Fallout: New Vegas Switches to Steam

[grimsprice]

If I had a choice between GfWL and Steamworks, I'll pick Steamworks any day of the week.

And several days of the week that don't exist. Like frooseday.

 

[DaxStrife]

Shweet!
I can't tell you how much I hate "Games for Windows Live," and I already have Steam so this is like a double-win for me. I'll probably still buy the boxed collector's edition and just use the disc for faster installs.

 

[Irridium]

Jeez, is this going to be like Civ 5?

Actually...All Sega games are being released exclusively on Steam. Total War, Alien Vs Predator and Football Manager. Civilization 5 is also shipping with Steamworks. F.E.A.R. 2 also.
It's already a big slice of the PC community.

Which is something I don't like. There needs to be some competition. More competition = better for consumers.

Is there actually any proof that it is bad for consumers? I'm not trying to say otherwise, but this seems like a mantra many people spout without thought about steam, and so far it hasn't actually come true. I have never known a person who hated steam after a couple of months of using it. Does anyone actually have evidence that a strong monopoly is bad for a market, or is it all just the old and doctored teachings of a flawed capital education?

Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it never will happen. Things change, sometimes really fast. Especially in the gaming industry.

Microsoft used to be in the same position as Valve. Microsoft was new, well loved, and everywhere. Now look at where they are.

The same thing could happen to Valve.

Monopolies don't exist now (at least in the U.S.) because the government made them illegal. And they did so for good reason.

And besides, whats wrong with having choices?

 

[Arachon]

Is there actually any proof that it is bad for consumers? I'm not trying to say otherwise, but this seems like a mantra many people spout without thought about steam, and so far it hasn't actually come true. I have never known a person who hated steam after a couple of months of using it. Does anyone actually have evidence that a strong monopoly is bad for a market, or is it all just the old and doctored teachings of a flawed capital education?

Take a look at Adobe, they are practically the only company offering tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects, look at what this software costs, no competition means that the company can keep raising the prices, since there is no alternative. For another example, take a look at Autodesk, they own a majority of all well-known 3D programs (3DSMax, Maya, Softimage), and once again, take a look at the prices of those programs.

 

[feather240]

They say it will have no effect on mods, but what about Fallout Mod Manager? It acts as a seperate program and a launcher for Fallout, and, currently, opens my steam copy of fallout without opening steam. I'm assuming steam is going to have to block that in some way...

Could you connect the Mod Manager to a short-cut for Fallout New Vegas and then use the add a game feature to put the Mod Manager in your library? I know the second part works, but I'm not sure about the beginning.

 

[Martster]

One more for the massive Steam collection I have

I suppose its better like this for the majority, but I wouldn't have minded if they had gone with GFWL as unlike most I have never has any problems with the service and like being able to carry my 360 Gamercard across to my PC games.

Anyway Steam is a great platform choice and I'm not fussed either way about this. As long as the game keeps looking as good as it does right now then I'm ready for a day one purchase.

Good question now though is, are most of you going to purchase/download the game using the steam store or go for a retail/collectors copy?

 

[feather240]

One more for the massive Steam collection I have

I suppose its better like this for the majority, but I wouldn't have minded if they had gone with GFWL as unlike most I have never has any problems with the service and like being able to carry my 360 Gamercard across to my PC games.

Anyway Steam is a great platform choice and I'm not fussed either way about this. As long as the game keeps looking as good as it does right now then I'm ready for a day one purchase.

Good question now though is, are most of you going to purchase/download the game using the steam store or go for a retail/collectors copy?

Retail, my connection meanders around 90kbs. (You could make a thread and poll for this too, heck you could link to this article.)

 

[Fr]anc[is]

you can turn off autopatching by rightclicking on the title in your library, hitting properties, going to the 'updates' tab, and switching the box below "Automatic Updates" from "Always keep this game up to date" to "Do not automatically update this game".

That's the one reason I kinda like Impulse more, because it tells you you have an update available for a game and you have to tell it to update- kept a bunch of mods working for SOaSE because of that.

Most of my games are on steam, though.

Huh, good to know, thanks. And yes, impulse > steam

 

[quack35]

Oh well. I bought Fallout 3 off of Steam anyway, most likely I'll do the same here.

 

[Yureina]

Yay! To hell with GFWL! ^_^

 

[Danpascooch]

"However you can install the game on as many systems as you want (with no restrictions!), and you do not have to be online to play the game after your initial activation. Not only that, but once the game has activated on Steam, you can throw out the game DVD entirely and just download the game over Steam."


"This will have no affect on mod development whatsoever,"

I dare anyone to complain about this.

Seriously, the only noticeable differences are a slightly longer install (who cares?), and the ability to no longer need the disc (which often gets scratched or lost!). The fact that it can be installed on multiple systems is a plus too! Because with just a disc, two systems couldn't use it simultaneously.

This is only a good thing.

 

[Danpascooch]

Is there actually any proof that it is bad for consumers? I'm not trying to say otherwise, but this seems like a mantra many people spout without thought about steam, and so far it hasn't actually come true. I have never known a person who hated steam after a couple of months of using it. Does anyone actually have evidence that a strong monopoly is bad for a market, or is it all just the old and doctored teachings of a flawed capital education?

Take a look at Adobe, they are practically the only company offering tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects, look at what this software costs, no competition means that the company can keep raising the prices, since there is no alternative. For another example, take a look at Autodesk, they own a majority of all well-known 3D programs (3DSMax, Maya, Softimage), and once again, take a look at the prices of those programs.

Sure, but I still don't see how that means Steam is bad for the market, as long as console games and piracy are around, they aren't going to try to raise prices (else they would push people to console games and piracy), plus, the developers could always leave Steam if they did that.

There's enough checks and balances to keep Steam in check

 

[Danpascooch]

Jeez, is this going to be like Civ 5?

Actually...All Sega games are being released exclusively on Steam. Total War, Alien Vs Predator and Football Manager. Civilization 5 is also shipping with Steamworks. F.E.A.R. 2 also.
It's already a big slice of the PC community.

Which is something I don't like. There needs to be some competition. More competition = better for consumers.

Is there actually any proof that it is bad for consumers? I'm not trying to say otherwise, but this seems like a mantra many people spout without thought about steam, and so far it hasn't actually come true. I have never known a person who hated steam after a couple of months of using it. Does anyone actually have evidence that a strong monopoly is bad for a market, or is it all just the old and doctored teachings of a flawed capital education?

Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it never will happen. Things change, sometimes really fast. Especially in the gaming industry.

Microsoft used to be in the same position as Valve. Microsoft was new, well loved, and everywhere. Now look at where they are.

The same thing could happen to Valve.

Monopolies don't exist now (at least in the U.S.) because the government made them illegal. And they did so for good reason.

And besides, whats wrong with having choices?

I still don't see how that means Steam is bad for the market, as long as console games and piracy are around, they aren't going to try to raise prices (else they would push people to console games and piracy), plus, the developers could always leave Steam if they did that.

There's enough checks and balances to keep Steam in check.

Plus, you say "what's wrong with choices?" The fact is there IS choice, Steam is just popular because tons of people choose it.

 

[Danpascooch]

Required phone home online activation for single player game? No thank you. Steam is still DRM no matter how you slice it.

You realize the whole point of this exercise is to destroy the ability of consumers to resell/lend/rent games right?

Actually with Steam you can give a friend your Username and Password, and have them download the game onto their system, at which point they can play it offline whenever they want.

If anything Steam makes it safe and easy to lend MULTIPLE COPIES of your games to friends.

 

[Danpascooch]

Fuck that shit. After the whole download the fucking game shit with Metro 2033 I WILL NOT be buying this game.

Fuck Steam.

You don't have to download the game, if you buy the disc, it installs from there.

 

[Danpascooch]

Whilst I do see this argument, PC gamers without Steam are likely becoming a minority. Half-Life 2, Portal, TF2, MW2, L4D... The list goes on.

All but MW2 are Valve games, and since Valve owns Steam... yeah.

But I do see where your going with this, and I agree. There seems to be less and less PC games where you just put in the disk, put in the disk code, and play. And it makes me a sad panda.

Well, I still don't quite like being forced to use a system and have to activate it online, its still a lot better than Games for Windows Live.

After having to deal with it cripple the game's performance, not to mention it being awful in terms of distributing the DLC, I'll take anything but GFWL.

Still though. I'm against forcing consumers to use a platform they have no interest in using, whether or not its Steam or GFWL.

Glad to see it won't impact modding in a negative way.

Steam's really rather nice. I'd say give it a shot before you go ZOMG RAEG.

Valve have been huge proponents of modding, HL and HL2 were built with massive support for it, and Counter-Strike even began as a mod for the original Half-Life, which Valve (wisely) purchased and made into a for-sale product. I'm not as sure about the original Team Fortress, but suffice it to say Team Fortress 2 has been a juggernaut, and the original was a free-to-play mod as well.

But then, Valve also throw their SDKs at people willingly.

I've had Steam ever since Half Life 2 was released. So... 5 or 6 years I've used Steam. I have most certainly given it a shot, and I have become familiar with all its pro's, con's, and everything else. I know all about Counter Strike, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Portal, and how they basically started out as mods. Well except Portal, which was a project by students but was picked up by Valve because Valve thought it was awesome.

And while I love Steam, I hate having to be forced to use it. I'd prefer if companies go the Unreal Tournament 3 route. Which you could either install it the old fashioned way, put in the disk and disk key and play, or install it through Steam.

It gave the user a choice, and I wish more games would do that.

Not everyone loves Steam, and not everyone wants to use it. For some they don't care for it at all, and just want to play their games. For others like me, our internet is bad and Steam is just another internet hog. Ever try to use Steam on a 50kb/s connection? Its just pure ass on computers with bad connections.

After 5-6 years with Steam, and after going through all its in and outs, good and bad times, and everything in between, I'll rage whenever I feel like.

I get what you're saying, it sucks that company's feel they need to use DRM, but once they've decided "we are going to use some form of DRM" (as most all certainly do) wouldn't you rather they use Steam?

 

[Irridium]

Jeez, is this going to be like Civ 5?

Actually...All Sega games are being released exclusively on Steam. Total War, Alien Vs Predator and Football Manager. Civilization 5 is also shipping with Steamworks. F.E.A.R. 2 also.
It's already a big slice of the PC community.

Which is something I don't like. There needs to be some competition. More competition = better for consumers.

Is there actually any proof that it is bad for consumers? I'm not trying to say otherwise, but this seems like a mantra many people spout without thought about steam, and so far it hasn't actually come true. I have never known a person who hated steam after a couple of months of using it. Does anyone actually have evidence that a strong monopoly is bad for a market, or is it all just the old and doctored teachings of a flawed capital education?

Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it never will happen. Things change, sometimes really fast. Especially in the gaming industry.

Microsoft used to be in the same position as Valve. Microsoft was new, well loved, and everywhere. Now look at where they are.

The same thing could happen to Valve.

Monopolies don't exist now (at least in the U.S.) because the government made them illegal. And they did so for good reason.

And besides, whats wrong with having choices?

I still don't see how that means Steam is bad for the market, as long as console games and piracy are around, they aren't going to try to raise prices (else they would push people to console games and piracy), plus, the developers could always leave Steam if they did that.

There's enough checks and balances to keep Steam in check.

Plus, you say "what's wrong with choices?" The fact is there IS choice, Steam is just popular because tons of people choose it.

Steam is not bad for the market. But when its the only one in the market, thats when things get bad. Competition can only be a good thing. It pushes for innovation, it pushes each party to do better. I want more competition because only good will come of it.

Yes, Steam is great now, but what will happen when Valve's leadership is replaced with one thats not so gamer-friendly. I doubt we'll see and immediate drastic changes, but I would not be surprised if things gradually and slowly take a turn for the worst.

And people "choose" to put up with Steam because the other choice is usually to not play the game they want to play. They don't really have a choice. The way games are going, its either deal with Steam, or don't play that game you've been waiting for. Like with Civilization. It has a very dedicated fanbase, most of it probably doesn't care much for Steam and would rather not use it. After it was announced that it would use Steam, the fanbase had a choice of putting up with something they wanted no part of, at all. Or just not buying a game that they've been waiting five years for thats a new part of the franchise they love.

 

[Irridium]

I get what you're saying, it sucks that company's feel they need to use DRM, but once they've decided "we are going to use some form of DRM" (as most all certainly do) wouldn't you rather they use Steam?

Yes, I would. In fact I've said before that I believe Steam is preventing PC gaming from falling any more than it has.

But I really don't want to get into a DRM debate. They're long, complicated, and just something I really don't feel like getting into right now.