<img align="right" src="http://www.valvesoftware.com/img/valve_logo_black.gif"></img>Genom [[Steam]] har #Valve blivit en av marknadsledarna inom digital distribution, samtidigt som deras spelmotor [[Source]] är bland de mest licensierade. Kort sagt, de kan tillhandahålla grundstommen ett företag behöver för att skeppa ett spel.
Doug Lombardi tror dock inte att kartongförsäljningen kommer att dö ut, det kommer alltid att finnas de som vill kunna gå in i en butik i jakt på något nytt. I en färsk intervju på GamesIndustry pratar han och produktionschefen Eric Johnson om onlineförsäljning, och hur den inte skadar traditionellt krängande så allvarligt som många tror.
"The interesting thing for us was our free weekend promotions on Steam, how many sales that would drive at retail as a result," explains Johnson. "We had this huge spike of players, and we could see which of them purchased the product on Steam. Looking at it, we sold a bunch more, and it turns out 60 per cent of the sales were at retail as a result of the free weekend. People would play the promotion on Steam and then go to the store to buy it. The channels aren't as segmented, they're not fighting each other as much as people think."
Senare i intervun bemöter de också rapporterna om att datorspelandet kommer att dö ut, något de avfärdar med exempel på hur mycket pengar bara #Blizzard drar in på #World of Warcraft. Däremot är de något skeptiska gentemot #Microsofts [[Games for Windows]]-satsning - är det bara ett marknadsgrepp för att sälja [[Windows Vista]]?
"Right now it seems like it's part of the marketing push to help Vista. To really back a platform is a sustained effort over years and years, so we'll see if in two years Microsoft is still spending money to put Games for Windows sections in retail, and having PR people preach that message that we were just talking about, which is that the PC isn't dying, in fact it's actually bigger than all the consoles put together. You know, if it were to sign up for that, that's great. If it's going to use it to promote sales of Vista, that's really not good for the industry, it's good for Microsoft in the short term."
