The sales thanks to steam or the lost sales due to steam will not be the issue in the end, IMO, for the end users. Rather it will be the sales ignorant of steam.
Fear 2 is a steamworks game and on its retail box it does not mention steam anywhere on the front of the box. It has the small steamworks logo on the back, sitting in with all the other logos like nvidia and Bink, and then the line "You must accept the enclosed License Agreement" under the system requirements.
In the very small fine print:
I'm not trying to fear monger here, but I hope that anyone who could conceivably not consider the subscriber agreement to be acceptable would read the fine print on a game box before purchase.
Although TF2 is not technically a steamworks game (I don't think), its box does not have any fineprint on it whatsoever about a steam subscriber agreement. It doesn't even mention the word steam once.
Fear 2 is a steamworks game and on its retail box it does not mention steam anywhere on the front of the box. It has the small steamworks logo on the back, sitting in with all the other logos like nvidia and Bink, and then the line "You must accept the enclosed License Agreement" under the system requirements.
In the very small fine print:
I'm sure civ5 will have pretty much the same fine print in regards to steamworks.Notice: Product offered subject to your acceptance of the Steam Subscriber Agreement ("SSA"). You must activate this product via the Internet by registering for a Steam account and accepting the SSA. Please see www.steampowered.com/agreement to view the SSA prior to purchase. If you do not agree with the provisions of the SSA, you should return this game unopened to your retailer in accordance with their return policy. Steamworks and its logo are trademarks of Valve Corporation.
I'm not trying to fear monger here, but I hope that anyone who could conceivably not consider the subscriber agreement to be acceptable would read the fine print on a game box before purchase.
Although TF2 is not technically a steamworks game (I don't think), its box does not have any fineprint on it whatsoever about a steam subscriber agreement. It doesn't even mention the word steam once.