Companies die. Steam will eventually be shut down. This if fact. When I pay for something, I expect a physical copy, and not dependence on the company. I've had too many great games outlive the producing company, and if Steam ever dies before I'm done with the game, I can always crack the game to run without it. Even if it's not likely, it's the principal of the matter. Oh, and I'm also on dialup.
*Sighs* You get, Portal Team Fortress 2, Half-Life: Episode Two Half-Life 2 Half-Life 2: Episode One. Thats 5 games, three of them are new. Thats 3 new games for £25 pounds, as I said. Which even if they are only 1/3rd of a full game each, is still a full game for £5-10 less than the average price. It's almost as if people are leaping to conclusions without reading what has been posted.
I know exactly what is posted. Valve claims that TF2 and Portal are free. Charging a higher price on the product proves this to be false. Either way, I do not want TF2 or Portal. TF2 is a piece of shit and Portal doesn't interest me. I want HL2 Ep2, thats it. I paid $20 for HL2 Ep1, I am only going to pay $20 for HL2 Ep2.
Can I get a quote for the free part of pricing of Portal and TF2? I can't remember ever thinking that these two games would be free. Even as of last august they said it would cost more http://digitalbattle.com/2006/08/24/hl2-episode-2-delayed-until-2007/
Press releases on TF2 stated it was to be a free release as part of HL2 Ep2 rather then a purchased release. Meaning its addition to HL2 Ep2 should not affect its price.
Really? Because reading the release I find a odd lack of them saying that it would be free, http://kotaku.com/gaming/team-fortress-2/the-incredible-team-fortress-2-press-release-187700.php Unless you know of an older one?
No, they said they were going to be included with Episode II. Included != free. edit: and you can backup any game you've bought.
[cg].... you're serious? Are you one of those fucking customers who holds up the checkout line in a store while writing a check? :rage: :rage: :rage: :rage: [/cg]
There is also the ability according to Wikipedia to purchase games by wire transfer, but I would have no idea how you would do that.
Don't you need a Cheque Guarantee Card in order to write a cheque in the US? In most cases a Cheque Guarantee Card is built into debit card.
No. Just two forms of identification. Earlier post saying what I said was incorrect is incorrect. What ever happened to the Valve of a few years ago? You know, when they released Team Fortress Classic without bundling it and trying to pass it as "free"? Or would give other goodies? basically TF2 and Portal, had these been made 5 years ago would have been free. But now they are being passed as "free" by bundling them with Episode 2 which requires me to pay $30 more for that Episode 1 because they are including HL2 and Episode 1 in an "Orange Box." I'd like a hard copy of the game. I do not see why I cannot have a hard copy. Then I put the key into Steam and if I ever loose my copy, maybe pay a couple bucks to get one off of Steam. Or they could be good at customer relations and allow the download as a backup if I ever lost my hard copy and the copy on my hard drive as long as I remembered my Steam account information. Really what Valve is doing comes down to customer relations. Myself and many others still want hard copies of games. Steam is a service and like many services, many online services, they change. Or they go under. I'd like a hard copy to reassure myself. It's like the government and money. The government just doesn't print money unless it can back it up. What guarantee do we have Steam will always be available?
You can have a hard copy. There's this little button on steam that's labled "make backup copy." Then you plop in a DVD and blammo. Hard copy.
They're not passing it off as free as they never said it was free. That's bullshit. TFC was released for free for a reason:
The point is that if I am paying the same for a game over Steam but have to make a copy myself, that is bull. If the Steam downloads were cheaper than a hard copy I bought in the store I wouldn't mind. If it costs Valve $10 to distribute a copy of their games to a game store, then the game store charges $50, okay. But if Valve charges me $50 to download a game, the same I could get in store for a hard copy, then puts that burden on me, it is bullshit. If Valve were to discount the games it sells on Steam I would not have a problem (since all revenue goes to them and isn't split with a game store, even at a discount they'd still make more, it is win-win for them). Thantos: I never said they were claiming it to be free. I am saying they are trying to pass it off as "free". Note the *quotation marks*. They are trying to pass it as "free" by bundling it with Episode 2 but then bundling that into an "Orange Box" and charging the price a full game would command, NOT an expansion pack. Even though we all already own Half Life 2 and Ep 1. And second, please read what I wrote and do not take it out of context. I said if TF2 and Portal were made 5 years ago it would have been free. Now Valve, drunk off of its success wants to charge for the games. This is about *customer relations* here. If Valve wanted to stay true to what its roots were, making great games, it would give these two games away as free. They have enough money. It would produce a lot of good feelings towards Valve and produce *loyal customers* to buy Valve software in the future. I am not contesting the fact Valve has the right to sell these two things if they want, I am saying if they wanted to build a more loyal fan base and a stronger fan base they would release the Portal and TF2 games as free. And TFC being released as free years ago was to build excitment for the original TF2 that was never made. Only recently did we learn TF2 was going to be this cartoony game and not the game that was displayed in the videos made a few years back. TF2 basically is an updated version of TFC and in the spirit of TFC and in the spirit of building a loyal and strong fan base and loyal customer, I think they should release TF2 for free as a standalone. Then I can buy Ep2 for $20 or whatever Ep1 cost, then I can download Portal and TF2 if I so desire. It doesn't hurt Valve. It helps them because it would show to me that they value me as a customer and are willing to provide some things for free. And frankly I am getting tired of the stuff that started as free but because of its success now costs money. DoD is the main example. Now it is happening to Team Fortress. Valve has seen the $$$$$$$$$ and now they want more $$$$$$$$$ and people will go blindly to them and keep giving them $$$$, $$$$, $$$$, and more $$$$$$$$$$.
Isn't that the situation? I'm pretty sure the blackbox on steam will be cheaper than the orange box in retail.
That's actually the whole point of this maneuver. The largest market segment for ep2 is probably people who already own HL2 and ep1, and Valve wants to push them to use Steam because historically they've been hurt by retailers who undercut Steam's prices. Yeah it sucks for the portion of that market who just hate Steam, but since developers like Valve see such a small cut of retail sales anyway they've decided it's worth it to lose those customers to gain those who will switch. I think it's a good move for everyone because digital distribution is, in the long run, a fantastic thing. Not only does it get more money to developers, it decreases the retailers' influence over what games are made.
Which will eventualy degrade. CDR/DVDR degrade over time. Whats more, I will not download a game. You see, I like to play a game shortly after I buy it, not wait ages and ages to download.
A normal CD or DVD will degrade as well. It just takes a while longer. How's waiting to play while it's downloading any different from waiting to play while you're driving home from the store? Or waiting for the game to be delivered after ordering it online?
Can't you just go do something else while it downloads? Also if you want to keep it that long, you could go get it put on a real CD or DVD in certain places.
The difference between the two such that industrial CDs created 20 years ago are still good while CDRs can and do degrade within 5 years. 10 minutes with the store vs 10 hours for the download. And with such a download, I loose bandwidth for other things.
So yeah, guys, I hear that they're raising the cost for HL2 Episode 2 to five hundred and ninety nine US dollars. And they'll have Giant Enemy Crabs too. Seriously, from the way some people in this thread are talking, you'd think that they were forcing you to buy a PS3 for every copy of HL2 you wanted.
