New inteview on BOB SOW from Oleg Dec 29,2010

[Heliocon]

Originally Posted by philip.ed

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.

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.