PC gaming alive and kicking

[john2gr]

Στην Dice πριν από λίγες μέρες μίλησε ο Gabe Newell, founder της Valve. Είναι από τις λίγες φορές που ένας developer επιτέλους παραδέχτηκε ότι οι DRM προστασίες αυξάνουν στην ουσία την πειρατία. Επίσης οι "weekend" προσφορές που κάνει μέσω του Steam είναι τόσο ελκιστικές που είδαν μέχρι και 3000% καλύτερες πωλήσεις στο Left4Dead (ξεπερνώντας έτσι ακόμα και το launch day τους). Anyway, ορίστε το keynote από το G4TV

 

This year at DICE Gabe Newell, the founder and managing director of Valve Software, will be delivering the keynote address. The ballroom is rapidbly filling up, but I've got an amazing seat and can't wait to hear Gabe's remarks. I'm a huge fan of Valve.

 

Responsible for the Half-Life series, the revival of Team Fortress, Portal, and Left 4 Dead, Valve is one of the few studios that consistently releases amazing work. Their Steam digitial distribution service is already the leader in digital sales with more publishers flocking to the service every month.

 

Hopefully, he'll announce a release date (that they'll break anyway) for Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Better yet, how about Half-Life 2: Episode 33 1/3 with Leslie Nielson. Move over, Alyx!

 

We're getting started soon so keep checking back for glorious live blogitude.

 

6:01 PM - The keynote is officially 1 minute late. Jeez. Valve can't even ship a keynote on time!

 

6:04 PM - I just got word that Gabe's beta speech was stolen from the green room and it wasn't very polished. He's hard at work refining his speech and we expect to kick off around "when it's done."

 

There are some Sony people behind me discussing the Killzone 2 release date. Even at industry events I can't escape "February 27th!!!!"

 

6:13 PM - Lights are officially dimmed and we're kicking off. Joseph Olin, President of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, is doing the general introduction to the Summit, which is now officially kicked off.

 

6:19 PM - Time for Gabe. Here he is! His topic: "Entertainment as a Service" I'm guessing a lot of this will be focused on Steam and Valve's direct relationship to their customers through the service.

 

 

Gabe beileves the old way of entertainment: indirect customer relationships, product orientation. Now, the new way of entertainment: direct customer relationships, service orientation. Valve aims to touch their customers in some way every three weeks, not every three years when a new game is shipped.

 

Through this perspective, Gabe and Valve have observed the following:

 

• 30-year old songs with a little service (Rock Band, Guitar Hero) generate huge profits
  
• Pirates are ahead not just on price, but on service
  
• DRM appears to increase, not decrease piracy
  
• Privacy and transparency
  
• Shrinking distance to customer empowers content creators
  

 

Gabe doesn't believe that pirates are really seeking to get things for free. They are people that spend thousands on their PC's and internet service. He believes that pirates are beating companies on service. He cites TV shows not available in certain parts of the world. Pirates have TV shows up on the web minutes after they are finished airing.

 

6:26 PM - DRM decreases service value for customers. It also makes pirated copies of games look more appealing. Anecdotal evidence appears to suggest that DRM is increasing and not decreasing piracy.

 

As far as privacy goes, Gabe believes that people are willing to give up system and personal information if they feel it's being used to get a better service. Steam's hardware survey is an example of this. Rather than spying on users for nefarious reasons, Gabe believes things like their hardware survey helps them do a better job selling products and service. As long as companies are transparent, he feels that customers will accept this.

 

As far as the shrinking distance between Valve and their customers, Valve didn't find any service in existence so they made their own: Steam.

 

6:30 PM - Gabe thinks that the movie industry would benefit from incremental products. Toy Story 1.1! Just make the graphics better!

 

Steam stats time:

 

• 20 million people connected
  
• All major PC publishers on board
  
• 350+ of the best PC games
  
• Worldwide in 21 languages
  
• 100% Year-over-year growth since 2004
  

 

There are competitors, but they are all trying to do the same thing. These include services like Games for Windows Live, Direct2Drive, iPhone App Store, Stardock Impulse. Gabe was very modest and didn't mention that Steam is wildly more successful than any of the other services, but that's why he's giving the keynote. No need to brag.

 

From a customer's perspective, they want things like: portability of content and files, anti-cheating, auto-updating & version control, new games, old games, indie games, 24/7 availability, and community tools. Yep, Steam has all of those. I still think the groups need an upgrade, but they are definitely functional enough to get the job done.

 

6:35 PM - From a business perspective, developers and publishers want: piracy protection, keeping customers current with the latest version, direct communication to customers for marketing and promotion, instant sales and promotional performance data, and being able to take advantage of new business models like DLC, subscriptions, and micro-transactions.

 

6: 40 PM - With Team Fortress 2, Valve shipped the game as a service and not a product. Valve uses "updates" to create more value for their customers. Updates can be bug fixes, new achievements, maps, and unlocks. There have been 63 updates to Team Fortress 2 since its release. Also, why the PC version is so much better than the Xbox 360 version.

 

Now, Gabe talks about how important web content creators and blog writers are for the future of games. It brings a tear to my eye! They'll be able to help market products with authority and knowledge.

 

Gabe brings up an excellent point that successful entertainment companies will realize that fans of properties like the property and not the specific product. They are Harry Potter fans, not just fans of the books. The team that's making the TF2 character videos (which are awesome!) are going to be working on comics.

 

Now he's going showing the Sniper short film. Yay, I get to laugh all over again!

 

"It works because the people that built that are the same people that built the game."

 

6:46 PM - Valve has been using their existing customers to gain new customers. "There's no way to go into Circuit City, to pick on the dead" and get a free weekend. Ouch, Gabe. Ouch.

 

Valve has seen a great turnaround rate on guest passes. Friends invite their friends to play a game they already own. Game invites that also walk a gamer through a purchase process are also effective.

 

Time to look at the sales of Team Fortress 2 to see the impact of the updates on revenue. Holy s#!%. The sales spike by huge amounts everytime there's a sale or major update. Steam sales went up 106% after a free update. Player minutes went up by 105%. Gifting has thrown a 71% sales increase. Surprisingly, sales from retail stores also went up by 28%. Finally, they saw 75% increase in new users. Knock knock. Who's there? Steam. Steam who? Steam is so successful it hurts.

 

6:51 PM - Price changes in the retail world don't allow a lot of freedom. Steam and other services offer flexability. In fact, users apparently respond to pricing discounts within five minutes.

 

Valve was afraid that too many price changes would "confuse and anger" customers. It isn't the case.

 

Last weekend, Valve decided to do an experiment with Left 4 Dead. Last weekend's sale resulted in a 3000% increase over relatively flat numbers. They sold more last weekend than when they launched the game. WOW. That is unheard of in this industry. They beat their launch sales. Also, they snagged a 1600% increase in new customers to Steam over the baseline.

 

Worried retailers, fear not. The weekend sale didn't canabalize sales from retail. In fact, they remained constant. Well, constant isn't a 3000% increase, but it's still pretty good, right?

 

6:56 PM - Looking at a third-party game, they saw increases of 36,000% with a weekend sale. Oh. Em. Gee. Okay, Gabe is starting to convince me that PC at retail is going to die very soon.

 

Oh, more data. I'm such a data nerd. Here's some data!

 

During the Holiday sales:

 

• 10% sale = 35% increase in sales (real dollars, not units shipped)
  
• 25% sale = 245% increase in sales
  
• 50% sale = 320% increase in sales
  
• 75% sale = 1470% increase in sales
  

 

At 75% off, they are making 15% more money than they were at full price.

 

Conclusion time, digital distribution is a game changer the same way that:

 

• VHS to DVD to Netflix
  
• Vinyl to CD to iTunes
  
• Paperback to Tape to Kindle
  

 

Entertainment as a service and not just a product certainly has its merits. Unfortunately, this model isn't going to work for console games as the bandwidth required to send a 7.8GB game across the pipes just isn't feasable yet.

 

Talk is over! GG, Gabe.

 

[chek2fire]

Νομίζω η valve έχει πιάσει το νόημα της καταπολέμησης της πειρατείας και αυτό είναι το multiplayer που έχουν όλα τα game της. Θα διαφωνίσω ότι η πειρατεία είναι αποτέλεσμα των συστημάτων προστασίας που υπάρχουν στα game. Για μένα είναι καθαρά οικονομικό το θέμα. Ακόμα και τα 20 euro φαίνονται υπέρογκα για τους πιτσιρικάδες και στην τελική γιατί να δώσει λεφτά κάποιος για κάτι που μπορεί να το κατεβάσει με δύο κλικ.

[FocusX]

Για μένα το pc gaming είναι νεκρό και δεν το έχει καν καταλάβει. Ελάχιστοι τίτλοι βγαίνουν πλέον με έμφαση στο PC. Οι PC gamers παίρνουν εδώ και καιρό από κάκιστα μέχρι απλά αξιοπρεπή ports από τις κονσόλες και αυτό ήταν. Γιατί άραγε ψάχνουμε παιχνίδια που υποστηρίζουν DX10 με τα κυάλια;

Ένας σημαντικός λόγος που συμβαίνουν αυτά είναι η πειρατεία αλλά όχι ο μόνος...

[john2gr]

Αν τα ports είναι σαν αυτά της Capcom τότε πραγματικά χαλάλι. Όσο για τα exclusives... Reasons why it's worth to be a PC gamer 2009 . Αν μη τι άλλο η γκάμα είναι τεράστια (και όχι μόνο για ένα είδος)

 

PS: Κι από τα Multiplatforms με μια γρήγορη ματιά που έριξα το Project Offset έχει κύρια πλατφόρμα την PC (η Intel θα προσπαθήσει να προωθήσει έτσι το Larabee), όπως και το ArmA2. Βαριέμαι να κοιτάω για τα υπόλοιπα (αν και δεν πρέπει να ξεχνάμε ότι και τα demonstrations του Alan Wake είχαν γίνει με PCs)

[LuxJaja]

το 2009 θα είναι μία ωραία εποχή

[FocusX]

Παρότι αρκετά απο τη λίστα των exclusives με ενδιαφέρουν κι εμένα, τα περισσότερα μεγάλα χαρτιά είναι στη λίστα των multiplatform. Εριξα μια ματιά στη λίστα του 2008 που μπορούμε να μιλάμε με σαφή στοιχεία και δεν αναιρεί τίποτα από αυτά που είπα παραπάνω. Και από τα exclusives, η πλειοψηφία είναι παιχνίδια από μικρές/ανεξάρτητες εταιρείες.

 

Food for thought:http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_1.html

Μεγάλο άρθρο αλλά αξίζει την ανάγνωση (κυρίως οι σελίδες 5 & 6 για αυτά που έθιξα)

[Thresh]

Για μένα το pc gaming είναι νεκρό και δεν το έχει καν καταλάβει. Ελάχιστοι τίτλοι βγαίνουν πλέον με έμφαση στο PC. Οι PC gamers παίρνουν εδώ και καιρό από κάκιστα μέχρι απλά αξιοπρεπή ports από τις κονσόλες και αυτό ήταν. Γιατί άραγε ψάχνουμε παιχνίδια που υποστηρίζουν DX10 με τα κυάλια;

Ένας σημαντικός λόγος που συμβαίνουν αυτά είναι η πειρατεία αλλά όχι ο μόνος...

 

imho το ότι συμβαίνουν αυτά δεν σημαίνει ότι το pc gaming είναι νεκρό...

[HellasVagabond]

Αν δεν πεσουν οι τιμες των παιχνιδιων στα 20ε δεν θα υπαρξει ανοδος ποτε. Προσπαθησαν να κανουν μια αλλαγη με το Direct2Drive αλλα και παλι οι τιμες ειναι οι ιδιες οπως να παρεις ενα παιχνιδι απο ενα μαγαζι. Αν δειτε στο νεο Burnout Paradise υπαρχουν EVGA διαφημισεις στον δρομο, και παλι ομως η τιμη του δεν ειναι μικρη.

[FocusX]

imho το ότι συμβαίνουν αυτά δεν σημαίνει ότι το pc gaming είναι νεκρό...

 

για απάντηση θα χρησιμοποιήσω πάλι το προηγούμενο άρθρο:

 

The problem with the simplistic 'PC gaming is dying/thriving' dichotomy is that it completely excludes the possibility that PC gaming is changing, and not necessarily for the better. As we've seen in this article, the evidence points to the fact that as PC piracy becomes more and more rampant on the platform, games companies have been doing two things: migrating to less piracy-prone platforms; and also adjusting business models to try to capitalize on the remaining strong points of the PC platform, which happen to be in the online-only area. PC gaming will continue to grow, as the PC Gaming Alliance is constantly eager to point out with their vague statistics for example, but that growth is likely to be at the expense of certain genres and types of games. Cevat Yerli of Crytek explains the situation much more succinctly, and with much greater authority than I could:

 

At the end of the day, I think our message is if you're a PC gamer, and you really want to respect the platform, then you should stop pirating. We will see less and less games appearing on the PC, or less and less games pushing the boundaries of PC gaming. Or, in other words, speaking in terms of PC exclusivity ...if the situation continues like this or gets worse, I think we would only consider PC exclusive titles that are either online or multiplayer and no more single-player.

 

So if you enjoy single player games for example, then you're faced with the very real possibility that fewer and fewer developers will risk investing large sums of money into this type of game. If they do, then instead of a lengthy and high quality gameplay experience, you may be looking at shorter, less challenging games which may be less than satisfying. Or you may wind up with more poor quality console ports. Furthermore, all major single player games are virtually guaranteed to be protected by some form of online-based DRM to try to at least reduce the massive piracy during the critical initial sales period.

 

Alternatively if you enjoy multiplayer games, then you may find that if the number of unofficial pirated servers for such games continues to grow, and the tools to find and join such servers become more popular, that this will tip the scale towards more and more multiplayer games being created in the Battlefield Heroes mold: cheaply developed, free to play, low-spec quality, designed for the lowest common denominator of online gamer, with little focus on actual skill and more on simply making the game as attractive as possible to anyone who can operate a PC keyboard.

 

Κατά τη δική μου άποψη, αυτή η αλλαγή που περιγράφει παραπάνω σηματοδοτεί και το θάνατο του pc gaming. Αλλά σε τελική ανάλυση το πως το ονομάζω δεν έχει σημασία, όπως και να το πει κανείς είναι κάτι που με στενοχωρεί

[LuxJaja]

play.com και όλα τα games 30 ευρά (χε) και τα limited edition 50 με δωρεάν έξοδα αποστολής και το pc gaming ζει!!!

[Bigi444444]

Για μένα το πρόβλημα δεν είναι η τιμή και έιμαι κάθετος σε αυτό...

Είναι η δυνατότητα που έχεις να το πάρεις τσάμπα χωρίς συνέπειες, εύκολα, γρήγορα και αποτελεσματικά.Στις κονσόλες για να μην έχεις (σχεδόν δηλαδή) αυτή τη δυνατότητα τα σκας άμα θες να δοκιμάσεις το γλυκό.Γι αυτό και μουφοπαίχνιδα πουλάνε εκατομμύρια όταν τίτλοι για pc με ποιότητα πάνε άπατοι.Και γι αυτό είναι λογικό οι devs να στρέφονται στις κονσόλες.Και καλά κάνουν κατ' εμέ.Είμαστε για πολλά χαστούκια εμείς οι pc gamers.

Πάντως χαίρομαι γιατί βλέπω πως τελευταία έχουν πέσει αισθητά οι τιμές στα μεγάλα καταστήματα (σ' αυτά έχω κοιτάξει τουλάχιστον).

[HellasVagabond]

50 ειναι παρα πολλα....Θυμαμαι το 96-97 που διναμε 13.000δρχ και λεγαμε πως ηταν πανακριβα και τωρα λεμε για 18.000δρχ.....Αντι να πεσουν ανεβηκαν.

[Bigi444444]

Ναι, όντως.50 είναι πολλά.Γι αυτό τα κονσολοπαίχνιδα που κάνουν 70 και είναι φθηνά πουλάνε πολλαπλάσια, ακόμα και οι ίδιοι τίτλοι...

[FocusX]

Η τιμή είναι ένα απο τα προβλήματα, οι τίτλοι που πραγματικά αξίζουν πουλάνε έτσι κι αλλιώς αλλά και με το παράδειγμα του L4D είδαμε ότι πούλησε καλύτερα από το launch! Και με την κρίση που νιώθουμε όλο και περισσότεροι και βαθύτερα στο πετσί μας, η τιμή γινεται σημαντικότερος ακόμα παράγοντας

[HellasVagabond]

Ναι, όντως.50 είναι πολλά.Γι αυτό τα κονσολοπαίχνιδα που κάνουν 70 και είναι φθηνά πουλάνε πολλαπλάσια, ακόμα και οι ίδιοι τίτλοι...

 

Ξεχνας ομως πως για μια κονσολα τυπου PS3 δινεις 300-400ε και την κρατας για 5 χρονια εφοσον οι απαιτησεις δεν αλλαζουν.....Κανε το ιδιο και με ενα PC αν μπορεις.