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Brad Wardell wants to use Steamworks..

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Brad Wardell wants to use Steamworks..

..but only if Gabe Newell stays in charge

http://firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23002
from Stardock Forums

FS: A lot of major titles these days are using or will use Steamworks (Modern Warfare 2, Metro 2033, Mafia II, Civ V, New Vegas, others). Are you worried that there soon won’t be very many new games to add to your store?

Brad Wardell: Oh, absolutely I’m worried about it. I know publishers are worried about it, too, and who can blame them? I don’t think Steamworks is evil or anything; On the contrary, what Steamworks does is important, someone needs to be doing this.

It’s too bad Microsoft didn’t get their butt in gear and do this from the start because features of Steamworks are something that we game developers need. Stardock is doing Impulse Reactor; Elemental, I think, will demonstrate its parity with Steamworks. That said, I think it’s pretty ridiculous that a company the size of Stardock is the one having to put up the competitor to Steamworks.

If the entire industry decides they’re gonna use Steamworks, which in the short run [would be] good for gamers, as long as Gabe Newell is running Valve. I trust Gabe Newell, he’s a good guy, but then again, I remember when everyone loved Microsoft back in the ‘90s. If I knew for a fact that Gabe Newell was going to be in charge of Valve for the next 20 years, then screw it, I’ll use Steamworks, too, but I don’t know that.

End of quote

Source: http://firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23002

144,256 views 52 replies
Reply #51 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Rincewind57, reply 48
Main problem i have with steam/impulse etc. If, say, the US is destroyed by nukes tomorrow, i'll no longer be able to install my steam games.... Obviously i'd rather this didn't happen but much as I'd rather the US wasn't obliterated, if it was i'd still want to play the video-games i'd payed my hard-earned money for. I once considered joining Amazon's Audible service. I e-mailed and asked, if your offices are all obliterated by nuclear war, will i still be able to access all of my purchased content? Their reply was that, sadly, i could not. Surprise surprise, I didn't sign up for membership.
End of Rincewind57's quote

Most likely with the impending nuclear winter and economic collapse such an event would cause, playing games or listening to music will not rate very highly on the problem list. :P

Reply #52 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Sareln, reply 42

However, one thing I think that should be high in priority for Stardock is to make sure Reactor chatting can work with a program like Raptr. One fair criticism of GFWL is that once you close your game, you can't talk with anyone. I think integrating it with another chat program would serve Reactor's interests best.
I would love that. Most every "in-game" chat system doesn't expose the chat API, so 3rd party chat software cannot interface with the game's chat interface.  I use Pidgeon myself, and would love it if my friends could reach me whilst gaming.  Note - less love if it sets my away message automatically to the game that I'm playing, folk don't need to know that...
End of Sareln's quote

Yeah, agree totally. I mean stuff can integrate with Facebook chat FFS, but not with games? Facebook has a bazillion more users then any game on the planet.

If the chat portion just used something like Jabber under the hood, it'd be easy to talk to. That's a plus on the platform because you can see your friends even if game/platform X is closed by using your standard IM client.

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