Steam ‘is peaking’

Steam’s dominance of the PC video games digital distribution sector is on the wane, according to the CEO of rival digital games portal GamersGate.

"To be honest, we’re not afraid of Steam," CEO Theo Bergquist told Industry Gamers. "We think they are peaking now while the market is still very hardcore.

"In fact, we know from the feedback we receive from customers, one of the reasons we have such great growth is because many gamers out there don’t like Steam and see GamersGate as a better alternative."

"Some people say Steam has 50 per cent of the market, some say 80 per cent, but we don’t know. What we do know is that Steam’s market share will shrink in the future and that GamersGate is well positioned as one of the digital distribution platforms that has strong momentum to gain market share."

Bergquist also predicts that 2011 will be a tipping point in the battle between traditional boxed games and their digital counterparts.

"You should never underestimate the importance of the physical store," he added. "At the same time, the market is moving faster now. Some of our partners tell us that in only a year their revenues from digital downloads have moved from 10-20 per cent of their revenue to over 50-80 per cent.

‘I think 2011 will be a tipping point for digital downloads in which they should really take off. Digital distribution is no longer a business development project for publishers; it’s an integral part of the sales organisation. They look at the greater revenue split they can get from digital as compared to physical, and it’s easy math to decide that they should focus on digital."