Well, Rebellion is a steamworks game, the fact that it isn't in beta anymore doesn't change that fact. This is why it was such a big deal when they announced that before the beta started. I'm afraid you're a little late for that conversation.

I think one reason why they choose steam was because of steamworks, and all the already available netcode. Now I don't know if this was the reason ICO choose steam, but I know other game companies have switched over to steam for this reason.

Here's more info on steamworks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_%28software%29#Steamworks

For example, take supreme commander 2. From what I read, Gas Powered Games dropped their GPGnet system in favor of steam because of steamworks.  I believe one of their guys said that steamworks was incredibly convenient.

Furthermore, I'd also like to point out the massive user base of steam. Games that get on steam get tons of exposure, letting players know about games they may have never heard of. To be honest, I'm one of those players. Back when Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity first came to steam, I had no idea such a game existed. But as I was browsing through strategy titles, I came across. Never heard of it before, but after reading about it, I was intrigued. Bought it on a steam sale, and I've been a fan of Sins ever since.

EDIT: About DRM:

I'll be honest with you, what's so bad about it? Don't get me wrong, clunky DRM like Origin is utterly horrendous. But for me, Steam has a DRM that works pretty smoothly and it's a terrible pain to deal with. While some people may have issues with offline mode, it's always worked like a charm for me. Assuming it's not an EA game...

I personally find origin to be an incredibly smooth and wonderful third party manager. Aside from all that personal snooping. If it didn't have that it would be the best download manager around in my opinion. 

That alone expresses the subjective nature behind third party managers, someone's heaven is someone else's hell. The only solution is to abandon it all. The key here is the absolute destruction of Stardock's Gamers Bill of Rights by introducing Rebellion purely to steamworks.

Honestly I don't think of Steam as a "3rd party download manager" for Sins.  Steamworks is an integral part of the game and of the code.  So it's more of a "1st party" software required.  Just happens to be Steam.  So Sins requires Steam simply because it uses Steamworks.  Elemental doesn't appear to be using Steamworks so while it will most likely be available on Steam to buy, Steam won't be required.  Now if they decide to do multiplayer it may go the same way where if they use Steamworks then again, Steam will be required.  

I don't see this as a violation.  And frankly who really cares.  You either like the game and want to buy it or you don't.  Easy enough.

I use to have a real negative view towards steam but over the years its been nothing but great.

It being a steamworks title is a bonus and not a negative to me personally (achievments,etc..)

Do you know that steams knows every single piece of software that's installed on your system by windows? Can you tell me why the fuck it's any of their business? If the purpose of steam was to thwart piracy, lol, I could maybe go with that, but honestly I'm not retarded.

Thx for for copying StarDock's intentions why they use steam, GoaFann77.

But every point FrogBoy listed that belonged to a modern game is nothing i need.

I loved Sins, i loved Entrenchment, i loved Diplomacy, but i am not going to buy Rebellion as long as it's coupled to stearm...

Hopefully we'll find it on gog in a few years. Until the we just have to play something else *shrug*

Why do people have such hate towards Steam? It's a game updating client and a game store all in one.

I didn't find leaving Steam on for Rebellion to work annoying at all, because Rebellion seems to be tied to Steam. Steam is nice because it runs at Window's start up, (By the way, you can use msconfig.exe to change that) then it'll update your game automatically, and it will *ding* when it finished. It tells me when my friends are on, and has an in-game web browser.

Exactly!

I'm one of those people.

@Ekkko_Tek

To be fair, for all we know, the entire netcode could've been reworked behind the scenes. While it may look the same, they have redone the code and used steamworks in it's place. Of course though, I don't have decompiled code of trinity and rebellion, so I'm not sure just how extensive steamorks has been integrated into the netcode.

You can say the same about Impulse. But Impulse itself is no drm. you do not have to have impulse running when you want to play your games you bought on impulse. Actually you dont even need to have impulse installed

Two digital purchase/Download platforms are enough for me - i do not hate steam, i just dont want another platform...

First off when it comes to rebellion steam is not 3rd party it is 1st party because of steamworks rebellion would not function online without as the old system has been removed and for the record steamworks does a much better job than the old system.

Now on to steam itself WOW why the hate? Steam rocks, for many reasons its comunity system, its store, update, backup, its has offline, (althought I have never understood why someone would use that) tech support base, forums, a very effective security system (if you go to the trouble to understand how it works and use it). All in all it is an amazing system that does all that and reliably.

The big three evil letters DRM that so many people seem to fear don't really bother me under certain conditions.

1. There is a reasonable cost to results ratio.

2. The developers are willing to keep price of affected games down because they are comfortable with the perceived level of protection from said DRM.

3. Last but by no means least. The DRM does not get in the way of my game enjoyment.

Steam by itself accomplishes all three of these on its own, the fact that some of these publishers are sticking or leaving their own awefull forms of DRM in games on top of the steam system is another topic. BTW I am all for going after these companies that do such underhanded bs.