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Gearbox President Accuses Valve Of "Exploiting" Smaller Developers With Steam
Sure, Gearbox head Randy Pitchford has interesting things to say about achievements, but he's also got a head full of ideas on other potentially more important topics in the video game industry. Case in point: this recent interview with Maximum PC (via Industry Gamers), where Pitchford took an unexpectedly strong swing at digital download champions Valve.
Speaking about the problems with downloadable games and piracy, Pitchford said he believes Valve has too much conflict of interest as both a developer and a publisher of content on Steam. He then spoke more candidly on why it would be "really, really dangerous for the rest of the industry to allow Valve to win":
"I love Valve games, and I do business with the company. But, I’m just saying, Steam isn’t the answer. Steam helps us as customers, but it’s also a money grab, and Valve is exploiting a lot of people in a way that’s not totally fair. Valve is taking a larger share than it should for the service its providing. It’s exploiting a lot of small guys. For us big guys, we’re going to sell the units and it will be fine."
Pitchford also pointed out, "Microsoft has every single one of us running Windows, and it could solve this [distribution] problem in a second if done right." Interestingly, earlier in the interview, he discussed his decision to avoid Games for Windows with Borderlands and hints that DLC for the game might come through Steam instead. A bit of a head-scratcher, to say the least.
Pitchford concluded that for now, retail stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart are still the safest bet compared to our current digital distribution services. He believes that games still need a download service that is both convenient and easy-to-use, the way iTunes and Amazon have made downloading music.
Of course, Steam has a gained a reputation among PC gamers as the download service of choice. Perhaps all that love for the customers needs to be paid back somehow? Will you be buying Borderlands, the next game from Pitchford's company, via Steam or at retail?
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