Answer to people who wondered why 2K use Steam even for retail...

[Rebel44]

Looks like Walmart broke street date for Civ5. If Civ5 used either no DRM or some passive DRM it would likely already be available from Pirate Bay.

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86936

 

[krunsh]

Lol, must suck when you by the game without knowing about the release date on steam... getting home all excited and can't play.

But I'm glad he can't since I preordered and what I can't have, nobody should have!

 

[Exterminas]

Yeah, stuff like that happens with every game. If not by accident it happens by purpose or by having connections to someone who works at the store. If prefere this method of preotection over the others.

I honestly can't understand why people have such a hatered for steam. It has been around for a decade, is handy to update your games and obsoletes having to carry disks around, if you want to install a game somewhere else. The shop and the advertisement isn't agressive, so what?

I can understand it if people hate useless additional programms, like the ones rockstar made you install, if you wanted to play GTA 4 on a PC. But steam is kind of the oldie among these things, sin't it?

 

[Rebel44]

Based on photos on second page of that thread its true (I am not going to pretend that I am surprised)...

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d135/sparknutz/51e6aaf1.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d135/sparknutz/98488db0.jpg

What I am most angry about is that it wont have any consequences, just because Walmart is big retail company

 

[Modiga-Disabled]

I was going to say I suppose there's less of a reason to go after stores who break the street date, because the game's still not accessible.

I guess there are other reasons though. A store breaking release date is still giving itself an advantage over other outlets because people won't realise it's locked.

Still, preventing playable copies getting out, being cracked and put up on torrent sites has to remove some of the desire to make sure stores play by the rules.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Looks like Walmart broke street date for Civ5. If Civ5 used either no DRM or some passive DRM it would likely already be available from Pirate Bay.

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86936

Wow, three days early too

It was probably just the one local WalMart, but that's still a very dumb thing to do. All for a game that won't even play until Tuesday.

 

[asix79]

Yeah, stuff like that happens with every game. If not by accident it happens by purpose or by having connections to someone who works at the store. If prefere this method of preotection over the others.

I honestly can't understand why people have such a hatered for steam. It has been around for a decade, is handy to update your games and obsoletes having to carry disks around, if you want to install a game somewhere else. The shop and the advertisement isn't agressive, so what?

I can understand it if people hate useless additional programms, like the ones rockstar made you install, if you wanted to play GTA 4 on a PC. But steam is kind of the oldie among these things, sin't it?

Steamworks is one of the least intrusive forms of DRM available. By contrast, Ubisoft has used one of the most aggressive, requiring the player to be online at all times. Because of the consequent backlash, Ubisoft chose to use Steamworks for the release of Ruse. As a result of the change, there was an increase in positive feedback on Valve's forums. Some chose to buy the game, when they wouldn't have otherwise.

 

[Selous]

wow, i would be angry with that .... even moreso if i didnt really know about the steam thing

 

[TheMystic]

Same thing happened with copies of Starcraft 2. Guys would get home only to be told by the installer that they couldn't even install the game until launch day.

The big key with anti-piracy is stopping it from happening before launch. If you can accomplish that, you've done something special, and I think 2K has been somewhat of a pioneer when it comes to stopping pre-launch piracy. Not sure if you guys recall but with the first Bioshock the PC version didn't even include everything you needed in order to launch the game. The file(s) came down automatically at launch, but no sooner.

Now you see more efforts going on, like that seen with Battle.net. More PC devs will continue to go this route, it only makes sense from a business standpoint. Steam isn't a bad choice at all, it's actually one of the least intrusive options out there. Would you guys rather have Ubisoft always on DRM?

 

[The_J]

10 years ago, there would have been the question: Would you rather have no DRM or *anythingElse*.
Guess how it has come, that the question changed...


And well, at the topic...this is one of the disadvantages of steam...you have less control about your game than before.
Maybe you'll somewhen only be allowed to play to the times the publisher wants you to play...you never know.

 

[bjbrains]

Well...this is one of the disadvantages of steam...you have less control about your game than before.
Maybe you'll somewhen only be allowed to play to the times the publisher wants you to play...you never know.

It's all a conspiracy! 2K/valve want us to not play civ 5 on weekends!

Seriously though, those kind of restrictions don't exist, and baseless speculation is just that, baseless. It's pretty obvious why they don't want playable copies floating around pre-release day. For piracy reasons if that wasn't clear.

 

[Fin]

Well...this is one of the disadvantages of steam...you have less control about your game than before.
Maybe you'll somewhen only be allowed to play to the times the publisher wants you to play...you never know.

I'm not sure about less control. You're not supposed to play a game before launch. If you were, there wouldn't be a launch date, and stores would just release it at different times all over the place as they saw fit. Like this Wal-Mart did. And if you're saying that someday the publisher will be able to tell you when you've played enough or something, well, that's a little silly.

I don't see why people have a problem with Steam. I've been using it for quite awhile, and I really think it's quite nice. I suppose everyone's entitled to their own opinions on the matter, though.

 

[The_J]

One of the problems is, what i mentioned, less control.
Additionally i have some concerns about availability of my games, security of my data, and i don't support this bussiness type at all.
But the topic is not about that and it has been discussed ad nauseam.

It's all a conspiracy! 2K/valve want us to not play civ 5 on weekends!

*whispering* right, they have a contract with your girlfriend, she doesn't want you to play on weekends *whispering*.

Seriously though, those kind of restrictions don't exist, and baseless speculation is just that, baseless. It's pretty obvious why they don't want playable copies floating around pre-release day. For piracy reasons if that wasn't clear.

I guess the decission is for a pirate relativly clear, if he pays now 50$/€ or waits 2 days to check his favourite torrent. That does not really make a difference.

 

[KingMorgan]

3 days early!!

Now you know what it feels like to be European, (sort of)

 

[Lancor]

Although I think it's fair, that he can not play the game until the official release date, his local Walmart there should give out a small compensation... like a 5 $ coupon or something like that, if he describes the problem... it's their fault and they made a false advertisement by selling it...!

 

[Tylerryan79]

I'm just happy I got over myself, and how I grew up gaming, and excepted steam. I'll be kicking arse and taking names come Tuesday!

 

[tom2050]

2K has done some horrible things with DRM in the recent past to it's customers.. don't think that 2K gives any care at all to any of you. And Steam requirement of 3rd party services (that cost $) to run a game (along with the many other potentially intrusive "made to look nice" things it has) does not actually make it the 'least invasive ever'.

Other DRM's that require 3rd party services only to patch the game (not required to play) are the ones that are the least intrusive. Steam is not it.. maybe in 2nd or 3rd place. Just to clear that up for everyone.

But it was probably just an accident at Walmart, after all the stock boys/girls don't make huge salaries there.

 

[Avatar_Ko]

And Steam requirement of 3rd party services (that cost $) to run a game (along with the many other

What are you talking about? There's no additional costs in requiring Steam.

 

[Selous]

What are you talking about? There's no additional costs in requiring Steam.

not directly to u or i ... but im sure they dont do it for free

i was talking to my local EB owner yesterday, and he has no order to withhold from the shelves

 

[bjbrains]

not directly to u or i ... but im sure they dont do it for free

Depends on what you mean. Steamworks (The code-side of steam's functionality) is free. They also take a smaller margin than retail shops. What's not free about it?