Half-Life 2 Retail to Require Steam Activation 265
An anonymous reader writes "In a recent Gamespy interview with Doug Lambardi it was revealed that the retail version of Half-Life 2 will require product activation. This isn't just restricted to multiplayer, you will have to create a Steam account and activate your retail purchase before you can even run single-player. "
Need more DETAILS... (Score:4, Informative)
ie. You install HL2 and the next day some hardware/OS failure requires you to reformat/reinstall. Will you be able to re-authenticate on the same CDKey? What about if you delete an old install and want to re-install on a new PC?
What if you trade in your HL2 at EB for some reason (runs too slow, too buggy, you plain dont like it), will the next person who buys it even be able to authenticate and play it? This could effectively destroy the pre-owned market (at least for this game). Which would be total BS; if I want to sell my game, I should be able to. Is that not my right as a consumer?
Go look at the Steam website faq. They specifically state that CDkeys cannot be transferred between Steam accounts. Without a doubt, Valve (and probably every publisher out there) would love nothing better than to ensure that everyone who plays their game has to always buy a full priced new copy. There is just too much potential for abuse here...
Maybe I'm way off base, and I'd love nothing better than Valve to prove me wrong. I was on the fence about buying HL2, now I'd say my mind is made up...
Re:Gee, wonderful Valve. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why is that bad? (Score:4, Informative)
I go and talk to a game publisher, they loan me money, then when the game does well, the loan is paid off. If it doesn't then thats another story. The publisher also has people to decide if the game idea will do well, by testing it on play testers and such.
I am not saying existing publishers are great. I'm just mostly trying to say getting rid of them completly to me seems like a very bad idea.
This is all overly simplistic, but I think it gets the point across.
Re:Wait, this is NEWS? (Score:5, Informative)
that is not true. they said you would need steam for updates and online play, but if you wanted to just play the single player game out of the box then you wouldn't need a net connection(this would be the sensible thing, as some don't have net even).
among other things this makes it basically impossible for there to be a 2nd hand market for these as well(_this_ is what they're after.. making it impossible for even legally to buy it cheaper than store from someone who already played through it).
Re:I can see the game returns now (Score:2, Informative)
Copy protected CDs, cd-keys, etc do work (Score:3, Informative)
Most piracy is casual, if it is trivially easy for a non-technical person they will do it. Put up the slightest barrier and most will give up and buy the game if they really wanted it. Copy protected CDs, cd-keys, etc are popular because they work. They stop the vast majority of would be pirates. The part of the population that can manage to find a warez site, get a crack that is not a trojan, and successfully apply the crack is a very small niche. A friend does in-home computer service and hears about it alot as he chats with customers. I've seen college kids stopped cold by the simplest commercially available protection. One quarter the software accompanying a chemistry textbook was not copy protected. The book and software were required, the book outsold the software 10 to 1 yet everyone turned in their software based homework projects. The publisher added copy protection and the next quarter the ration was 10 to 9. The commercial software used is well known and cracks exist to neutralize it, yet it works for this publisher quarter after quarter.
FWIW I'll throw in that it is a myth that people won't pirate inexpensive software. The textbook came with a coupon that let the student by the software for $15.