Truel of the fates

Back in 2004, Steam made its debut.

Well, not so much a debut as it gatecrashed the scene, enforcing itself on unsuspecting gamers in case they wanted to play games such as Half-Life 2 (one of the most anticipated sequels in the history of gaming) or Counter-Strike (arguably, CoD has surpassed CS's peak moments in terms of popularity, but the stats are jaded due to lower skill requirements, the influx of youngsters and, let's face it, consoles). But I digress. What Steam was met with was nothing less than utter dismay at the time. Enforcing people to install a "mediator" software to be able to play specific games? Which piece of software was, on top of that, very buggy and unstable? Yeah, the flak Valve got for that one was tremendous, but did they give up? Nope. Chuck Testa.

Today, Steam is one the largest, easiest and most trustworthy ways of acquiring games. 2004 might have been the wrong year to pioneer this, seeing as super fast connections weren't as widespread as they are today, buying software without a physical copy seemed odd still and let's face it, buying stuff online was still considered dangerous by some luddites. Today, however, the majority of PC gamers have a Steam account, which provides hundreds of games, regular sales, access to indie games, ways to publish your own content, game updates, cloud saving and all at the touch of a button or two. Steam even seems intent to invade our living rooms, with new feature Big Picture and upcoming Steambox which will basically be a tiny hybrid between console and PC to bring your Steam library to your TV. 

This is the 1000$ Piston prototype, manufactured by Xi3, not actually what the Linux-based Steambox will be or look like, but planting the promises of Steambox firmly in the realms of possibility.

Like all pioneers, Steam met with vehement resistance at the beginning. And, like all pioneers, once that resistance seemed to keel over, it found imitators. Not very surprisingly, the most successful of those imitators were the X-box Live marketplace and PSN store, both basically working like Steam did for PC for their respective consoles, branching further into the home entertainment aspects at the same time. Unfortunately, along with XBLM we had to put up with Games for Windows Live on the PC, but that never came close to touching Steam and is another story entirely.

That's not, however, to say the PC scene didn't have Steam imitators. EA tried (and failed) with their EA Store and Download Manager, both, let's face it, terrible pieces of software, mostly because the Download Manager was so shit it acted like an actual deterrent from buying a game through the Store. For a while, other sources, including Steam,  had to carry the EA load while EA sorted their shit out. It took a while, and then EA came up with Origin.

What's Origin? Why, it's Steam. Only not. Only it is. Only it isn't. Needlessly confusing, isn't it? Origin is basically what Steam is, only specifically for EA's not so small library. For added oomph into launching it, EA retired most of their games from Steam, however they had to return some after public outcry.

Now, Origin works exactly as Steam does: a piece of software that offers an online store, networking capabilities (sans the Steam community, workplace etc), game integration, sales from time to time (though nothing that come close to Steam's midweek and weekend madness, daily offers and seasonal sales; remember, this is EA). 

What, then, is the point of having two competing pieces of software with pretty much the same function? The simple answer? EA wanted total control over their own library, and exclusive rights into pricing it. Hailed as a douchebag move, Origin nevertheless isn't a bad program per se; it's just the motives behind its launch that are questionable. Then again, Steam was much-hated on release as well, so Origin's future could go both ways.

And, somewhere along the line, Ubisoft decided to launch their own Uplay service. While Uplay does work more or less like Origin (and Steam before that), its main purpose wasn't to form a community (which it has, but as a community against it, not formed around it) or an online games store (which, nevertheless it has, but more like a byproduct). It doesn't offer much in the way of making friends, and you can find Ubisoft games at both Steam and Origin (the latter recently agreed to a two-way deal to carry some of each other's games). No. Uplay's real purpose was something else, no matter what it's being marketed as right now.

You see, Ubisoft has always had a thing against piracy. To the point where it would often deter everyone but pirates to play their games. Their always-on DRM meant that you had to be online at all times and connected to the Ubisoft servers to be able to play single-player games such as Assassin's Creed 2. Needless to say, it was only players who bought their games legally that ever had trouble with that: if a connection was lost you were booted from the game, servers were often crashing or coming offline (due to technical malfunctions or targeted attacks) and the likes. Not to mention actual, money-spending gamers hated being treated like potential thieves and that meant decreased sales for every game that implemented this (pointless, as it was hacked in pirated versions hours after the release) security measure.

So Ubisoft thought long and hard, and repackaged their DRM into Uplay, a glorified launcher that essentially does the same thing, only more leniently. I'm afraid, however, it's nowhere near enough to cleanse Ubisoft's slate.

So what the end consumer ends up with is a three way duel for affection, commonly known as a truel. Where would one spend their hard-earned cash, Steam, Origin, or Uplay?

I wish I could tell you "Option A" or "Option B". Hell, I even wish I could tell you "wherever you damn well please". It doesn't seem like you can avoid using Steam or Origin, seeing as they both offer great options in terms of games, and, unless you're hellbent in supporting only one of the two, odds are you have or soon enough will have an account at both services.

But what I can, and in good conscience must do, is tell you why you should stay the hell away from using Uplay as much as you can.

a) Performing like the grandest of douchebags, Uplay sneakily enters your PC even when you purchase a Ubisoft game on, say, Steam and presumably on Origin as well. Origin and Steam install themselves when you install a new EA or Valve hard copy game as well, but no EA game currently on Steam forces you to install Origin. This is not the case with Uplay.

b) The store offers a high quality library. Which is also available on Steam and Origin. Supporting Uplay's store is nothing more than a gesture of encouragement for Ubisoft to keep making life miserable for paying customers. Play Ubisoft games (if you can). Just don't buy them on Uplay.

c) The Uplay software, underneath the camouflage bells and whistles, is glorified DRM: A piece of software to prevent piracy that only affects negatively non-pirated copies of the game. 

d) It's shit.

Hope this covers it, folks! We might not have a clear winner, but we do, at least, have a clear loser.