A lesson in pointlessness

So the requirements for Bioshock 2 was released today, and included in this was also a list of the game's DRM protection. And I think this is a lesson is that you really can go overboard with it.

This what you need to have installed to be able to run the game:
SecuRom - Okay, this is getting standard these days so no biggie. And I doubt anyone will feel too bothered with the limit of 15 machines.
Steam - Nothing bad here either since a lot more games have started doing that these days. MW2, FEAR 2 and Dawn of War 2 for instance.
Games of Windows Live - For saving games, achievements and updates. Wait what?

So for one game you need three different applications. One of which is wholly unnecessary because the other one does an even better job.
And that is Games of Windows Live. Microsofts attempt at emulating or trying to butt in somewhat onto what Steam does with providing a store and online friends list.
And frankly, it does a horrible job at it.

See there was a reason I mentioned Dawn of War 2 earlier, it did the same thing and the whole thing was nothing short of a cluttered mess. For Dawn of War 2 you start up the game via Steam as it is installed via it. But to actually be able to play it with people you were forced to use the GFWL client.
Why?
Steam has consistently proven itself to be a lot better on that notion. The Steamworks concept and application has proved itself repeatedly to work very well with its saving of online profile and achievements to your steam profile for easy accessibility essentially everywhere. Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead has shown that already. Not to mention Steams patch distribution system works fine as well.
Not to mention Steam has a less obtrusive and annoying UI that isn't just the XBL one transfered over and can only be accessed in the game while Steam can be accessed outside the games that use it. Since the only outside access you have to GFWL is the online store, who up to recently only had the FO3 DLCs and minor things until they decided that it might just be a good idea to actually put that into use.

See there is that problem with GFWL, aside from it being a horribly designed mess with connection issues and other annoyances, is that it's barely been put into use and just left to fester and rot. While Steam has seen huge expansion in both the number of games supporting it and it's store. While GFWL on the other hand has been mostly ignored until they suddenly got this bright idea to actually try to put it into useage.  It was in the Halo 2 PC release as well as Shadowrun and those were released 2007 and after that it was simply ignored. I think it was Fallout 3 that was one of the first games that used it again and Dawn of War 2 put it really into use other than a way for them to sell DLCs for the same cost as on XBL. After that it has been appearing in various other games this past year or so.
And as far as I know I've barely seen a positive word about it in reviews. Reviews I've read for the PC port of RE5 and SF4 all point out the GFWL client as being a flaw in otherwise quite decent PC ports.

So why do they keep pushing it? Cross-Console gameplay doesn't seem to be a major consideration why as it doesn't seem to be touted off very often. I haven't even gotten a clue if it even works for a majority of the games that use the client anyway.
If anything they're just being stubborn and not wanting to give in and actually use Steam and instead stick to the unsupported and horrible mess that is GFWL.

There is that old saying that goes that too many chefs spoil the soup. Guess adding too many programs to the mix will produce about the same result.