The point is that terms truly mean very little and loopholes always exist, among other eventualities that could nullify anything you feel protected by.
Now for the important question: Does every company ever in the history of mankind make use of such loopholes, or are some people classy enough to honor intended agreements? The existence of negative things in life does not guarantee their use / favoritism / 'winning.'
The bottom line is Steam's agreement hasn't had to be put to the test yet, so we don't have the answer. To say it will turn out one way or the other is no more crazy than predicting, before the pre-season, which NFL team is going to win the Super-bowl. You can only make a guess, but there is no scientifically measurable aspect that will make people 'right' or 'wrong' about Steam granting you access or not in the event of the service going under. I'm sure it's fun for people to say, "OH BUT THEY CAN SUDDENLY CHARGE YOU A MONTHLY FEE" but really that's the opinion of someone fishing for an idea to lend credence to their negative sentiment.
It's not wrong to have negative sentiment toward a product or service, but don't bullshit.
Yeah, and that head could get hit by a bus tomorrow for all you know. Assuming Valve will be a special snowflake literally forever is probably not a good idea.
But assuming the constantly rising company is going to be ruthlessly crushed in exactly 13 years is, right?
Oh please, that was completely arbitrary and not a specific prediction and you know it. The issue is the fact that you don't have shit for control over the games you 'buy' from Steam - Valve does. The fact that you trust them now doesn't mean you can trust them forever.
Well at this point Valve is apparently making him quite a lot of money. So I assume the company is making a profit. Even if he died that wouldn't exactly change that. Considering its privately owned by him as well, he could make any kind of crazy requirements as to how it will be run in his absence.
Id be surprised if he didn't already have such paperwork in place.
Also you don't have control over most PC games. Lose the discs, boned. auth servers for drm go down, boned. Hdd corruption and lose installers once gog its dead, boned.
Everything is boned and pointless if you want to get all digital nihilist about it.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited March 2012
We'll all be sniffing up the new games on the ps9 by then anyway.
"You mean you have to use your hands? That's like a babies toy!"
These kinds of predictions are more or less equivelant to predicting the weather at 9am in Osaka japan on the 9th of march, 2020.
It's just as impossible and silly, for all the same reasons.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
Remember that crazy, off the wall prediction that Steam would be what powered Nintendo's online for the WiiU? Well it was pretty much universally dismissed. So I'll just leave this here and wonder if it actually means something.
“@rothsothy: @TwoTribesGames Steamworks/Steam Cloud support! #tokitori2” Cross platform PC/Wii U saves! Wouldn't that be nice
Also you don't have control over most PC games. Lose the discs, boned. auth servers for drm go down, boned. Hdd corruption and lose installers once gog its dead, boned.
Everything is boned and pointless if you want to get all digital nihilist about it.
Doesn't this technically mean we have control over no games?
I mean, I guess Microsoft or Sony could devise some way to fry our consoles, except they completely function offline as well.
On the subject of Valve, it's worth remembering they've come a really long way. Steam is quite great now--some time ago, it was total shit as well as being the centerpiece of Valve's strategy, but that's now paid off.
I don't get that. Play offline mode isn't great.. but it does work. I mean I played games on my laptop on a trip where I had no internet. I had to go into offline mode before I left, but once I was, I could play my games freely offline. When I got back home, I went back to online mode and my cloud saves put my game progress onto my desktop installation and I proceeded the game from where I left off.
That being said, nothing is going to convince me that having a game on a disc that I can install to play as many times as I want, online or offline (and is decently playable without patching) is somehow no different than having a game require Steam or Origin. Because, you know, no one really owns anything man.
I mean, if that were exceptional situation, maybe, but this is easily 95% of the games I still own. It's easy. Part of the reason I can say that is because they physically exist. If I don't count XBLA, it's 100% of my console games.
But it's not exactly my primary concern either. I'm not worried about Valve or Origin vanishing off the face of the Earth and leaving my high and dry. Mostly because you could, ultimately, bypass that problem with a bit of work and your disks on hand.
I can absolutely see digital convenience taking precedence over that practicality.
Actually, I just tried it out--it does seem to work.
There was a time, a month ago or so when I last tried it out, that if you were offline, you could not go into offline mode.
So it used to be pants-on-head retarded. Good on you, Valve.
The whole "offline mode" is definitely a YMMV thing. Some people can get it to work 100% of the time, some folks can't get it to work ever, and some folks can have it work most of the time, but sometimes it frizzes out due to the latest Steam update patch. You're probably one of those people in the latter category, as most people are. I've used offline mode occasionally over the past 5 or 6 years, and there are definitely times when it doesn't seem to work, for no reason, and then a month later, it's working perfectly fine.
I honestly don't care whether or not offline mode works 100% of the time. The whole point of Steam for me is to get games for cheap. Steam did not become valuable to me until they started putting practically everything at 50% off or more during their frequent sales. I'm willing to be "saddled" by their totally awful (not really) DRM, as long as I can buy a 60 dollar game for half that price or less. Maybe that sense of ownership and consumer pride is worth 30 extra bucks to you, or maybe you just HAVE to play a game when it is released, and that's perfectly fine. I'll probably stop buying games on Steam if it ever becomes more expensive than trying to buy games at every other place for every other platform.
EDIT: Another thing about offline mode is that it's not required for some games on Steam, either. Some of those games run fine without Steam being in offline or online mode. It varies from game to game, however. I can run Borderlands fine without Steam, for example.
Actually, I just tried it out--it does seem to work.
There was a time, a month ago or so when I last tried it out, that if you were offline, you could not go into offline mode.
So it used to be pants-on-head retarded. Good on you, Valve.
It must have been ages ago then. I played in off-line mode back when, like, the Orange Box came out at the very latest.
No...must vary from person to person. PC Gamer UK complained about it extensively on their last podcast, and I ran into it less a month ago.
It was not nearly that long ago. The podcast had a good long laugh about how ridiculous it was that offline play would not work if you didn't plan for it in advance.
Off-line has been getting tweaks lately. Like, for instance, singularity used to have this really annoying microstutter when played in offline mode. I tested it a few days ago and its gone. At the time I had tried every fix in the book, now it just works.
MCV has been led to believe that the GAME saga will come to a welcome close earlier than expected.
Sources close to the negotiations are certain that a deal to save the retailer is incredibly close, with a likely exit from administration as early as tomorrow (Friday March 30th).
Furthermore, multiple sources have told us that it will be the RBS-led bank consortium – and not GameStop or OpCapita – that will seal the deal.
Several reports from the national press last week suggested that RBS was the favourite to acquire GAME, though MCV remained sceptical owing to the complications presented by the idea of a majority public-owned retailer.
However, despite the recent downsizing of the chain that has seen 277 stores close and the loss of 2,104 jobs (40 per cent of the chain’s UK workforce) once-favourite GameStop has failed to show the appetite needed to seal such a deal.
Indeed, questions will likely be asked of RBS’ decision to outright reject OpCapita’s bid that would have safeguarded the jobs of the entire workforce, with accusations that the decision was made in its own favour at the cost of GAME employees.
On a more positive note, however, an exit from administration tomorrow will put the minds of remaining employees at ease whose jobs will be secured. It will also be good news for consumers, with GAME finally able to pick itself up and re-establish its place at the front of UK games retail.
So the game is registered to an account.. does that mean other accounts playing it on that console are okay, or does only the one account get full access? Because one of those is a dick move, the other makes that dick move look like the kind of stunt it pulled in college before graduating to the big leagues, setting up its own company, and reinventing the dick move to be the most popular consumer product of all time (voted #1 Dick Move in 2009, 2010 and 2012)
Okay, I'll bite. What won Dick Move of 2011?
Skyrim.
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Wonder if there'll be any stores reopening?
The Birmingham Gamestation especially. That's the big un I want back, and it is the flagship store, so I can hope, right? ;D
I do have to wonder what would happen to Valve if Gabe died or went crazy or something. As far as I understand, they owe everything to the fact that he's obscenely wealthy.
His wealth is tied up in Valve. He's not bankrolling things right now. He just did back in the HL1 days.
If Gabe died right now, it wouldn't be an Apple situation. Gabe is not the creative director on their products, and Valve is not a public company. They have no stock price to worry about.
It would be sad, for sure, and there would probably be a bit of restructuring at the top (It's Lombardi's time to shine!) but it would have almost zero effect on how good Portal 3 turns out to be.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Re:Steam offline mode, you need to make sure you have Steam set to remember your password.
I do have to wonder what would happen to Valve if Gabe died or went crazy or something. As far as I understand, they owe everything to the fact that he's obscenely wealthy.
I would like to point out that this whole tangent came up based on a rather petty argumentative response to a sentence taken out of context and did not actually originate from any new piece of news about steam.
Even if just for people like me who came into the thread now and are wondering what newsflash appeared recently. It's basically the same old same old, going round and round again.
Hello, PlayStation.Blog readers. It has been an exciting two weeks for us since we launched Journey on PlayStation Store. We see the personal connection between our work and the players, which is the most real and priceless reward for us. For that, we thank you so much for your support, for spending time and money to play our game and for spreading the word about Journey to your dear friends and family. Thanks to you, Journey has officially broken PlayStation Network and PlayStation Store sales records, surpassing all first and third-party games to become the fastest-selling game ever released in the SCEA region on the PlayStation Network.
Just off a wave of critical acclaim for Thatgamecompany's newest PlayStation Network title, Journey, big changes are afoot at the studio: As the studio begins work on a new game, co-founder and president Kellee Santiago departs.
Gamasutra sources say that other key staff departures may be forthcoming as well. Santiago declined to confirm or to speak to her colleagues' plans, but suggested future announcements are 'likely.' As for her own departure, it's entirely amicable, Santiago tells us, explaining that it's simply time to seek new challenges.
Santiago co-founded the studio six years ago with creative director Jenova Chen, but the two first teamed up even prior to Thatgamecompany. While they were University of Southern California students, Chen and Santiago worked together on an experimental game called Cloud, and launched the company based on a mutual vision to create new forms of expression through video games.
Thatgamecompany, which has enjoyed much support from Sony, has released PSN titles FlOw, Flower and Journey, and the most recent game is viewed by many critics and fans as the attainment of the style and vision for which the studio aimed through the first two.
"After doing these three games, I think it was a really great opportunity for all of us to look at what we've learned and what I've taken from that experience, and go forth and take it into new arenas," Santiago tells Gamasutra.
In addition to the learning experience of founding a studio and gaining exposure to all its inherent roles and responsibilities, Santiago had the opportunity to take a leading role in establishing an oft-publicized unique internal creative process the studio applies to all its games.
"On top of that, founding a company whose explicit goal was to do new types of game development really allowed me to be able to try out new processes for game development, to try out new ideas," she says. "So much of my work at Thatgamecompany was really supporting Jenova's visions for the types of games he wanted to make, and I felt like I have done everything I needed to do there, and that he's in a great place now to go on and continue with some of the other people at Thatgamecompany, to take that to a whole new height."
Chen and the studio support that perspective, suggesting that their path alongside their longtime colleague holds parallels to the narrative of Journey, which sees players explore trials to reach a metaphorical enlightenment. "After the hard struggle behind FlOw, Flower and Journey, we've finally reached our goal," says their statement. "Awaiting at the mountaintop are new enlightenments and new sets of milestones for our life."
Santiago isn't yet prepared to speak to her future plans beyond the fact that she wants broader challenges and opportunities: "My hope is that I can take what I've learned and use it to support more teams, more projects... and really, hopefully, help in accelerating the growth of video games as a medium," she says.
She also hopes to have future opportunities to work with her Thatgamecompany colleagues: "There's no way you can look at Journey and not see the value that every single person contributed to that project," she says. "And I think that's evidence in and of itself that I would be delighted to collaborate again with any of them."
"When we play through Journey now, it has a special meaning for us," Santiago reflects. "It makes me think about everything we've accomplished.... What I've appreciated about the way all of us at Thatgamecompany and the original team from FlOw has grown throughout the years is we've really grown in our own self awareness," Santiago says.
But just like leaving a long relationship with a significant other can be empowering, making the right career moves at the right time is just as important. "Being able to express that and talk about that with one another can be scary... it takes a lot of courage to be honest about the things that you want and recognize that that's okay. We can part amicably," she concludes.
Says Chen and the studio in its statement: "While we want to continue the path of Thatgamecompany, Kellee has found a new direction in her career. Though our path in the future may be different, as TGC begins our next project, we wish Kellee a good journey and that our paths may cross again."
Just off a wave of critical acclaim for Thatgamecompany's newest PlayStation Network title, Journey, big changes are afoot at the studio: As the studio begins work on a new game, co-founder and president Kellee Santiago departs.
Gamasutra sources say that other key staff departures may be forthcoming as well. Santiago declined to confirm or to speak to her colleagues' plans, but suggested future announcements are 'likely.' As for her own departure, it's entirely amicable, Santiago tells us, explaining that it's simply time to seek new challenges.
Santiago co-founded the studio six years ago with creative director Jenova Chen, but the two first teamed up even prior to Thatgamecompany. While they were University of Southern California students, Chen and Santiago worked together on an experimental game called Cloud, and launched the company based on a mutual vision to create new forms of expression through video games.
Thatgamecompany, which has enjoyed much support from Sony, has released PSN titles FlOw, Flower and Journey, and the most recent game is viewed by many critics and fans as the attainment of the style and vision for which the studio aimed through the first two.
"After doing these three games, I think it was a really great opportunity for all of us to look at what we've learned and what I've taken from that experience, and go forth and take it into new arenas," Santiago tells Gamasutra.
In addition to the learning experience of founding a studio and gaining exposure to all its inherent roles and responsibilities, Santiago had the opportunity to take a leading role in establishing an oft-publicized unique internal creative process the studio applies to all its games.
"On top of that, founding a company whose explicit goal was to do new types of game development really allowed me to be able to try out new processes for game development, to try out new ideas," she says. "So much of my work at Thatgamecompany was really supporting Jenova's visions for the types of games he wanted to make, and I felt like I have done everything I needed to do there, and that he's in a great place now to go on and continue with some of the other people at Thatgamecompany, to take that to a whole new height."
Chen and the studio support that perspective, suggesting that their path alongside their longtime colleague holds parallels to the narrative of Journey, which sees players explore trials to reach a metaphorical enlightenment. "After the hard struggle behind FlOw, Flower and Journey, we've finally reached our goal," says their statement. "Awaiting at the mountaintop are new enlightenments and new sets of milestones for our life."
Santiago isn't yet prepared to speak to her future plans beyond the fact that she wants broader challenges and opportunities: "My hope is that I can take what I've learned and use it to support more teams, more projects... and really, hopefully, help in accelerating the growth of video games as a medium," she says.
She also hopes to have future opportunities to work with her Thatgamecompany colleagues: "There's no way you can look at Journey and not see the value that every single person contributed to that project," she says. "And I think that's evidence in and of itself that I would be delighted to collaborate again with any of them."
"When we play through Journey now, it has a special meaning for us," Santiago reflects. "It makes me think about everything we've accomplished.... What I've appreciated about the way all of us at Thatgamecompany and the original team from FlOw has grown throughout the years is we've really grown in our own self awareness," Santiago says.
But just like leaving a long relationship with a significant other can be empowering, making the right career moves at the right time is just as important. "Being able to express that and talk about that with one another can be scary... it takes a lot of courage to be honest about the things that you want and recognize that that's okay. We can part amicably," she concludes.
Says Chen and the studio in its statement: "While we want to continue the path of Thatgamecompany, Kellee has found a new direction in her career. Though our path in the future may be different, as TGC begins our next project, we wish Kellee a good journey and that our paths may cross again."
Just off a wave of critical acclaim for Thatgamecompany's newest PlayStation Network title, Journey, big changes are afoot at the studio: As the studio begins work on a new game, co-founder and president Kellee Santiago departs.
Gamasutra sources say that other key staff departures may be forthcoming as well. Santiago declined to confirm or to speak to her colleagues' plans, but suggested future announcements are 'likely.' As for her own departure, it's entirely amicable, Santiago tells us, explaining that it's simply time to seek new challenges.
Santiago co-founded the studio six years ago with creative director Jenova Chen, but the two first teamed up even prior to Thatgamecompany. While they were University of Southern California students, Chen and Santiago worked together on an experimental game called Cloud, and launched the company based on a mutual vision to create new forms of expression through video games.
Thatgamecompany, which has enjoyed much support from Sony, has released PSN titles FlOw, Flower and Journey, and the most recent game is viewed by many critics and fans as the attainment of the style and vision for which the studio aimed through the first two.
"After doing these three games, I think it was a really great opportunity for all of us to look at what we've learned and what I've taken from that experience, and go forth and take it into new arenas," Santiago tells Gamasutra.
In addition to the learning experience of founding a studio and gaining exposure to all its inherent roles and responsibilities, Santiago had the opportunity to take a leading role in establishing an oft-publicized unique internal creative process the studio applies to all its games.
"On top of that, founding a company whose explicit goal was to do new types of game development really allowed me to be able to try out new processes for game development, to try out new ideas," she says. "So much of my work at Thatgamecompany was really supporting Jenova's visions for the types of games he wanted to make, and I felt like I have done everything I needed to do there, and that he's in a great place now to go on and continue with some of the other people at Thatgamecompany, to take that to a whole new height."
Chen and the studio support that perspective, suggesting that their path alongside their longtime colleague holds parallels to the narrative of Journey, which sees players explore trials to reach a metaphorical enlightenment. "After the hard struggle behind FlOw, Flower and Journey, we've finally reached our goal," says their statement. "Awaiting at the mountaintop are new enlightenments and new sets of milestones for our life."
Santiago isn't yet prepared to speak to her future plans beyond the fact that she wants broader challenges and opportunities: "My hope is that I can take what I've learned and use it to support more teams, more projects... and really, hopefully, help in accelerating the growth of video games as a medium," she says.
She also hopes to have future opportunities to work with her Thatgamecompany colleagues: "There's no way you can look at Journey and not see the value that every single person contributed to that project," she says. "And I think that's evidence in and of itself that I would be delighted to collaborate again with any of them."
"When we play through Journey now, it has a special meaning for us," Santiago reflects. "It makes me think about everything we've accomplished.... What I've appreciated about the way all of us at Thatgamecompany and the original team from FlOw has grown throughout the years is we've really grown in our own self awareness," Santiago says.
But just like leaving a long relationship with a significant other can be empowering, making the right career moves at the right time is just as important. "Being able to express that and talk about that with one another can be scary... it takes a lot of courage to be honest about the things that you want and recognize that that's okay. We can part amicably," she concludes.
Says Chen and the studio in its statement: "While we want to continue the path of Thatgamecompany, Kellee has found a new direction in her career. Though our path in the future may be different, as TGC begins our next project, we wish Kellee a good journey and that our paths may cross again."
Actually, I just tried it out--it does seem to work.
There was a time, a month ago or so when I last tried it out, that if you were offline, you could not go into offline mode.
So it used to be pants-on-head retarded. Good on you, Valve.
The whole "offline mode" is definitely a YMMV thing. Some people can get it to work 100% of the time, some folks can't get it to work ever, and some folks can have it work most of the time, but sometimes it frizzes out due to the latest Steam update patch. You're probably one of those people in the latter category, as most people are. I've used offline mode occasionally over the past 5 or 6 years, and there are definitely times when it doesn't seem to work, for no reason, and then a month later, it's working perfectly fine.
I honestly don't care whether or not offline mode works 100% of the time. The whole point of Steam for me is to get games for cheap. Steam did not become valuable to me until they started putting practically everything at 50% off or more during their frequent sales. I'm willing to be "saddled" by their totally awful (not really) DRM, as long as I can buy a 60 dollar game for half that price or less. Maybe that sense of ownership and consumer pride is worth 30 extra bucks to you, or maybe you just HAVE to play a game when it is released, and that's perfectly fine. I'll probably stop buying games on Steam if it ever becomes more expensive than trying to buy games at every other place for every other platform.
That's a perfectly reasonable point--as I already mentioned.
Personally, I get games cheaper through Amazon.com (even with shipping fees, which I rarely pay), and we all have to weigh "Getting it in the mail" versus "Potential bandwidth caps" so it's a non-issue for me. Not having to go around Steam for a game that has no functions in Steam--that is, uses its own multiplayer or no multiplayer, has its own DRM or no DRM--is always a plus, since the last thing I want is an annoying message about "We need to update" or "Loading steam up, wait a sec".
You could do a LOT worse DRM wise, than Steam. By all means. But you could do a lot better too, as a few companies do, independent of Steam.
I guess I should thank whoever at Amazon is paid to watch Steam for sales and adjust the prices, heh. It's worth remembering that Steam really isn't that great a deal outside of sales--they're regularly beaten by eBay, Amazon.com, and even occasionally NewEgg. And that's before we factor in third-party sellers on Amazon. It's the sales that are the real sweet deals--and now those are matched by Amazon by aforementioned guy who's paid to check Steam everyday.
Of course, money is just part of the equation. I'm sure a lot of people like the Steam interface for managing all their games. I personally don't.
EDIT: The same could be said about Origin in some respects. Personally, my "favorite" digital service are Amazon and DirectDrive.
Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter does not believe PlayStation 4 will prevent users from playing pre-owned games.
Rumours spread this morning that the next Sony console – reportedly named Orbis – will include anti pre-owned technology to block second hand titles.
Reports earlier this year claimed the next Xbox will feature similar technology, but Pachter insists this would be counter-productive for the format holders.
"It isn't really in Sony's or Microsoft's best interests to block used games," he told GamesIndustry.biz.
"It would benefit Activision and EA slightly, and would hurt GameStop a great deal. If Sony unilaterally did this, I could see GameStop refusing to carry their console and sales of the PS4 would therefore suffer."
The analyst went on to say that blocking out the used games market relies on the Big Three – Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo – all adopt the same anti pre-owned stance.
"If one does it and the others don't, the one who does it will see a lost of market share," said Pachter.
He added that neither Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo are "stupid enough to do this unilaterally" or "evil enough to do it together".
I can totally see Microsoft and Sony making a deal to both have anti-used technology. His point on if only one of them does it they're screwed is valid. Which is exactly why they'd only do it if they had assurances.
People complain about Steam a lot online so we released our game on a couple no-DRM sites, Gamersgate and Desura, in addition to Steam. About 99% of our sales come from Steam. Doesn't really feel like there's much of a point to releasing outside of Steam if you've got a PC game that isn't super casual.
People complain about Steam a lot online so we released our game on a couple no-DRM sites, Gamersgate and Desura, in addition to Steam. About 99% of our sales come from Steam. Doesn't really feel like there's much of a point to releasing outside of Steam if you've got a PC game that isn't super casual.
Christ. I know Steam is big, but not...that...big.
I would be more surprised if it weren't the case. Storefront recognition and all.
On the subject of used games, I do think Microsoft's perogative of people purchasing used games to play online on XBL Gold gives them less incentive than Sony has. But it might not be enough.
People complain about Steam a lot online so we released our game on a couple no-DRM sites, Gamersgate and Desura, in addition to Steam. About 99% of our sales come from Steam. Doesn't really feel like there's much of a point to releasing outside of Steam if you've got a PC game that isn't super casual.
Witcher 2 sold the vast majority of the download sales on Steam in spite of there being a no DRM version on GOG. Steam pretty much has the market by the balls unless Origin is really shaking shit up.
Oh, that Epic Mickey 3DS game coming out? It's not being done by Warren Spector. Instead, DreamRift is doing it... you know, the guys behind Henry Hatsworth and the criminally overlooked Monster Tale. So it's in good hands.
Posts
Now for the important question: Does every company ever in the history of mankind make use of such loopholes, or are some people classy enough to honor intended agreements? The existence of negative things in life does not guarantee their use / favoritism / 'winning.'
The bottom line is Steam's agreement hasn't had to be put to the test yet, so we don't have the answer. To say it will turn out one way or the other is no more crazy than predicting, before the pre-season, which NFL team is going to win the Super-bowl. You can only make a guess, but there is no scientifically measurable aspect that will make people 'right' or 'wrong' about Steam granting you access or not in the event of the service going under. I'm sure it's fun for people to say, "OH BUT THEY CAN SUDDENLY CHARGE YOU A MONTHLY FEE" but really that's the opinion of someone fishing for an idea to lend credence to their negative sentiment.
It's not wrong to have negative sentiment toward a product or service, but don't bullshit.
Oh please, that was completely arbitrary and not a specific prediction and you know it. The issue is the fact that you don't have shit for control over the games you 'buy' from Steam - Valve does. The fact that you trust them now doesn't mean you can trust them forever.
Id be surprised if he didn't already have such paperwork in place.
Everything is boned and pointless if you want to get all digital nihilist about it.
"You mean you have to use your hands? That's like a babies toy!"
These kinds of predictions are more or less equivelant to predicting the weather at 9am in Osaka japan on the 9th of march, 2020.
It's just as impossible and silly, for all the same reasons.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Doesn't this technically mean we have control over no games?
I mean, I guess Microsoft or Sony could devise some way to fry our consoles, except they completely function offline as well.
On the subject of Valve, it's worth remembering they've come a really long way. Steam is quite great now--some time ago, it was total shit as well as being the centerpiece of Valve's strategy, but that's now paid off.
EDIT: Nevermind, apparently.
It's not ideal but it works kinda.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
There was a time, a month ago or so when I last tried it out, that if you were offline, you could not go into offline mode.
So it used to be pants-on-head retarded. Good on you, Valve.
At least, that's how I got it working for me.
That being said, nothing is going to convince me that having a game on a disc that I can install to play as many times as I want, online or offline (and is decently playable without patching) is somehow no different than having a game require Steam or Origin. Because, you know, no one really owns anything man.
I mean, if that were exceptional situation, maybe, but this is easily 95% of the games I still own. It's easy. Part of the reason I can say that is because they physically exist. If I don't count XBLA, it's 100% of my console games.
But it's not exactly my primary concern either. I'm not worried about Valve or Origin vanishing off the face of the Earth and leaving my high and dry. Mostly because you could, ultimately, bypass that problem with a bit of work and your disks on hand.
I can absolutely see digital convenience taking precedence over that practicality.
It must have been ages ago then. I played in off-line mode back when, like, the Orange Box came out at the very latest.
I honestly don't care whether or not offline mode works 100% of the time. The whole point of Steam for me is to get games for cheap. Steam did not become valuable to me until they started putting practically everything at 50% off or more during their frequent sales. I'm willing to be "saddled" by their totally awful (not really) DRM, as long as I can buy a 60 dollar game for half that price or less. Maybe that sense of ownership and consumer pride is worth 30 extra bucks to you, or maybe you just HAVE to play a game when it is released, and that's perfectly fine. I'll probably stop buying games on Steam if it ever becomes more expensive than trying to buy games at every other place for every other platform.
EDIT: Another thing about offline mode is that it's not required for some games on Steam, either. Some of those games run fine without Steam being in offline or online mode. It varies from game to game, however. I can run Borderlands fine without Steam, for example.
No...must vary from person to person. PC Gamer UK complained about it extensively on their last podcast, and I ran into it less a month ago.
It was not nearly that long ago. The podcast had a good long laugh about how ridiculous it was that offline play would not work if you didn't plan for it in advance.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/game-to-exit-administration-tomorrow-rbs-consortium-wins-race/093563
Skyrim.
The Birmingham Gamestation especially. That's the big un I want back, and it is the flagship store, so I can hope, right? ;D
His wealth is tied up in Valve. He's not bankrolling things right now. He just did back in the HL1 days.
If Gabe died right now, it wouldn't be an Apple situation. Gabe is not the creative director on their products, and Valve is not a public company. They have no stock price to worry about.
It would be sad, for sure, and there would probably be a bit of restructuring at the top (It's Lombardi's time to shine!) but it would have almost zero effect on how good Portal 3 turns out to be.
I found that fixed a lot of my issues.
http://shoryuken.com/2012/03/29/yoshinori-ono-temporarily-stepping-down-as-street-fighter-series-producer/
They'd still have people like Doug Lombardi.
Hey, what about that god-awful ME3 ending?
http://ds.ign.com/articles/122/1221849p1.html
Where in the world will she end up?
This post just gets better the more you read it. Like a fine wine.
I don't like the new direction SF has taken, but the guy really deserves a nice rest. I really hope he gets better soon.
That's a perfectly reasonable point--as I already mentioned.
Personally, I get games cheaper through Amazon.com (even with shipping fees, which I rarely pay), and we all have to weigh "Getting it in the mail" versus "Potential bandwidth caps" so it's a non-issue for me. Not having to go around Steam for a game that has no functions in Steam--that is, uses its own multiplayer or no multiplayer, has its own DRM or no DRM--is always a plus, since the last thing I want is an annoying message about "We need to update" or "Loading steam up, wait a sec".
You could do a LOT worse DRM wise, than Steam. By all means. But you could do a lot better too, as a few companies do, independent of Steam.
I guess I should thank whoever at Amazon is paid to watch Steam for sales and adjust the prices, heh. It's worth remembering that Steam really isn't that great a deal outside of sales--they're regularly beaten by eBay, Amazon.com, and even occasionally NewEgg. And that's before we factor in third-party sellers on Amazon. It's the sales that are the real sweet deals--and now those are matched by Amazon by aforementioned guy who's paid to check Steam everyday.
Of course, money is just part of the equation. I'm sure a lot of people like the Steam interface for managing all their games. I personally don't.
EDIT: The same could be said about Origin in some respects. Personally, my "favorite" digital service are Amazon and DirectDrive.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Christ. I know Steam is big, but not...that...big.
On the subject of used games, I do think Microsoft's perogative of people purchasing used games to play online on XBL Gold gives them less incentive than Sony has. But it might not be enough.
Witcher 2 sold the vast majority of the download sales on Steam in spite of there being a no DRM version on GOG. Steam pretty much has the market by the balls unless Origin is really shaking shit up.
http://ds.ign.com/articles/122/1221849p1.html