fastyxx said:
Scoobes said:
fastyxx said:
4. Steam is a store and a store only. The price for their bandwidth is included in the pricing of their games. Simiar to Live, their social features, like friends and acheievements, are set up only so that you feel almost obligated to use their retail portal so that they can be a dominant retailer of digital downloads. You are paying per download in the price of each game versus a subscription fee.
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You must have used Steam in 2005...
Welcome to 2012, where Steam isn't only a Store but a full blown online service with all the services (plus a few extra) offered by X-box Live and PSN:
http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/gameservices.php
You can add to that list cloud storage for storing saved games (up to 100mb per game)
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You're missing the point. The only reason they HAVE those features is so that you'll buy all your product in the one integrated space. They make their money by being your store - the community and social functions and cloud storage and the like are solely there so that you'll buy all your digital downloads in one place. Versus a Live, where it serves that purposebut also must entice you to buy the console and the accessories and invest in the brand enough to buy the next console, and to tie you to bing and windows, etc. etc. It goes so far beyond just the simpler goals of Steam.
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Yes, because MS gets no money from the millions of map packs, DLC, and full blown games that are sold on Live, and that's ignoring the extra revenue streams from advertising. Revenue from digital sales on Live is rapidly increasing to a point where Live is likely sustainable without the subscription (or soon will be). Even MMOs are rapidly going the free-to-play route and getting money through micro-transactions, optional purchases etc. and oddly enough many are finding that revenue has actually increased due to an increase in users.
As for the second part of your post, I'm not sure what the differing goals of Live and Steam have to do with running costs when they both have similar features.
