[quote who="Alstein" reply="123" id="2814898"]
True, large corporations are by their nature risk-averse, and publicly traded corps are by their nature short-sighted.  It's pretty much a standard theory of economics, though I'm unsure how exactly it's handled quantitatively.

That said, the smaller companies  will take the risks, then the bigger companies will catch up.  Invasive DRM will disappear by the end of this decade in the PC market, in the markets that prove such DRM isn't profitable.  Hopefully the PC market is one of those markets. 
[/quote]

Which economic theory are you referring to?

If it's a "standard" economic theory, it would have a name.

At this point, competing with Steam is like competing with Walmart. You can do it, but you'll never get there.

I gave up on the whole anti Steam thing a long time ago.

In my opinion, this is a farce.  Of course they have "Oongo-bagillion" accounts; you are forced to use them by various games now.

FORCED!!!

I just bought Fallout New Vegas, not realizing I would have to use Steam to activate it, and it installed to the Steam files I already have (never given an option, it just did it to those folders).

It seems to me that this is akin to forcing a million people to eat spaghetti (by force, no less), and then claiming your spaghetti sauce is the best because over a million people use it.

All this does is further my hate towards steam.   Half-life is probably the best game I've ever played.  I've owned Half-life 2 for years, and have never played it due to my disgust form Steam and their "what we say!" attitude.  I've even heard HL2 is better than HL1, but I still cannot get past their obnoxious arrogance of superiority.

In case it wasn't plain;  I dislike, and have no respect, for Steam! (the above just being proof of their idiotic arrogance)...of course you have 30 million accounts;  many people HAVE to make an account simply to play a game they alread paid $50 for and were never given a chance to play it WITHOUT Steam.  I think having that option would significantly decrease their numbers, as there is no way I would have a Steam account if I could avoid it.

You don't have to be Pepsi to Valve's coke, but you need to at least be its Cheerwine.

As long as most companies are willing to make money by putting games on your service, you'll get something.  Also, Steam may massively screw up at some point.

It is when you're still making money regardless.