Real alternatives to Steam.

[The Laughing Ma]

Gotta say I am getting really tired of just how rubbish Steam has gotten of late. The service is slow to load, slow once it actually does load, throws up errors when loading pages and has now started hitting me with nonsense about my games not being avaliable to play.

The slowness, the fact that you buy games try to confirm only to get hit with an error page and the fact that they are wasting their time developing a Linux version whilst the Windows version is still pretty piss poor (Origin of all things is faster and more reliable) this has lead me to think about

a). Finding as many ways as I can to by pass it's use, I have 40 odd games on the service so that's going to take some time and just in case it's against forum rules I am not asking about that.

b). Finding an alternative supplier for my games

So who offers a real alternative to Steam in the DLC market?

[PhazeDelta1]

There is no one else.

[DesGaizu]

Origin...

[eclap]

there's many alternatives out there, problem is no other has a catalog of games like steam. Steam is ok for what it is, but it'll never be my release date game provider until they wake up and start being competitive when it comes to pricing.

[Xendance]

Originally Posted by eclap

there's many alternatives out there, problem is no other has a catalog of games like steam. Steam is ok for what it is, but it'll never be my release date game provider until they wake up and start being competitive when it comes to pricing.

They? Steam? When it comes to pricing? Are you sure you don't mean the publishers instead of Steam staff / Valve?

[Elder III]

There isn't any other real competitor at this time. Origin, is probably the second biggest of that ilk and it's game selection is tiny in comparison. Their are other sites that offer digital downloads, lots of them in fact, but many of those games will still require Steam to actually play it.

Steam's worked great for me for years, nothing different now than it's ever been. Is this something that just started with their Autumn Sale or is it a long term problem?

[DualCORE1]

only real alternative is steam theirs also desura but thats mainly indie games, and xfire which is mainly just a chat client with game detection and other features like take screenshot etc

[eclap]

Originally Posted by Xendance

They? Steam? When it comes to pricing? Are you sure you don't mean the publishers instead of Steam staff / Valve?

I don't really care about who sets the prices on steam, I care when games cost £10 more than I can get through retail.

[adabiviak]

Originally Posted by eclap

I don't really care about who sets the prices on steam, I care when games cost £10 more than I can get through retail.

Are we talking about the same Steam here? Steam, the game distribution platform written by Valve? More expensive than retail? Your mileage may vary with platform stability (maybe a reinstall? I find it to be exceptionally stable), but you must have a heck of a retail outlet.

[Gromuhl'Djun]

Originally Posted by adabiviak

Are we talking about the same Steam here? Steam, the game distribution platform written by Valve? More expensive than retail? Your mileage may vary with platform stability (maybe a reinstall? I find it to be exceptionally stable), but you must have a heck of a retail outlet.

Yeah, I can get a lot of games cheaper @retail stores here as well. Especially when the game's been out for half a year, and the steam price is still 49,99, the retail price is often already 24,99 or lower. When released, games are often available at 35,99 instead of the 49,99 on steam. And that's very commonplace.

[bobdude]

Originally Posted by Gromuhl'Djun

Yeah, I can get a lot of games cheaper @retail stores here as well. Especially when the game's been out for half a year, and the steam price is still 49,99, the retail price is often already 24,99 or lower. When released, games are often available at 35,99 instead of the 49,99 on steam. And that's very commonplace.

yeah steam sucks when it comes to prices even for the older games i can pick up at the store for cheap when steam wants 20%+ more

[The Laughing Ma]

Perhaps I should clarify. I use Steam mostly for triple AAA titles, by that I mean if I can't be arsed getting them from a shop I will buy them D2D from Steam. I haven't found Steam to be more expensive so that's not an issue really

I have a mix of games at the moment on Steam, a few indie titles, a few that require Steam as a DRM check and a few that I have just bought off Steam for D2D conveneance.

Thing is I am tired of just how slow Steam has become, so I am looking for an alternative D2D source for buying any future releases that DO NOT require Steam for their DRM. I would very much like to avoid Origin.

[tweakpower]

You can buy games directly from developers (if supported). For me, it's easier to buy it from retail (because of Credit Card problem with idiotic banks etc.). So i don't use those services, but direct from developer is another option.

[Corrupt^]

Originally Posted by DesGaizu

Origin...

It's true though, no real alternative...

[Strikerx80]

no problems with steam. sure the prices are slow to be reduced but its a good service if you dont wanna wait or go to the store for a new release

[JonasBeckman]

It tends to initialize fairly slowly albeit the bootstraper beta update to it has helped.
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ste...r/discussions/
(Works in tandem with the current Steam beta but those can of course have other unknown issues.)

Tends to be like that when more features are added, UPlay and Origin (Former EA Downloader.) were pretty fast too compared to current versions albeit stability is still excellent and many of the features can be customized or even disabled.

Also that Autumn sale is going to make servers a bit sluggish and the store page somewhat less responsive during peak hours.

[shoja]

You can convince yourselves all you want, but there really are no 'real' alternatives to Steam. Steam is dominating and I don't need to tell you that (just look at their daily stats....).

[Little]

i don't see how so many people have problems with steam. it loads rather quick from my 1tb mechanical drive on my main rig and even pretty damn fast on my 4 1/2 year old core 2 duo 2.5 laptop with a 5400 rpm drive. i often get download speeds from steam faster than what i pay for. their prices are usually the same as retail on release and 10% off PLUS bonuses if you pre-order. no one can beat their holiday or super sales either

[Xendance]

Originally Posted by eclap

I don't really care about who sets the prices on steam, I care when games cost £10 more than I can get through retail.

Well, if you don't care about that, your opinion about it is rather irrelevant. I mean, sure, for you it is cheaper. But your comment didn't bring anything to the table other than "I think stuff ABC is like this and I don't care about the facts".
But I agree with you on the point that for your it might be cheaper. Same thing applies for me too regarding local super markets and steam.

[GreenSmoke]

There are other places to buy from, GreenManGaming for example. They will allows their keys to be activated on steam (if you looking for better prices etc on older games) There a huge list on the steam forums of compatible options that allow for activations with steam.

However for an alternative to replace Steam as a main..there really is none currently..and probably wont be one for quite a while in the distant future.

[PhazeDelta1]

If you're complaining about Steam now, you should of been around when it first launched. I'm glad those days are few and far between.

[jbmcmillan]

I have had pretty near zero problems with Steam and for around here the prices are competitive and I like the download speeds and how easy you can switch computers.Origin was a pain.