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Activision, Double Fine Join With Steam
Gamespot reports on the expected arrival of Double Fine's Psychonauts on Steam, and the unexpected announcement that Activision is now offering games on the service. Titles from the company include Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, and Gun, which was developed by Neversoft. From that article: "Whenever Valve does open the digital spigot on the four Activision games, they will join an increasing number of third-party titles available on Steam. This week, Majesco's critical hit Psychonauts was made available on the service, and Ubisoft's Dark Messiah of Might & Magic will launch on the service later this month."
Valve is on it's way to becoming a bigger publisher of other people's games. It's a new avenue of offering games that is definitely in use.
You mean I don't have to get off my ass to finally get my PC copy of Call of Duty 2???? I'm totally there!!!
disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
If Psychonauts gets more recognition, I'll be happy. I picked up that game for :10bux: at Half-Price Books and have felt bad about it because it is such an awesome game and well worth the original proce of 50bux. Go buy this game. It is GREAT.
Shiny. Let's be bad guys.
Steam is THE reason that I pirate these games. Honestly, I love the HL series enough to buy HL, HL2, and even EP1, but having to run Steam to even play the games, I'd rather get the games from another source.
It insists on running upon startup. You have to start it to play any game, at which time it calls home and checks for unnecessary updates and (of course) let's the publisher know that you're still playing their games.
What happened to the days when product sales actually let the industry know how many people were playing/enjoying their games?
Steam has gone from being "stuff Valve thinks is good" to "any old shite"... I'm looking at Gun here.
This is pretty bad for the indie stuff on Steam (Defcon, The Ship). Before this it was like Valve was recommending it which is a pretty big deal for games without a marketing budget, now it's clear that it's just about cash.
P.S. The Steam-alike Triton service closed and they had to give out boxed copies of everything. Digital distribution isn't a rosy a future as many think.
Widespread humiliation in the gaming press when differences between the publisher's idea of "notbreaking" and the players' idea of "notbreaking" result in dramatic changes in the game balance.
Thats not all that they are doing with steam. With episode one (and im sure everything else) they actually track such things as how many times you die, by what, what you were doing at the time, how much time it takes you to pass different parts, etc... This is kind of worrying to me, because if they are tracking that, what else are they tracking? Do they log keystrokes too? would they admit it if they did?
Don't get me wrong, episode 1 and halflife 2 are great games, but when I heard about the level of data logging that they do, you cant help but be a bit scared.
I didn't know about the resale BS.. This is why I avoided steam for so long, but HL2 is such a compelling title that I sacraficed security for a gravity gun. Its really sad how easy it was for me to compromise my security for a little bit of teh shiny..
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
People can steal Steam accounts (guess the password, keylogger etc.), which means a lot more than losing say a battle.net key. It means you've lost all your games -- I've not seen any positive outcomes at the end of such instances on Steam's forums either.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
I used to be the biggest naysayer of Steam, but now that I have a stable internet connection I just love it. I purchased Psychonauts for $20 this morning and all 3.5GB were downloaded in under 3 hours. I can't wait to get home to play it without requiring a CD in the drive.
Thus far Valve is a great publisher\distributor and I have no qualms about giving them my loyalty as a conusmer. However, it's a little disturbing to see in the EULA that I do not own any of the games I've paid for - I only rent them. I admire 3D Realms for shipping boxed copies to anyone who bought Prey over the now defunct Triton online distribution service, and I sincerely hope Valve will provide at least a means of playing games the sad day Steam evaporates.
Psychonauts is an awesome game, I bought it for the Xbox when it came out.
I think it's also worth mentioning that Gun is equally an awesome game that didn't get much recognition. For those who haven't played it it's an "old-west" action game some RPG and GTA style elements thrown in, the graphics aren't the greatest but the game has a solid storyline and is damn fun with lots of stuff to explore for plenty of replay value. Most people I talk to either haven't played it/don't know anything about it, or have and loved it.
the COD games are excellent as well but I don't think they need any introduction
Collector's Edition
I was complaining that residential high-speed Internet access providers tend to want a commitment to a year of service up front. They charge $480 for the first day and $0 for the next 364 days, and spread that payment of $480 over twelve monthly installments. Such an arrangement is not practical for, say, university students home on summer break.
But are you locked into a multiple month commitment?
Though I have reservations on what should happen if your account was hacked or Valve went out of business, Steam is by far the slickest online delivery mechanism I've seen. If I had to gripe is that I've tried to buy stuff on there before and my credit card has been rejected. But for demo delivery and ease of use, it takes some beating.
I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking this here, but Steam really does suck. Even if you ignore their crapfest of an implementation. My biggest gripe is that I *WANT* the physical media. If I want to upgrade my PC, or my HD crashes or some fool decides to remove software I'm pretty screwed if I bought a bunch of stuff off Steam. I understand that publishers can be a pain, but moving that pain to the consumer is NOT the answer.
I also don't like having to sign in with the mother ship every time I want to play a game. Do you see CSS being played at LANs? No, because it's a nightmare to try to do that. This is a problem. What if my internet connection is down and I've got some free time to game?
I stopped paying Valve when they started screwing customers. HL2 may be a great game, but I'll never pay for it.
There must be a model that more fairly balances the publishers desires with consumer needs.
3.5 GB in under three hours? Exactly where do you live and what ISP are you using, because I can't get that at max speed on a full 10 mbit duplex network in that amount of time. If you're not in the US, then, well, what can I say, other than your analogy won't apply to most of us USA residents? The math doesn't work out, at all.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
It's called "Quit relying upon computers and start doing human-checking to make sure the owner is who they say they are," something almost *ANY* company is too lazy to deal with - witness our outsourcing of serious problems to script-readers who will say "I need you to turn on your computer and tell me your CMOS/BIOS settings" when everytime the computer gets turned on the fucker starts smoking and burning, usually from a bad power supply. I'm not joking, my father and I both worked at Ingram Micro, and we had stupid shit like this happen EVERY DAY, even when we're higher-level techs than these outsourced script-readers are, and they *STILL* insist we turn on a non-functional computer to figure out what the problem is. It makes me doubt the QoS practices done in the eastern countries, bigtime. I say most of these outsourcers need to be sued for negligence, too bad there's no lawsuit possibility for incompetence alone. Hell, half of the world would have an immediate wealth redistribution from the utterly rich to the less well-off classes, then maybe we could have some sort of 'balance' to the world economy. As it is, China has most of our money, and if they decided to boycott us, we'd be in DEEP SHIT.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
The whole calling home thing is the copy protection to make sure that you are validated to play the game.
/. + digg donated at least 5 bucks, we could make a damned difference and force the companies to back off, with added provisions to the law that the companies want passed. Hey, it takes money to make money, and it takes money to get the laws you want to see passed. Deal with it.
That's why I bought the original Half-Life, and now that Steam *INSISTS* on me updating it (They auto-check your shit, BTW, for version compatibility,) I can't play it anymore, bcause someone with a keygen ripped off my original Half-Life serial. Yet Valve/Sierra won't do a mother-fucking thing to fix it, even though I have given them copies and OFFERED LIVE VIDEO for them to see that I truly bought the game (Hint: The actual game came with an advertisement for another Sierra King's Quest game on the actual CD Jewel Case,) and I was *STILL* refused.
Yea, lemme tell you, the Steam model works... NOT! A game I bought many years ago is now under the control of whomever pirates/registers it first on a new system. FUCK YOU STEAM AND ANYOE ASSOCIATED WITH YOU. I bought the Bronze edition of HL2 and I got DENIED in playing it, because of some cracker/hacker, and I'm now $50 in the hole. I should just DDoS bomb your ass to no end until you recapitulate, because from legal means, you'll win in court. You steal my money, I'm going to another company, plus I'm going to do all that I can to decimate your capabilities. And it *SHOULD* be legal in the USA for people tha tpay for a service, and get denied that service, to shut your ass down by any means necessary. With that power alone, companies like Microsoft (with their Vista License,) and Steam (with their BS license,) would crumble to make way for newer companies that have a constructive and realistic idea of what's best for our newer technology. Otherwise, every company needs to butt the fuck out, or face the consequences of a population suing you.
And there needs to be a new law, just as an IMHO - No corporation is allowed to lobby for new rules/regs when they're responsible originally for paying the taxes/funding of this country, as it was originally designed. If everyone on
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
And I don't need to say much else, given my topic said it all. You show a heavy bias towards multi-player games with your comments, and lots for the wrong reasons. Go check some of my other posts on this thread so you get a *TRUE* consumer taste of what's up, instead of something so easily pirated like Deus Ex (I still own the original CD, yet I choose to play a pirated version because it works better without me needing to scratch my CD, thus forcing a re-purchase of a game a few months later that I already paid for.)
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I don't usually say this in defense of anonymous cowards, but this one deserves to be modded up. (check the IP addys of the post, I'm not related or even the same coward.) This person has a very short yet accurate view on what the state of downloadble games has become. Anyone with the knowledge to break an encrypted key and generate valid encrypted keys that may match someone else's account is UNACCEPTABLE. In this case, we should be suing for a bait-and-switch, even when we can prove we own the games with live realtime video. (thank you, www.ww.com for your software that allows me to use my shitty webcam to show the *REAL* fucking purchase, with the serial, and the actual CD, though nobody will visit your site just for a double-check for proof... asshole game developers/distributors.)
We need a far better system of checking. This shit needs to be linked to credit card or SSN numbers, FFS, just to prove we bought what we say we bought.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
...And I made the statement myself!!!!! Maybe we need a gamer ID number that spreads across a world-wide database that runs BSD or something that is FAR from hackable, then at least some people can get what they paid for. :( I'm unhappy with my HL2 Bronze purchase... can you blame me? I bought the game, only to find out my serial was already registered and I couldn't play the game no matter what proof I offered! (I threw the 6 CDs away, and went back to good ol'free Enemy Territory, and counted my game purchase as a loss.)
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Valve is on the right track with Steam and it, as well as work-alikes, will become the primary way of distributing most games in the future. The reason behind this is simple; Money.
As game budgets continue to grow, often exponentially, developers will have to find ways to minimize costs while maximizing profits. Requirements are only getting larger, both in programming and art; the new consoles place higher demand on looks and features than ever before, and a AAA game can now easily reach 8 figures.
There are 3 primary ways to increase the return on investment ratio:
1) Streamline Development Processes (Increased productivity, better tools, use middleware, *sell* middleware.)
2) Streamline Distribution (Cut out the middle man for yourself, become the middle man for smaller shops.)
3) Charge the consumer a higher price (Higher box price, subscriptions, add-ons, "microtransactions.")
Of these, I'd be a lot happier if more of numbers 1 & 2 went on, rather than number 3. Steam solves #2 and Valve does a great deal with regards to #1. Considering the Half-life episodes as a seperate product (and really, it is. It will have comperable playing time for a price comperable to a boxed game) Valve doesn't do a whole lot of #3, in fact games are often cheaper through valve than they are in-store and often have a small discount for early buyers. Dispite the cheaper price and after all the bandwidth, hosting, and credit card handling costs, Valve *still* makes more money per game than under the traditional publisher model.
Valve is, in my oppinion, the most forward-looking development studio there is: They know when to license technology and when to build it, the technology they do build they spend a great deal of time on to get just right, they make great products and they know what their consumers want. Its a very well-run shop.
Cable companies, on the other hand, like to tie their Internet access subscriptions to a cable television subscription.
Good luck getting the phone company to believe this excuse three times in a row: once before the sophomore year of college, once before the junior year of college, and once before the senior year of college.
No it isn't. A DSL or cable Internet access subscription covers only a single house, while a mobile phone can be used anywhere in the network's coverage area, which often spans an entire U.S. state or more.
Yes: it's called a college student who is the only user of broadband in the family and who lives at home during summer vacation. The other household members do not have a computer, do not have Internet access, or are happy with dial-up.
If I want Internet access solely to buy a given game, which is sold only as a digital download, then do I want to spend $40 per month over the next 12 months just to play one game?
That's what I said. A lot of geographic areas don't have any form of broadband Internet access that doesn't involve a 12-month commitment. The use case is that if I get Internet access connected, pay for one month of Internet access, buy a game that is not sold in stores, and get the Internet access disconnected, I still have to pay for eleven months that I do not use the service.
As much as I'd love to play the Half-Life games, it looks like I can't. I recently saw HL1 on sale for $20 or so with Counterstrike etc., and bought it. Then I looked closely and realized it wasn't the stand-alone game I thought it was: I'd have to be online and ask Valve's permission every time I wanted to play. I returned the game unopened and tried to tell the clerk I wouldn't be buying any such game, but it didn't do any good; his reaction was basically, "Hey man, we don't make the games." Having to go online isn't always an option for me, and I'm not willing to have my computer report in like that. The thought makes me bristle. (If I'm wrong about how Steam works, please correct me.)
I'd like to see some creative new ideas on how to prevent piracy without going Orwell on customers. Until Valve comes up with something, I'm just not going to buy their games even if they're awesome.
Revive the Constitution.
As game budgets continue to grow, often exponentially, developers will have to find ways to minimize costs while maximizing profits.
The industry's assumption seems to be that games have to be developed with the budgets of Hollywood movies. Yet they don't seem to be getting better overall... Well, that's an old rant, but the point is that developers can also be innovative by finding new ways to use what are now old-school graphics standards.
Imagine what Oblivion could've been if the effort that went into its graphics had gone into more gameplay and AI instead, with the graphics being stuck at the level of Chrono Trigger (2D sprites, 3/4 overhead tiled backgrounds). It wouldn't necessarily have been a better game overall, but wouldn't it have been cheaper to make and with more complex gameplay?
Revive the Constitution.
Don't know that much about Steam. Can I buy a game, download it, burn it to CD, and then never need to talk to them again?
If so, great.
If not, they can pound sand.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Yes, you can burn a backup to CD or DVD. Really, this is more for the convenience of not having to re-download the game(s) if something happens to your hard drive. In reality, you can always download the game again from Steam even if you lose your backup disc.
;-)
To reinstall, simply pop your backup DVD in the drive and run the exe that's on the disc and voila, reinstalled.
When you backup a game, Steam lets you choose if you want to split across multiple CDs or DVDs, so it'll ask you for the next disc as you are reinstalling if the game is large or you're using a smaller media format. It also lets you choose "Custom" sizes in megabytes, so if you wanted to back your game up onto 1.44MB 3.5" floppies, you could. But, I wouldn't recommend it, Day Of Defeat Source for example is 3.5GB by itself.
Hope this helps!