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Valve Releases, Tries To License Steam

Posted by simoniker on from the valve-good-steam-bad? dept.

Thanks to Blue's News for pointing out that the non-Beta version of Valve's Steam has been released, and a valid Half-Life-related CD key is required to install the online content delivery system and play Half-Life engine games online. Since launch this morning, Planet Half-Life are noting: "we said, 'the transition over to Steam is bound to be a little bumpy,' and hoo boy, did that turn out to be an understatement", as many are experiencing installation problems and slowness at the Steam servers. Elsewhere, a Wired News article discusses Valve's plans to make the Steam software base available to others: "Valve is also actively licensing the commerce software that manages the game's download and purchase process to other developers, publishers and Internet service providers in exchange for 5 percent of their gross sales."

7 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Half-Life petition by Andy+Smith · · Score: 4, Informative

    Vaguely on-topic. This is the first petition I've ever signed...

    Protest of Half-Life 2's requirement of an internet connection for Single Player and Lan Party games.

    I'm waaay out of the loop with the Half-Life scene nowadays so I hope I'm not spreading FUD by posting this link. But if Valve do seriously intend to require an Internet connection for single-player and LAN games (apparently NOT just one-time product activation) then I think it would be a very bad thing.

    Thanks to Blue's News for the link.

    1. Re:Half-Life petition by Drakin · · Score: 3, Informative

      CD checks don't stop anything but the most casual of game copying.

      Some games have -removed- copy protections from them in patches simply becuase they cause more problems than then CD piracy.

      Hell, why do you think that Mircrosoft doesn't copy protect their CD's? Because it'll cause even more problems between the hardware and software if they do.

      I will admit that CD keys, checked via an internet connetion is a good thing. For a multiplayer game. Playing it locally, not a good thing...

      Maybe that'll be the next advance. Play the single player for free/cheap, but pay to unlock multiplayer Keycodes.

  2. Re:Mods/Skinz, valve is screwing them over... by BrookHarty · · Score: 3, Informative

    Looks like they mean the skin of the steam launcher itself. Not the models... DAmn it.

  3. Re:Steam Might have spyware... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apparently the 'personal data' appearing in an older version of Steam's cache file was due to how the system worked. Steam creates a large, empty file which effectively acts as a virtual disk with a filesystem on.

    I read that Windows' FAT32 didn't actually bother clearing the hard disk space occupied by this cache file before Steam used it, so as-yet unused sections of the cache file would end up containing data that had originally resided in that location on the hard disk.

    I think that's supposed to have been fixed, and isn't an issue on NTFS anyway, apparently.

    Phew.

  4. Re:CD key? by feroxy · · Score: 3, Informative

    you will have to re-register and have a valid HL cd to play those games now.

  5. Re:BitTorrent please? (for 400MB file) by sirvulcan · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://insomni.ac.nz/Steam-HL.and.CS.Install.Files .rar.torrent

  6. F*cking 3rd party registrations! by ManxStef · · Score: 2, Informative

    Greaaat. The official Steam website give you a huge two locations to download the client, and *both* require signing up to these 3rd party services before you can download the software.

    How long is it going to be before Valve get it through their skulls that this pisses people off massively? Fine, you want my personal details before I download your client, and you want a serial of a Valve game I purchased. No problem. But I'll be f*cked if I have to sign up to a 3rd party content distro site just to be able to download a different content distro system!

    Sort it out Valve. Either suck it up and provide the download directly from your site, or if you don't want the bandwidth bill then provide a torrent (which, while a content distro system in itself, requires no registration). Grrr!