Steam Offers Free Games For ATI Owners

[Andy Chalk]

Steam Offers Free Games For ATI Owners

Steam [http://www.valvesoftware.com]service, and future ATI driver downloads will include the Steam installation software.

According to information gathered through Steam, the vast majority of ATI owners are running out-of-date drivers. The new service will automatically update existing video drivers whenever a new version is released by ATI. Valve has also begun offering ATI owners free copies of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast tech demo, as well as Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, when they create an account on Steam [http://www.steampowered.com/ati_offer1a/].

These most recent moves follow ATI's Radeon HD 2000 series [http://www.steampowered.com/activateATI/] video cards.

While the idea of automating the video driver update process may be appealing to less technically-inclined individuals, some gamers have expressed concerns that updated drivers containing optimizations for new games may break support for older titles. The presence of the Steam software in future driver releases has also raised questions among ATI video card owners who are uninterested in the service.


Permalink

 

[mikecoulter]

That's a strange relationship. But one I plan to exploit one day.

 

[cobrausn]

I don't mind the updating, but bundling steam with ATI video drivers is a bit...

Well, I don't know really. It wouldn't annoy me, as I tend to play exclusively through steam these days, but I could imagine some people getting upset.

Besides, I use Nvidia anyway.

 

[Amnestic]

Nice idea I suppose. Sadly, I'm using NVidia.

On the other hand, I have access to my brother's Steam account which has every Valve game that's currently available with the exception of L4D2.

So no real loss for me.

 

[Drundy]

If Im not rong they give half life 2 and other games for Nvidia users too.

 

[Andy_Panthro]

Why does everything need to be bundled with Steam?

Is Steam going to be the only way to get new ATI drivers?

I don't like the way these things are going. It appears anti-competitive, and will hurt the consumer in the long run.

It is competition between retailers that gives us great deals and sales, and if Steam gets too large a customer base, we may see that competition die. Do we really want a situation like the consoles where you have a single content-delivery platform?

 

[pneuma08]

Isn't this news post from two and a half years ago?

Did they even follow through with this?

 

[AlphaOmega]

The option has existed for both brands for a while, let me find the links.
Free HL2M and HL2: Lost Coast for Both and Portal: First Slice for Nvidia users as well.

Nvidia users: http://www.steampowered.com/nvidia/#
ATI Users: http://www.steampowered.com/ati_offer1a/

Edit: holy bump batman.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

This smells of necromancy.

 

[mezmerizer02]

question ok i bhout an new laptop at chrismas it has ATi radeon HD 4330 graphics does the graphic card have the produckt code?????

check out the post with the link above for the radeon site. no problemo.

 

[chronobreak]

Too bad my ATI X850 can't run any of these games. :/

 

[Flames66]

They will need to tell me how to prevent the updates then. I don't want changes to my computer unless I authorise them.

 

[DarkSaber]

question ok i bhout an new laptop at chrismas it has ATi radeon HD 4330 graphics does the graphic card have the produckt code?????

You are a flaming idiot.