What were to happen if Valve basically shut down?

[Miles]

I know it's unlikely in the foreseeable future, but what would happen if Valve dissolved. For example they went bankrupt or some new alternative made Steam Obsolete (like Netflix with Blockbuster for example) and as a result, their game file servers get removed or shutdown?

What would happen to our games? Would we lose full access to them?

Just asking out of curiosity, Again I know this probably wont happen, at least for a very, very long time.

[cinedine]

Messaggio originale di 󠀠:

http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

7. DISCLAIMERS; LIMITATION OF LIABILITY; NO GUARANTEES; LIMITED WARRANTY
C. NO GUARANTEES
NEITHER VALVE NOR ITS AFFILIATES GUARANTEE CONTINUOUS, ERROR-FREE, VIRUS-FREE OR SECURE OPERATION AND ACCESS TO STEAM, THE CONTENT AND SERVICES, YOUR ACCOUNT AND/OR YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS(S) OR ANY INFORMATION AVAILABLE IN CONNECTION THEREWITH.

Thank you for not speculating.

Maybe Wal-Mart or Exxon Mobil will buy Valve and continue services? /s

This is merely meant so people don't sue Valve for 5 minutes of downtime or when they get a virus-download link through Steam's chat. It's one of those standard liability wavers in TOSs. You will probably find the very same wording in the terms of Facebook, Spotify, Netflix and your ISP.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

If someone were thinking of loading malicious code onto Steam...

Valve is worth well in excess of one billion dollars.

The average cost of having someone killed professionally is $15,000.

Do the maths.

S.x.

[Democracy Officer 0311]

I'd be suprised if steam was around 10 years from now. I don't see it getting worse but i'm sure someone will figure out a better way to client games and sell them. that's just human nature. There's always a bigger fish.. and if there isn't one? Someone makes one.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

13 million + individual users at certain times of today. Most days Steam gets over 12 million individual users. Over the course of 24 hours that's probably 24 million users.

Steam would have to get it horrendously wrong to lose this position. Main risks: -

1) Paid mods. I'm not going to repeat what's been said before but paid mods would be damaging for Steam.
2) Owner fatigue. Gabe Newell has more personal wealth than could ever be spent in a lifetime unless you dedicated your life to spending it as fast as possible. He could walk away any time. If Steam fell into the hands of Electronic Arts or Microsoft they could destroy it.
3) Greed. Paid mods would be part of that but stopping downloads of free games where there was no significant in game purchase value could alienate a lot of people. Rental payments to keep your Steam account active. Trying to charge for patches. These sound insane but look at Microsoft - stopping your £80 Office programme from working after 365 days. Market dominance brings market abuse and a new CEO may not be as gamer friendly as Gabe.
4) Catastrophic world events. USA versus North Korea. The Ukraine. China versus the rest of Pacific rim countries over the South China sea. At least half a dozen conflicts in the Middle East. India versus Pakistan. The world has now a large number of conflicts where nuclear war could be a feasible outcome.

In the meantime Steam needs to monitor three figures: -

1) Footfall (daily visitors to Steam)
2) Total sales value in dollars
3) Percentage of total download market occupied by Steam.

Providing these figures keep going up Steam probably should just keep it steady.

To tackle the threat from competition I'd suggest Steam should consider shaving the margin on its take (no more than down to 25% at most) BUT charge publishers for all retail keys activated on Steam save an agreed number of review/ friends and family copies. This will stop competitors undercutting Steam's margins by not having to maintain servers.

Point to note - on a weekend when most of the world got hit by cyber blackmail Steam doesn't appear to have blinked.

Whilst the NSA and CIA (who apparently lost/ gave away the code that did all this - well done guys - another top notch job) have some of the top security people protecting their systems (although compared to the Bilderberg group they're a collander) Steam has probably the most experienced anti hacking people on the planet. Why ?

The USA goes bat poo if anyone breaches their security and people who do are usually dragged fom wherever they are and locked up for twenty years. As a result they don't suffer as many attacks as Steam who literally deal with thousands of hackers and cheats a day. There could be REAL money to be made by Steam by hiving off its anti hacking personnel, investing in it, and selling their services worldwide. Steam would then have the top anti hacking protection available in civil hands and a VERY lucrative income to boot.

S.x.

[Albcatmastercat]

If Steam shuts down, the "Free Versions" will flow out of control all over the internet.

If you know what I mean.

[The Rock God]

Messaggio originale di gallifrey:

1) Paid mods. I'm not going to repeat what's been said before but paid mods would be damaging for Steam.

I'm going to repeat what I've said on several occasions: Paid mods are on Steam right now, and have been for years.

[Dimebag]

Chaos . Blood in the streeets . Triggered nerds flooding forums and the legal system clogs up with frivilous claims . Then the end of society and possibly supermutants .... or maybe someone will pickup the clientele .

I would think a customer base the size of Steam is worth keeping to milk for profit .

[Ishraqiyun]

Messaggio originale di NathanD:

Chaos . Blood in the streeets . Triggered nerds flooding forums and the legal system clogs up with frivilous claims . Then the end of society and possibly supermutants .... or maybe someone will pickup the clientele .

I would think a customer base the size of Steam is worth keeping to milk for profit .

I think this is pretty close to spot-on.

[kaboomboom]

It would be very unpleasant, and would probably hurt all digital distribution for games for some time because people would be hesitant to trusti it.

I have already experienced it to small degree. I had a small library of games with StarDock back when they had a games distribution website. Then they sold it, and eventually game stop owned it. They took it down, and I have been trying to get access to my games in that library but they are almost impossible to reach with regards to that issue. When I call them, no one knows what I am talking about. By the way, if anyone else went through this and knows how to get those games from them please let me know.

I'm not too upset about it because the library was small and the games were really old, stuff I stopped playing a long time ago. However, if that same thing happened to my Steam or GOG library, I don't think I woul EVER trust digital distribution again. Not in any significant way.

My purchases would be smaller and fewer, which would not be a bad thing in and of itself.

Steam and their bargains have kind of turned me into a game collecter which is not what I set out to be...but I still would not want to lose my collection.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Messaggio originale di kaboomboom:

It would be very unpleasant, and would probably hurt all digital distribution for games for some time because people would be hesitant to trusti it.

I have already experienced it to small degree. I had a small library of games with StarDock back when they had a games distribution website. Then they sold it, and eventually game stop owned it. They took it down, and I have been trying to get access to my games in that library but they are almost impossible to reach with regards to that issue. When I call them, no one knows what I am talking about. By the way, if anyone else went through this and knows how to get those games from them please let me know.

I'm not too upset about it because the library was small and the games were really old, stuff I stopped playing a long time ago. However, if that same thing happened to my Steam or GOG library, I don't think I woul EVER trust digital distribution again. Not in any significant way.

My purchases would be smaller and fewer, which would not be a bad thing in and of itself.

Steam and their bargains have kind of turned me into a game collecter which is not what I set out to be...but I still would not want to lose my collection.

1,427 games and counting. No kidding bro.

S.x.

[TentacleMayor]

All I know, is GOG folks, the gaming equivalent of apocalypse preppers, would be very self-satisfied. That includes me. When it comes to GOG games, as long as keep backups, compatibility issues with future PCs are your shortest-term concern.

[Start_Running]

Messaggio originale di TentacleMayor:

All I know, is GOG folks, the gaming equivalent of apocalypse preppers, would be very self-satisfied. That includes me. When it comes to GOG games, as long as keep backups, compatibility issues with future PCs are your shortest-term concern.

and not a small one actually. Joke is. All that will happen is Valve simply disables the part of teh steam client that does the checking. They just hard code it to always return TRUE. And you get to keep your games already installed. They'd probably also make the installers availabvle for download.

[Mivo]

I'd use a different service to buy and play games, and probably feel burnt enough that future game purchases would only be for DRM-free titles. But realistically, I have way more games than I'll likely ever play, so it wouldn't be such a huge practical loss. A theoretical one, yes, but not the end of the world.

But none of this is likely to happen, so it's kind of futile to worry about it.

[Mivo]

Messaggio originale di Start_Running:

All that will happen is Valve simply disables the part of teh steam client that does the checking. They just hard code it to always return TRUE. And you get to keep your games already installed. They'd probably also make the installers availabvle for download.

Ever been around when a company folded? If they filed bankruptcy, they would not be allowed to alter the assets in that way, and the contracts with publishers do not contain a clause to allow for that, either.

Even if Valve went bankrupt, someone would buy the Steam service. It's a valuable asset, as is the customer base. So what would probably happen is a service outage for a period time while everyone frets all over gaming forums and social media, and then things would continue under new ownership.

[Start_Running]

Messaggio originale di Mivo:

Messaggio originale di Start_Running:

All that will happen is Valve simply disables the part of teh steam client that does the checking. They just hard code it to always return TRUE. And you get to keep your games already installed. They'd probably also make the installers availabvle for download.

Ever been around when a company folded? If they filed bankruptcy, they would not be allowed to alter the assets in that way, and the contracts with publishers do not contain a clause to allow for that, either.

Actuallyt i have and here's the thing. Bankruptcy is not the equivalent of folding. And when a company folds it's not a sudden, 'here today gone tomorrow thing' Well maybe for one many operations but for most, the business partners at the very least are givena heads up. FOr a company the size of Valve, you'd here about these things months in advance.

Even if Valve went bankrupt, someone would buy the Steam service. It's a valuable asset, as is the customer base. So what would probably happen is a service outage for a period time while everyone frets all over gaming forums and social media, and then things would continue under new ownership.

There'd be no service outage actually in such a situation. The transition would likely be quite seemless.