Fallout 3 Steam Keys Run Out, Keeps On Selling Anyway - UPDATED

[Andy Chalk]

Fallout 3 Steam Keys Run Out, Keeps On Selling Anyway - UPDATED

A Fallout 3 weekend sale on Steam has caused a kerfuffle, as Steam keys ran out and many people who bought the game can't actually play it.

QuakeCon went down this past weekend, as you may have heard, and as part of the "Woo it's a party!" festivities, Bethesda put the Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition - the one with all the DLC - on sale on Steam for a measly $5. That's a heck of a deal, but something, somewhere seems to have gone wrong: Steam ran out of keys for the game but kept on selling it, meaning that an awful lot of people who bought it can't actually play it.

"We have recently ran out of CD keys for this product," a notice on the Fallout 3 GOTY Steam page warns. "As soon as we receive more from the publisher a key will be granted to new owners."

But there's nothing preventing you from actually purchasing the game, even though you won't be able to play it if you do. A handful of people have reported the issue on the Steam forums [http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=472] but the actual number of affected users is unknown, as is a time-frame for getting keys into the hands of people who didn't get one. It appears on the surface to be a Steam problem but the general consensus is that Bethesda is at fault for not supplying sufficient keys to cover the weekend demand; whatever the case, it's an odd and awkward situation, and one that doesn't shine an entirely flattering light on anyone.

UPDATE: The Steam key truck has pulled into the dock, and Fallout 3 is now back on the shelves.

Source: GamesReviews [http://store.steampowered.com/app/22370/?snr=1_7_15__13]



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[4RM3D]

And here I thought digital content couldn't be sold out, because it's not finite.

Well, only the amount of keys are finite.

 

[MCerberus]

Paperwork, bane of good ideas.
The accountants must be made to suffer for this one.

 

[Irridium]

Probably because Fallout 3 uses GFWL, which uses CD keys for the game and DLC's and stuff. Because even though you bought it, they still want you to prove you bought it, because you could be a dirty no-good pirate.

Man I hate GFWL.

 

[LTK_70]

Old news. the 75% off sale has long since ended and the Quakecon sale has ended just this minute. Besides, big whoop. People have to wait a while for the game with 100+ hours of content that they get delivered right to their computer without having to get up from their seat.

 

[Whoatemysupper]

Old news. the 75% off sale has long since ended and the Quakecon sale has ended just this minute. Besides, big whoop. People have to wait a while for the game with 100+ hours of content that they get delivered right to their computer without having to get up from their seat.

Why hate it? It's probably the least intrusive and least limiting DRM.

 

[SurfKansas]

Why hate it? It's probably the least intrusive and least limiting DRM.

CD Projekt might have an argument with that point.

 

[Elate]

Old news. the 75% off sale has long since ended and the Quakecon sale has ended just this minute. Besides, big whoop. People have to wait a while for the game with 100+ hours of content that they get delivered right to their computer without having to get up from their seat.

Why hate it? It's probably the least intrusive and least limiting DRM.

I think you quoted the wrong person.
I'll assume you're referring to GFWL, and trust me, it's not. Steam is the least limiting and least intrusive. Some games on GFWL won't even let you save unless your logged in, which makes it all the worse when it inevitably fucks up and won't connect, then won't install the update, then won't log in, etc.

I have had so many problems with GFWL, just trying to get games to run, admittedly it has improved, but not by much, it's still unintuitive and intrusive as all hell compared to pretty much any PC DRM I can think of.

 

[LordMonty]

Whatever i'm sure people can wait a few days, as long as they get there game at the price listed.

This is good PR to some degree showing you the demand on the steam service is high and alive, good for both componies as they're raking in the cash and good for everyone who loves the little known RPG Fallout.

 

[Something Amyss]

And here I thought digital content couldn't be sold out, because it's not finite.

Well, only the amount of keys are finite.

This is fairly standard stuff and has been going on periodically for years. I had a similar problem with Batman Arkham City (I think it was AC).

It's an absurd system put into place by control freak content holders who make things more difficult than need be.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Wait, why do you need a CD key on Steam? The only time I've had to use a code is to get my grubby hands on Humble Bundle games, every other game I've bought just goes on to your account or in your inventory as a gift.

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

I'm confused why they didn't preemptively get more codes...

Anyways, the solution would be for Steam to contact Bethesda so they can contact Microsoft for codes so that they can give them to Steam so Steam can hand it over to its users so they can proceed to download the game and give that code back to Microsoft so they can enjoy a game they already purchased.

DRM like this is so inefficient.

 

[themilo504]

Well the game doesn?t seem to work on windows 7 or at least my copy didn?t until I changed some files, so it might not have worked for a lot of people anyway.

 

[NLS]

Wait, why do you need a CD key on Steam? The only time I've had to use a code is to get my grubby hands on Humble Bundle games, every other game I've bought just goes on to your account or in your inventory as a gift.

Fallout 3 uses GFWL.

OT: I don't see this as something THAT terrible though. Hey, I've worked with merchandise retail at live concert events, and it's happened before that a customer has paid me, and as I go to collect the t-shirt, someone else snags the last one. Yes, Steam shouldn't really be able to sell more than they've got, but people get Fallout 3 with all DLC for 5$. I bet you after a few days or weeks everyone will be happily playing their own copy hassle free (excluding GFWL).

Also: Since it's GFWL or some entity at Bethesda that is supplying the keys, how the hell are Steam supposed to know the exact number of keys left? Fallout 3 was published way before every game out there came with Steamworks integrated, so whatever CD-key system they're using, it wasn't made for Steam to begin with. Now that Bethesda has moved over to publish all their new games with Steamworks integrated, they're not gonna bother with backporting whatever old platform was used for Fallout 3 and integrating it with Steam. The problem here is not Steam itself, but an old and abandonded system trying to work with today's digital distribution.

And finally: Customers get a great game for cheap money. If they've managed to not NOT own Fallout 3 until now, they can wait a week or two before the new CD-keys arrive.

EDIT:

Well the game doesn?t seem to work on windows 7 or at least my copy didn?t until I changed some files, so it might not have worked for a lot of people anyway.

Aaaaand it works flawlessly on my Windows 7 machine, and so have many others reported. And you said yourself it worked after changing certain things. Yes it may not work 100% flawlessly for everyone, but people find ways around. And don't forget the game is 5 years old and was released before Windows 7. It even says on the store page:

Notice: Fallout 3 is not optimized for Windows 7

 

[Easton Dark]

You don't need a CD key to play Fallout 3, so... what is the actual issue? The article says steam keys, but the quote says CD.

 

[MCerberus]

Wait, why do you need a CD key on Steam? The only time I've had to use a code is to get my grubby hands on Humble Bundle games, every other game I've bought just goes on to your account or in your inventory as a gift.

Due to legal constraints or oddities in contract law, sometimes you have to buy 'non-native' apps through steam, or the company in question wants to do their own thing that means tracking the codes. The quirk here seems to come from FO3's initial appearance on GFWL (from here on out referred to as "Satan"). Satan demanded CD keys, so it's more of an artifact on the steam side of things.

However, don't yell too much about Steam Keys, as they are often handed out gratis when you direct purchase a game, usually indie, from the dev's website. Steam doesn't get anything except another attraction for the customer to use the service later, you get to use steam for the game if you want to.

edit- short version: It's a curse from a Satanic Artifact.

 

[yatterman1]

i got doom 3 bfg edition from the quakecon sales and only the doom 1 and 2 part work the rest (doom 3 and any dlc parts) does not and still waiting on steam support or Bethesda to reply. not surprised fallout 3 keys no work games old heck its a chore just to get my hard disk copy to load up and hope it does not crash because of freaking windows live.

 

[insanelich]

The tl;dr of what's actually happening:

Steam ran out of unique identifiers. Bethesda needs to make more and give them to Steam, which takes a fair bit of paperwork and a few days of time. In two weeks everyone is able to play and this will be forgotten.

 

[Doom972]

Probably because Fallout 3 uses GFWL, which uses CD keys for the game and DLC's and stuff. Because even though you bought it, they still want you to prove you bought it, because you could be a dirty no-good pirate.

Man I hate GFWL.

Came here to say that. Also: There's a way to remove GFWL from the game, and it doesn't affect the .exe so it should work with the Steam version - http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/1086/? . I recommend it for everyone who can't get their copy to work.

 

[Vigormortis]

You don't need a CD key to play Fallout 3, so... what is the actual issue? The article says steam keys, but the quote says CD.

Unless something has changed very recently, Fallout 3 on PC uses Games For Windows Live. Of which requires it's own system of CD key activations. So, though Valve is very unlikely to have "run out" of serial keys for their own platform, they need a different set of keys from Bethesda for GFWL.

But of course this won't stop people from jumping on the "See?! Steam and Valve are evil!" train.

The wording in the article doesn't help either.