Online distribution (Steam et al)

Just wondering what indie developers opinions on Steam (and similar distribution methods) are now. 3 or so years ago, Steam got a very negative reception by many - both developers and players - but there were lots of people who viewed it as being a way forward. Distribution and sales opportunity is the absolute maker or killer in this day and age, no matter how good your game is.

Personally I like Steam, and I have bought both big and low budget titles from it, but I probably wouldn't have bought any of the low budget stuff it weren't for HL2 and other big titles being on the store.

Part of that may have been people's irritation at not being able to play Halflife2 'out of the box' when it was released - but having to go through steam. I know I was thoroughly pissed at the delay, but now that I've moved to broadband, my irritation has subsided somewhat.

The other thing is I think I read somewhere that they have 13 million subscribers. Now that I have a game I'd like to see make a few sales, distribution on Steam would be fantastic.

I think it was probably the wrong time for Steam.

Broadband was nowhere near as fast as it is now, and many people still had dialup, so digital delivery of something on the scale of HL2 was out of the question for a lot of people.