Amazon Takes Aim at Steam With "Core" Game Downloads

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

The box art says games for windows on it..and i dont want GFWL installed at all...Which is a shame since i want the The Witcher badly.

Almost every PC game has that on the box, it doesn't mean that it uses GFWL. Hell, that service probably didn't even exist when the Witcher was released!

Oh so its like the pc/dvd logo then...well i was gonna jump on it but according to various people i know steam usually does a sale for $6 as well on black Friday or Christmas time and i might as well wait for that since it features the directors cut and i already use steam alot. And if not i will just get it for Christmas for $20 bucks anyway.

Yeah, The Witcher does not use GFWL, thankfully. Games for Windows (without the Live part...way to make it confusing) is just a sort of half-assed certification that means it'll run on certain versions of Windows and supports at least a certain minimum number of things they require. And The Witcher does seem to go on sale on Steam a bunch, too. It was $6 in the mid-summer sale, which was the first time I saw it go that low. Before that it was usually ~$13, but I assume it'll generally be $6 in the big sales from now on, since the regular price was dropped, too. If they don't put it on sale soon to promote the sequel, I'd be really surprised if you can't find it in the holiday sale. Great game, by the way, and hooray for the Director's Cut finally being a legitimate US release with all the bonus material and none of the censoring.

 

[Gindil]

Amazon in the digital distribution market?

How is that going to work? There's so much that goes into the digital distribution that my main concern is in Amazon using the channel the wrong way. I doubt they'll understand the core mechanics of providing a service to gamers, merely looking to promote ads or other things to make money.

It's kinda like Walmart's misguided idea that they'll do video game retailing in their stores.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

Impulse tends to have better and more frequent sales than Steam. Even knowing this, if something I want is on sale on Impulse, I usually hold out for Steam to have it on sale, I can't go without Steam's benefits.

That's weird. I don't know if you're in a different region than I am or something, but I just got the latest Impulse email about the current or upcoming or whenever it is sale, and I was thinking how I hardly ever end up buying stuff on there instead of Steam because their sale prices are usually exactly the same or even better on Steam, at least for stuff I want, although I guess now that I think about it you're probably right about the big sales happening more often (as opposed to small/single-game ones like the mid-week/weekend ones Steam usually has). I really want to like them more (because I prefer some of their policies) and for them to do better so there's more competition, but I can't remember the last time I saw something cheaper on Impulse that I either wanted or didn't already have, except for GalCiv2 for $2 (which was an awesome deal; almost makes me want to pick up the Ultimate Edition of the first game since it's only a dollar right now, even though I probably wouldn't play it)...which you can only get on there anyway.

 

[mad825]

The box art says games for windows on it..and i dont want GFWL installed at all...Which is a shame since i want the The Witcher badly.

like you and many others, you are falling for a fake red herring.

"games for windows" only means that its for the Windows Operating system

when it says "games for windows Live" then it's a gfwl (<--no shit) enabled game.

Spoiler: games for windows

Spoiler: games for windows Live

do I need to spell it out now? Does anyone know the difference now? it's not that hard to figure out and not hard to spot the difference.

 

[matrix3509]

-snip-

That just the start, check out the listing for Necrovision, 7.62 High Caliber, and You Are Empty.

There are extra prepositions just lying around everywhere in those descriptions, just like the pigeon engrish the chinese translators use for their knockoffs. Thats not even the worst of it in those descriptions.

 

[ark123]

Hooray more digital distribution crap that is mandatory to install/secretly installs itself on my computer, more layers of useless DRM, more passwords and accounts to juggle, more walls around the game cause god forbid we learn anything from games for windows live.
Clearly, this is what we all have been waiting for.

Brave new gaming world.

And if one more publisher is whining that "pc gaming is dying because piracy", kindly shove a list with all DRM schemes and digital distribution services down his throat and curb stomp that b*tch.
Why does *everything* have to try and phone home nowadays?

Because you can now click a button and it will magically transfer your money over the internet as a pure fucking magic flow of data and allow the game publisher to send back a copy of the game through a data connection anywhere in the entire planet. No need to stand in line when it's five degrees outside. No shortages. No damaged stupid plastic disk when all you want to do is play your game.
How did people become this jaded? Brave new gaming world indeed, sir, and be god damn glad you're in it.

OT: I think the more competition the better for us consumers. Amazon has always had ludicrous prices when they're having sales, so hurray

 

[literallyanythingelse]

US only too

Whaaaa? Are you sure?

Well OK, it doesn't work in the UK, and the Witcher link had something about your billing address requiring a US zip code (whatever that is) so I'd say it's a fair assumption.

 

[samsonguy920]

Well good on Amazon, and though the extra stuff you find on Steam isn't on Amazon right now it doesn't mean it won't be. But one thing Amazon needs to work on is a similar form of DRM they can offer for the games. That will help draw in more publishers and devs alike.

 

[lacktheknack]

Competition eh?
Well. At least it'll keep Steam honest in the long run.

Direct2Drive and even Impulse were already there. Steam is just leaps and bounds better, which is why you never hear of them.

 

[lacktheknack]

The box art says games for windows on it..and i dont want GFWL installed at all...Which is a shame since i want the The Witcher badly.

GFW =/= GFWL.

It's just saying "PC Version". That's all.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Direct2Drive and even Impulse were already there. Steam is just leaps and bounds better, which is why you never hear of them.

Oh, I've used Direct2Drive before. I just prefer Steam more.
It's easy to gift games via Steam. That's the biggest reason I still use it.

 

[Harbinger_]

This isn't going to last long. Amazon is incapable of doing a good job competing with Steam in my opinion. They don't have the drive or initiative to truly bother. The fact that they are restricting this to the United States proves this more than anything.

 

[seekeroftruth86]

I've been seeing some issues with DRM involving downloading games. Is this unique to downloaded games? Don't store-bought games have copy-protection on them as well? I don't really see the problem.

I can see this as a good thing. I'm a loyal Steam user and can see Steam only getting better now that larger online retailers are going this route.

 

[V8 Ninja]

Out of the games that I recognize, I've gotta say that Amazon has pretty good prices. My itch to buy games for extremely cheap is growing...

 

[Crimsane]

Buh. I log in to Steam today and there's a popup about a new feature, recommending games based on past purchases. "Steam will also now help you find games similar to those you play and love." For example, I bought Risen while it was on sale, so Steam recommends the Dragon Knight Saga. Amazon borrows idea from Steam, Steam borrows idea from Amazon.

 

[MadGodXero]

Bah, I'll give it a shot. I just bought "The Witcher" so, now I download and wait.

 

[Wicky_42]

It looks like Amazon's putting the pressure on Steam - will it bust a Valve?

Is this just yet another client running its own DRM and intending to split people's online games collections even further? Eh, Steam does pretty well, tbh - though I'm not gonna knock another sale-tastic competitor in the market. Always good for the customer