No, no, no, no. What purpose does a box serve to a software product?

"Proper programms" are also a whole different can of worms legally. I don't think the Valve legal department really thought this through. Or was ignored, as usual.

But the "boxes" distribution will run out eventually. Generally, software providers no longer want you to buy licenses, but "service suits". The recent ECJ ruling has accelerated this trend immensely...
First Sale Doctrine.

I imagine this is why Valve recently added the ... patent or something? which was about subscriptions. Forgot what it was exactly, but when dealing with software it does make sense, a lot of them just deal with one year subscriptions etc.

Cool, so for once regional pricing on Steam is not a complete rip-off.

And yeah, I bought it through their homepage which until recently was the only place to get the GM. There the professional version of GM Studio is priced at $100 without VAT, so it's actually $120 which meant almost 100€.

Even if I had never had any issues with steam at all in the past, I'd never consider buying $100+ commercial apps on the platform. Programs you use in your everyday work can't afford to be under any possible legal limbo of weather or not you have a license or subscription. That combined with the horrid support system Valve has in place makes it a no go for a corporate environment.

It isn't. Never was.

My work license of MatLab phones home every single time it is started. And you have to pay an annual fee. I actually rent it. ... For business software this is already reality, Steam only offers another (among many others) solution for subscription based services.

its my understanding that when a company like steam goes under, your purchases, unless they were bought up by someone else, are gone too.

so why buy something from steam when steam could go under in a couple of years? unless its a game, and the game doesn't cost very much.


I myself buy stuff from steam, but if its something i would miss in a couple of years should steam go under, i would get a box copy.


I used to do business with this company called Direct to Download. then one day! whats this? there gone! game fly bought them. i was told to go to gamefly and try to get my games from them, BUT IT TOOK THEM OVER A YEAR to get all the games on! MAYBE LONGER!

I've completely given up on the games now, maybe i'll check back some time in the future just to see if they have finished putting all my games on yet, but i wonder if 10 years from now they STILL wont have them all.