One of Stardock’s reasons for selling Impulse to GameStop was that running a digital distribution business had gotten in the way of making games. Valve might very well be in a similar predicament when it comes having to split resources between game development and Steam.
“[W]e could have become a retailer and tried to compete in that space long-term, but there were two possibilities,” Stardock’s Brad Wardell told IndustryGamers. “One is that we’d lose out and become a permanent minor player — Impulse relative to Steam today I would argue is a minor player. Or two, we’d be successful and we’re basically just a 600-person retail digital distribution company where three-quarters of the staff are sales people and account managers. And when the winning scenario is not what your objective in life is, then it’s time to re-evaluate what you want to do.”
Wardell believes Valve has been in the same position and it’s chosen to focus on the digital distribution business. As a result, we find ourselves still wondering where Half-Life 2: Episode 3 is.
