Randy Pitchford doesn't trust Valve

Has anyone else seen this on Gamespot? Randy Pitchford raises some interesting points about competition and Valve's market control through Steam that I'd never previously thought about.  I can definitely see how Valve could unfairly exploit competitors using Steam, but I don't see how other dgital distribution companies can catch up; perhaps legal restrictions should be placed on Steam to promote competition.
Opinions?
 

 I have no idea why he all of a sudden started this campaign against Valve's business practices. It's like all of us rallying behind K-mart because Walmart does it better. Direct2Drive straight up sucks compared to Steam. Steam does what Steam does better than any other, and their weekly deals are great. Steam upholds a high level of quality with their client, and I'm sure Valve cares if a game they sell doesn't get the proper support from the developers. I just can't think of any scenario in my experiences with Steam where I felt they were doing anything "wrong". It's always been a situation where they were the only ones doing what everyone else was supposed to be doing: consolidating the PC platform into one service and doing it with quality. The "deals" are just icing on the cake. Great icing I do say. I think it's utterly comical for Pitchford to say Steam is a "conflict of interest" because Valve is also a developer. Valve is one of the only quality developers left that still has a strong foundation on the PC Platform because they actually care about the PC Platform. Gearbox started out how? Porting Brothers in Arms games from PS2 to PC? And they really care about the PC Platform? hahahaha. Borderlands will probably go on to sell enough console copies that Randy "Moral High Ground" Pitchford can safely release it on the PC. But do you really think he has loyalty to the PC Platform like Valve does? Seriously?

 @PeasForFees:  How does steam overcharge? When they typically have a sale going on with games being half off or come in a package deal.

Are you seriously going to tell me that in an age where people were bitching, and STILL bitch about - WAHH WAHH WAHH - I don't have any physical media disk, I dont have a pretty box to look at, I dont know if I own any of my games wah wah wah - that people have now started bitching about how good a system Steam is, when taking into account their potential competition?
 
Let's break this down here.
 
Valve came up with the idea of steam to validate their own games. The system worked well enough that pusblishers, more and more, are starting to jump onboard because the system works, and by God it works pretty well. Fuck, Valve has sales, it was probably one of the first distribution models that I have ever seen to say, hey guys, 10% price drop this weekend only! 15% price drop if you pre-order now. That shit is just fucking awesome.
 
So now we are thinking about penalizing companies who come up with a good idea, and a rock solid business model on the grounds that they did it first, best and now their competition needs to play catch up?
 
Fuck that.
 
If another company wants my business, here's an idea. Impress me.

Just wanna say that I'm not trying to say that Valve has dirty business practices or that there's anything wrong with Steam, I love Steam it lets me buy old games that I missed (which are the only things my shitty PC can run) I just thought it was an interesting prospect and that Steam could be open to exploitation.
Also@PeasForFees: yeah I know it's not totally accurate, but it's sensationalist and catchy - The Sun school of titling.

" Are you seriously going to tell me that in an age where people were bitching, and STILL bitch about - WAHH WAHH WAHH - I don't have any physical media disk, I dont have a pretty box to look at, I dont know if I own any of my games wah wah wah - that people have now started bitching about how good a system Steam is, when taking into account their potential competition?  Let's break this down here.  Valve came up with the idea of steam to validate their own games. The system worked well enough that pusblishers, more and more, are starting to jump onboard because the system works, and by God it works pretty well. Fuck, Valve has sales, it was probably one of the first distribution models that I have ever seen to say, hey guys, 10% price drop this weekend only! 15% price drop if you pre-order now. That shit is just fucking awesome.  So now we are thinking about penalizing companies who come up with a good idea, and a rock solid business model on the grounds that they did it first, best and now their competition needs to play catch up?  Fuck that.  If another company wants my business, here's an idea. Impress me. "

Overcharged? I don't believe so. Do other sites/stores have individual sales that lower the price of games temporarily? Yes. Does Steam do the same? Yes, and a thousand times more. Most of the time you can get a game within the first week of release far cheaper then going to the store and buying a physical copy.

I wish games were cheaper. The thing is that they are at least $10 cheaper for me anyways on steam. But yes, without the costs of disks and stuff you think they would be alot cheaper then that. Still, why does everybody fucking hate Valve? It's not like the are charging more money then everybody else or something.

Steam is one of few services keeping PC gaming alive. We should probably be grateful, even if they do tend to overcharge now and then.

" I wish games were cheaper. The thing is that they are at least $10 cheaper for me anyways on steam. But yes, without the costs of disks and stuff you think they would be alot cheaper then that. Still, why does everybody fucking hate Valve? It's not like the are charging more money then everybody else or something. "

Hmmm, the sales are often good value, but the regular prices on Steam are extortionate, at least here in the UK.  There is no justification at all for Steam to be charging substantially more for a digital download than online retailers charge to have a physical copy hand-delivered to my house - they are just profiteering.
 
This is really my only concern with digitial distribution taking over.  If Steam's market position already allows them to regularly charge 20% - 30% more (despite having way less overheads), how bad will it be if/when there is no retail or online retail alternative to offer competition?
 
Of course, the same applies to the consoles if digital distribution becomes the only available option.

I use steam rarely, but I like where this guy is going, he made some good points.

I don't know what it's like in other countries, but over here I frequently see games costing more than they do in the store. At first I blamed that on the developers being greedy, but after reading this it makes me wonder just how much of a cut Valve gets from developers that distribute their games through Steam. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that Valve supplies all the servers and bandwith needed for people to download those games, and as much as I like them, I seriously doubt they are doing that for free. At the very least they'll want to break even when it comes to that stuff, and more than likely they want to make a small profit on it as well. So yea, add all the numbers up and it wouldn't surprise me if Valve took a pretty (justifiably so) cut.

Well he trusts theme enough to sell his games on their service. No one is forced to use Steam and there are already alternatives out their (Direct2Drive, Impulse etc) so I don't see how Valve are doing anything wrong by providing a good service.

Well, thankfully he's not taking this to antitrust regulators, because his emotionalism would probably be enough to assuage regulators. If he doesn't like the way Valve operates Steam, he should found his own online store, not ask Valve to run theirs his way (i.e., by spinning it off into its own company).

I respect Randy for coming out about this sort of stuff.  I don't like how some immature Giant Bomb community members always have knee jerk defensive reactions to this sort of stuff.  Mr. Pitchford's complaints are legitimate.
 
This isn't about Steam overcharging users, this is about Steam collecting more sales money than they deserve compared to the service they provide.  It's like MS or Sony licensing fees (actually it's higher from what I've heard).  Capcom complained about the same thing and that's why Bionic Commando Rearmed didn't go up on Steam right away.