The Steam Method of Digital Service Design
Learning about service environments from video gaming’s premier online marketplace.
by Todd Greco, Interaction Design Director
When folks talk about the business of video games these days, they frequently focus on the battle Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are fighting for supremacy over the living room. Consoles are a commodity, and their seven year life-cycle makes it easy to design large experiences against. That said, quite a lot can happen in seven years, but any real innovation is on the software side of the house, while the hardware stays locked in time.
As a technologist (and gamer), the real action I see is in the PC (as opposed to console) gaming space. It’s here that hardware gets updated yearly, and innovations like 4k displays and user-created mods can really supercharge the gaming experience. Interestingly though, the real innovation in the PC space hasn’t been the march towards new hardware or the ability for users to create new experiences with modified game code, but rather a change in the service side. Steam is a digital platform that moved PC gaming from boxed products to downloadable games, in a way that changed how PC (i.e. Windows, Mac and Linux) gamers purchased them.
Much has been written about this, but the basic idea is simple: I can go to Best Buy, buy a boxed version of Skyrim, and install it onto my computer. In the process, I get a serial code that I enter in order to complete the installation. If I get a new computer, or want to install my new game on a new platform (I use a Windows machine at home for games, and travel with a Mac laptop for work), I’m out of luck — the license for that boxed product allows a single install on a single machine. If I want to reinstall, I need to dig out the DVD and have at it. The onus is on me to track the DVD and the installs for every game I purchase.
Steam changed all of that. Now, I log into a single application and purchase games through that. If I log onto a different computer, I can see all the games I own at a glance, and download them to that machine too. Many also save status, so I can, for example, leave off a game of Civilization at home, and pick it up again on my Mac in a hotel room while on the road.
What makes this magical is that there’s a single place for all of my games. Much like iTunes on the music side, Valve (the makers of Steam) have created an ecosystem that’s hard to beat, and continually create new innovations, like the ability to stream games between machines so you don’t have to reinstall them. This helps them stay ahead of their competitors.
Of course, other publishers see this user base and want in on this action. Sadly, they’ve all done so by creating their own walled gardens (which is, to be honest, what Steam did). So now, if I want to play Battlefield 4 (an Electronic Arts title), I have to install their proprietary marketplace called Origin, and launch it from there. Some publishers try to have it both ways: Far Cry 3 is a game you can buy via Steam, but it installs another service called uPlay at the same time. Launching the game from Steam pops up uPlay (which replicates Steam’s experience) and then requires that you log in again to play your game. All of this stems from the game’s Canadian publisher Ubisoft, and their desire to prevent Valve from getting credit for the game.
In the physical world, it would be as if these publishers all had game boxes at Best Buy, which could be purchased at full price ($60)…but you had to go to another store down the street to actually pick up the DVD.
And that’s the problem right there. Steam came out first, and so holds the lion’s share of my games. Every other service that comes out afterwards will only have a few of them, and will annoy me more than anything else. Steam set a standard, both with flash sales (“Skyrim only $9.00 for the next 24 hours!”), and its multiple-publisher philosophy. The single publisher-driven ones, like Origin and uPlay, are pretenders to the throne. I use them, but only because I’m forced to.
What can we take away from this? First, that Openness is key, at least as it relates to allowing other publishers into your ecosystem. It worked for iTunes (imagine a music store that only sold tracks from Sony), and it works for Valve. Second, you’ll win more people over by thinking with a user focus than a lawyer/publisher one.
Most of all, though, being first and being good can make it impossible for even deep pockets to overtake you. No matter how much EA and Ubisoft dump into their digital products, they have a steep uphill battle to win the hearts and minds of gamers. As a consumer, I’m betting against them, and hoping they eventually merge their libraries into my Steam one.
Todd Greco is the Interaction Design Director at Ziba. Bridging the traditional gap between developer and designer, he leads cross-disciplinary teams in the creation of software and physical interfaces for global clients including FedEx, Intel, Samsung, adidas and Technicolor. With more than 19 years of experience, Todd is well-versed in design research and experience prototyping; prior to joining Ziba, he worked with Adobe to develop Creative Suite 1-4, and helped design and implement the iShares investment service for Barclays. He has also run his own design studio, and taught digital design at Portland State University for nearly 10 years. Follow him on Twitter and Medium at @mrballistic.
