I think you need to read my post again. I said Steam cost more, but would let me get the game within a few hours, while Amazon offered cheaper games. Also because I import from England I don't have to pay VAT so that reduces the price with 20%.bahumat42 said:dunno about twice sure iv seen certain new titles 5 or 10 quid more than they are on amazon, but accross the board its fairly even, and with sales to take into account (which any1 sensible waits for) it does end up cost effective.Yopaz said:I recognize myself in this. If I am going to pirate a game I am at risk of getting a virus when using the crack, spyware when entering the site to download and I risk losing internet privileges for a month on my first warning for it.
I can purchase my games from Amazon.co.uk and I get awesome prices, free shipping and the games will be here in a week.
I can get my games from Steam and I will pay almost twice what I pay on Amazon, but most games will be downloaded within 3 hours since I get 10mb/s on a good day. I also don't need to bother with discs or registering product codes. It's convenient, but not my cheapest option, yet I pick that option all the time.
(which when added to the massive savings i get by not being a console user makes me very happy.)
Even with VAT games are often really cheap on Amazon compared to Steam, though I must admit I don't know how the prices on Steam are if you're from the UK. However take Batman Arkham City, on Steam it costs 50 euro or 42 quid, on Amazon it costs 25 quid, though with the sweet pre-order deal I only had to pay 40 (34) for it.bahumat42 said:Sorry for assuming you were from the ukYopaz said:I think you need to read my post again. I said Steam cost more, but would let me get the game within a few hours, while Amazon offered cheaper games. Also because I import from England I don't have to pay VAT so that reduces the price with 20%.bahumat42 said:dunno about twice sure iv seen certain new titles 5 or 10 quid more than they are on amazon, but accross the board its fairly even, and with sales to take into account (which any1 sensible waits for) it does end up cost effective.Yopaz said:I recognize myself in this. If I am going to pirate a game I am at risk of getting a virus when using the crack, spyware when entering the site to download and I risk losing internet privileges for a month on my first warning for it.
I can purchase my games from Amazon.co.uk and I get awesome prices, free shipping and the games will be here in a week.
I can get my games from Steam and I will pay almost twice what I pay on Amazon, but most games will be downloaded within 3 hours since I get 10mb/s on a good day. I also don't need to bother with discs or registering product codes. It's convenient, but not my cheapest option, yet I pick that option all the time.
(which when added to the massive savings i get by not being a console user makes me very happy.)
Cheaper, but I prefer not dealing with discs, I know Amazon offers digital copies, but I like my games gathered in a Steam library.
my heads not screwed on right today i swear.
Front page of this site reads "New details on Half Life 3" this is not April 1st and that was not funny!Greg Tito said:Valve's Gabe Newell Says Piracy Is a Service Problem
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In a wide-ranging interview, Gabe Newell dishes about Steam, piracy and Half-Life 3.
The CEO and cofounder of Valve is never short on opinions. As the creator of some of the most beloved games titles (Team Fortress 2, Portal, Half-Life) and owner of the most pervasive online gaming portal for the PC platform, Gabe Newell has earned the right to express them. In an interview for the University of Cambridge's school newspaper, Newell said that the way to end piracy is to provide a service that's more complete than cracked software, and that restrictive DRM only encourages more piracy.
"We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem," he said. "If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."
The proof is in the proverbial pudding. "Prior to entering the Russian market, we were told that Russia was a waste of time because everyone would pirate our products. Russia is now about to become [Steam's] largest market in Europe," Newell said.
The purpose of Steam is to provide as much value not only to the customer but also to other game publishers. "Our success comes from making sure that both customers and partners (e.g. Activision, Take 2, Ubisoft...) feel like they get a lot of value from those services, and that they can trust us not to take advantage of the relationship that we have with them."
While Newell offered candid observations on the risks of releasing Portal and the support Valve has provided with 150 updates to TF2 since 2007, he was not so loquacious when it came to questions about long-delayed Episode 3 of Half-Life 2. When asked whether it was a mistake to release episodic content for HL2, he merely said, "Not yet."
Oh, and Gabe? When is Half-Life 3 coming out?
"I don't know," he said.
Source: The Cambridge Student [http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/story_type/site_trail_story/interview-gabe-newell/]
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