrim as an example of a steam title with Steam Workshop integration, and I see none of the problems there that are cried about.
Regarding taking longer: Some people (even Wolle) said "Then wait another year". I am a professional software developer myself, and to those people I really would pose the question "Do you have ANY clue about software development ?". Because another YEAR can easily amount several 100.000 ⬠in additional cost. Show me one company that can shrug off, say, half a million in additional cost for a project ? You won't sell more copies, so the expected income is the same, just the expected cost is much bigger. It's a simple calculation.
What really pisses me off in the whole discussion is the people that just come up with bogus arguments, hearsay, or just plain bullshit. There's only a few valid points.
As a whole, I'm not particularly thrilled about the steam exclusivity, but not put off by it either. What I found more alarming in yesterday's news is the mention that they wouldn't get it done in 2013 if they wouldn't go for Steam. Now I know that distribution takes some time, but heck, that means we'll be lucky if it comes out in Winter 2013. I honestly wonder what they have been doing for the last half year since the E3 and Gamescon presentations. I mean, yeah, Ivan and Martin injail, etc, but if that delays your project so much, you've been doing something really wrong.
I can understand some concerns, but I take Civ V and Skyrim as an example of a steam title with Steam Workshop integration, and I see none of the problems there that are cried about.
Regarding taking longer: Some people (even Wolle) said "Then wait another year". I am a professional software developer myself, and to those people I really would pose the question "Do you have ANY clue about software development ?". Because another YEAR can easily amount several 100.000 ⬠in additional cost. Show me one company that can shrug off, say, half a million in additional cost for a project ? You won't sell more copies, so the expected income is the same, just the expected cost is much bigger. It's a simple calculation.
What really pisses me off in the whole discussion is the people that just come up with bogus arguments, hearsay, or just plain bullshit. There's only a few valid points.
As a whole, I'm not particularly thrilled about the steam exclusivity, but not put off by it either. What I found more alarming in yesterday's news is the mention that they wouldn't get it done in 2013 if they wouldn't go for Steam. Now I know that distribution takes some time, but heck, that means we'll be lucky if it comes out in Winter 2013. I honestly wonder what they have been doing for the last half year since the E3 and Gamescon presentations. I mean, yeah, Ivan and Martin injail, etc, but if that delays your project so much, you've been doing something really wrong.