Would you like all your games on Steam?

Yes, I don't mind buying a game on disc if it's cheaper as long as it's steamworks.

Garee said:
I had a think about this the other day and was wondering if anyone could enlighten me:

Let's say Valve go bust and can no longer afford the Steam servers/game hosting/whatever the term is. What would happen now that all the users can no longer download games that they had bought?

When you buy a game from steam it's for life correct? Isn't that a bit unrealistic however as a company can not guarentee it will stay in business for ever.

I may just be an idiot though. :p
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Steam have spoke of this, there's some sort of fail safe that has been tested which would allow you to continue to play your games that you have installed or backed up or still have on disc if steamworks, if steam ever shuts down it would be activated. But then you say what if it's not installed, backed up or I have no disc, well I presume Valve/Steam being so large I can't imagine they'd just shutdown and poof gone in one hour they'd probably have some phase out process whereas all users would be alerted, told to download or backup their games etc.

I wouldn't loose sleep over it.
 
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If Steam went bankrupt i could imagine you would lose all the games you have but didn't have installed but i have no doubt the encryptions would be hacked (unless Steam obviously released the update themselves) to let you play all the games you currently own... and would probably see a wave of downloads too.
 
sbweightman said:
What happens if steam ever goes belly up?
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Interesting point. I don't think there's ever been an official response about this. There's rumours of a patch that would make steam function in offline mode if you have access to the back-ups. Online play is somewhat of a grey area.

They own a large share of the digital distribution of PC games which is big money with a serious user-base. For whatever reason Valve were unable to host the servers then someone would buy them out for access to all these users.

If you keep backups of games that you purchase then I wouldn't worry.
 
I like steam but find it a bit of a pee take that I can't unregister games so I can sell them, often means i buy elsewhere or only AAA titles I know I will want to play, steam is really expensive as well so I buy DVD's more.

Also my internet is only 200kb/s so it takes ages for games to download so I don't buy from steam itself if I can help it. An example recently; I bought Napolean Total war on DVD for £12, steam wanted £25 lol
 
Posted this before.


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Not a huge fan of steam personally. But i'll be fair and say it does indeed have its plus points


Advantages
Being able to download a game as many times as you like (Apple pay attention)
Access to your games anywhere in world
Saves your saves to your profile for some games
Easy to copy your game folders between computers
Good community & friends list
No CD (personally using the CD doesn't bother me)
Good sales
Steam Cloud


Disadvantages
Don't like being forced to use programs
More rubbish running in the background
Another account you have to remember, especially when you need to sign into GFWL as well
Potential hacking (I know recovery etc but it is a pain)
HAVE to have an internet connection the first time you run a game
'We're sorry but the steam servers are too buy at the moment, please try again later'
Inflated prices & regional price hikes even though they make far more money than retail
Anti cheat rubbish that doesn't work
Killing the second hand market
Personal preference but I really dislike auto update
Privacy
Could potentially go bust
Starting to get demos and betas later as publishers are using their won network more, (MoH etc)

Of course, all the big publishing houses will launch their own content delivery networks and stop licensing games to steam we'll all need dozens of sodding different accounts etc.

Frankly, they should all group together and pay a 3rd party to sort it all. No squabbles about who runs it, no power struggles and they all make more money and we only have one content delivery network.

Quite happy to downlaod cheap, crappy little game of it, or old ones that are going cheap, but new, big releases I prefer not to have steam enabled.




In summary, Steam has it's advantages but it is still flawed and personally I would prefer to live with out it.
 
No way, gimme a DVD anytime. Also I do not understand some of their prices!

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition
Steam: £29.99
Amazon: £11.16

Assasins Creed 2
Steam: £29.99
Amazon: £14.99

Don't like being forced to use programs
More rubbish running in the background
Another account you have to remember, especially when you need to sign into GFWL as well
Inflated prices & regional price hikes even though they make far more money than retail
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+1
 
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hate things like this, starcraft is worse tho, its updating before i can play is really annoying [super slow internet at max 100KBps byte not bit]

much prefer physical media
 
Oxy said:
I like steam but find it a bit of a pee take that I can't unregister games so I can sell them, often means i buy elsewhere or only AAA titles I know I will want to play, steam is really expensive as well so I buy DVD's more.
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Yea you can't sell games but I don't think devs/publishers ever intended for you or another company to sell on their games to which they gain no profit, so it should be an incentive to them.

The idea of steam only doesn't have to mean no DVD's either, there is such a thing as steamworks. :)
 
KatanaDV20 said:
No way, gimme a DVD anytime. Also I do not understand some of their prices!

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition
Steam: £29.99
Amazon: £11.16

Assasins Creed 2
Steam: £29.99
Amazon: £14.99



+1

Im not ignorant of the advantages of this kind of service...but right now looking at what they charge vs. what I can get the same game for in a nice DVD thru the letter box....well - no contest. I do acknowledge that their sales do sometimes have cool prices though.
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sometimes...lol.

You can pick any game on from the steam catalog and probably find a cheaper price somewhere - not everything is well priced. But the deals are, 99% of the time, stonking and the one reason i buy almost everything through steam these days.

Just some examples of my purchases:

the THQ complete pack for £26.49 http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4587/

Mass effect 1 & 2 (digital deluxe version) for £27.23

Burnout paradise ultamate box £4.99

stalker COP £15

Rockstar Collection £29.99 http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4247/

Eidos collector pack (no longer available it seems) £35. This one included the deus ex games, 3 of the hitman games, tomb raider underworld & legend, just cause, theif: deadly shadow, infernal and some others...

deals like that are the reason i have so many games on steam now.
 
I used to hate steam about 8 - 10 years ago.

Back then it was buggy, most updates didnt work right away, and I certainly had to worry about what was running in the background whilst I was gaming.

These days, STEAM has become a lot more stable, with a lot more bandwidth. They are pro now and it shows. I pull my games down at over 5MBPs. Updates work first time, and Ive yet to be inconvenienced by an update, though Im sure it happens.

Even playing games like LFD1&2, when their servers were hopping, I always managed to log on and play.

Their prices are always a wee bit on the pricy side, but its something I can live with.

As for "oh noes!1!! what if they go belly up". They announced all your games will go DRM free. So youll be fine, plus as already stated, I cant see them going down anytime soon.

The more PC gamers using STEAM is a win for PC gamers. They fight for us (its in their interests too), with steam having pushing our corners it will keep are scene alive and not so over shadowed by consoles.

STEAM ***.
 
The people who are complaining about the prices you do realise you can buy the game at retail price and register the cd-key on steam?
 
Price of digital is a strange issue, apparently it is cheaper to press the game and send to retail than it is to host for download. Madness really
 
yes, all of my games are on steam. I have not bought a retail game in years and I dont think I will again. In fact I havent had a DVD drive for about a year.
 
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