Anno 1404 - On steam now for pre-order?
- Thread starter Raumarik
- Start date
Ouch £10 more than some high street retailers 
Annoyingly it'll probably be "on offer" on steam within a couple of months at half price too.
Sod it - prefer my games via steam, life is so much easier when you get them from it
Take Bakes, cheered me up knowing I can get it on release day!
Annoyingly it'll probably be "on offer" on steam within a couple of months at half price too.Sod it - prefer my games via steam, life is so much easier when you get them from it
Take Bakes, cheered me up knowing I can get it on release day!
It might be a little easier buying from Steam, but a whole £10 extra for the privilege? That's not worth it in my opinion. I don't get why they charge so much for new releases when they are available to buy online for delivery before the release date for far cheaper, plus it comes on a disc and you have a physical copy to show for it. Steam should be charging at least a fiver less than online shops, not more.
I agree that their offers are usually pretty good, but for new release games at full price, their prices are a bit of a ripoff.
I agree that their offers are usually pretty good, but for new release games at full price, their prices are a bit of a ripoff.
Associate
- Joined
- 3 Jun 2008
- Posts
- 1,714
- Location
- Cornwall
Yeh but its so much easier on Steam.
Pre-load so when its released you have it ready to play
auto patches
if you get a new harddrive or it gets wiped it will always be attached to your account.
Pre-load so when its released you have it ready to play
auto patches
if you get a new harddrive or it gets wiped it will always be attached to your account.
Valve don't set the prices on steam, the publishers do. Since the publishers business is built around giving people a physical copy I don't think they want to be giving big incentives to digital distribution, especially one as well executed as steam.
I'm not disagreeing that it is a good system that is far more convenient than owning the game on a disc. What I am saying is that to actually charge more for it when it realistically should be less is crap.
Well it's rather shameful that they don't alter their business model to reflect the technological changes and advances that we're making on a regular basis. Move with the times or go out of business. If they don't realise that a lot of people actually would favour buying their items online and have them digitally distributed for the right price, then they shouldn't be running a business. Charging over the odds for what effectively costs them far less to implement isn't good business.
Retail distribution still makes up a big chunk of the PC gaming market, whilst digital distribution is in no doubt going to kill that eventually - people in the retail business (most publishers) are going to try and drag that out for as long as possible, the only way for them to alter their business model would be to create a competitor to steam which apparently only a few are willing to do. Developers are currently with the can't live with them can't live without them phase, even Valve aren't 100% digital based.
Depends on your point of view, few games auto-patch and as far as I'm aware Steam is the only one to check for updates for you and updated it hassle-free on so many titles. I know there's a few but none can really touch Steam yet. (Impulse is OK.)
I'm not a fan of CD/DVDs, if I could I wouldn't buy movies that way either at all, I only do it as we only have a DVD player in the living room. I think it's it's an enormous waste to purchase a manual I'll read once, a DVD I'll rarely need and all the packaging that comes with it - a lot of which isn't recyclable.
So for me it's not simply cost, it's the hit the environment takes from buying a game in physical format. I'm happy to pay extra for digital downloads, easy backing up and auto patching, but as competition ramps up then I do expect Steam to drop their prices.
****ing off your biggest customers (retail stores) to score points with a minor few is not good businesses.
Why would the biggest customers get ****ed off if digital distribution prices were cheaper than they are at present? At least this way we'd all have a choice of either paying full price to get the box, disc, and manual, or we could choose to give up those bits and pay a little less to download a digital version instead. I don't see how that would get anyone's back up. It's a win-win for each side of this story.
It isn't a win for the publisher... why would they choose to drive themselves out of business?
Yep.
Good to see people on here with the right attitude towards STEAM instead of the usual:
"OMGZ, COSTZ TOO MUCHZ"
Yes, it may cost more at the moment but in my opinion, the extra cost is worth the convenience which Valve provide.
Yes, the publishers are milking it at the moment but that will change eventually but there is a LONG way to go before the dinosaurs give up their "Physical copies" - Yawn.
Last edited:
because people would stop buying from shops if it was cheaper on-line. Hence shops would be very annoyed with the publisher.
