Surely Steam only-sales would only be marketed towards people that know about the game? If new customers are wanted, then it's best to hit the shops so that they can see it and buy it.

That only shows something in their distribution is wrong - getting such a high discount should be impossible.

I've never bought anything by steam if not as a special offer.

But in this period I've spent 120€ in 10€ and 5€ games... most of those are simply fantastic.

I will never have the time to play them all...

+1, live in portugal myself to, and im afraid spain will not be enough, since its hard to find it in spain to, or so i've read.

off we fo to france mate, split the gass i say

Have you guys ever heard of ebay?

And there online retailers, I mean, wtf? What is the problem?

Steam is a very good marketing tool; the likelihood that PC gamers who never heard about SoW will notice it there is probably higher than in a shop where it's hidden behind the console section amongst World of Warcraft, The Sims and a few console ports. Even more so in the US where few shops still sell any PC games at all, and where retails space often has to be rented by the publishers.

Bit of an academic discussion though as boxed versions will of course be available.

Steam is great, most of the games I have came through Steam however, they are usually about a day or two behind on patching and sometimes the games you download from them versus a hard copy differ slightly in some of the files (il-2 for instance) and not that it has anything to do with SoW but they also sell games that for one reason or other have no support or are missing online features at full price. If you download a game from there it likely wont be something you can simply "burn to disc" and reinstall it from there.

I like Steam a lot. I prefer it over any other distribution method. UBI is probably the publisher; I hope they won't force the 'must be online for single player' stuff and just settle for the Steam DRM, which is OK by me.

I once find the game 1946 in a store a few kilometers from Madrid, in Media Markt. but i bought mine in Lisbon, GAME store in colombo, payd 49,99€, still have the receipt in the game box. I prefere the phisical game, would consider a tripp to spain, but france is a little of my limit$$$ :)
Ya, we split the gas, he he!

A quick reply to this and about steam: No one buys computer games in shops anymore (no one being the majority of gamers by far). Not only is it hard to find pc games in shops, none of them stock news games either and most of the stuff on the shelf is old software that hasnt sold yet. PC retailing is dead.

Steam on the other hand just passed the 30million member mark, I have atleast $1500 worth or more of games on steam based on standard price, but most bought during steam sales where $40 games go for $4, I havent spent more then a couple of hundred on software max, never going to get around to playing it all either.
The reason COD:BO is priced high on steam is because if they sell it cheaper on steam, retailers like gamestop feel undermined by them and will not stock their games. Therefor the publishers/devs especially for console games (not much for pc anymore) have to sell them at standard prices (yet still give occasional awesome discounts).

Also bear in mind: Steam brings online security and reduces piracy to an extent while it is much simpler, versatile and useful then other DRM (which it is) but it is also a shop, patcher and community hub etc.
Steam also opens up a massive audience for devs, they dont have to pay for packaging and shipping of physical game copies which is alot of overhead especially from Russia. So for much less capital they can access a huge audience worldwide. Steam and other online providers are PC gamings future. Edit: Also bear in mind steams integration provides: Forums, steam and 1C, auto patching and hot fixes, integrated ingame browser and news updates, MP support, advertising (of course), impulse buying potential (ooo this lookes interesting! Click, cart, confirm = download!) as well as the games page with screenshots, trailers etc.