Valve Games Still On Store Shelves 29
Valve has announced that despite its recent break with Vivendi Universal Games, games boxes will remain on store shelves after the August breakup. From the article: "The news will mollify retailers who feared that a recent legal settlement between Valve and VU Games, which will see VU Games withdrawing all of its Valve-created products from August 31st, could signal a move to online-only distribution for the firm's products."
I wonder... (Score:2, Insightful)
How much of their customer base Valve would lose by going to an online distribution method as their only source?
Now we all know that you require an internet connection for signup and to download the latest patches. Suppose however, that Valve allowed anyone to burn generic copies of HL2 (and previous/future releases) to their media of choice and distribute freely. None of these freely distributed versions would be playable until the user signed up with Valve and payed the "activation" fee. Valve gets to
Re:I wonder... (Score:3, Informative)
Here is the current hardware etc... information [steampowered.com].
Re:I wonder... (Score:2)
Exactly. This is why it isn't likely to hurt Valve's bottom line. Even they lose a portion of their customers, they'll make it up with the money saved from not putting it on shelves.
Re:I wonder... (Score:1)
Re:I wonder... (Score:2)
I like being able to buy a box and stick it in some wrapping paper.
I for one.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Ofcourse online distribution would (if done properly) allow a company like Valve to sell their games cheaper, and have more direct control on the content. If they did it right, it would be a
Re:I for one.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, I like the idea that all I need is a login to get my games. I have a couple of games that I have lost the CDKEY's or the discs are scratched. Now it is my fault for this, but im still SOL. I believe that you can actually just copy the valve file for each game (Its one file per game) and your set. Just download/install steam, and copy that file into its respective folder and your set to pla
Re:I for one.. (Score:2)
Re:I for one.. (Score:2)
Re:I for one.. (Score:2)
Mass produced read-only media (CDs, cartridges) tend to have a much longer shelf life than writable media does (floppy, CD-R). That was the point of the message you replied to.
There's also the issue off companies going out of business, resulting in the servers validating the DRM no longer existing.
Re:I for one.. (Score:1)
Are you saying HL2 bought from a store gives you some illusion you'll actually be able to do the above? That is, picking it out of a closet in 10 years time and playing? Good luck. Unless Valve's still online so you can decrypt the data after installing it, you'll be way better of burning a Steam backup onto a DVD-R.
The future seems to
Re:I for one.. (Score:2)
Just like there are no-cd executables, there are already cracked versions of Steam that allow the game to be played whether Valve exists or not.
If Valve fell apart, we'd still be able to
Re:I for one.. (Score:1)
Re:I for one.. (Score:2)
I'm aware of that.
That's what quoting is for. I was replying to what I quoted.
Re:Numbers? (Score:3, Interesting)
That said, I did get mine via Steam, but I bought the $59 version which included the entire Valve back catalog via Steam.
Re:Numbers? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah I did the same. I figured I'd rather not have the CDs if I'm going to have to sign up for steam anyway - and the $10 additional for the back catalogue was the clincher. I guess if you already had licenses for the original Half Life that wouldn't be a great option though.
Re:Numbers? (Score:2)
Re:Numbers? (Score:2)
That little 2D side scroller starring Gordon Freeman was a cute bonus too. Reminded me of the Metal Slug series of games.
Re:Numbers? (Score:2)
That is availible for free to everyone. You don't need a Half-Life(2) license for it.
Re:Numbers? (Score:2)
Publishers suck. Especially VU.
Wait. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Wait. (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, it's very much a quality-of-life thing for me. I find this whole 'going outside' phenomenon to be in quite direct conflict with what I perceive to be an otherwise efficient video gaming existence, and so Valve's measures certainly seem a step forward. Why make a time-consuming trip to the mall during which I am neither gaining levels nor increasing my frag count when I cou
Does That Mean??? (Score:2)
Re:Does That Mean??? (Score:2)
I bought a hard copy... (Score:2)
Re:I bought a hard copy... (Score:2, Informative)
It was actually better than installing again from the original discs because all the latest updates were already in it, whereas when installing from disc I would have had to wait for the updates to re-download