Indeed it is starting to become a monopoly,

Pre order for Blackops on steam was £39.99, same price as it is now at retail.

I pre-ordered it from my local Game store for £24.99

Can you justify that price difference? i sure as hell cant.

Could this back fire on the other retailers?
If I can't buy the games via them, then I will have to via Steam.

There is a lot of love out there for Steam and I doubt developers are going to stop integrating Steam just to please those retailers. If it's a big game it will sell no matter where people have to go even if the only route is via Steam

@1: digital distribution is a con. As I predicted years ago, the greed of companies has resulted in them simply taking the distribution and duplication charges (that includes manuals and packaging costs) and passing them directly to the gamer. As opposed to the promised "lower priced games" they lied to everyone about.

DD doesn't have those costs, so why are games still pricsd as though they are? Retailers should have kicked Steam into touch the minute it appeared. Demanding online connectivity was a joke for a single player game, and is why I refuse to buy Steam based games.

With Steam I just wait for the sales, sometimes I even buy games I already have so I can trade in the boxes. New Steam game prices are the same as retail, Steam has no advantage over retail in that respect. Plus it only sells PC/Mac games and they are difficult to find in places like Game and Gamestation anyway. I'm sick retailers whining, why don't you make your prices competitive then? I guess monopolies are only fine when it's you that the monopoly.

LeeC22 is right on the price difference. This is all the more evident in Valve games like CounterStriike, the Orange Box etc, where there is a hike of almost 25%. Why?

Personally with a little bit of browsing I find cheaper to buy games from retailers or online stores. I use Steam only for their special offers, which are really good.

All in all, the digital distribution model for AAA games is more than a little bit warped. Now for indie games that a whole different matter :)

The comments on the mcv article speak for themselves. Mayor retail is trying to knock steam down a peg or two before they push their own digital stores. PC retail in Game retail stores is dead and its their own fault.

I only buy from Steam during one of their sales which can reduce some games to £2.99.

The previous comments are correct that their pricing for new games is a joke.

I believe this Steam pricing issue was raised in either PC Gamer or PC Format some time ago.
If I recall correctly the larger publishers have included in there contracts with Steam,a clause that prohibits Steam from selling below retail prices. That's why most Steam games cost more to download. Personally I have not bought a game from a retail store in years.
I purchase all my boxed games from online retailers instead and I rarely buy from steam ,too costly. It's very difficult to purchase a PC game from store retailers now as they dont seem to stock them. Its mostly console and handheld games in their stores.
In my view the current situation is the retailers own fault. This is just a sales ploy to force the big publishers to give more money to the retailers so they stock the publishers games.

So to reiterate...

1. Shops all but discontinue PC games
2. Steam starts making big dollars
3. Shops realise their mistake
4. Blame Steam

As a developer who doesn't make the Sims there is no point in bothering with a boxed product on the PC. And if we have a choice between supporting the 80% market leader or the 2% who are making a fuss...

steam is the best thing ever period, anyone who says different is not seeing the bigger picture. I will explain a little although i can see this being a very long message to get it across properly and will get bored half way so here's a half attempt as what I'm getting at.
Steam is not for everyone given!! (fact)
reasons:
- bandwidth limits (kuk slow internet or no internet)
- internet caps
- prices.... seriously subjective!!!, there are two points to this. Personally I will no longer buy a game unless it's on steam even if it's more expensive. (but like it's been said, if they have BS pricing wait for sales) if you can source it cheaper retail and it will activate on steam then yeah sure. why pay more for steam than retail..... why complain about it... go buy the non steam version then..., you want the steam version because of its other values. instant access, no driving to shop to find they don't have it. I like the fact that it doesn't matter what PC I am on or what country I am in, I can access my own games. Steam versions of the game are far less likely to be hacked.

Steam is to the PC like "xbox live" is for the xbox 360.!!!

benefits of steam: short list
-better support
-cloud (can't stress this enough, think about it more in the future, ever wished you still had that saved game you once had but have now deleted)
-stats
-unlimited downloads!!! you own the game period
-security (this is on multiple levels not just on login BS, Jonny says "my account got hacked" FS)
no one can physically steal it, NO re-typing in the CD key, no waiting for the CD, DVD to be inserted.
- games travel with you (how many games can you fit in your pocket)
-steam services (friends, community, updates)
-game sales, offers
-access to the biggest catalogue of PC games
- monitoring (usages, pc specs, so developers get a feel for avg pc)
-steam pairing
- anti hacking systems ********* can't stress this enough, sorry buy i will not play a game with hackers.... what is the point.
-organised games
-the list goes on and on, the fact that it works and works well... and is the future, as the floppy disk died... so will the CD and so will the DVD.
we live in a digital age, yes? no? well if your answer to that was yes, then when everyone gets 8MB+ download speeds an no caps say in 10 years max!!! some of us will be on 1000GB+ internet speeds by then I'm sure
the only problem with steam is pricing!!!!
can I stress internet speeds around the world is improving and reaching the point where, why have a disk of any type!!!

however!!! this is the point retailers are trying to make, which is so true, think of this like..... Microsoft and including things like the browser IE, offices features or the office suit itself, image editing tools, media player/makers.... the list is endless
this is what the whole thing is about that steam is becoming too powerful as game publishers are all moving to steam without the option to install without steam.

Guys, stop complaining about the price. It isn't Valve setting the price. it is the companies (Like EA etc..) that set the prices for their games on Steam. Talk to them if you don't like it. Besides, this is evolution all over again. First it was self playing pianos, then recordings, then radio, tv, walkman etc.. Everybody is afraid of loosing their business but the world moves on anyway.

I couldn't really care less about high street retailers. They have no problem selling pre-owned titles which do us no favours and Stream has been great to work with so far.

A little competition for Steam probably doesn't hurt but I'll be looking at services like Desura for that.

One thing about steam is this ... wait for discounts. Once in a while they will give discounts for games ... even relatively new games like fallout 3 ... ranging from 10% to 90% (for really old games ... or even brilliant indies). I got most of my games on steam through these discounts and it is sweet when you get the 33% discount on titles like fallout 3 and company of heroes and WH 2.

Just try not to buy the games when there's no discount, unless you really need to have it.

The retailers should think about what they are doing wrong and not cry about what steam is doing right. Valve has gone to the extra effort of creating a great gaming platform and providing constant updates to their games. The retailers should think about what their Unique Selling Point is and utilize it, perhaps it's the packaging, perhaps its the single-use DLC code included in the manual. I know that they are making a KILLING on 2nd hand game sales which hits the publishers pretty hard. Digital Download is just convenience, make traditional retail convenient and there wont be an issue.

The only thing is, Steam allows us to buy games at discounts, especially those that are a few months old. And as for indie games, I must say that steam give better support than retailers ever did.

I for one like to own the game box and the physical copy of the game, for I have a mistrust about the so called licensing clause in the EULA all the games right now, even though they say it is only to fight pirates. Look at how Blizzard is doing with all the clauses. But retailers are not helping themselves when they do not allocate enough resources to support the gamers.

And I think the retailers actually dig their own grave when they do not carry enough copies of the great game titles and only carry hordes of mediocre and casual gaming titles.

And although I do not want to take side in this issue, I must say that technically, Steam is not a monopoly. It have a dominant share now, but nothing inherent in its practise or nature force people to buy solely from it. If the retailers starts to give discounts, or offer better services and actually take PC gamer seriously, I am should they will get more customer. Come on, this is part and parcel of doing businesses and they just appear like whiny kids when they cry that steam is an monopoly.

STEAM certainly is a monopoly. I refuse to buy any PC games that require the installation of STEAM on my computer. Because of it, I haven't been able to buy any new games for over a year. Practically every game on the market today requares STEAM to operate - in particular the best titles.

I'm a long time fan of PC gaming, but since the onset of STEAM I've been shut out of my favorite hobby. Now the only new games I can play are free Flash games on the internet - unless I knuckle down and eat STEAM.

Some of STEAM's most passionate defenders are extremely insulting to people who won't use STEAM, and I expect to get flak from them. Maybe they really love STEAm for some reason. But it's frankly idiotic to pretend that a company that controls over three-fourths of teh computer game market, and the distribution and play of every popular game published in the last two years, isn't a monopoly. It's one thing to be abusive in defending your side, quite another to simply lie about something that anyone can easily fact check. Go to any PC game outlet and see for yourself.