Valve says online retailers miss out by boycotting Steamworks

Valve's Jason Holtman has told GI.biz that rival digital download sites like Direct2Drive, Impulse and Gamersgate that refuse to sell Modern Warfare 2 over the inclusion of Steamworks are missing out on business.

"To our minds, we think that if you're making a good game and it's got the services a customer wants it should get out in as many channels as possible. If you have a good portal and you're good at collecting money from folks, and attracting them, there's no reason why you shouldn't be," said the business development director.

"We try to make those services that developers and our customers want. Whether another distributor wants to carry them or not, we don't have any say in the matter, that's between Activision and other online distributors."

Direct2Drive accused Steamworks of "forcing the user to install a Trojan Horse" earlier in the month, and while Holtman didn't "comment on the comment" he did say that a lot more games featuring the tool are set for release.

"The interesting thing is, those games that have Steamworks features in them are really made to be the things customers want. Developers are choosing the features that make the game better. There's no service where there are features you have to have, developers are choosing between those, he said.

"There's a lot of games that came out in 2009 with Steamworks, and they'll be a lot more games in 2010 that have Steamworks."

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