frogboy wins.

course... there should be an "all of the above" group. (hi)

Sorry, who is forcing you to use Steamworks? Is Valve going to go to your house and stop you from compiling a game without Steamworks? Are they going to force companies like Ubisoft to use Steamworks instead of Ubisoft DRM? Are they going to force you to develop for their platform only? The only future in which everyone uses Steamworks, is if Steamworks is the best solution.

MODERN WARFARE 2 IS $60 BECAUSE UBISOFT PRICED IT THAT WAY.

Edit: MW2 publisher is Activision. Ubisoft published AC2.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/33230/
http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Creed-2-Pc/dp/B001TOQ8R0

AC2 has no Steamworks, but is still $60 on PC originally.

Sorry, Activision is the publisher. But you can see that Ubisoft followed suit with AC2. MW2 was an experiment, and it succeeded wildly.

Also, Just Cause 2 and Civ 5, the very game of the topic, both use Steamworks and cost... $50.

Sometimes, when someone uses such a brain fart argument, I get a brain fart, too.

And I assume MW2 and Splinter Cell Conviction would cost you 60€

 SC C normal 49,99€

 SC C deluxe 54,99€

 CoD MW2  ( without this week's discount ) 59,99€

Speaking of overpriced games.  Impulse:  http://impulsedriven.com/products/ESD-IMP-W569

Actually, you'll notice MW2 is $49 on steam while at retail (Gamestop, Bestbuy) it is still $59...

Yep.

Thanks for posting...but how does Impulse differ from Steam with those points?  Sure Impulse may not have 70% of the share, but..isn't expanding and acquiring more users a goal of Impulse?  When I bought GalCiv 2 the first week it came out, and then after moving/losing the case and tried to install it from the game disks 2 years later, I suddenly found myself with a very closed product that wouldn't allow me to update.  The option Impulse gives customers is to use their service and get updates, or to not receive them - isn't that pretty much the same as "anyone who buys a steamworks game becomes a customer of valve."

Expanding marketshare is the goal of all players in the market.

That is the point of business. Steam, Impulse, D2D are all trying to maximize their market shares. They do this by competing for the dollars of consumers and consumers benefit. 

If Steam had a 25% market share, group 3 would not care. But it has a 70%+ market share on the digital side.

By the same token, if Impulse had a 70% market share and publishers were signing exclusives, you should be concerned as well.  I can assure you, if I had my way, I'd be at your house right now harvesting your organs for sale on t he black market. Unfortunately, I can't force you to give me your organs because I don't have that kind of leverage.  

My issue with Civ V requiring Steamworks is that they actually are already offering exclusive content on Steam, namely the Deluxe edition. So if I want it, I have to buy it from Valve and not from someone else. I most certainly won't, because the price of civ V Deluxe seems overblown when I look at the additional content that's not in Civ V not deluxe. A sensible distribution of the deluxe edition wouldn't be 10% added cost for 1 civ (18 base) + 1 map + some fluff sound or video I don't even care about. That edition is probably worth 1 more $ at best, and I'd like to look for a place where it'd be sold at a decent price, but I can't because there's only 1 place to buy from.

I really like the Civ series. But I am wondering whether I'll buy the game at all just because to get Babylon, not only do I have to buy a DLC, but it's overpriced and only available from one store.

I also happen not to want Steam to run when I run the game. If some people don't understand why, that's their problem, I just don't want it, period, respect my choice even if it looks silly to you. It's just about me and my computer. I often run games in windowed mode and do lots of things alongside. I don't want programs to run when I don't need them, and Steam gives me zero benefit if I play Civ (SP for me, I think civ MP is not worth playing even of that might change with Civ V). It may  eat 'only' 20 or 40 Mb, but its benefit/memory ratio is still zero to me.

This bothers me so much in particular, and I think Frogboy too, all the more because Civilization is -the- strategy game series of all time.  I mean, is there any name as iconic in strategy games as Sid Meier?

Its so terribly disheartening.  I'm sure Civ V will sell very well as a Steam exclusive ... but I don't think 2K/Firaxis realizes at all that their sales will be nerfed by the fact they have made an exclusive deal like this.  They would make more sales by having a wider audience if they did not do these exclusive deals.

I am having a terrible time ... I agree so much with Frogboy ... but Civilization is a series I so much love.  I already have a list of companies and organizations I boycott, such as AT&T and beef.  I am not 100% certain I will not buy Civ V if it remains Steam exclusive, but I am very close and teetering.  I'm a bad Civaholic ... maybe its for the best, then, that I don't ... though of course then I'll just keep spending days on end on the soon-to-be-retro Civ IV.

Civ5 is not a Steam exclusive - other retailers are offering it (boxed) as well.  It requiring steam is nothing new - stockdock requires Impulse in order to receive updates...