Valve to Vivendi: Bite me.

[Samwise]

In response to Vivendi's attempts to wrangle more retail sales and fewer Steam purchases for Half-Life 2, Valve has announced the Steam purchasing options, and a few very attractive incentives to buy over Steam instead of buying Vivendi's boxes, including getting to play CS:Source right away.

http://www.hlfallout.net/viewnews.php/7470/

From this point on, every day that Vivendi delays HL2 in an attempt to get a better deal is another batch of customers that slip through their fingers because they'd rather get CS:Source right now than wait for them to get their act together.

Owned.

[Merusk]

The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

Very crafty move on Valve's part. Nicely puts Vivendi in a hard spot as well as using some of their fears against them.

As mentioned elsewhere, though, I'd rather just wait a while and get the fucking DVD. I'm not a fan of DLing my software.  Plus I haven't ever had the problem of 'losing' my CDs that others seem to have had.  I imagine the less tradition-bound folks will eat it up.

[Samwise]

For HL2, it's only a $5 difference between the Steam version and the box version, but I'm betting that difference will increase over time.

I suspect that given all the overhead of packaging and distribution, Vivendi's cut is more than $5 per box, which means Valve isn't passing all their savings on to the customer.  More power to them, but once other companies catch on and start doing the same thing, and more and more customers get broadband, competitive pricing will force that gap to widen.

Personally, I can't wait.  Vivendi today, the RIAA tomorrow.

[Neph]

Just start pre-loading HL2 now, saves the headache of getting it over steam that day. :)

I was a bit pissed over the collectors edition when it was announced, seemed like a waste of fucking money since nothing was really collectiable. This gold package though... AWESOME x 10.

[Shockeye]

According to Halflife2.net the ATI voucher will be good for the Bronze Steam package and you will be able to upgrade to Silver or Gold for more moolah.

[SurfD]

Damn, dems some hard choices.

On one hand, the Gold Steam package looks really, really sweet.  I mean, you cant go wrong with every fucking game valve currently makes, plus a butload of goodies. It is likely to cost me an arm and a leg in Canadian dollars though (fucking ATi, no HL2 voucher with my AIW-Radeon 9800 pro, I got Morrowwind instead)

On the other hand, the Collectors edition (while still costing me an arm and a leg) gives me a DVD (yay for easy installation on my friends PC if i want to play there).  Also, being an owner of the HL1-Game-of-the-year edition, I already have access to their entire back library on steam (with the exception of origional CS, which I dont play anyhow and becomes redundant with CS:Source)

I fucking hate having to make decisions like that.

[Rodent]

I'm thinking it will have to be the collectors edition for me, digital distribution is all fine an dandy but I want something I can hold in my hands. Looks like the only thing I will be missing out on is DoD but I've only played it once and never looked back anyway.

[ahoythematey]

Well, aside from Single-player HL2, DoD:Source is my true primary interest in a Half-Life 2 purchase, and until it's available for download I think I can manage without.

[AOFanboi]

Our good friends over at Penny Arcade have also commented on it:

Digital delivery, man. It just freaks these people out.

Imagine that you had to go to a well every time you wanted water. Then, somebody figured out a way to get the water to come out right inside your house! I don't blame them for being scared. Progress is a bitch.

A nice analogy. The company responsible for selling the buckets you carry well water in would definitely object to tap water in homes.

(Notice my 1337 linking skills above, where I link to the persistent archive article instead of the fickle front page people post to when they are not thinking properly. Watch and learn, young padawan.)

[Sky]

No cheap DVD version? WTF.

[HaemishM]

Fuck Vivendi and fuck retail. The Silver package looks like it has all I need, should I actually believe my computer will play HL2. I liked PA's take on it... progress is indeed a bitch, especially when you do everything you can to hold up that progress for the sake of short term profits.

[Zetleft]

Although a nice idea I wasn't planning on buying over stream, that was before the asstardery from VUG.   Now I have the preload done and am eyeing the silver package at least.

[Bunk]

No cheap DVD version? WTF.

Agreed.  I don't want all the frills, I'm not in to multi player shooters.  I want the single player game on one fucking disk, and thats it.  Is that too much to ask?

[Evil Elvis]

I can download 5 gigs in 1/2 a day on a good connection, and dvd-r's cost under a buck a piece.

I know which version I'd buy.

[Samwise]

I do find it interesting that the DVD is only in the collector's edition.  Maybe they figure that only their high-end customers have DVD drives?  Or maybe they're just being asstards.

[Bunk]

I can download 5 gigs in 1/2 a day on a good connection, and dvd-r's cost under a buck a piece.

I know which version I'd buy.

Do we get to download it directly or do we have to Torrent it?
1.3 Gigs on BitTorrent the other day took over 10 hours, on a file that had ~1000 seeds.

[Samwise]

You download via Steam, which is Valve's own content distribution system.  I'm not sure if it has some sort of Torrent-like underpinnings, or if Valve just has absolutely sick bandwidth, but downloads are FAST.  If you tried Steam in its beta infancy and disagree, try it now.

The actual download speed doesn't even matter that much, though, because you can "pre-load" the content before you actually pay for it.  Everyone with a Steam account right now (which is free; all you pay for is the games) can choose to start pre-loading HL2.  It gets trickled in gradually and then sits, encrypted, on your hard drive.  Once the game is actually released and you pay for it, it's "unlocked" and you can start playing.  If there are changes to the game between your preload and release, your preload gets patched as needed.

Basically, it works exactly as it ought to work.  The instant the game is released, you can play it.  No waiting for shipping, no waiting for Best Buy to finally get it in stock (I had to go to FOUR FUCKING STORES TWICE EACH to buy Evil Genius because they were all too slow to get it in stock on release day), no looking for patches, even, because they've been loading on demand without you having to do anything.  Just fun.

Excuse me for my Valve fanboyishness, but I really do think they got this one right.  ;)

[Evil Elvis]

I can download 5 gigs in 1/2 a day on a good connection, and dvd-r's cost under a buck a piece.

I know which version I'd buy.

Do we get to download it directly or do we have to Torrent it?
1.3 Gigs on BitTorrent the other day took over 10 hours, on a file that had ~1000 seeds.

Seems like they'll be using steam, which I'm guessing is just a ftp front-end.

As far as bittorrent... while I sometimes get shitty speeds from very active torrents, I more often than not get great speeds.

You should make sure your bittorrent client is setup right, though.  Check that you have the bittorrent ports opened on any firewall you use.  Second, you should see if your bittorrent client lets you modify how many connections you can have.  For instance, I use BitComet which defaults to 40, but you can set it much higher.

Third, if you're using SP2 with winXP, you're being limited to a max of 10 TCP connections.  You can download a fix here: http://www.lvllord.de/

[Fabricated]

I'm one of those people who isn't happy unless they have a hardcopy.

Copying the steam cache files is sort of a halfassed way to have a "hardcopy" of a game bought on steam, and doesn't satisfy me.

Yet, the steam packages are so obviously a better value in terms of what you get. None of the retail packages offer you access to DOD:Source when it's released, so well, I'm sold already (nevermind I get the nagging feeling the mod community will release something way better than DOD eventually, thus making my purchase of DOD moot. Hell, with CoD:United Offensive, it already is).

[Krakrok]

Valve hired the guy who wrote Bittorrent.

[Jain Zar]

I prefer a physical copy with a nice box, so its retail for me.  I simply don't trust Steam, ya know?

[Samwise]

I simply don't trust Steam, ya know?

I know it's an instinctive thing rather than a rational thing, but I still can't resist asking - what is it that you don't trust about it?

[ahoythematey]

We fear chains?

[SurfD]

Which actually brings up an interesting question:

Are you going to have to download steam and register your game with it to play it online anyhow?

Im still not sure exactly how that particluar bit works.

[Trippy]

I simply don't trust Steam, ya know?

I know it's an instinctive thing rather than a rational thing, but I still can't resist asking - what is it that you don't trust about it?

The fact that it'll dump software on your machine behind your back? Or that you're agreeing to give it free reign in scanning your system for whatever it wants? Or that you won't be able to play single player HL2 without having your Internet connection turned on once you connect through Steam the first time? Basically it's a fricking piece of obnoxious spyware/DRM software in my book.

[Calantus]

I simply don't trust Steam, ya know?

I know it's an instinctive thing rather than a rational thing, but I still can't resist asking - what is it that you don't trust about it?

You haven't played CS 1.6 have you. They did so many good things with that version (besides the shield, but that's hardly used anymore anyway), the thing they did wrong was steam. Great concept, horrible execution. The launch of 1.6 was shit, and not surprising. If Valve didn't manage to prepare for the launch of a version of a 4 year old game, a version many people had already sworn they would not download and thus had fewer people than otherwise downloading it; how can people trust them to handle the release of the most anticipated game of all time (IMO)? That and the fact that steam has screwed me more times than I care to count makes sure that I will not be getting HL2 through steam.

I really don't understand valve. If it had been my company and I had been planning to use valve as a delivery system for purcases, I'd make damn sure NOTHING would go wrong. Oh well, missed opportunities seem to be par for the course in this industry.

[Sky]

I know it's an instinctive thing rather than a rational thing, but I still can't resist asking - what is it that you don't trust about it?

The fact that it'll dump software on your machine behind your back? Or that you're agreeing to give it free reign in scanning your system for whatever it wants? Or that you won't be able to play single player HL2 without having your Internet connection turned on once you connect through Steam the first time? Basically it's a fricking piece of obnoxious spyware/DRM software in my book.

A DVD will be in my game library next year. I don't put any faith into the life expectancy of any game developer, even good ones (Looking Glass, f'rinstance). This is a company that's released one total conversion to date and milked it since.

[Bunk]

Third, if you're using SP2 with winXP, you're being limited to a max of 10 TCP connections.  You can download a fix here: http://www.lvllord.de/

Perfect, exactly what Ive been looking for.  Ive got all my ports set, but I didn't know there was a workaround on the SP2 issue.

Thanks.

[Shannow]

Q: (For Ive not followed HL2 in much depth) Are the mods for HL now going to cost? IE Once I buy HL2 Im going to have to pay for DoD and CS??

[Samwise]

1) Steam has replaced WON, so if Valve dies and Steam goes down, you aren't going to be able to play online even if you do have a DVD.  Offline play works just fine, so your single player games will keep working if Steam (or your connection) goes away.

2) Any time you run an executable, it has free reign with your system.  Whether it comes on a DVD or it's downloaded makes no nevermind.  If you don't trust the publisher, don't run the program.

3) Like I said, if you tried Steam in its beta infancy and reject it based on that horrific experience, try it again.  CS 1.6 was the beta of Steam.  The beta is now over, and the bugs have been fixed, as software development should be.  Just ask all the people playing CS:Source right now via Steam.

4) It's no more DRM-heavy than that key on your shiny DVD jewel case.

Any others?


As for mods, the same rules apply.  CS and DoD are no longer free because Valve gave the developers lots of money for the rights.  Other mod developers can continue releasing their mods for free, and you can continue playing them for free.

[Rodent]

Since getting Condition Zero with my x800 I've been playing a bit of CS:Source. Steam seems stable enough, hasn't crashed on my or given me any problems at all.

Preloaded HL2 earlier today for shits and giggles, took about one and a half hour.

[Calantus]

3) Like I said, if you tried Steam in its beta infancy and reject it based on that horrific experience, try it again.  CS 1.6 was the beta of Steam.  The beta is now over, and the bugs have been fixed, as software development should be.  Just ask all the people playing CS:Source right now via Steam.

Bitterness.

Sums up why I'm not about to change my purchase habits to help Valve, despite steam being rather reliable now-days (I still play CS). I am currently in the position where I would rather hand my money to the PUBLISHER. I figure I'll ride that feeling while it lasts, I don't count on it happening again. All I really want is CS: Source, the rest of it is not worth adding justification to the steam initiative.

[Samwise]

3) Like I said, if you tried Steam in its beta infancy and reject it based on that horrific experience, try it again.  CS 1.6 was the beta of Steam.  The beta is now over, and the bugs have been fixed, as software development should be.  Just ask all the people playing CS:Source right now via Steam.

Bitterness.

Being bitter because a free beta had bugs is slightly irrational, but we're all entitled to a bit of irrational bitterness now and then.  I'm avoiding WoW for fairly irrational reasons, myself.

[Shannow]

Next dumb question, will the retail version of HL2 cost more than the steam version + dod + cs? To be perfectly honest Im not paying extra to just play some CS and DoD.....lets hope some new fun mods come out.

[Samwise]

Prices will be announced next week.  The rumor I heard is that the Steam version of HL/CS will cost $5 less than the retail version of the same thing.