All Ubisoft games getting new DRM

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Steam almost seems like a solution to all of these problems, but even with Steam, I feel more like I am paying a flat rate for a long term subscription, rather than actually buying a game (since all games bought through Steam are attached to the Steam client). If PC gaming wasn't dying before, it sure is dying now.

As far as i'm aware steam have grown from 20 million to 25 million active accounts now, that's because it's killing it? At the moment games for windows live is terrible, but so was steam when it started, when steam came with Halflife 2/Counterstrike back in 2004, you could easily argue it was even worse.

 

[The ?ion]

I believe my phrasing led to that confusion. Steam is a fantastic service. In fact, most of my games are purchased through Steam (I was a bit excited when I first decided to use the program). But I do feel that it has not fully eluded the problems that digital distribution face. In fact, it is in the EULA that you don't own any game you "buy" on Steam. You in fact are subsribing to it for an indefinite period of time.

For all intents and purposes, you do "own" the games you buy, but legally, you really don't. You pay for the right to install a game so long as Steam is available. That to me, will always be a problem. When you buy a physical copy, you can do whatever you want outside of sell, lease or reproduce. Otherwise, you can install it however many times on however many machines you feel like (or at least you used to be able to).

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

I see what you are saying, it's a fair point to make.
Personally, I don't believe steam is going anywhere soon though and generally see Valve as a very customer friendly company, I'd trust them enough not to screw over it's user-base.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

As far as i'm aware steam have grown from 20 million to 25 million active accounts now, that's because it's killing it? At the moment games for windows live is terrible, but so was steam when it started, when steam came with Halflife 2/Counterstrike back in 2004, you could easily argue it was even worse.

True. There was a period after HL 2 auto-installed Steam on my computer that I never touched it except to run Valve's games. It lasted a pretty long time, too, like a year or two. I rediscovered Steam later, after Valve whipped it into shape and made it a fantastic digital distribution/game management vehicle.

 

[The ?ion]

I see what you are saying, it's a fair point to make.
Personally, I don't believe steam is going anywhere soon though and generally see Valve as a very customer friendly company, I'd trust them enough not to screw over it's user-base.

Before I bought any titles on Steam, I dis some serious research. The popular consensus is that Valve would release patches to make all games function without having to log onto steam servers. That is the only reason I bought it. But, I prefer to err on the side of caution.

 

[Coca Cola Duracell Franklin.]

I cannot stop buying games off of Steam.