Steam only Release for AC

[Michael Hornbuckle]

Stefano Casillo ‏@KunosStefano

5h​

@oooRickyBobby @Aristotelis @Markus72k at the moment the plans are to have a steam only release.

Not the news a handful wanted to hear but there it is.

 

[zombieshark6666]

Well ... AC will be on Steam for sure so whatever beneficts they are receiving from Steam they will get them even if they add a non-steam version ... i think ... and of course you could allways choose steam if you want ... like i said many times already ... it would be just another option

Edit: and yes ... im still aware of all the money and worktime with website, customers, that they can save and use in development... this is just another point on the balance

As someone who doesn't race online much, I'd be satisfied with an offline game, or P2P connections. I really don't worry about these things.

 

[GamerMuscle]

As far as I know, I will be able to install and play Civilization IV, GTR Evolution and Civil War Generals II whenever I feel like it, on as many computers as I want as long as the OS has a compatibility layer for these older titles. That's what I meant by "owning".

you can install steam and log-into your account on any computer , with GTR E and many other games if you want to play multi-player you can still only play on one pc at a time steam or not.

In both cases you own a licence to utilise the software under some given circumstances T&C. With steam you are dependent on there authentication servers and game data servers existing to some extent, but so long as they do and you have internet then you have more utility with steam.

Steam could obviously go out of business but I don't think that's likely to happen this decade , if it did future you could always pirate the games (Not that I endorse copyright infringement) or they might be abandon-ware by that piont in time. Each independent developer could still distribute copies of there software if they wanted to.

With the next gen consoles all being X86 we are going to see far more cross platform games and I can see steam becoming even more dominant.

Historically even very esoteric arcade platforms have survived in some form or another through emulation for example very rare pinball machines or very rare arcade games on mame , If a piece of software is a bench mark application or means somethign to a couple thousand people then it seems it will survive in some form or another through time regardless of a publisher developer or IP ownership.

I belive people have managed to rip steam games and have them work offline so interms of having access to the software in an archival historical sense I don't think there would be a problem ( legality aside)

I think traditional meaning of the word ownership loses meaning in some ways when it comes to information that can be duplicated and is essentially always accessible , everyone effectively has ownership if they have the ability to access something whenever they really want to, thought that might not be the type of ownership they want.

 

[zombieshark6666]

Steam has been in business all year, yet there was a whole week during which I could not log in. And no, I wouldn't "pirate" the game. I prefer to form an opinion rather than find a work-around.

 

[GamerMuscle]

Steam has been in business all year, yet there was a whole week during which I could not log in. And no, I wouldn't "pirate" the game. I prefer to form an opinion rather than find a work-around.

When was that? I don't remember steam being down in a basic login sense for more than 1 hour.

"I prefer to form an opinion rather than find a work-around"

I cannot really understand what you mean with that sentence.

If you don't want to brake your local copyright laws that's fine I wasn't implying that you do or should. I was just talking about the nature of having access to software into the future if steam died and listing the available options legal or not.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Steam has been in business all year, yet there was a whole week during which I could not log in.

That must have been something on your end as if Steam would be inaccessible for a full week we would be the first to know as we run all our RACE 07 events on Steam on daily basis for the last six years.

 

[zombieshark6666]

No, it wasn't just me. But if you were fine, that's all that matters.

 

[Dinca Andrei]

I have an idea...
I can make a new steam account ...buy a game....play it and get bored...then sell the account...is that possible? i dont know...but it might be......

 

[Senad Subasic]

I have an idea...
I can make a new steam account ...buy a game....play it and get bored...then sell the account...is that possible? i dont know...but it might be......

Possible - of course. Allowed - nope, it's listed as a no-no in the subscriber agreement.

There's also the fact that you can claim that your account was stolen, provide details about it, and get the account back at any time.


As far as log in problems go, I think I remember some people in Germany having issues. If the poster is German, perhaps that was it.
Can't say how long it lasted, as I didn't have issues, but a week sounds excessive for random hardware failures, or whatever it was.

 

[Dinca Andrei]

No, it wasn't just me. But if you were fine, that's all that matters.

In the last few days i had problems with friends list showing offline....from time to time.
Now is ok.
Oh i forgot...it might be my internet provider fault aswell but i dont know for sure....also RD and YT was out....no connection were other links worked with no problem....bugs me sometime

 

[Terry Evers]

Last few days Steam is beeing hammerd cause of the summer sales. Forum and store crapped out on me "Due to heavy load" a few times. The outages dint last long though maybe 5/10 min.

 

[GamerMuscle]

No, it wasn't just me. But if you were fine, that's all that matters.

can you give a date for when it happened?

When steam goes down everyone goes insane so its normally hard to miss , I honestly cannot remember in the 9 years of using steam it going down for a whole week.

If you cannot actually say when it happened or linked to a source the people can only assume-that you just made it up , or it was just an issue for you.

In the last few days i had problems with friends list showing offline....from time to time.

Now is ok.

Yah The steam friends often goes down but its separate to steam authentication and steam game servers. Steam game and authentication servers are also decentralized with you able to chose in options different locations.

Valve could definitely improve steam chat / friends list and the general speed of browsing inside of steam.

 

[RaceNut]

Both GamerMuscle and zombieshark666 - you make valid points regarding alternative purchase options but, I would question how much a used racing sim would be worth second-hand. Probably not much and if you have to pay shipping - even less, especially as the title becomes dated which is likely if it is a good one. However, something is better than nothing in that case so I see your point. The option to transfer titles within Steam would be nice though, and there could be a small fee for them.

 

[zombieshark6666]

It was in March, if you must know. It reminded me that I don't own the stuff I pay for, so at least some good came out of it.

 

[zombieshark6666]

Both GamerMuscle and zombieshark666 - you make valid points regarding alternative purchase options but, I would question how much a used racing sim would be worth second-hand. Probably not much and if you have to pay shipping - even less, especially as the title becomes dated which is likely if it is a good one. However, something is better than nothing in that case so I see your point. The option to transfer titles within Steam would be nice though, and there could be a small fee for them.

I'd be happy with an online registration like netKar Pro, just to be clear.

 

[LaFail]

Why would anyone want to sell AC in the first 5 years of release anyway ? And let's say you try to sell it after that for what ?... 5 euros..be sure that steam will have it at 3.99 by that time anyway.

 

[Simon Kaminski]

I'd be happy with an online registration like netKar Pro, just to be clear.

We know. You and your friends repeated it min 1000 times now

 

[Majnu]

mod-edit: post removed

mod-edit: post removed and warning point added to your account. the discussion was just getting back on track so no need to stir it all up again.

 

[Jorge Alves]

Why would anyone want to sell AC in the first 5 years of release anyway ? And let's say you try to sell it after that for what ?... 5 euros..be sure that steam will have it at 3.99 by that time anyway.

Illness, out of money, family, job, ... many reasons can come just like that and you need the money or you just cant play pc games anymore ... all the time i see people in RD forum selling hardware (like steering wheels) for the same reasons ... and if that happen just few months after AC release you can sell it for a fair price

 

[LaFail]

Mod-edit: removed

 

[Jorge Alves]

Mod-edit: removed