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That would be an interesting sight, but I'm afraid that Valve is too hang up on having literally everything center around Steam. They aren't interested in expanding the reach of their games elsewhere.

Besides, the Half-Life series has multiplayer, which as you would have guessed, is reliant on Steam. They'd have to make it work with the Galaxy APIs. Valve is a lazy corp.

As someone above said, CDPR doesn't really have a bargaining power with Valve, however, they do have one with the players if they do make CP2077 GOG exclusive, and yes, they have the power and the goodwill to break off Steam, just like with EA. The Steam crowd won't like it at first, but they will eventually come to accept that this illusion of "having all the library in one place" is on thin ice. Or at least, I hope that's what happens.
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Enebias: The Half Life games are DRM-free. They don't come with handy installers, you have to move the folder, but they still are DRM-free.
Not the first one.
I still have the original Half Life non-Steamed. It is my precious.
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Downtown_Special: I know, I know, it seems like a dumb question to ask, but CD Projekt sells The Witcher series on Steam. Half-Life and Portal have been out long enough that there would be no real downside for Valve. No one is going to abandon their service if those two game series are no longer exclusives.

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games#order=votes_total&search=halflife
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games#order=votes_total&search=portal
Companies in general make business decisions on what is good for them from their own views/metrics/demographics and business models and methodologies. Everything a company does such as a game project consumes manpower resources and has a certain amount of financial commitment to pay for those man-hours and other resource costs. Likewise whenever they commit resources to a given project, those resources are not available for other projects which might be a much better return on investment for them.

It helps to picture it as "what is best for Valve from *Valve's* own perspective rather than what is best for Valve from one of many gamer/customer's perspectives which are biased to some degree on wanting a particular thing to happen.

As it stands, those games have been available for a very very long time on their Steam platform and the majority of people who want to play them bad enough have made a Steam account (or will) and buy them and play them. Spending manpower and other resources on making special builds of their games for GOG their business department would have to be convinced of a seriously large return on investment for the time and effort involved that would make it greatly worthwhile to them. Personally I don't think they'd ever see such a return on investment for the resources they'd expend (although I'd love to see Valve's entire catalogue here personally).

Additionally, they would more or less be spending that money and not only acknowledging an up and coming competitor, but giving them a booster shot in the arm. People would expect too that the rest of Valve's games would be to follow in the future, if not demanding it.

So despite it being great for GOG and for us GOG fans, I don't think that Valve would in any way see it as being good for Valve at all.

<insert copy of entire reply with the word Valve changed to Blizzard also>

I think Linko90 more or less said the same thing in less words in https://www.gog.com/forum/general/would_valve_ever_allow_gog_to_sell_drm_free_versions_of_the_halflife_and_portal_games/post3 too though.

In the end, it is about what makes the most business sense. Not from my opinion or yours or any other consumer, but from the people trying to run the business.
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Linko90: Not an official statement by any means, just my views -

' No one is going to abandon their service if those two game series are no longer exclusives. '

That's true, but it also makes no sense for Valve, who built steam on Half-life 2's release, to then sell it on a 3rd party site such as ours. The games are updated to run on current systems and are always on sale for next to nothing
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andysheets1975: I'm wondering how people would react if CDPR decided to make Cyberpunk exclusive to GOG. Would it drive a ton of customers to GOG, or just lose a ton of money and put the developer out of business because NO STEAM NO BUY?
Depends on who the people are. CDP SA shareholders would probably start selling their shares of CDP SA's stock, because releasing your brand new AAA game title only on your own gaming platform and not releasing it on the most popular PC gaming platform would result in a loss in sales as well as angering a lot of existing fans and customers that want to buy the game on Steam.

I'd say it is very highly unlikely we'll see them do that for Cyberpunk 2077. CDP SA is a growing company, but they're nowhere near as big as they'd need to be yet to make an exclusive release on their own platform without throwing money away.
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andysheets1975: I'm wondering how people would react if CDPR decided to make Cyberpunk exclusive to GOG. Would it drive a ton of customers to GOG, or just lose a ton of money and put the developer out of business because NO STEAM NO BUY?
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CharlesGrey: Not gonna happen. I think most would then simply use that as an excuse to pirate the game. A more likely scenario is that they will sell the game on both distribution platforms, but offer some extra incentives for GOG users. I think they already did that with Witcher 3? The GOG version probably had more bonus content... ?
No, The Witcher 3 is identical on both GOG and Steam. No extra bonus content on GOG.
Post edited July 01, 2018 by skeletonbow
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clarry: Well, CDPR has a good bargaining chip around the corner. I'm sure Valve wants their cut of CP2077 sales.
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BreOl72: Sorry, but CDPR has absolutely no bargaining chip around the corner.
The only one, losing out, by not releasing Cyberpunk 2077 on Steam, would be CDPR.
Sure, Steam wouldn't make a cut...on one game.
True, not only that but it would hurt their PR. Patience is the key.
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clarry: And that's before we even consider the effect that luring potential customers away from the Steam platform would have.
Only there is not much of a "luring potential" if people can just pirate your game instead.
And as I've told you already - people would do that...if only out of anger about CDPR, and to "make their point".

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clarry: If the game were not released on Steam, then such piracy would have no bearing on Valve's potential earnings and thus the bargaining power CDPR would have with them.
It's impossible, to try following your reasoning:

On the one hand, you say the money is the bargaining point, that CDPR has in negotiations with Valve...and it will definitely work, if CDPR just threatens to not release their game on Steam...

On the other hand, you say, if the game gets not released on Steam, the money lost is of no concern to Valve...

Could you possibly make up your mind, about what the money is now, exactly?

1) Is the money such a bargain point, that Valve can't just dismiss in the negotiations?

2) Or is the money something, that Valve doesn't have to care about, whether it is getting it, or not?

Here's the knack: Valve really doesn't need to care about the game, and the money it makes - in either way.

Only CDPR has to.

And CDPR would definitely loose money, because of the very reasons, I just gave you - repeated times:

People would want to punish CDPR for going GOG-exclusive.

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clarry: No, and I never said that CDPR would "win" doing that. What I'm saying is that not getting the game on Steam would be a big loss for Valve too. And that makes it a bargaining point for CDPR. Of course Valve wants their millions of $, there is no question about it.
Exactly. And they can keep doing so, by just releasing thousands of other games, with no strings attached.
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BreOl72: On the one hand, you say the money is the bargaining point, that CDPR has in negotiations with Valve...and it will definitely work, if CDPR just threatens to not release their game on Steam...

On the other hand, you say, if the game gets not released on Steam, the money lost is of no concern to Valve...

Could you possibly make up your mind, about what the money is now, exactly?

1) Is the money such a bargain point, that Valve can't just dismiss in the negotiations?

2) Or is the money something, that Valve doesn't have to care about, whether it is getting it, or not?
Oh come on, why would you pretend to be dumber than you are.

If Valve does not get to sell the game on Steam, then piracy makes no dent in their budget. So piracy does not make any difference in this discussion.
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skeletonbow: Depends on who the people are. CDP SA shareholders would probably start selling their shares of CDP SA's stock, because releasing your brand new AAA game title only on your own gaming platform and not releasing it on the most popular PC gaming platform would result in a loss in sales as well as angering a lot of existing fans and customers that want to buy the game on Steam.
Isn't that kind of what CDP's founders want actually, to be able to buy up all available stock they can to go private again?
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clarry: Oh come on, why would you pretend to be dumber than you are.

If Valve does not get to sell the game on Steam, then piracy makes no dent in their budget. So piracy does not make any difference in this discussion.
Maybe I'm just not dumb enough.

You: CDPR has the power in bargaining, because of the dollars, that CP2077 will bring to Valve.

Me: They don't. Steam doesn't need CP2077, to make dollars. But it would cost CDPR some dollars, if CDPR goes the GOG-exclucive route, because Steam fans would then just pirate CP2077.

You: Piracy is of no concern to Steam, because in that case, they wouldn't sell CP2077 anyway.

Me: If it's the same to Valve, whether they make money by selling CP2077, or not - then CDPR has no power in bargaining at all.

The fact, that Valve doesn't lose any income on a game, that gets pirated, while not being sold on their service, doesn't change the fact, that you claimed, the money Valve could make by selling that game, would make a great power in bargaining for CDPR.

To make it shorter:

Valve HQ - a telephone rings.

*driiing, driiing*

Valve HQ: "Hello?"

CDPR: "Hi guys, this is CDPR speaking. You know, we have this awesome new game in the making? CP2077?, Tell you what - we are willing to sell it on your service, too . But only IF you allow us in return,
to sell your Halflife and Portal series DRM-free on our service GOG.com. Now - what do you say?"

Valve HQ: "Yeah!, Well, let us think about it... You know what? That's not going to happen." *click*

CDPR: "Hello?...Helloo?..." *tumbleweed rolls by/a little dust devil dances on the street* "Hellooo?"

Behold: your great bargaining power in action.

Edit: some words and emphases.
Post edited July 02, 2018 by BreOl72