Space Marine removed from UK Steam Store.

[Axyl]

Just a quick additon..

I also have this same question posted over at Relic News Forums.

I'm not dropping this. There isn't another game ever I've wanted a much as this one. And yes, I know I can still get it elsewhere, even digitally, and I will most likely end up getting it from Gamersgate, but it's the principal of the matter. :)

I've asked THQ to comment on this.

Awesome, thank you very, very much dude. :)

[goatmonkey]

Forgot to say this earlier but has anyone else noticed Direct 2 Drives obvious glee at games not being on steam, in their home page banner

[The JG Man]

Not quite sure what you're getting at there, but when you consider the costs of manufacturing, distributing and retailer mark-ups on games, much more of the retail price gets back to the publisher through Steam than it does through physical stores.

Sorry, I'll try and clear that up. It did mean something, but reading it back now, it's not terribly transparent.

Regardless of who set the price, that's a nice cut for Valve/Steam. Now obviously you have exchange rates, but if not the many shops are stocking PC games, and they're higher in price due to reduced stock demands, prices on Steam can afford to be a little bit higher. When retail sees this, and no doubt they'll pay attention as it would be foolish to neglect DD as competition, they can say "Well if they're charging higher, we can too." It's very circular and perhaps off the mark, but not impossible and I wouldn't imagine if there was some competitive pricing going on. Of course, retail looks like it's losing considering the constantly reduced stock they're getting in.

Yeah, that's still not clear. Well, it made sense to me earlier!

I've asked THQ to comment on this.

Thanks!

As it stands, being that it's Steamworks and the fact it's clearly going to be a great game, I won't not get it, and I prefer boxes anyhow, but this is certainly a strange growing trend.

[Kadayi]

Forgot to say this earlier but has anyone else noticed Direct 2 Drives obvious glee at games not being on steam, in their home page banner

Still 'related' to Rupert Murdochs empire of evil apparently so chance of purchase 0 to none.

[Icarus]

Maybe I'm just thick, but how exactly is Rupert Murdoch the apparent incarnation of Satan's left nut?

Edit: I'm probably going to regret asking this.

[imirk]

He owns News Corp, Is Australian, meddles in Politics, and doesn't really pay much taxes (7% [of 20.1 Billion last year]) but probably mostly because he's Australian

[Jacques]

Salamanders are also my favourite founding SM chapter.

Where is the best place to pre-order SM anyway?

[Vexing Vision]

Forgot to say this earlier but has anyone else noticed Direct 2 Drives obvious glee at games not being on steam, in their home page banner

So, digital downloads are evil, so we're okay if D2D has it?

My brain.

[Icarus]

@VexingVision: Seems to be more a case of 'ha ha, you can't go to the competition for this, you have to come to us'.

[ran93r]

As Robf mentioned, Brink is still unavailable in the UK on Steam and I don't think anything at all has been said, it's all been swept under the rug. The common conspiracy theory is that it had something to do with "Game" but good luck on getting anyone to confirm anything, be that Valve, Bethesda or Game. Initially the guys at Splash Damage were "looking into it" but that all quickly stopped and nothing was ever said again.

Perhaps it's not a huge issue at the moment, in the case of Brink you could get it elsewhere and it still activates on Steam but if this is really down to physical retailers throwing their weight around and they carry on getting away with it, we can expect to see more of this nonsense.

I haven't bought anything from Game in probably five years, this kind of rubbish isn't going to change my mind.

[Rii]

Still 'related' to Rupert Murdochs empire of evil apparently so chance of purchase 0 to none.

So's 20th Century Fox but they still release good films. =/

[Estel]

Do publishers not realise they are consigning themselves to my personal bargain bucket when this happens

Is it brick and mortar pressure that is causing this it seems UK based ones have often been more vocal about being anti steam

They might realise that, but being business people they're probably of the opinion that keeping retail stocking their games is more important than x lost sales by not selling through Steam.

They might be right, too. None of us here will have nearly as much data as the people who made these decisions, however much we might disagree with them.

[Icarus]

Best thing to do is keep hassling the publishers and devs, I suppose. Don't let up on the bastards.

[Kadayi]

Maybe I'm just thick, but how exactly is Rupert Murdoch the apparent incarnation of Satan's left nut?

=

He owns News Corp, Is Australian, meddles in Politics, and doesn't really pay much taxes (7% [of 20.1 Billion last year]) but probably mostly because he's Australian

I'm not too fussy about his nationality, more his meddling in politics and the BS factory that constitutes his News Organisation. I don't mind them being right wing/conservative in nature, but the duplicitous nature of their reporting and representation leave much to be desired. Couple that with his back door deals with the conservatives to dismantle the BBC.....

Best thing to do is keep hassling the publishers and devs, I suppose. Don't let up on the bastards.

Developers have zero say in these things. It's publishers who deal with retail. Certainly it's not a bad idea to write to publishers about why their games aren't on Steam, however a better approach is probably to write to Retailers and ask them why a certain game, that they have on 360 & PS3 isn't available for PC. It's really a case of putting pressure on UK Retailers.

[soldant]

He owns News Corp, Is Australian, meddles in Politics, and doesn't really pay much taxes (7% [of 20.1 Billion last year]) but probably mostly because he's Australian

Didn't realise that I lived in Hell?

Developers have zero say in these things.

Exactly, ripping into the devs because a publisher made a decision that you don't agree with is silly. Unfortunately the PC gaming market isn't the biggest in the world, we're going to have to accept that whether we like it or not. Retail outlets are businesses at heart and run based on making money, and consoles move units much better than the PC.

The more sinister issue is the weird play-off between digital distribution and retail boxed distribution in an attempt to make even more money. Over here they just jacked up the prices to the point where buying neither version was worthwhile, but if the blatant removal to force retail purchasing is going to become the norm, then digital distribution might as well be dead for the mainstream market.

[imirk]

Didn't realise that I lived in Hell?

That is unfortunate for you, eh? Don't worry though, we (US :P) took him off your hands in '85 so I guess that makes the USA Hell strictly speaking of Lucifer's origin and relocation. I'm mostly mad that FOX canceled Firefly though.

On Topic (a rare event) the issue with bitching at publisher's is that they're larger (typically) than dev teams and you stand a chance of being lost in the noise, vs a impassioned plea to the developer begging to give them your moneys if only they could get the game onto steam where you've no chance to resist the alluring siren's call.

[The JG Man]

Where is the best place to pre-order SM anyway?

I want to echo this comment while we're at it. Anyone know of anywhere good so far? The cheapest I've seen in the UK is Amazon for £29.91, a whole 8p cheaper than other locations.

I guess we're not gonna find anything else about this though until a publisher speaks, or perhaps a developer let's slip some information, on purpose or not.

[Dave L.]

As has been said multiple times, this is a Publisher vs. Retail issue. As I understand it, not only have the larger UK retailers (GAME in particular) threatened to not stock PC games that use Steamworks, they've also threatened to not stock those titles on any platform if the Steam version is available day and date with the retail. Most publishers don't care about their PC versions being stocked at retail, because they know damn well that they'll make more money off of digital, which is why Steamworks has become so popular in the first place, but no publishers can really afford to take the hit of not having their console SKUs stocked, and especially not a smaller publisher like THQ.

And the threat only applies to Steamworks games being sold on the Steam Store, which is why other digital retailers may still have it.

And chances are you're not going to be able to get a public comment from the publishers confirming this, because they don't want to piss off the retailers by making them look like the asshole in this whole thing.

[thegooseking]

So, basically GAME's throwing a tantrum because Valve released Portal 2 early.

I bet they wouldn't put it that way, but they're not exactly cultivating a positive public image, here.

[cowthief skank]

And thus, pirates give themselves even more justification.