Steam: Doomed to fail?

For years now, Steam has dominated PC gaming. It is an incredibly popular service, with millions of users. Steam, and its creator Valve, are seen to be consumer-friendly, which gives them an aura of invincibility. This is not the case. Steam is vulnerable, and its time could be over.

An online platform where you can find most games quickly and easily is undoubtedly a positive. However, Steam takes this idea too far. There are now too many games on Steam, with many more added daily. Seemingly, any game can access steam as long as it has the backing of a developer. You may be asking, why is this a problem? The answer is because it is now difficult to easily tell what is a good game. With this large amount of games, it is impossible to quickly discern what is good and what is trash. This could mean people buying awful games, being completely unaware, and thus becoming disenfranchised with the platform.

Day One: Garry’s Incident is just one of many Steam games that have failed to meet expectation. Photo: dayonegame.com

Linked to this is the idea of quality control. Steam desperately needs it. Thanks to a lack of quality control, the amount of simply atrocious games that are allowed on Steam is ridiculous. Games like Day One: Garry’s Incident are so shoddy and broken that they do not deserve to be on the platform, yet they are, and despite many complaints, are still being sold for actual money, which is frankly ridiculous, and to be honest, an insult to the consumer. With quality control, games like this are not allowed to spread their rubbish to the consumer, and the Steam platform is better for it.

However, this highlights another issue with Steam. It apparently takes a ridiculous amount for a game to be pulled from the platform. Valve owns Steam, therefore they have the right to remove games. However, they really don’t use this enough. Completely broken games can stay on Steam, which is unfair. (Many try to hide behind Early Access, which is not an excuse.)

Even developers whose behaviour is appalling are allowed to stay. Games such as The Slaughtering Grounds and Day One: Garry’s Incident are on the platform, even when the developers have attacked critics on YouTube, such as Total Biscuit and Jim Sterling with fake copyright claims, AND have also been removing negative reviews, in a desperate attempt to trick the consumer.

Paranautical Activity, a game pulled from the Steam store. Photo: code avarice.com

There is proof of this, yet Steam allows them to continue. However, Paranautical Activity was pulled immediately when one of its developers tweeted a faux death threat about Gabe Newell. Whilst I do not condone this attitude, it does seem a bit unfair. Be a horrible developer who attacks critics, you can stay; send a faux death threat to Gabe Newell, say goodbye to Steam forever.

Steam also has some very anti-consumer policies, specifically their returns policy. Their view is essentially that you are renting the game, which is just ridiculous. It is an outdated approach, and to add to the ridiculousness, EA Origin DOES have a returns policy. Yes, EA, a typically anti-consumer company (“cough” Dungeon Keeper Mobile “cough”), who have been voted the worst company in America on several occasions, have a returns policy. When EA are more consumer friendly than you, you know you have serious problems.

Overall, these problems are damaging Steam. A once respected platform is now being viewed with ever more distrust, and it is frankly earning it. If it does not change its ways soon, it will be overtaken by its competition, namely GOG, and then, thanks to their own mistakes, the age of Steam will be over. [divider_top]

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