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

[Falterfire]

I'd rather they keep selling at sale price and catch up eventually than stop selling and have people miss the sale. Amazon had Dark Souls at $7.50 during their summer sale but you couldn't even reverse one once they sold out, you just had to wait. I think they did get more before the sale ended, but it was a close run thing.

 

[Roxas1359]

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.

Good thing there is a mod that removes. GFWL.

OT: Glad that I got my game early on then, although I remember one of my friends constantly bellowing about how digital sales are infinite, when obviously in this case the GFWL keys are finite, but then again I love avoiding that terrible online "service" with a passion. Still gonna rub it in his face like a little prick, especially since he gives me crap for playing console games. >

 

[Little Gray]

I'd rather they keep selling at sale price and catch up eventually than stop selling and have people miss the sale. Amazon had Dark Souls at $7.50 during their summer sale but you couldn't even reverse one once they sold out, you just had to wait. I think they did get more before the sale ended, but it was a close run thing.

Thats because its illegal to keep selling the game if they dont have the cd keys. They can get in a whole lot of shit because of it. While they eventually put up a message saying they were out of keys that did not happen right away. Steam actually committed fraud for every single sale they made after they ran out of keys but before they updated the page.

 

[DataSnake]

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.

Depending on their algorithm for generating keys, it may require a fair bit of reprogramming. Let me sum up:
Let's take a hypothetical product whose CD key is a 10-character hexadecimal string[footnote]I don't know if that's the format for Fallout 3's keys or not, this is just an example[/footnote] (like 13CE454ACE). There are 16^9*15, or 1,030,792,151,040 possible keys (I'm assuming a key can't start with 0, because that would make the rest of these calculations much harder than they need to be). That's more than there are people in the world, so we should be all set, right? Wrong. If every possible key was valid, someone with a bootleg copy could just make one up and play, defeating the entire purpose. Now, remember that CD keys as a form of copy protection predate the internet, so there must be a way for the program itself to test if the key it was given is valid rather than asking a remote server, which means every key must have a common element. As a simple example, let's say each valid key, treated as a number, must be a multiple of some constant, such as DEADBEEF (that's 3,735,928,559 in decimal). Now the smallest factor to yield a 25-digit string is 13 (that's 19 in decimal) and the largest is 126 (that's 294 in decimal). That gives us only 275 possible keys, so the 276th buyer will be in a bit of trouble. Obviously, the algorithm used to generate CD keys in a real-world program would be much more complex and have many more possible codes, but the point is that it's still a finite amount and once that's exceeded it will be rather tricky to compensate. The simplest method is to alter the checking algorithm so that it accepts more keys while still recognizing ones generated by the old method (in our example, it could be modified to accept any key that's either a multiple of DEADBEEF or 12345678, more than doubling the number of possible keys). Of course, making even the slightest change to a program as nightmarishly complex as a AAA game will require a massive amount of testing to make sure they haven't accidentally broken anything else, so it could be a while before this gets sorted out.

 

[Ukomba]

Another demonstration of the success of a Steam sale. I really wish other publishers like EA's Origins would get the message all ready.

 

[Agente L]

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.

All steam games need cd keys. When you buy from the steam store, steam simply adds the key to your account instantly.

 

[Elberik]

Fallout 3 Steam Keys Run Out, Keeps On Selling Anyway

It appears on the surface to be a Steam problem but the general consensus is that Bethesda is at fault



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It seems that the responsibility should go to Steam. I find it unlikely that they were unaware they had a finite number of keys. Even if they get more asap they still took people's money under false pretenses.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Lot of people seem to be letting Valve off the hook for this problem. I wonder if they would be showing any leniency to Origin if the same thing happened over there.

Note: I'm not saying Valve is a failure for not seeing this coming. But to continue to sell the game after you run out of keys to actually allow the game to be played seems a bit...problematic.

 

[gigastar]

It seems that the responsibility should go to Steam. I find it unlikely that they were unaware they had a finite number of keys. Even if they get more asap they still took people's money under false pretenses.

I doubt its a case of not knowing of the limited number of keys, rather a case of not anticipating the apparent sellout.

And what false pretense is there?

Theese people still own the game, and will be issued the CD keys when Bethesda wake up to what happened. Its just a minor delay, kin to a traffic jam or a train breaking down on the way home.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

This isn't the first time it has happened on Steam. Prey ran out of keys back when it was being sold for $2.50 USD back during the 2009/10 Holiday Sale. The store page was removed, and... it's yet to come back.

Seeing how Beth now owns Human Head, chances are that Fallout 3 might not actually be resolved :/

 

[w00tage]

I did not have to enter my CD key when I bought it a few weeks ago off Steam. It just worked. And Steam does not have to run when playing it. Couldn't tell you why, but I'm happy with the situation.

 

[hoockhand]

Looks like they have more keys.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/22370/

I did not have to enter my CD key when I bought it a few weeks ago off Steam. It just worked. And Steam does not have to run when playing it. Couldn't tell you why, but I'm happy with the situation.

That is because they game does not require steam OR a key to run. only GFWL needs the key(s)all you need to do if you cannot run the game through steam is to run the "fallout.exe" or w/e its called, and not the launcher.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I feel sorry for these people. Not only do they have to wait for their digital game to become available but anyone on Win7 running more than a single core (which is probably most gamers these days) are gonna have a frustrating time trying to get it to work.

 

[piinyouri]

I kind of figured they'd get one to me sooner or later. I saw no need to fly off the handle into gamer hysteria land.

I paid 5 bucks for ALL of Fallout 3 and it's extra goodies, and only had to wait one extra day.

I'm absolutely ecstatic.

 

[Icehearted]

I feel sorry for these people. Not only do they have to wait for their digital game to become available but anyone on Win7 running more than a single core (which is probably most gamers these days) are gonna have a frustrating time trying to get it to work.

I'm not sure about that part of your commenting on cores and such, but as for waiting, i remember this happened when BioShock came out for the PC. It's why I'm leery of Steam, GFWL, anything that uses a check-in or other DRM, digital or not. Hell, I installed Mirror's Edge on my laptop when I moved to a new state and even with a code I was unable to play the game without checking in, so I had to "wait" until I could find a place with free wifi before I could play a game I had the physical copy for.

This is why I hope someday companies like GOG will inherit the industry.

 

[ryessknight]

Ugh i hate steam. Its so fucking annoying to use, charges tax for some damn reason and doesnt optimize older games like gog does. Its also a resource hog. Oh and doesnt even bother to tell you if your pc can even run there shit before you waste cash on it or at any time at all. This key bullshit just adds to the pile.

 

[MorphingDragon]

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.

Depending on their algorithm for generating keys, it may require a fair bit of reprogramming. Let me sum up:
Let's take a hypothetical product whose CD key is a 10-character hexadecimal string[footnote]I don't know if that's the format for Fallout 3's keys or not, this is just an example[/footnote] (like 13CE454ACE). There are 16^9*15, or 1,030,792,151,040 possible keys (I'm assuming a key can't start with 0, because that would make the rest of these calculations much harder than they need to be). That's more than there are people in the world, so we should be all set, right? Wrong. If every possible key was valid, someone with a bootleg copy could just make one up and play, defeating the entire purpose. Now, remember that CD keys as a form of copy protection predate the internet, so there must be a way for the program itself to test if the key it was given is valid rather than asking a remote server, which means every key must have a common element. As a simple example, let's say each valid key, treated as a number, must be a multiple of some constant, such as DEADBEEF (that's 3,735,928,559 in decimal). Now the smallest factor to yield a 25-digit string is 13 (that's 19 in decimal) and the largest is 126 (that's 294 in decimal). That gives us only 275 possible keys, so the 276th buyer will be in a bit of trouble. Obviously, the algorithm used to generate CD keys in a real-world program would be much more complex and have many more possible codes, but the point is that it's still a finite amount and once that's exceeded it will be rather tricky to compensate. The simplest method is to alter the checking algorithm so that it accepts more keys while still recognizing ones generated by the old method (in our example, it could be modified to accept any key that's either a multiple of DEADBEEF or 12345678, more than doubling the number of possible keys). Of course, making even the slightest change to a program as nightmarishly complex as a AAA game will require a massive amount of testing to make sure they haven't accidentally broken anything else, so it could be a while before this gets sorted out.

The limitation isn't algorithmic. Steam did not own enough keys to sell, it is the same as a store taking back-orders.

 

[Headsprouter]

I feel sorry for these people. Not only do they have to wait for their digital game to become available but anyone on Win7 running more than a single core (which is probably most gamers these days) are gonna have a frustrating time trying to get it to work.

Eh, having a few cores isn't that bad, the annoying part is Games for Windows butting in every so often. I reduced the amount of cores the game was permitted to use and that was literally all I needed to do to stop the game from crashing. I bought this game for PC last year and it spent ages asking for product keys...you know, if I was to boot it up, now, it'd probably ask for it again. Wierd.

 

[michael87cn]

Pretty sure this happened because no one expected a game from 2008 to sell so much.

Can't believe people have waited 5 years for this to get this cheap!

 

[Amir Kondori]

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

Well, only the amount of keys are finite.

No, they are effectively infinite (as in more can be generated then would ever be sold) but the company doesn't allow Valve to generate keys, they generate the keys and send them to Valve. They didn't send enough to Valve to cover the demand that erupted b/c of the quakecon sale.

No big in any case, I am sure this will get sorted out within 1 or 2 days at most.