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JaggedSac on 03 December 2009
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vlad321 said:
JaggedSac said:

No, you are wrong.  It has a server list for each game that it provides, and most of the time the game itself provides the list.  It basically just launches and validates games.  Other than that there are no code level features that Steam provides developers.  Steam itself does not provide servers for any games other than possibly Valve ones.  Even then, the number of people playing at the same time is absolutely paltry compared to Live. CoD MW2 on Steam and Counter Strike, the two most popular games on Steam as of now, are currently having peak concurrent players at around 90k per day, and even less the day CoD came out.  Live had 2 MILLION CoD4 MW2 players playing concurrently the day it came out.  Steam is a great source of digital distribution, but as a gaming portal, it is just that, a portal.  It provides developers and customers no ubiqutous services between games.  It might have some hacked get around for friends lists and such, but it cannot provide the platform level of features that Live has.

It doesn't provide PC developers with a ubiqutous method for providing online play functionality.  It provides customers an easy way to browse server lists and download games.

 

So I ask, does LIVE actually provide the servers? Are those L4D2 servers Valve's or are they Microsoft's? Also you have to realize that there are many many more gamers that don't even TOUCH on steam to play their online games just fine. Also, the server browse lsists are easily fixed by a Master List Server which is actually quite simple to run since all they do is store data of servers other people out there have. Also I don't know how much simpler you want as an end-user than to click multiplayer and click browser and click on a game. Like... does LIVE also wipe your ass in the process? Cause I must have missed that feature. For easy download, get Steam.

Yes, MS provides servers to handle the matchmaking and an SDK to utilize their matchmaking service with a P2P online system.  This is so full retail, Arcade, and XNA developers can create online experiences and not foot the bill for dedicated servers for anything.  I am not talking about simplicity, I am speaking of ubiquity.  Steam as a platform will never be ubiquitous because it is on PC.  If a game is developed for 360, you are garaunteed a set of services/features that are available at the OS level.  In order for a party system to be implemented on PC, all games would need to have a similar feature in order for an outside service to get the party from game to game.  Or some similarly hacked solution.  You might not like that ubiquity between games, but I find it very nice.  Also, having a single profile between all games with these ubiquitous features is quite nice as well.