If you try to pre-order Far Cry 4, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, or The Crew on Steam, you’re gonna have a bad time. Ubisoft has removed those titles from the digital distributor.
To some, this isn’t that big of a shock. Ubisoft has been rumored to be kicking around the idea of their own distribution service, akin to EA launching Origin. There’s just one problem though, aside from the fact that U-Play, their current PC software, makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Steam has already asserted itself as the premiere destination for buying digital games. While competition can be seen as a good thing, the market has already spoken: they want Steam.
It’s not like you could blame PC gamers for having this mentality. Steam is something they’re familiar with. The Steam Sales are a highly anticipated moment in gaming. The software very rarely, if ever, gets in the way of playing games. Sure, the system launched originally has a form of Digital Rights Management and was a mandatory installation for Half Life 2, a single player game. That was ten years ago, though. Valve has had plenty of time to both iron out the kinks and shift the focus towards more of a digital marketplace.
Let’s say, though, that you’re someone who isn’t the biggest fan of Steam. When you’re buying games online, you don’t want DRM period. Or perhaps you want to give the developer a bigger cut of you money. There’s an alternative for you: GOG.com. Do they have the latest and greatest releases? Not always, but they do have the classics, including the recently re-released Star Wars X-Wing and Tie Fighter games. Best of all, every release is 100% DRM free. You buy the game, own it, and can play it. Period.
Both of these services have enjoyed their share of successes, so it’s not surprising that others, such as Ubisoft and EA, have wanted to get in on the action. After all, why lose money on titles through a middle man when you can sell them on your own platform? Again though, the problem with this is that do we really want to use specific services to buy games from specific publishers? Where does it end? There’s already a precedent that’s been set: Steam for the modern releases and GOG for the classics.
This leads to the biggest problem concerning publishers shying away from Steam: there’s no market demand for more digital distribution services. People have already spent their hard earned money expecting to play Far Cry 4 on Steam. They weren’t happy to possibly see their dollars wasted when Assassin’s Creed Unity was removed without warning. Gamers aren’t going to simply say “Oh, I’ll just purchase it however Ubisoft wants me to.” They’re going to do the opposite. Because they are not happy.
