R.I.P Creative Assembly

I mean, come on, $50 (almost $100 for those special edition ones) for a Steam-only game? I will make no judgment or comments about the gameplay because I don't own it, but I will say all I can about the developer and whoever's idea it was to put the game as Steam only.

What's Steam's biggest hit? What is it known for? We all know - the Orange Box. You cannot top a deal like 5 games for $50; you can barely top Half Life 2 alone for $50. Now, Creative Assembly decide to be smart and drink the devil's water, which, after being boiled, flamed, and criticized, is more like devil's Steam. I'm not professional economist, but I sincerely have no doubt that CA's sales numbers will drop. Sure, Steam is a popular engine/program (thanks to the Orange Box), but that doesn't mean everyone buys their games from Steam.

I'm sure one of the reasons that CA made the game Steam-only is to prevent pirated copies of the game being sold/downloaded, and as we all know pirates will cause the company's sales numbers to drop. But, I'm not sure which kills the sales number more - having maybe a few hundred people download games (half of whom don't know how to install it, just look at some torrent website's comments) and buy the game after playing it vs having thousands of people realize the game is only on Steam and therefore refuse to buy it.

My friend tried to convince to buy the game on Steam and then download it, which I happily refused 1. because of what I mentioned above and 2. my school's download bandwidth is 4GB, nowhere near (half) how big the game is. I own a copy (a legitimate copy) of every Total War game. But Empire Total War will be one I will never buy.

 

Uh you can buy empire total war anywhere... or am i missing the point

 

I think it requires Steam to activate.

 

Unfortunately it seems to be where the PC game scene is heading, having internet content. I didn't know that they ONLY released it through steam though.

It looks like you should be able to buy a retail package though.....
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...l+war&lp=2&type=product&cp=1&id=1218046366624

And although you don't approve of downloading games via Steam, it's already up at the #3 spot of played games right now on Steam, under both Counter-Strikes, but still showing more than 36,000 people playing it right now.

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

 

While I don't have a problem with internet activation, I'm sure it can be problematic for many who still have spotty internet access. I guess it's ok if it just needs to transfer a few hundred KB of files so it's quick for dial-up users, but if it needs to download hundreds of MB's then I feel sorry for them.

Heck, if I don't get a job soon, I may have to go back to dial-up... eek!

 

I bought Empire at my local EBG. The Steam activation took me by surprise, tho'. The game wouldn't even install without linking to my Steam account first. This is why I prefer Impulse.

And I thought Age of Conan was bad for HDD space, but 15GB for an RTS??? Crazy!

 

Is 4GB the cap?
Or 4GBps *orgasm* ?

 

I think he means he can only download 4gb a month worth of internet usage.... that means Steam is basically out for him. Shame.

 

You can purchase the game on disc, all you need to do is activate it on Steam. The game itself will install from the disc though. All Steam will do is activate online and keep the installed game updated. So, why the fuss in your post? I understand your concern if it was ONLY available through Steam, but that's simply not the case. You simply need Steam for activation and multiplayer. How is that the end of the world?

 

Personally, I find the concept of buying Total War, FEAR2, or Dawn of War 2 at retail and registering them on Steam to be a positive feature of these games that actually adds value to my purchase.

The games don't have to be downloaded, just registered. After registration, you get all the benefits of Steam as well as the benefits of owning a hard copy. What's not to love? I don't have to keep the disk in the tray, I can re-download the game years after I lost the disks, I can support brick and mortar stores while also supporting online distribution...what's not to like again?

 

Registering your game with Steam basically means you can't resell it right?

 

True.

With the way things are going, the resale market for PC games is going extinct. You'll have to sell your console titles instead.

 

yeah thats kinda annoying, means i have to extra careful what game i buy, on console if i got a game and i didnt like it then i would just sell it - sure i might not get as much as i paid for it but its better to take that small hit and get some of the money back then keep a game that i dont like and wont play again

 

Yep. I used to have no problem buying games on PC for $50 at launch day, and if I'd finish it in a week or two, or just didn't like it, I could always eBay it for $25-$30, so it was effectively a discount title.

Now I wait for it to be discounted or make sure it's well worth my money before shelling out good money.

 

i feel HL1 and counter-strike is where valve got it's name from. not orange box.

 

Yeah

Half Life
Counter Strike
Day of Defeat
Team Fortress

That's what started the Valve reputation

And then all the other games coming to steam, and then HL2, TF2, CS:S etc...

 

Dude just calm down, you're at a 10, you need to be at a 2.

(1) New games go for $50, don't buy the special edition... I personally don't buy games unless they're less than $30...

(2) Am I missing something? I have steam, lots of people have steam... you think you're better than us? Why?

O.K great! I guess it's time for you to move on. Make no mention of being 'anti-Steam' in the future please.

 

i actually like that steam is getting all the games. it's much easier to access a game now (buying, downloading, updating, playing, etc) and steam is frequently updated and it should give more money to Valve, which in return, we should receive more great games by them.

 

This is getting scary, as one gaming retailer platform is slowly trying to convert and dominate the market by controlling what comes in and out, and this is all done by deals with Steam and publishers. I do not like the way things are going, it's a new 90's Microsoft on the way. And it would make sense charging much LESS for a VIRTUAL game that you only download, meaning there are no added costs of distribution (air, sea or land), no costs of printing, cases, cds, dvds, etc., all of that costs a lot of money, much more than server and bandwith. Their profit margin must be huge.

 

Heh, it's really not that bad. It works well, so who cares? Look at iTunes and iPod integration, whose complained about that? No one.

Also, software margins are probably REALLY slim especially with games since now they costs almost millions to make (which is crazy). So I really doubt their profit margins are that high. But they still sell all of those games in stores as well, so your point isn't that valid.

 

I totally agree with the OP's

why are you trying to argue about this?

Most users here use STEAM and I dont see a single problem with it in GENERAL, yes there are ALWAYS problems with everything.

So I dont see how one persons dilemna with a single game has to put down Valve/Steam in general

 

lol. I can't even get on STEAM, my school network blocks it. As well as X-Box live. I can't even download the new Fallout 3 campaign. Someone PLZ shoot me!

 

Your college blocks steam? Now that really really sucks.

 

I know man. I found this out the hard way, trying to install NBA2K9. Stupid me. haha.

 

I have a friend at JMU, while they don't block Steam per say, network connections there are so terrible that it's impossible to even play online anyway sometimes... Where are you going so I can make sure not to go there next year haha...?

 

You can find a list of Universities that block Steam on the Steam Forums.


I don't see how they can justify it... I mean you are paying for the internet... you should be able to game on it. It's not as if they're letting you surf the web for free anyway.

 

Steam is the reason I cancelled my Empire: Total war preorder. After all the trouble with getting my nephews Dawn of war 2 game to install(he had no internet) I'm not buying any game that requires Steam to activate(and download the whole friggin game).
I did get a free Rome Total war gold virtual download

-James

 

Oh, yeah thats what I asked... 4GB cap is what you mean...

That actually sucks... I download approx. 1-2 GB of data every day (MacBook + Gateway) Podcasts, iTunes, Youtube, Pandora & Online Radio etc... Games, Steam, Skype, MSN, webpages etc... adds up quickly =/

I'd rather pay for my own internet then...



Welcome to America, as my Economics teacher keeps saying

" Well... Phil, lets not forget we are the first and only country to have implemented nationwide landlines" ...
SORRY, COME AGAIN GRAHAM BELL?!
xD

Seriously, by the time everyone gets broadband in America, Europe will have GB/s internet, this is definitely true because my dad pays 25 euro a month for 5Mbps and they already called him up for his 5th year contract which will end this summer and offering him 25Mbps for... 25 euro...



But whatever... ill just have to stick with 198KBps (MAX) in the middle of nowhere Michigan, which puts me in the top 8% of people who have 500Kbps+ (25 KiloBYTES per second+ basically called broad band in a way)

 

Better than 56K dial-up where at best you'll get 5 KB/sec.

 

I used to pay for 1.5Mbps DSL, but they assured me everything was fine but they couldnt fix my problem...

My problem was 19KBps MAX download... lol


So for 1-2 years I put up with it until I called and just told them its over if they dont check everything, and I put emphasis on their switches which were probably rusty etc...

Magically after 20 minutes I had 198KBps DL WOOH!!!



Earthlink

 

I remember the days having to pay $10 a month for Netzero's unlimited internet...

Oh top of that, I often have to stream hour long lectures online, so every time I need to watch it, there goes a chunk of my bandwidth.

 

Dang... can you afford to get a DSL line?
Like your own private line? Not the schools

 

Well, it was one of my major complaints about Apple as a company and ensured I would never buy either an iPod or anything from iTunes. Which didn't happen. Now that iTunes is DRM free, I might actually buy something from them.

In games, I'd certainly rather have no online activation (CD keys, annoying as they are, are more handy than that), but it's not going over the fence. Going over the fence is when the game requires you to be connected to the Internet to enable all single-player features. That's what EA did with Battlefield 2. That's also why I haven't bought any of the later Battlefield releases (along with that BF2 wasn't that amazing), or any other EA titles that came out in the 21st century, since then.

Or limiting the number of times you can install the software - something else that EA has done, but not Creative Assembly. So I really think you're picking on the wrong company when it comes to DRM.

Although it does blow if your university blocks Steam and that means you can't play the game. Although I think the issue there is really on your university's end, not Creative Assembly's. Sure it's bad for CA, but your beef should be with your university who's filtering your Internet, and going well beyond reasonable bounds at that. Sure I could see if they blocked a few well known xxx sites, or The Pirate Bay, but a university should really keep Internet filtering to a very limited level, ideally not at all. Distracting from yours studies, so what? It's not like there aren't 1,728,323,894,150,324 other Internet sites that also are. If you're going to block something, there better be a good reason, otherwise, keep the free environment a university should have.

The limited bandwidth also kind of blows, although if it's an issue of not having a fast enough connection to handle unlimited, I can see where they're coming from. Still surprising that they don't exempt local university sites, though.

 

If you're referring to the OP then it's not really his schools fault either as he never mentioned they block steam, but that they limit his connection. He did however mentioned he had no shame and apparently no problem with downloading games because he "can't afford to purchase every game that comes out" so I think the the problem primarily lies with the OP(even though that original post has appeared to have been deleted, there is still a quote to it in this thread)

This entire thread is based on Amazing's rant which is faulted in his very first sentence. Someone already mentioned you don't have to download the game because you can buy the retail discs in all it's glory if he wanted to.

 

Internet activation sure is frustrating. My university blocks steam too.

 

That is true. I have a limit on how much I can download, which is not too far from blocking Steam.

 

Guys, I don't want to see any more posts discussing downloading games illegally, it's against the forum rules. Several posts have either been edited or deleted. If it continues, this thread will be closed. Thanks for understanding.

 

No wonder this thread seemed awfully clean of such references...

Really, the only people with a problem with Steam is
a) people with no access to it because of unis etc
b) people with low/restricted bandwidth

to which i answer

a) Blame your unis instead and read the back of the box more carefully
b) Don't download full 15 GB games off steam if that wasn't already obvious...

That said, it'd be nice if Empire can be validated w/o an internet connection but really, Steam is a big plus for a lot of people myself included. Patching is easy and multiplayer is easy.

 

I bought the game expecting online activation, not having the steam client loading every time I play the game.

I don't want to be forced into having it in the background.

People have said to me, "but it helps with updates", well they have always managed to release updates without steam before, just now it seems they can distribute lots of little updates automatically, because the game is totally bug ridden, crashes randomly and is incomplete.

CA have done this all for their own reasons of rushing and making more\saving money.

Steam on it's own might be an alright if it was an option, and they didnt charge the full RRP when you have to use your bandwidth and have no physical media or resale vaule.

These sort of actions only encourage piracy imo.

 

+1
In countries with no drinking age, there aren't half as many alcohol related accidents as the U.S. The more you defend with, the more the opponent is going to attack with.

 

Care to provide a concrete example? I'm not sure if unsupervised drinking is a good analogy to explain the pirating of games using the internet.

 

I live in a country with no real enforced drinking age. Your statement is completely false... there are a number of car accidents alone related to drunk driving.

 

Agreed FULLY.

 

Nope, because I got things to do. I'm not saying unsupervised drinking is good. I'm just saying, the more you restrict something, the more people will try to break the restriction.

Did I say there are no alcohol-related accidents in countries with no drinking age? No - I rest my case.

 

I wouldn't agree with the higher restrictions=more people trying to break the rules analogy either. For some countries and cultures restricting something so heavily to the point of outright bans sometimes convinces the majority that it's not worth trying to break the rule just for kicks or profit since the losses aren't worth the perceived benefits. That's your call though and I'm not going to argue this line any further.

I've looked at the FAQ and all you really need Steam for is to register the game and get updates. It look more like a minor nuisance to me compared to a SecuRom or Starforce protected program which has the potential to completely mess up your hardware in the name of copy protection.