In a recent interview, Scott Miller suggested that Valve’s Steam publishing program should become its own company, fearing Valve’s access to download stats and revenue information about the competition. Soon after the interview, Valve announced that 3D Realms’ Prey is available for download on Steam.
“I’m not a big fan of using Steam, because I’m not a fan of a strong competitor of ours having access to our download stats and revenue totals,” said Miller in an interview. “I’d rather keep that private. Not only that, but we’re lining their pockets as well.”
Rather than have Steam run under the Valve umbrella, Scott Miller would prefer Steam become a separate entity: “I’d love to see Steam spin off as their own company. That would be a smart move. That removes the conflict of interest issue and it would give Steam focus as a separate company. Since they’re buried in Valve, if Valve doesn’t do well for a game or two, Steam will get cut before their internal game development. They have to consider Steam secondary. I don’t know why they hang on to Steam as an internal thing. They’d probably rule the game industry if they did. A truly independent company is going to come along, and I know of a couple of start-ups. I think one of these companies will emerge as the product leader and they should be able to take Steam’s spot.”
Despite Miller’s concerns, the 3D Realms and Human Head FPS Prey has been made available on Steam today for $49.99. Users who have already bought the game from a store or the now defunct Triton download service can get it through Steam using their existing product key.
