Activision, Double Fine Join With Steam 94
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 becoming a publisher (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Valve is becoming a publisher (Score:5, Informative)
And at the end of the day, giving them a feature list:
* We are not assholes like Vivendi or suchlike.
* No box costs! No crappy CD copyprotection breaking the game for 25% of your users! Automatic patching so you can keep the games notbreaking for the paying public! You get more money!
I think that is a compelling set of two-ish arguments to put your game on Steam and rake in some well-earned cash.
Some can't get broadband, you insensitive clod (Score:3, Insightful)
Widespread humiliation in the gaming press when dif
Re: (Score:1)
$480/year is $40/mo which is a generally reasonable price for broadband. If you were implying that they require $480 up front for a year of service, that's different than charging $480 over a year.
Maybe other services should quote in yearly prices. I don't pay $15/mo for Netflix. I pay $180/year! I don't pay ~$90/mo to the power company. I pay $1080/year! I don't have a $3 cup of coffee once a week. I pay Starbucks $144/year!
Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re: (Score:1)
I'm probably just weird. I'll hang out at Starbucks for a bit on Saturdays, reading and drinking a latte. The rest of the week, I'm just too busy to get out for coffee, and the stuff at work isn't much worth drinking. Coffee for me is more of a social thing than a caffeine thing.
Internet access is sold by the year (Score:2)
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 $480 over twelve monthly installments. Such an arrangement is not practical for, say, univer
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
And for people who don't care for cable TV? (Score:2)
Cable companies, on the other hand, like to tie their Internet access subscriptions to a cable television subscription.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
As far as I know, everything I've said in this digression has related to the following question: How does Steam reduce the cost to end users who purchase a PC game if a significant fraction of end users do not have access to broadband on the same machine used to play the game?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Then they will lose customers to the larger publishers who are capable of putting boxes in stores. Developers too small to get their product into the retail chain are more likely to be developers of casual games that run fine with integrated graphics
Re: (Score:1)
Of course but I'd say they're losing more customers by pricing their game at 50$ instead of, say, 10$.
Re: (Score:1)
I've never heard of this. I've seen some places that do offer yearly charges rather than monthly as paying everything up front will often be a bit cheaper (Xbo
Internet access at a student's summer home (Score:2)
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
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Use one month, pay for 12 (Score:2)
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
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I already said that. My point is that because of the 12 month minimum commitment for residential service, they continue to bill you after you've canceled.
Re: (Score:2)
I've downloaded an ISO through a dial-up connection - it took 2-4 weeks.
I'm sure that the various single player games would take a similar amount of time - or if they are "optimized", it would download the most critical content first (e.g. models, textures) so that you can at least make some progress within the game before the next download point. I know Source Engine games have this a
Re: (Score:2)
Compare to the 1 day turnaround of planning a trip to the local computer game store. Of course, the developer could optimize the game's file size, but not all game artists have the procedural ski11z of the .kkrieger [wikipedia.org] developers.
This is not true for brick-and-mortar business. The context is Steam as an alternative to distribution in brick-and-mortar stores. As of 2006, bricks and mortar
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Any why not? Sure, they've had problems, but overall, the service is much more reliable than buying games on cds that are sometimes defective or missing cd keys because employees stole them - to say nothing of the good old days of floppy disks.
Holy Shit (Score:2)
As much as I don't like Steam... (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't forget GUN! (Score:3, Interesting)
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 ha
Just wonderful (Score:2, Insightful)
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 pe
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The whole calling home thing is the copy protection to make sure that you are validated to play the game. At least this way you don't have to put up with CD checks like Starforce that can mess up your system. The only issue with this method of distribution is the whole selling of used games. With a CD check you can jus
Thats not all (Score:3, Interesting)
Thats not all that they are doing with steam. With episode one (and im sure everything else) they actually track such things [steampowered.com] 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
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You know, I have actually bought games that have no copy-protection, like Alpha Centauri. I paid for them because they're good games, and don't have any copy protection. The first thing I do when I install a game I paid for is go look for a no-CD-check patch.
WTF are you talking about? (Score:2)
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
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Just wonderful (Score:4, Insightful)
It defaults to running on startup. You can turn that off in the Options dialog.
Back home, we call those "bug fixes".
Well, I haven't gotten a nastygram from Valve for not playing enough Day of Defeat:Source, so no harm, no foul.
What happened for me? Deux Ex: Invisible War. Bought it, played about two hours of it, and got sick of the console-based dumbing down, tiny zones, and constant barrage of lecturing from NPCs on the radio. Put it back on the shelf. All Eidos knew was that a particular shipment to the Best Buy on McKnight Road sold out after n days on the shelf. There's a big difference between "Sales are OK, but tapering off, and the critics aren't too happy" and "According to our aggregate numbers, everybody's giving up before the plot moves out of Seattle."
Your sig tells all.... (Score:1, Troll)
Re: (Score:1)
Why I Dont Play Half-Life (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Yes but if you don't have a connection you probably don't have a connection when trying to authenticate, either. I know I tried to install HL2 when I was in a dorm and Steam couldn't go through the firewall so the game couldn't be installed. Fortunately that wasn't the first time I tried installing the game, I've played it before and got all I wanted to try getting out of it
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re: (Score:1)
also, there are many ways to get steam to not run at startup, one of which is a setting withing the software, the others involve msconfig, or editing your registry. Take a look around, you'll be pleasantly suprised.
Re: (Score:1)
Yes and I'd rather have the Red-Black coalition than Adolf Hitler in power but that doesn't mean there aren't better solutions. Like e.g. Earth 2160's XP style activation*, install, activate (can be done over the phone as well), done. No need to start a launcher, no need to connect to the net ever again, no CD
The most interesting thing about this is that (Score:1, Insightful)
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.
MOD COWARD UP!!! (Score:2)
Last statement raises a scary thought to me.... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That is annoying, and I've had that happen to me, it's almost impossible to prevent though (regardless of the sophistication of the algorithm used to validate keys).
You should simply have taken it back to the store where you purchased it from. They are the only ones (typically) legally obligated to give you a refund or replacement (and in most western countries they are legally re
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Reclaiming a Hijacked Steam Account [steampowered.com]
Most likely, one of the following happened:
In any case, you should contact Valve customer support ASAP with the information shown on the support page.
eye heart steam (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Do *WHAT?* (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
3.5 GB in under three hours is easy on 10 Mbit FD. It depends on the source though. 10 Mbit = 1.25 MByte/sec, so 1.25*60=75 Mbyte/min, making 4500 MB/hr, let's say at 75% efficie
Re: (Score:2)
10mb ethernet = ~.8 MB/sec
3500MB /
4375.36 = ~ 1.2 hours
or the reverse
3500MB * 8 (convert MB to mb) = 28000mb
28000mb/ 10800 (seconds in 3 hours) = ~2.592mb/sec sustained required over 3 hours
Re: (Score:1)
10mb ethernet = ~.8 MB/sec
3500MB /
4375.36 = ~ 1.2 hours
or the reverse
3500MB * 8 (convert MB to mb) = 28000mb
28000mb/ 10800 (seconds in 3 hours) = ~2.592mb/sec sustained required over 3 hours"
Looks like you screwed up your megabits to megabytes conversion there, sparky:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=10+megabi t+in+megabytes&btnG=Search [google.com]
Maybe you should actually check your numbers before correcting someone, eh?
Re: (Score:1)
So to redo his math:
10mb ethernet = 1.25 MB/sec
2500MB/ 1.25MB/s = 2800 seconds
2800 s in hours = 7/9 of an hour, a little more than 45 minutes
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
600KB/s x 60 seconds = 36MB/minute
36MB/m x 60 minutes = 2.16GB/hour
The game appeared to be about half done after just over an hour, and when I checked back after 3 hours it was completely downloaded. I live in Toronto, Canada, and my ISP is Rogers. We get 600KB down and 80KB up.
Re: (Score:2)
Sample math:
350 kilobytes per second multiplied by 60 is 21,000 kilobytes per minute
21,000 kilobytes per minute multiplied by 60 is 1,260,000 kilobytes per hour
1,260,000 kilobytes per hour multiplied by 3 is 3,780,000 kilobytes in 3 hours
My $40/month cable connection has been able to do 350k/sec for the last 8 years, how much exactly are you paying for that full 10mbit duplex connection you claim to be using.
Re: (Score:1)
Steam works (Score:2)
I could beat it (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Personally, I have never liked steam, I find it a huge annoyance. I hate having to spend an hour decrypting my legally store bought copy of halflife 2 everytime I reinstall windows. Why does a game need to be decrypted after installation? Out of the dozens of games I've owned, none has been as annoying as steam/halflife2.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Here's a link to Steam's guide to the above-mentioned "Offline Mode"
Offline Mode [steampowered.com]The future of publishing (Score:1)
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 ar
Smaller Budgets (Score:1)
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
Re: (Score:1)
Download and forget it? (Score:2)
If so, great.
If not, they can pound sand.
Re: (Score:1)
So no, you will have to talk to them again sooner or later (and hope they're still there and in a good mood).