And that is probably the first indication that Gamestop is going to get eaten by Valve...

Requires the steam client to play.

I guess Gamestop isn't above advertising their competitor's service.

I've felt sad about it and slightly betrayed ever since you sold impulse...

sneaky bastards. 

This must be gamestops plan to stay competitive 

Cause nothing says competitive like forcing your users to use a competing service.

(Just ask D2D how that worked.. oh wait.. gamefly bought them out nevermind.)

Why even bother buying the game from gamestop if you have to use Steam anyways? Yet another reason why I no longer use Gamestop/Impulse.

Shh logic might confuse the suits.

Step 1 Get into digital distribution.

Step 2 Sell steam works games

Step 3 Since you just can't figure out why your users  are migrating to steam. Sell your digital distribution unit for double what its worth to another company.

Step 4 Profit

How can you argue with that ironclad business plan?

Impulse have had Steamworks games for a long time. What happened when you bought one of those games from impulse was that you would download the installation files through impulse, but then you had to verify and add it through steam anyway. I can only assume that Valve games will have that same procedure. It really highlights the redundancy of buying such games from Impulse.

Ya they started very shortly after being acquired by gamestop. A week or 2 IIRC. That was the point I knew gamestop was a joke. They don't compete  with anyone else on sales pricing, and they have really nothing to offer you can't get from another service. Plus for certain purchases your required to use other services anyway.

If anyone can tell me wtf gamestops management is thinking for impulse I'd be glad to hear it, but short of puffing it up to sell it off I can't come up with a viable long term plan that matches their moves with it so far.

It seems DD users are gonna be passed around like a cheap... well you know passed around alot. My D2D account has now been migrated to gamefly. So now I have to download a GD gamefly client to play my D2D games I bought years ago

The thing is the impulse we know from Frogboy was actually a mad cashcow. They may not be thinking long-term at all, just trying to increase profit. 10% more is always 10% more, even if it's 10% more INSANE. But to us, the picky customers, it doesn't make much sense because long-term it looks like it would sink the client.

Hell, maybe they're just trying to grow. Give up the moral viewpoints, go for the increase in user base.

Did you guys read that steam's profit has increased by 100% every year for like four years straight? Including 2011. It's obviously still an emerging market.

Oh I guarantee thats what it is. Gamestop has to answer to its shareholders. Short term profits are the name of the game. In the long term though once the DD unit isn't profiting. It'll be scrapped or sold. Steams growth is partly due to the fact that they DO have steamworks. Heck.. how many people bought Civ V and were forced to use steam for the first time? Every new steamworks game brings steam more users.. no matter where that game is sold from.

 If another DD service cannot give people a reason to buy from them, then once a customer is locked into a steam account you already lost them as a customer. (EA understands this.. which is why all new EA games will be linked to origin.. creating the same situation for EA with its own games)

GOG has DRM free..(and most of their games are older.. GOG is a niche player but they pretty much have the niche locked down)

Gamers gate has blue tokens and does some nice sales.(but since even paradox is abandoning it for steamworks its probably on a downward spiral)

Gamefly will let you play all of their PC games for a monthly fee. (interesting business model and depending on the price might actually be cheaper for some gaming addicts)

gamestop has....??????, no seriously wtf do they have?

Ever since Stardock sold Impulse, my interest with Impulse has dropped to zero. Steam has more options, better prices, and isn't owned by Gamestop. I did like the concept of GOO Stardock developed, but Valve has really figured out how to market and distribute games and it was really Stardock that kept me interested in Impulse.

Maybe some users would rather Impulse get some of the moneys than Valve gets all of it?  It's certainly an inelegant solution buying Steamworks games from Impulse, but it's up to the user.  And sales aren't at the same time on both services.

I've bought Steamworks games on sale on Impulse.  And instead of downloading them from Impulse I put the key into Steam and downloaded it from there and profited.

Impulse also sells games that require Origin, if you hadn't noticed!  As does pretty much everyone but Steam.

Actually, the first indication was that it's Gamestop

Selling Steamworks games must be the 3rd or 4th.

If people are opposed to supporting steam and/or valve why would they buy a steamworks game? Yes, valve won't see the money from your purchase... but the publisher who made the game is indirectly supporting valve by requiring you to use their service.

Do they simply lack the courage of their convictions?

Sure as I said in the above post.. if you offer a steamworks game cheaper than steam you might get some sales from that, but gamestops sales have been a joke when you compare it to sales prices on other sites. And if you do make it very cheap.. your only likely to increase the number of steam users.

Honestly you can't win in the long term when your selling subscriptions to a competing service. Short term they will do fine, long term there will be less and less reasons for people to bother using their service over steam.

As for origin.. yes as i Stated in my earlier post, of course origin is selling through other DDs, because just like steam.. it brings them more users to their origin service. They are hoping to do like steam and leech users in the long term.