It doesnt require Persuasive skills as much as it requires Impluse being as good as Steam and offering the things that Steam does.

Atm its a poor mans DDS in comparasion.

In before I get shot by Impluse fans

Just like Microsoft isn't forcing anyone to make windows applications. At one point they werent the only solution, but most devs went, It would be better if everyone just made programs for windows only, and it went from there. I think Stardock knows a thing or two about this.

Since they're in direct competition with PC games, no it's not. You're saying that you don't like the current market leader on an open platform because they might close the platform, so you're going to a closed platform instead.

The market signal sent here is pretty clear: locked down console versions where nobody can compete with the console makers network are better then the market picking a winner on the PC.

Wow, you are putting too many words in my mouth.  

As I said, I personally would rather play the console version than to support the bundling of SW.  I am perfectly aware of how the console platform operates, but I don't care what the consoles are doing, they are not my concern at the moment.

So you prefer the closed console platform over the closed pc platform.  You do know that you can buy the Steamworks pc version and get an emulator to run it without steam, right?

If you want Mafia II for the PC just get your ass up and go to the store and buy it. That way Steam isn't making anything off the sale (at least not as far as I know anyway). I'm pretty sure steam only gets a cut of the sale if you actually buy it off Steam, they don't automatically get cut in because the game "uses Steam", they just get to package Steam with the game so in the future that customer might just decide to buy a game from Steam instead of going to the store.

If Impulse could get its-self automatically packaged with 50% of the games sold today they'd see a huge rise in business as well. Even if they could get non-Impulse sold games to use Impulse as a Multi-Player platform (which Steam does) that will increase future business On Impulse (just as it has for Steam). For Steam, getting other people's games to use Steam as a multi-player platform to find other players is nothing more than a smart marketing ploy on Steam's part.

I think Valve gets a cut for every game sold that has steamworks, whether bought online or not.

Someone should try to find out for sure. I'd would still think though, even if they do get some kind of cut for the gaming using Steam, it wouldn't get as high a cut as if the game was bought on Steam.

I asked about this on another thread. This is a very interesting and important consideration to understand just how big Steam is becoming.  I would say they do.  Steamworks isn't just some files installed on your computer for DRM purposes like Securom.  It's a complete framework of tools that add features to the games it is licensed too. It's a middleware solution, like Unreal Engine 3, or PhysX. Getting a license for those middlewares requires both an full upfront payment, and a % of royalties per units sold.  Valve probably requires an arrangement like that for their Steamworks license.  But, just like Steam's actual digital sales and their profits, it's all private withheld information. 

Suckurom does actually get a cut of the sales too, as in so much per disk I think...

The key difference is every game that is sold with steamworks means potentially more customers (and more profits) for steam which no other middleware gets (other than advertising).

Someone go make a game for steam and tell us lol.

They couldnt be able to say. It's all probably NDA secured.  See? This is what EULAs are made for, to hide the numbers.

Indeed, thats why we need a hot russian girl to infiltrate and uncover the inteligence.

Or just ask wikileaks.

Yeah I was going to say, there aren't a lot of industries or companies that tell their employees to leak info, but the public still gets some of that info, one way or another.

Didn't we already go through this on another thread? Steamworks is free. Says so right on the website and in the brouchure.

Valve's cut comes from the contract to get the game sold on Steam. Unlike other middleware that doesn't have a storefront, Valve can get their cut when people buy the game. They WANT people using Steamworks because it helps grow Steam, they're not going to throw up big price barriers to encourage people to go elsewhere.

IIRC, Reactor is planned to be similar (the main requirement is that the game must be available on Impulse).

Difference between IReactor and SWorks is that IReactor won't require you to log in to Impulse or have an Impulse account. So it gives the developer more freedom. It's actually quite a big of a difference. Like having GMail without a Google ID.

Questioning Island Dog's preferences to rather buy the game on PS3 than PC w/SteamWorks is pretty funny. Do you really find it strange that a Stardock employee has a problem buying a game from a vendor who is trying to undermine their own company's business?

When their stated reason is directly contradicted by buying it for an even more closed platform sold by a vendor with the same goal? Hell, they're bringing Steamworks to the PS3.

No, that's not correct. If what you say is true, Valve doesn't get a cut when people buy Steamworks games from D2D, and only make money from potential future sales from those people's newly installed steam storefront. It's not a pyramid scheme.

No, they don't. Steamworks is entirely free, there are no fees, no profit sharing or any other costs to the developers/publishers.

See page 3: http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/SteamworksBrochure2010.pdf

Okay. Do you have some evidence of that? The problem with this stuff is that we've always got Valve's printed word on one side, and rampant speculation on the other.

Valve says Steamworks is free on their site (as Guest83 linked), and in the brouchure. The've spelled out the business case where they want Steam on more computers because it makes Steam a bigger success as a platform. Steamworks in games encourages that, and they want to make it cheap to get Steamworks in games.

Is there any evidence, anywhere, to contradict that?

Reactors "Own It" feature, shouldn't be a feature at all.  It should be a standard! It used to be.  It amazes me that some people are so willing to give control to a monopolic minded entity.  Do you really want to empower a company which would force itself between you and your games? A company that forces its store into your computers and requires its client to run just so they can collect and share your consumption habits with their clients?  Bah! 

Just the same site and brochure source.  They do want Steam on more computers because it allows them to bombard people with their sales. They would love if Steam was pre-loaded on every computer. That's different from Steamworks.  I dont think developers can just make a free steam account, download some Steamwork files, include them in their game .dlls and it's notify Valve the game is ready. They need to get a license from Valve to have Steamworks, and that license probably has some % royalties in their clauses. Securom's license does for example.

sigh.

It really doesn't. Go read the thing. Seriously. There's no royalty for steamworks. There's a giant list of things for which there's no charge, including retail sales.

I mean, come on. There's actual documentation on this, "probably" doesn't cut it to contradict that. SecuROM has a totally different business model then Valve does, in that you can't buy games from the SecuROM store. Valve's goal is to get Steam on more computers and drive more sales through it. Steamworks is a tool to achieve that. Throwing up price barriers is just bad business for them.

Yes... anyway.

Kanye and lynch 2y Doyg Days is going to use steamworks. Is it just me or is 2010 the "JOIN STEAMWORKS!" year?

Kane and Lynch, the game that pretty much proved what everyone was already suspecting, that the so-called gaming news sites pretty much allow software companies to pay them for good reviews. Steamworks can have them.

Hey, while that guy got fired for what you say, it wasn't a 'bad' game. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.