PC gaming Digital Distribution reliability & trust levels

Games
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I’m pretty sure that greater than 99% of the people who visit this site will at least be aware of Steam, although there are a handful that refuse to use it for a variety of reasons. Since the rise of Steam, numerous competitors have come and gone and left varying impressions on their clientele. I thought it might be nice to concisely list our experiences to help out those who might be considering online stores that they’ve never heard of or used before. With us being fairly known quantities on this forum, it’s hopefully a little better than generic yelp stuff that someone may find online. I’ll provide a few examples from my own experience. All ratings are subjective and solely based upon my experiences and biased outlooks

STEAM (Valve): reliability - 9/10, trust - 9/10, will they be here in five years? Yes
The good: huge catalogue, lots of good sales, now has a decent refund policy
The bad: customer support can be a little slow, but the longest I’ve had to wait has been a few days. Also, their automated service emails may get flagged as spam by some email providers who then place a block (it may never show up in your spam folder).
The ugly/frustrating: some titles will still have 3rd party DRM, but at least the store page will normally say so.

ORIGIN (EA): reliability - 7/10, trust - 8/10, will they be here in five years? Probably
The good: a mixed catalogue of both new and old games, occasional (mostly low-value) freebies.
The bad: if you have issues with EA, you by default have issues with Origin. Also, the sales are normally pretty lackluster and rarely include deals on DLC.
The ugly/frustrating: when troubleshooting games, a common step in “first try this” lists is to turn off the Origin overlay. While this is fairly simple to do, it’s kind of silly that a publisher’s titles might have compatibility issues after release with that same publisher’s storefront.

GOOD OLD GAMES (CD Projekt): reliability - 9/10, trust - 9/10, will they be here in five years? Maybe
The good: DRM-free, occasional (mostly low-value) freebies, I kind of like their “bookshelf” look to my collection, no overlay (a plus for me, maybe a minus for someone else)
The bad: somewhat limited catalogue
The ugly/frustrating: have had to consider removing a few games from their catalogue due to rights-holders being bought and consolidated, and had uncertainty if they’d be available to re-download in the future. Hasn’t impacted any games I particularly care about, however.

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I like the idea Dan, and those are in line with mine. Lemme add one:

GAMERSGATE: Reliability - 8/10, Trust - 9/10, Will they be here in give years? Yeah, I think so
The good: Decent sized catalogue, for a while the only place to get obscure European games, which still kinda holds true, decent sales a lot of the time
The bad: Sometimes when they have price mistakes, they refund people’s money (most of the time) rather than stick to the price
The ugly/frustrating: Their non-Steam games come with a proprietary installer that doesn’t always work. I had to change Internet settings here and there to have it work on some older games.

3

I think the ratings on things based upon “Will they be around in five years?” needs a little tweaking. For instance, can I imagine that EA does something else with their platform that maybe results in it not being called “Origin” in the next five years? Not really, but I guess it’s a possibility. Can I imagine EA not having a digital platform that honors Origin purchase and service commitments? No. EA isn’t going anywhere, at least not in a “It doesn’t exist anymore” mode of envisioning it.

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I hear you - I’m sure that as a company EA will be around, but I just don’t trust that the games in everyone’s library will all still be available for download five years from now. Somebody, somewhere may argue that the cost of maintaining server space for old games isn’t worth it or some such BS. Of course, I kinda loathe EA, and so that’s probably coming through in that rating. I’ll update it to “probably,” however. No need to be unfair.

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I agree. There’s really no telling. Suppose Valve throws a lot of money at GOG and rolls GOG into Steam? Your games are probably safe but now they are Steam games and not GOG games, which probably makes a difference to a lot of us. Or suppose Microsoft or Apple offers crazy money to Valve?

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Steam Customer Service: 1/10 - it’s taken weeks for a useless reply for me.

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Those are well-known names already though. What are your experiences with CDKeys, InstantGaming, Nuveem etc.

Not to mention GreenManGamingand UPlay.

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The calculation for that I expect involves the following factors:

  1. “Legacy” games are cheap, found revenues for publishers. They may not generate much revenue, but the costs to develop and market the product generating the revenue were incurred on P&L reports 10, 15, or 20 years ago.

  2. By the same token, what’s the marginal cost of those games in terms of server size and bandwidth in comparison to current product offerings? For instance, what does it really cost EA to leave a 3gb drive space and bandwidth allocation for folks to buy and download a game from them that was originally released in 2005? Especially compare that footprint the already sunk-costs in bandwidth and server infrastructure to house and sell other, recent titles that may edge over 20-30gb?

The answer to me on Origin especially is “It ain’t going anywhere.” EA was quite smart to go exclusive on newer titles two years ago. As long as they churn out Sims and BF games, they’re going to be just fine. And I’m guessing that the margin ratio earned on titles on Origin more than pays for the cost of that service versus what they’d forfeit to Valve/Steam if they ever went back.

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The only one of those that fits is Uplay. The others sell keys to use on different services and platforms.

If GMG ever should disappear, keys you have to GMG games will still work for you, for instance.

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None - that’s part of the reason I started this thread. Hopefully someone with experience with those will chime in.

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It does count those factors, but please: post your own ratings. This isn’t designed to create a “QT3 says ___” but rather a collection of our experiences. For instance, Rei has had experiences with Steam that don’t match mine. His input should be listed as well (and hopefully he’ll provide a more complete listing)

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Oh, OK! Apologies to Alistair then, because I thought we were just rating on the dimensions for an actual platform. Retailers and merchants too, then?

Hmm.

Now you’re going to make me have to think.

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Steam (Valve): Reliability: 10/10, Trust 8/10, Will they be here in 5 years: barring nuclear holocaust, yes.

The Good: So much of everything. Steam more than any other platform made itself defacto copy protection that helped reduce StarForce and SecuRom usage and eliminated the need for hard copy, copy protection schemes. Reliable–I can’t remember Steam ever being down for an extended period, and the offline mode works fine even so. Steam sales are the industry trendsetter.
The Bad: My main worry is Steam cornering a market and flexing that market muscle down the line in inflated prices.
The ugly: The introduction of paid mods outside of Valve-owned properties seems like something that wasn’t really well thought out and may open a pandora’s box of unexpected consequences down the line.

UPlay (Ubisoft): Reliability: 6/10, Trust 7/10, WTBHI5Y: I think so, but of the Big Three, they’re the ones I’d put a flyer on being gone.

The Good: I like a lot of Ubi games, and this is the only way to play a lot of them. Have had multiple experiences with Ubi customer service regarding Uplay (don’t ask), and all have been outstanding…if slow. And while I think there’s at least a 20 percent probability that Uplay isn’t around in 5 years, I do have faith that Ubi or whomever purchases them will make sure that Uplay codes are transferred to Steam or wherever.
The Bad: Ubi has been taken offline for periods of time longer than I can remember with anyone but Sony due to hacker activity. Security remains a concern.
The Ugly: Launching Steam-purchased, older UBI games from Steam is kind of a goofy Rube-Goldberg comedy of digital handoffs.

Origin (EA): Reliability: 7/10, Trust 8/10, WTBHI5Y: Yes

The Good: Kinda cool that EA does fan service things like offering free games through the platform from time to time. Has always been solid for me in finding multiplayer.
The Bad: As Dan mentioned, occasional games seem to forget they should play well with the parent company’s platform
The Ugly: It sounds like a great service, and it sometimes is, that Origin will let you get Origin codes for the awful hard-copy coding system for some games. But the key here (pardon the pun) is that it only works with some games, and not all.

GMG: Reliability: 8/10, Trust 6/10, WTBHI5Y: Probably

The Good: prices and sales and specials. No online merchant does it quite as well as GMG on legit, in-region games.
The Bad: BUT…starting to wonder how many of the games I’ve bought from them are legit in-region for North America, given some of the recent issues with them acting as a reseller. It doesn’t trip me up too badly, but I do like to know when I’m being a gray market purchaser and when I’m not.
The Ugly: GMG is usually very good about getting people game keys for AAA releases before the games come out so you can pre-load and be ready. Have been burned before, though too, and gotten a key on European release days that were after North American release days.

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CDkeys and InstantGaming are dodgy key resellers, there’s always the risk of a key getting revoked by a publisher later. FWIW I’ve bought hundreds of games from similar websites and never had an issue but I avoid the ebay-like websites that let third parties sell keys.
My rule of thumb is that if they’re incorporated in the EU or US they’re probably as legit as GreenManGaming or Gamersgate but if they’re in HK, the Ukraine or Dubai chances are they sell grey market keys.

http://www.allkeyshop.com/ is a good price comparison website.

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I’ve used GMG since it started and had zero issues. I use gamesplanet as well and never had issues with them

Occasionally I use other keysellers for older stuff that costs a few quid and again have never had any issues.

In my library of games from Steam, Uplay, GoG and Origin I have pushing 700 games and never had a key issue ever. I had one issue where a pre order hadn’t been delivered and a 2 minute online chat solved it with a key immediately.

Until issues arise I will continue doing what I do. This is pretty much the same as any other shopping, crap service, product issues, poor service etc and I stop using them. I have way more high street stores I refuse to go in due to poor service than online ones

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Steam: Reliability: 10/10, Trust 10/10. Will they be here in five years? Yes.
The standard by which all others are judged. Massive selection, great deals and now a good return policy. I will pay more just to buy it from Steam.

UPlay: Reliability: 8/10, Trust 5/10. Will they be here in five years? Yes.
Intrusive and expensive, the only reason I put up with it is to play the occasional Ubi game.

Origin: Reliability: 9/10, Trust 6/10. Will they be here in five years? Yes.
I have occasionally purchased things from the Origin store but frankly their proprietary software actually acts as a negative inducement to buying EA games. Their refund policy sounds pretty good.

HumbleBundle: Reliability: 5/10, Trust 5/10. Will they be here in five years? Maybe.
I have purchased Humble Bundles a few times and even bought a game or two from them. At least twice now I have received bad keys and it took them about a week to respond. I do not find five or six days an acceptable response time and the last time I canceled the credit card charge. They sent me a warning email threatening to close my account because they sent me an invalid key. At this point the only thing I will buy from them are bundles.

GOG: Reliability: 7/10, Trust 1/10. Will they be here in five years? Yes.
I love what GOG stands for if they actually followed through with it. But on my last purchase I could not get the game working. Their suggestions to get it working were a bunch of shareware links including ones that appear to be licensed and thus the link appeared to be an illegal download. When I refused to put unknown shareware on my system they declined the refund. At a couple of pounds it was not worth the chargeback on the credit card but that is the last purchase I will ever make from GOG.

Amazon: Reliability: 10/10, Trust 10/10. Will they be here in five years? Yes.
If it is not on Steam, Amazon is my next stop.

GMG: Reliability: 10/10, Trust 8/10. Will they be here in five years? Maybe.
I have used GMG for some gaming purchases and not really had any problems. The rumors about some of the ways they acquire keys gives me pause.

GamersGate: Reliability: 8/10, Trust 9/10. Will they be here in five years? Maybe.
Had a problem with a key for Anno and they resolved it quickly. I have not had any problems in a half dozen purchases but rarely is there any need to shop there anymore.

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There are other options such as fastspring, BMTMIcro and the humble widget. BMTMicro have been around longer than everyone listed so far.

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Yeah I kind of wonder about GamersGate myself. I used to buy from them pretty frequently, but rarely in the last year or 2. Discoverability is a major problem on their site and unless you are conducting a known-item search browsing is problematic. Typically it is just long lists of games that you can sort by price or date, etc. They also haven’t kept up with the market regarding competitive pricing or worthwhile sales. I only visit the site if a deal aggregator lists them (which is rare).

-Todd

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The biggest thing for me is that GamersGate’s discounts aren’t as great as other places now.

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This is all good stuff. I have an odd question to ask to anyone: for those that would normally use a credit card online (I understand there are those who will not no matter the store), are there any of these sites that you wouldn’t?