While Steam is the leading digital download service for PC taking up to as much as 80 percent of the market, some retail chains in the U.K. aren’t fond of contributing to that growth anymore. At least two major retailers are demanding that publishers remove Steam from their games, or else they will not sell them.
If we have a digital service, then I don t want to start selling a rival in-store, said the digital head at one of the biggest U.K. games retailers. Publishers are creating a monster we are telling suppliers to stop using Steam in their games.
At the moment the big digital distributors need to stock games with Steam, a head of sales at a big-name digital service provider agreed. But the power resides with bricks and mortar retailers, they can refuse to stock these titles. Publishers are hesitant, but retail must put pressure on them.”
Source: MCV
