As we first reported, Direct2Drive has decided to start offering PC games for sale on their site that require Valve's Steam client and Steamworks tools after previously announcing they would not allow PC games with those third party programs to be sold on Direct2Drive's site. This was due to Direct2Drive's customers saying they, "weren't concerned whether a game came with a third-party client or not." according to Julie Uhrman, the general manager of Direct2Drive.

So if customers at Direct2Drive don't mind such third party programs, would other PC game download services also allow games that use Steam and Steamworks to be sold on their sites? Big Download contacted both Impulse and GamersGate, two other PC game download sites that have previously said they would not offer Steamworks-based PC games for sale, for comment.

GamersGate CEO Theodore Bergquist told us, "We listen to our customer base very closely and they clearly prefer to not use a client. We're now the world's largest digital retailer with more than 2300 games in our catalog and experiencing tremendous growth. Hopefully because we're meeting the expectations from our customers. We used to use our own client, but we eliminated that due to our customers' opinions. At this time, we have no plans to offer games that use Steamworks."

Brad Wardell, the CEO of Stardock and the head of Impulse, sent Big Download a statement with a slightly different reason for not offering Steamworks-based games: "As for Steamworks games on Impulse, no, we will continue our policy of not distributing titles that require the bundling of a third party store. Direct2Drive is in a somewhat different position than Impulse is in that its only source of income is from third party titles. Impulse, by contrast, has the Stardock titles which gives it a bit more flexibility. Impulse's financial viability isn't tied to selling copies of Steamworks titles."