How many copies of Civ 5 do I need?

[bjbrains]

How likely do you think it that company that make horsehockyload of money and is growing over 100% year-to-year is going to go bankrupt (and even if it does that no1 will buy it in such case). We are talking about privately owned company which is already worth billions dollars.

Not to mention that Valve has said that they would remove the authentication if that happened. (And that they've already successfully tested this).

 

[kaltorak]

Sorry, but if I wanted to buy a box of legos for one of my kids, it wouldn't automatically entitle me to get three more boxes just because I have a lot of kids and it would be therefore more expensive.

That argument isn't valid, since 4 lego boxes cost money to produce, but software licenses dont

 

[surv]

That argument isn't valid, since 4 lego boxes cost money to produce, but software licenses dont

Think of it like a movie ticket.

You're given permission to remain in the premises and watch a movie in the mean time.

Same with software licenses: you're given permission to use a product regardless the product's cost.

You're not actually buying the product. You're buying usage rights. The product is the same and can be replicated billions of times at no extra cost. But if YOU want it, YOU pay for it.

 

[PieceOfMind]

How likely do you think it that company that make horsehockyload of money and is growing over 100% year-to-year is going to go bankrupt (and even if it does that no1 will buy it in such case). We are talking about privately owned company which is already worth billions dollars.

It's funny you mention it actually.

I'd be wary of any company that is growing so rapidly and that is dependent on one source for most of their revenue. A company will not grow at that rate forever, and if their current quality of service depends on their rate of growth, you could be shocked when you find them facing tough competition and start having to find other means to generate revenue.

It might take a significant event to hurt sales on Steam, but who knows what will happen?

Within 10 years, we could find 5 other similarly popular services as Steam, taking up some of the market share that steam currently holds nearly exclusively. It's certainly possible for Microsoft or some other guy to come in and offer something even more attractive than Steam. It's not as if Valve are the only clever company out there.

 

[The_J]

Is buying a Civ5 DVD from a store considered a Steam copy as well? I can understand registering it the first but that should be it. I have a number of games that are eLicensed and each of them are only a one-time deal to get the activation code.

Is in this case more or less the same.
Your copy from the store will also just need a one time validation over your steam account when you install it. After this, you can set steam to offline mod and it will "just" run in the background when starting Civ5.

 

[Rebel44]

It's funny you mention it actually.

I'd be wary of any company that is growing so rapidly and that is dependent on one source for most of their revenue. A company will not grow at that rate forever, and if their current quality of service depends on their rate of growth, you could be shocked when you find them facing tough competition and start having to find other means to generate revenue.

It might take a significant event to hurt sales on Steam, but who knows what will happen?

Within 10 years, we could find 5 other similarly popular services as Steam, taking up some of the market share that steam currently holds nearly exclusively. It's certainly possible for Microsoft or some other guy to come in and offer something even more attractive than Steam. It's not as if Valve are the only clever company out there.

Funny that you mentioned MS - as far as digital distribution for PC goes, their GFWL is epic fail of this decade

I am not saying that they cant lose, but given some dumb decisions of their current competition I doubt that will happen. Valve also have relatively very small fixed expenses so when their growth slows down they will slow dont infrastructure investments (you dont need to double network bandwith when demand grew only 30%).

Its not easy for new players to get big in such service when you have so much competition. Last november/december, CEOs of Impulse and D2D (2 biggest competitors of Steam) were arguing via media whether one service have 10% markershare and other only 5% or if its reversed (I may be few % off but not much) - at the same time both generaly agreed that Steam have 70+% marketshare.

 

[eireksten]

I'd just like to point out also that once Steam is gone, so is Civ5 and all of their direct games. This is possible to happen, and people will probably be playing Civ5 when that happens. People are still playing Civ1 and 2!

Even if that was a true concern, you'd still be able to play in offline mode. Seriously, if Firaxis was providing servers themselves, this danger would have been just as big.

But sure, consider when buying that you possibly won't be able to play this game in 10 years. Then realize that you think the game has so much replayability that you'll still want to play it that far into the future. If that doesn't make it worth the money, I don't know what does (compare this to the price of a single movie ticket, for instance).

About your PS3 vs PC argument. You do understand that you are only comparing two-player modes, and complaining that you don't like Civ's? If Civ5 was released for PS3 (the same game), you'd still only be able to play the very same two player mode on one machine. Hotseat, that is. If you wanted online play, you'd need another copy of Civ5.

 

[Svip]

About your PS3 vs PC argument. You do understand that you are only comparing two-player modes, and complaining that you don't like Civ's? If Civ5 was released for PS3 (the same game), you'd still only be able to play the very same two player mode on one machine. Hotseat, that is. If you wanted online play, you'd need another copy of Civ5.

And another PS3 for that matter. Which aren't exactly cheap.

 

[JBConquests]

If something did happen to make Steam go belly up because of a competitor taking their market share or other reasons then you would most likely see one of Steams competitor's buy their customer base.

This probably means they would "take over" steam servers or patch the game to use whatever service they use.

 

[Drakarska]

Yes, kids are expensive. They don't entitle you to multiple copy discounts.
Maybe they should take turns, rather than all needing to play at once?
[And you have 5-6 computers capable of running new release PC games? Isn't *that* what's expensive?]

You're allowed to install on as many systems as you like, as long as you aren't simultaneously playing on more than one.


On the same board? Sure.
And if there is a hotseat mode, you can have multiple people playing a computer game on the same license.

If you buy a board game, you're only going to be running one copy of it at once.

Board games are just like Steam; they hardcode technology that only allows you to have a single version running.

Why should we take turns if we all want to play as a family? may be a bit outdated in todays day and age, but hey, whatever works.

As for the expense: the 2 oldest purchased their own laptops from summer jobs, the 3rd won his in a district essay contest, and the youngests we got a grant for. As for the wife and I, we're still playing off our old systems that are over 6yrs old. Appreciate your concern about our expenses though.

 

[Ahriman]

Why should we take turns if we all want to play as a family? may be a bit outdated in todays day and age

Outdated? When have you ever been able to (legally) run a piece of software simultaneously on six machines using a single license?

I don't understand why you feel that game developers owe you multiple-use access to their products when you only paid for one. Other products don't work this way.

 

[Moss]

I can't second Ahriman's posts enough in this thread...

...if you want to run two copies of the game, you have to BUY two copies. Just like if you want two monitors, you have to buy two monitors...

 

[mjs0]

Outdated? When have you ever been able to (legally) run a piece of software simultaneously on six machines using a single license?

I don't understand why you feel that game developers owe you multiple-use access to their products when you only paid for one. Other products don't work this way.

Actually, back in the day, the original Age of Empires allowed LAN based multi-player at a rate of three machines to one CD, so six machines on two licenses was allowed.

 

[surv]

I can't second Ahriman's posts enough in this thread...

...if you want to run two copies of the game, you have to BUY two copies. Just like if you want two monitors, you have to buy two monitors...

Correct!

You buy two monitors if you want two people to look at one simultaneously. Just like when playing monopoly every person has to have his own copy.

Software is different.
You can have 1 license and have people take turns to use it so it is MUCH BETTER.
Steam helps this issue because you can log off and play while some other friend of yours plays on-line. THAT almost EQUATES TO THEFT. So if you want to do it, you should acquire two licenses. One for you and one for your friend. If for nothing else, on morals ground alone.