Any News on whether we'll be able to download CiV from Steam before release?

[kozzer]

I did a search, sorry if this has been posted.

Anyway, I remember that they were thinking about allowing pre-orderers to download the game before release, and then when the game is released, those who have already done the download will have the game unlock. Has anyone heard anything recent about this?

 

[krunsh]

There are no such information that I am aware of... We can hope.

 

[SeptimusOctopus]

I pre-ordered Monkey Island 2: SE from steam. It let me download the game the day before it was actually released so I was able to play at midnight on release day. I hope and assume it will be the same for Civ 5.

 

[MajorDisaster84]

I believe that's the default approach of Steam, because Empire: Total War had the same ability, pre-orders could download the game 24 hours before release day, though it remained locked until 12:01am on release day.

 

[SeismoGraf]

Could imagine worse things, than having to wait a few moments more, until the download finishes. Ok, I admit not to sit behind a 56k line. Steam usually pushes to the limit of my new broadband (20M).

 

[lietkynes]

It would be nice to have pre-load but it's not that important, it never took me more then 1 hour to download a game.

Anyone with a decent connection will be ok even without pre-load.
People with slow connection should buy a retail copy really.

 

[Tomice]

If I have a physical preorder, can I preload the game before knowing the serial key? How was this with previous steam games?

It worked with Starcraft 2.

 

[12agnar0k]

"Can I preload from Steam if I am buying a physical copy and don't have the serial key yet."

No, obviously you can't, you need to link the game to Steam via the key before it will be on your Steam account.

.....

"Any news on the pre-load"

Well, it will 95% likely be able to be pre-loaded, just look out for a "X days till Unlock" note on your Steam copy on Civ5. This is about pre-loading, because you can download prior to this, but your download won't unlock till this date which allows you to install and play the game, it will say something like "pre-load" available, when it is available, likely a few days before release.

....

If anyones worried about Steams ability to provide download speeds you shouldn't be too concerned, My 50mbps Service allows a blazing speed of 6MB's per second download speed, and Steam provides this speed easily, The game file will take me, 22mins and 45 seconds to download .

 

[Tylerryan79]

Ya the most I got with steam was 7mbs a second, then it evened out to around 4-5mbs. Im expecting the same with Civ, so preload or no preload I will be playing this game asap.

 

[hunhau]

I'm pretty sure the whole preloading thing depends mostly on the publisher, so the 2K folks might have more information as we get closer to the release.

 

[Tomice]

"Can I preload from Steam if I am buying a physical copy and don't have the serial key yet."

No, obviously you can't, you need to link the game to Steam via the key before it will be on your Steam account.

It's not that obvious. One could download Starcraft 2 from battle.net WITHOUT linking the game to one's account (you couldn't install it, of course)

 

[12agnar0k]

It's not that obvious. One could download Starcraft 2 from battle.net WITHOUT linking the game to one's account (you couldn't install it, of course)

THAT'S NOT STEAM, just because one game distribution service worked a certain way has no relevance to another. Steam works how I said it works, just because you could download Starcraft 2 from battle.net without buying it has absolutely NOTHING to do with Steam or Civ5.

It is very obvious if you know how Steam works, perhaps somebody does not, but that's really besides the point, they could think any number of things, it still wouldn't make the answers any less obvious to anyone who wants to learn how the system works. If don't want to learn how the software works and instead ask questions that can be worked out if you did, then you will obviously be told that your question was obvious.

 

[Tylerryan79]

Mafia 2 was a steamworks game by 2k, did anyone preorder that? If that had an early download than that gives Civ V a better chance of having one.

 

[ladedadedum]

yeah you should be able to download it prior to release, it just won't unlock (be playable).

i usually get good speeds on my 15mbs connection through them (at least 2mbs), even with 3 other comps online trying to make a gooey interface through visual basic.

 

[Tomice]

THAT'S NOT STEAM, just because one game distribution service worked a certain way has no relevance to another. Steam works how I said it works, just because you could download Starcraft 2 from battle.net without buying it has absolutely NOTHING to do with Steam or Civ5.

It is very obvious if you know how Steam works, perhaps somebody does not, but that's really besides the point, they could think any number of things, it still wouldn't make the answers any less obvious to anyone who wants to learn how the system works. If don't want to learn how the software works and instead ask questions that can be worked out if you did, then you will obviously be told that your question was obvious.

You might want to reconsider your tone....

It was also not the standard battle.net procedure, but a favor from Blizzard to all those without fancy internet connection to boast with (like you did before).

Blizzard protected its game by not including important files and encrypted it, so the download was worthless without server connection. But it assured server capacity during the critical launch moment. Steam might have adopted this. My question was valid, even if it was never the case before (which you could have said in a more appropriate style).

 

[mattcrwi]

2K greg said a long time ago that they hope to allow DLs before the 21st but no guarantees. I certainly hope they do because steam DLs can get pretty slow if there is a major game released and everyone trys to DL it at once.

 

[Col Kurtz]

I wonder what the case will be for those of us that pre-ordered from D2D. Theoretically, we should be able to get the key for our copy of the game ahead of time and pre-download as well.

 

[Tylerryan79]

I think people who ordered through D2D, myself included, will get our keys on release day. I just have this gut feeling of dissapointment, but it won't be too bad. I'm willing to wait a few extra hours, seeing as we get the first DLC for free.

 

[Fizticks]

With the back to school deal that D2D had im perfectly cool with waiting a few hours/days to download the game.

 

[demidyad]

It is in 2k & Steam's interest to allow preloading. It puts less strain on the servers.