Digital Distribution and the Quest for Competition

Over the last week there's been a lot of talk about Microsoft bringing Quantum Break to PC but being exclusive to their new digital distribution system that they are working on for Windows 10. With that, there has been a huge uproar with the usual "If it's not on Steam, I'm not buying it!" argument making the rounds. This got me thinking about competition in the digital space for PC gaming, how publishers are approaching it, and how consumers are absorbing it.

For all of the different companies trying their hand at digital store fronts there isn't a whole lot of tangible competition. It's more about various publishers at the very least wanting to reap 100% of the money from digital sales of their own games, so they make something like Origin or Uplay and either move all new releases to their distribution platform or make it a requirement to actually run their games. Instead of entering with the idea of making a brilliant storefront that people will want to flock to for pretty much anything that is available there, they take the shortsighted view that since they have some multi million selling hits, why not just sell the games themselves and cut out the middleman, aka Steam.

Origin has been around for almost five years now and the only good thing I can think of that they've ever done with their store is introduce a refund policy. They introduced it in the summer of 2013, which was surprising as they were beating a lot of other services to the punch, even GOG, which is usually ahead of the curve on this sort of thing. It was an important move too because in time other places started implementing similar policies. GOG started offering refunds by the end of 2013 and last year Steam began doing the same.

This is how competition is supposed to work. In a marketplace one company in an industry will start doing something, then others in the sector will catch whiff of it, and if it's a genuinely good idea they will begin doing something similar. Unfortunately, one is hard pressed to find much else that either Electronic Arts or Ubisoft have brought to the table that has positively impacted digital distribution in PC gaming. Granted, EA does have their subscription service for Origin getting underway, which could have some potential, but it's still early days so we'll have to give it some time to do its thing first.

With that, it's hard not to get cynical about Microsoft's impending return to PC gaming for the umpteenth time, with an earnest expression on their face that this time, this time, they're serious about it. First, we're already at the Fooled Me Once part of their foray into digital distribution with Games for Windows, so the company is already skating on thin ice. Second, it's quite obvious that this will be no different than UPlay or Origin in terms of what they want to do: make a storefront to sell their own stuff. And that's exactly what is going to happen. At best, people will go there to get games like Quantum Break and other first party titles (muttering under there breath about needing to make yet another username and password for yet another digital service) then proceeding to march right back to Steam, GOG, Green Man Gaming, and the like for everything else because these big studios haven't figured out how to make an actual storefront for the medium as a whole, but rather a vehicle for strong arming people into buying their own games on their own platform.

As obnoxious as Steam fanboyism can be at times, it isn't without good cause. Valve didn't just cobble together a mechanism for selling Team Fortress, Half Life, Counter Strike, and the like. They made a service that has features people like and want to use, adding more and more each year. This is why people like them so much and continue to flock there. Electronic Arts and Ubisoft haven't given us good enough of a reason to switch to them.

GOG is about the closest thing to a service that offers any form of competition to Steam, and even then it is much, much smaller. Their DRM-free games area a big draw for people who appreciate that sort of thing (like me!), but at the same time that is probably one of the biggest things holding them back from expanding their library more rapidly, as I wouldn't be surprised if some publishers withhold there games from GOG specifically because of this. In the end, though, at least it's an example of a company trying to make a store where people come because it's a good store, not because it's the only place where a certain game can be purchased.

Until places like EA, Ubisoft, and now Microsoft start doing this as well, instead of it being a greedy way to maximize profits on their own games, true competition in PC gaming digital distribution will remain thin on the ground. Companies need to convince people to use their services, not coerce them.