Steam just reached 5 million concurrent users.

P

Prime Operative

First time out of the vault
So, Steam has just managed to reach the amazing feat of having over 5 million people playing at the same time :)

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/01/03/steam-hits-five-million-concurrent-players/

And here are the Steam stat pages -> http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

Obviously, as stated in the article, the Christmas Sale probably had a lot to do with it. Myself, I was kind of expecting this sooner or later.

With the adition of Mac support to Steam and the fact that I'm starting to see some new players actually prefering the PC to consoles for several reasons, if seemed obvious that the good old computer would see some increased sales sooner or later.

However, the biggest factor, I think, are the wonders of digital distribution; especially the discounts and the easy access to the product.

Add to that the fact that you can also get some great independent titles that would normally never fall into your hands.

So, what do you guys think? It's probably way too early to tell, but could this be the beggining of a new golden age of pc gaming?

An age where most developers actually take the time to make some decent ports?
 
The new golden age of PC gaming started over a year ago, a lot of it is Steam, disappointingly much of it is casual/free-to-play gunk. PC is back on top since some time.

This Steam benchmark is fun but not particularly meaningful.
 
Brother None said:
The new golden age of PC gaming started over a year ago, a lot of it is Steam, disappointingly much of it is casual/free-to-play gunk. l.
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Because liking things you dislike is wrong
 
Sabirah said:
Because liking things you dislike is wrong
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Most of it is poorly designed, overpriced and the F2P model is more often than not, bad for consumers, specifically dedicated customers.
 
Brother None said:
This Steam benchmark is fun but not particularly meaningful.
Click to expand...

Especially because most of those numbers are just people with steam running in the background.
 
I won't touch this program with a hot knife still.. Bloating up my computer in the background, (some games) need internet running all the time, or need the internet to activate the game, buying over Steam doesn't even give me a physical copy with a nice box, manual etc to store in my shelf.. No, thank you. Though it's good that thanks to the program, PC gaming comes a bit back to life.
 
"Bloating up my computer" that's a bit of a hyperbole unless you are using a very old computer you won't even notice Steam running in the background.
Perhaps that was a problem in the early days of the program.

The games that require "internet running all the time" also require internet running all the time when you install them from a dvd. I would agree that games on Steam shouldn't have extra DRM though.
 
I'm using a 9-10 year old computer for gaming (new one didn't arrive yet and i'ts doubtful I'll clutter it with games when I can play all my favorite ones on the old PC just fine) and every bit of additional program running in the background is noticable on performance. Also, it's the principle that matters, why am I required to install additional programs that I don't want on my computer just to play a game? I rather don't play a game instead of supporting such a clusterfuck...

Don't get me wrong, it's good that Steam helps to bring back PC gaming a bit and I don't judge people using it, it's just that I'm maybe a bit too old fashioned to use such a program.
 
Surf Solar said:
...why am I required to install additional programs that I don't want on my computer just to play a game?
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It's a sweet business model, becoming a middle-man where none is needed.
 
I consider steam pretty useful. Non-physical copies of games are a lot easier to keep track of when moving around a lot and switching computers. I don't need to keep backups either.

All the awesome steam sales aren't too shabby either :D
 
Surf Solar said:
I rather don't play a game instead of supporting such a clusterfuck...
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Exactly my thoughts. I'm not going to install some 3rd party malware in order to play games, especially when I'm paying full price for a gaming licence already.
 
UniversalWolf said:
Surf Solar said:
...why am I required to install additional programs that I don't want on my computer just to play a game?
Click to expand...
It's a sweet business model, becoming a middle-man where none is needed.
Click to expand...
Steam provides far less "middle men" than normal sales does, ye know...

Anyway, Steam generally does more good than bad for most games, so I don't mind.
 
Retail:

Developer - Publisher - Distributor - Retailer

Plus transport.

Steam Mainstream:

Developer - Publisher - Steam

Steam Indie:

Developer - Steam
 
Steam and DD have been nothing but good for developers in general, especially indies on PC, and as long as you're a smart consumer, you'll find yourself spending a lot less for significantly more games, since digital download allows much more wild and easy-to-find sales. There's no advantage to buying/pre-ordering new games, but otherwise, DD has been an enormous boon to developers, publishers and consumers alike.

Hard to complain about this stuff, even if it comes with hefty DRM (and sometimes doubles up on DRM, though often enough it doesn't).
 
Steam is Pc gaming practically. It can be irritating, but I agree with BN, it is good news. I still think it's funny when people say Pc gaming is dead. Steam can be an intrusive program, but overall they are doing good things for the industry. More power to them.
 
Steam is incredibly convenient. Sure I like GOG the most of all digital distributors, but steam...such a convenience.

All games in one place downloadable from anywhere on any PC, ingame overlay, friends, steam cloud, screenshots, forums...

Valve built something amazing, everyone told them to go fuck themselves in the beginning, so they went and created something nobody else did, and now they rightfully rule PC gaming.

And as long as they keep innovating, they will deserve the success.

It helps that their games are universally great too.
 
Kilus said:
Retail:

Developer - Publisher - Distributor - Retailer
Click to expand...

Order directly from developer/publisher?

Digital copies are insufficient. That's why the first thing I do whenever I buy one (which is seldom) is burn a hard copy. Still, nothing beats a boxed hard copy with a paper manual, and nothing ever will.

The games industry is built on a cornerstone of consumer impatience. Digital downloads are the latest exploit of that impatience. It's all leading to something worse, trust me. It's a foot-in-the-door for the Diablo 3 model.

Reminds me of a digital Wal-Mart. All the same arguments apply.

EDIT--The most collectible game box there is, as far as I know:

http://gallery.guetech.org/suspended_mask/suspended-mask.html

Most of them were destroyed because the molded plastic faces were so fragile.
 
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