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Valve Takes on Piracy With Free, Pre-Packaged Game Publishing Tools

Posted by Zonk on from the stamping-out-the-bad-stuff dept.

Heartless Gamer writes "Valve is rocking the boat in a big way, especially for PC gaming piracy. They have just announced the release of a complete collection of publisher tools, called Steamworks. They're making it available to developers and publishers completely free. Valve notes that beyond simply making the product available to consumers some of the tools can integrate copy protection, social networking services, or even server browsing features into a developing game."

11 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Valve and piracy by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 4, Informative

    They don't really have anything to worry about- their madly popular titles are all multiplayer so piracy is impossible and "cracked" servers are rarely of any quality..

    1. Re:Valve and piracy by MvD_Moscow · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, I have to agree with you on that one. Using steam is actually better than buying a DVD. You can access your whole game library just by logging onto steam. No need to to care a HD with all the image/patch/no-CD data. Automatic updates, near instant access as soon as you pay for the game.

      Though some parts of steam still need some work. The 'Favorite Servers' options in CS:S is kind of buggy and it doesn't always remember your favorites. The steam game store can also at times feel slightly slow, they need to make use of more AJAX with less reloading and new windows and stuff. They also need to improve their screenshots section. More screenshots and higher resolution.

    2. Re:Valve and piracy by p0tat03 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I find Valve's pricing to be very reasonable. I bought the Deus Ex collection for $30, a better deal than I would've gotten at any other store, and the ability to find old titles certainly beats rummaging around the bargain bin at EB.

      $20 for Portal is iffy, I agree, but consider that you get TF2, Portal, HL2, Ep1, and Ep2 for $50, it's a fricking steal. Even if you've already played all the singleplayer Half-Life games, TF2 + Portal combined is IMHO easily worth $50, particularly TF2.

    3. Re:Valve and piracy by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 4, Informative

      Do you still think Portal's price is unfair when it's part of Orange Box? Counter-Strike: Source and TF2 are both worth a full $50 but they've always retailed at $20 and $30. Episode 2 is worth eh $20. So portal's free per valve's pricing, and TF2 is disounted the entire price of portal for what I would pay for it!

    4. Re:Valve and piracy by enderjsv · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree. When some other companies are charging 50 bucks or more for utter crap games that make better coasters than pasttimes, I'm more than willing to pay 20 dollars for something of quality. LENGTH != QUALITY.

    5. Re:Valve and piracy by RonnyJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How can I sell my DRM'd Steam games though? I might not actually get around to selling any of my old games, but I feel I should have the right to.

      You mention that the music industry should be doing similar, but this is the equivalent of being unable to buy or sell second-hand audio CDs.

    6. Re:Valve and piracy by ahoehn · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly. With Valve games on Steam, you can:

      1. Play your games on as many computers as you like, downloading them as many times as you want.
      2. Install them on a friend's computer, and just like lending a book, your friend can use it any time that you're not.
      3. Receive automatic content updates
      4. Often chose to buy games individually or as a package.
      5. Back up your downloaded copies of games
      6. With HL2 Engine based games, even play them in Linux with Wine.

      While I suppose you don't "own" physical copies of Steam games, I have enough rights that I never notice the downside.

      The music and movie industries could learn a thing or six from Valve. I've never even thought of pirating a Valve game because they're so convenient and affordable to purchase.

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    7. Re:Valve and piracy by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm actually pretty curious why they don't let you transfer rights to someone else - its not like you couldn't do it anyways. There's no limit on the number of accounts you could create, so you could:

      a) Create a new account for each game
      b) Buy the game with that account
      c) Play game until you're bored
      d) Sell account on ebay

      I'm sure they have rules against this, but I'll bet it happens anyways. I know I did it when steam first launched to give a gift for christmas. I just created my brother an account, bought the game, and gave him the login. Now they have gift giving, and they let you transfer HL2 to someone else when you bought orange box, so I say "why not let me loan out the rights to one of my games to someone else?" I can't play it while they have the rights, and I can take the rights back when they're done. They could have a "transfer for good" or "let my friend borrow it" program. Its going to happen anyways, so why not enforce it and stop people complaining once and for all. They only hurt paying customers otherwise, because if your friend doesn't borrow it from you and doesn't want to pay for it, well, we know where they're going next.

  2. Smart one by obeythefist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because copy protection has never been broken before, making it free will mean that game copying will stop forever. Just like how DRM ceased all music and video copyright infringement.

    --
    I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
  3. Re:Am I strange? by Tacvek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm against the idea of buying anything on physical media, which I then have to validate/register/"complete the purchase" online.

    However, I'm okay with the idea of downloading the very same software (validation being one of the requirements for downloading).

    I guess I feel that the "buy then validate" model is a cheat- If I bought it in a store, that should be proof enough. Whereas with downloading, they can do the validation/purchase at the same time.
    No you are correct. Note that this whole kit is really a steam integration kit. So the primary purchase method will be online purchase. However, having a physical box sitting on the shelf at Walmart is still great for advertising, and even better for giving as a gift. What I find really weird, is that unlike with Valve's boxed games, the steamworks games will apparently not include the exe file on the CD. The CD will have all the resources, and everything, but the exe itself will need to be downloaded over Steam. The advantage (to the developer) is that the exe downloaded can be watermarked with the name and account information of the downloader, which makes distributing a no-steam crack for the game (which is necessary for widespread piracy) a risky proposition.
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  4. Warning: by feepness · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Steam is great for first party Valve games and older games that have been out for awhile and had their issues sorted out.

    It absolutely sucks for newer games which have their own copy protection schemes. See BioShock and Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. I had trouble with Opposing Fronts and had to wait for a runaround before I got my money back, after which they said they would not do another. If you do a chargeback and they disable your account you will lose access to ALL your games.

    I like Steam for Valve stuff... but just be careful with untested third party software. You can check there own forums on steampowered.com to see if people are having issues.