Steam and F2P: All Your Microtransactions...

[luckton]

To mod: Feel free to move this to the Steam sub-forum if you see fit...thought it best to be here.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/5657/

Five F2P Launch Titles Offering Exclusive Content to Celebrate Launch

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today introduced support for Free to Play (F2P) Games on Steam with the launch of five F2P games.

Available immediately, the launch titles are Spiral Knights, Forsaken Worlds, Champions Online: Free for All, Global Agenda: Free Agent, and Alliance of Valliant Arms (AVA).

Beginning tomorrow (Weds) with Spiral Knights and concluding Sunday with AVA, each of the five launch titles will offer exclusive in-game content to those who try the "F2P game of the day" on Steam. In game transactions in all of the titles will be supported by Steam's micro-transaction backend system that is available to Steamworks partners and currently used in Valve's Team Fortress 2.

"The introduction of Free to Play games is another example of the constant evolution of Steam," said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. "Free to Play games offer new game genres and game experiences for customers, while offering developers and publishers new revenue opportunities and the ability to reach customers in areas of the world where the traditional packaged goods model is less popular than F2P."

Specific details on the F2P games of the day and their exclusive in-game content will be made available in the coming days.

Steam is a leading platform for PC & Mac games and digital entertainment serving over 1,500 games to over 30 million active accounts worldwide. For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com

[Malakili]

I noticed you can use your steam wallet for the MTX, I wonder how much a cut Valve gets for those.

[Amaron]

I noticed you can use your steam wallet for the MTX, I wonder how much a cut Valve gets for those.

I'm curious if they are really handling the transactions though.   I'm willing to bet it's more like you can buy the fucking retarded cryptic points with the steam wallet instead of your CC.

If they actually let you buy stuff in the game stores with the steam wallet instead of their monopoly currency though then that's genius.

[Hawkbit]

With the exception of LotRO, pretty much every other F2P game I can think of needs to get on this bandwagon.  For these small companies, I imagine the loss of revenue to Steam's cut makes up for the reduction in initial  DL bandwidth, not to mention the potential customers from a new market. 

[luckton]

Because apparently I'm extremely lazy, this new feature of Steam has given me the opportunity to try out Champs and Global.  I'm somewhat looking forward to seeing how Champs has fared since I last played it in beta.

[Malakili]

Because apparently I'm extremely lazy, this new feature of Steam has given me the opportunity to try out Champs and Global.  I'm somewhat looking forward to seeing how Champs has fared since I last played it in beta.

Its definitely better in almost every respect (the low level content was redone for F2P, the UI is way better, powers are generally more balanced/useful etc), but not loads better in most respects.  The free to play takes away choosing your own powers, which in my opinion really drastically lowers the funness of the game.  There is marginally more content, but the adventure packs cost money, so you won't get to try them for free.

[sinij]

This is official end of gaming. F2P is anything but free when you throw in MT.

Hello frustrating, bullying or bribing players to shell out for MT goodbye complete fun to play games. Just like commercials forced us into sitcom format, so will MT will force gaming into something different from what it is today.

[Amaron]

This is official end of gaming. F2P is anything but free when you throw in MT.

I don't want free gaming so what's your point?   God the thought of playing a game with nothing but guild wars mouthbreathers *shudder*.  It's worse than Xbox Live.

Anyways did anyone find out about the wallet?  I'm totally down for playing CO again if I can use the wallet instead of buying some mass of cryptic points.

[Malakili]

This is official end of gaming. F2P is anything but free when you throw in MT.

Hello frustrating, bullying or bribing players to shell out for MT goodbye complete fun to play games. Just like commercials forced us into sitcom format, so will MT will force gaming into something different from what it is today.

F2P + MT have been around for years now and the end of gaming hasn't come yet, sooo is the fact that its on Steam what makes the difference?

[Amaron]

Bleh this is really irritating.  Nobody reads the steam forum on CO and you can't post on CO forums unless you are a gold member.   I guess I'm downloading it to see if this wallet thing is for real.

[Lantyssa]

Anyways did anyone find out about the wallet?  I'm totally down for playing CO again if I can use the wallet instead of buying some mass of cryptic points.

Under the FAQ it gave a picture example with Global Agenda.  It looked like the player got something for 500 GA points, but the checkout was for an 800 GA package.  I don't know if a second thing was added, and I'm a bit... addled... so I didn't really examine the pictures too much.

I do know it will pull up the Steam Overlay for confirmation.  Someone who isn't drugged up might want to look more closely.

[caladein]

You have to buy the points still.  Steam Wallet is just a payment mechanism from looking at CO/GA.

[Amaron]

You have to buy the points still.  Steam Wallet is just a payment mechanism from looking at CO/GA.

Sort of what I figured.   Missed opportunity to the extreme there.

[Ard]

F2P + MT have been around for years now and the end of gaming hasn't come yet, sooo is the fact that its on Steam what makes the difference?

Not to mention that it was already effectively on steam anyhow due to TF2 and Portal 2.  This is pretty far from end of the world.

[Sky]

Definitely going to get a little mileage out of champo, hopefully the restrictions aren't too bad (being weak and knowing my cool characters are a click away is dangerous). Probably check out GA, too.

[Amaron]

So CO finished downloading.   I start the game.   Few hundred meg patch  .   Apparently it was too difficult to provide Steam with an up to date version of the client.

[Kageru]

This is an excellent change. There's a massive number of F2p + cash-shop MMO's from Asia I'd love to explore. And without sub could even do so with the wife who is not interested in playing often enough to justify double subs. However finding them, getting the software and trusting their DRM and shop has discouraged messing with them. With steam providing a front end and a bigger market-place it might encourage people to try them and producers to provide translated versions.

[Amaron]

However finding them, getting the software and trusting their DRM and shop has discouraged messing with them. With steam providing a front end and a bigger market-place it might encourage people to try them and producers to provide translated versions.

Unfortunately it seems you still have to trust their shitty DRM/anti hack crap.  This change is nothing more than for the most part letting you buy some cash shop points with steam wallet and downloading the downloader via steam.

There's no point to even using the wallet with CO since you still need to enter CC details if you want to unlock all your old chars via subscription.

[luckton]

So CO finished downloading.   I start the game.   Few hundred meg patch  .   Apparently it was too difficult to provide Steam with an up to date version of the client.

Not surprising considering how Steam's patching system works.  Better to just let the dev handle that through their patcher.

Although booting up Global Agenda didn't have be patching a damn thing first time up...

[Kageru]

However finding them, getting the software and trusting their DRM and shop has discouraged messing with them. With steam providing a front end and a bigger market-place it might encourage people to try them and producers to provide translated versions.

Unfortunately it seems you still have to trust their shitty DRM/anti hack crap.  This change is nothing more than for the most part letting you buy some cash shop points with steam wallet and downloading the downloader via steam.

There's no point to even using the wallet with CO since you still need to enter CC details if you want to unlock all your old chars via subscription.

Yep, I'm pretty sure none of these games are meaningfully optimised for steam. And CO f2p especially is more like a "infinite trial" than the real thing. Just me being optimistic that such a thing might happen in the future.
 

[Mrbloodworth]

Thats great news. I like this idea. Good for games like Global Agenda too. Though I bet not much changed for them partner wise.

[luckton]

Yep, I'm pretty sure none of these games are meaningfully optimised for steam. And CO f2p especially is more like a "infinite trial" than the real thing. Just me being optimistic that such a thing might happen in the future.
 

There's word that the titles will be getting exclusive in-game items for Steam users, along with having any in-game achievements count as Steam achievements too.  Gotta think of the chievy-whores 

Additionally, the Global Agenda launcher is noted as being a "Steam Launcher", though I haven't seen the original version to compare to.

[Paelos]

I will probably try Global Agenda at some point now.

[Simond]

This is official end of gaming. F2P is anything but free when you throw in MT.

Hello frustrating, bullying or bribing players to shell out for MT goodbye complete fun to play games. Just like commercials forced us into sitcom format, so will MT will force gaming into something different from what it is today.

F2P + MT have been around for years now and the end of gaming hasn't come yet, sooo is the fact that its on Steam what makes the difference?

You know how, back when Steam originally launched, there were a few people who went on and on about it was a terrible idea badly made that would utterly destroy PC gaming forever? Sinij is still like that. 

[Morfiend]

I just redownloaded GA last week but havent had a chance to play it. Maybe this new F2P will provide a bunch of targets for me.

Hit me up on steam MBW if you are going to be playing, I wouldnt mind doing a few matches with some people.

[Yegolev]

This is official end of gaming.

[Paelos]

Sinij wants Steam to be the devil just so badly!

It's adorable. 

[Lum]

Steam made Trammel.

[Malakili]

Steam made Trammel.

 

[jakonovski]

I shall have to try Forsaken World. One billion Chinese can't be wrong can they.

I probably should also fire up Global Agenda to see how it's changed from when I played it.

[tgr]

Hello frustrating, bullying or bribing players to shell out for MT goodbye complete fun to play games. Just like commercials forced us into sitcom format, so will MT will force gaming into something different from what it is today.

I think you should look to other aspects of the gaming industry for this, than steam. Just sayin'.

[Kageru]

Cool, just got Forsaken world... it wasn't on the Australian list yesterday. Does anyone know if Spiral Knights or Forsaken World are any good and not open world PvP? Not sure the wife is up to the excitement of random ganking.

[Cadaverine]

I tried both of them, but didn't find either one to be worth pursuing.  FW played like most any modern Asian MMO.  It had some interesting ideas, but they weren't enough to keep me playing.  Spiral Knights wasn't bad, but as I recall, there was a limit on how many times you could run a mission/dungeon per day, so I ended up uninstalling it.

Not sure about the pvp status on either.  I'm fairly certain Spiral Knights didn't have any open world pvp.  Forgotten World may have, but it was at a higher level than what I got to if it did.

[Lantyssa]

Spiral knights is a cute little action game which suffers from Facebook-style energy limitations.  Playing today can net you a free energy refill though.

[UnSub]

Steam made Trammel.

Steam made the NGE and launched Shadowbane.