Crossed over to the darkside: bought my first game for steam

[Bikerdude]

Popped into the Game on Saturday and picked up a copy of DX:HR for £9.99, £5 less than it costs on steam and under my max buy price for a steam game,

 

Valve seem to be on another planet when it comes to thier pricing, its either just plain greed or blind arrogance.

[stumpy]

they did a deal with game.co.uk, who said steam was taking away their customers in the uk, so game.co.uk get to sell games for cheaper than steam.

[lost_soul]

That's not too bad actually. DXHR is relatively recent. It is much better than them charging 9.95 for games which came out a decade ago and have not been worked on since the year they came out.

 

The way they get a lot of people to believe "Steam prices are so low" is brilliant too. Every now and then, they have mega-sales. If you're lucky, and a game you want is available at that time, you get a great deal. Otherwise, you end up being charged very near what it would cost at retail.

 

Steam is only cheap if you buy games in bulk a few times a year.

Edited June 16, 2013 by lost_soul

[Goldwell]

http://www.kinguin.net/deus-ex/deus-ex-human-revolution-steam-key.html

 

I found it for 6 pounds!

 

I have been using Kinguin for a while and it's great for buying legit game cd keys for Steam. And really cheap as well!

 

I have picked up some amazing bargains from that site

[STiFU]

Add a game you want to your wishlist in steam and steam will notify you automatically via mail when it's on sale. Perfect!

[jtr7]

.............

Edited February 19, 2014 by jtr7

[Bikerdude]

I found it for 6 pounds!

Yeah but that dosen't include the postage of £1-2 then your close to what I paid for it without having to wait.

[Bikerdude]

Great capitalism, dumb consumerism. Gamers think they're winning when they are actually making a big mistake with widespread consequences,

The way I look at it is I used to buy a game new at £35, then sell it back to the store for £20-25 so the game only cost me £10-15. So thats fine that valve and other arsehole pubs/devs want to try and attempt to subdue the s/h market, the upshot of that is there are more and more consumers like me who will never buy the game new again. So they are in fact not making as much money as they thought they would, by trying screw over there customers.

 

Then their is the price of games upon release, the devs/pubs think they can get full retail price for a non-retail (digital download) version - they need a reality check if they honestly think people are that gullible. I read somewhere a few days ago, where the head of some dev/pub house (Andrew Oliver/EA - wanker) was whining about how the s/h market is preventing the development of AAA titles due to loss of revenue. I immediately thought, what utter bullshit, the movie industry is still able to make movies(mostly regurgitated shite - superman...) despite the s/h sales of DVD's/BluRay's etc.

 

And regarding the games/software industry trying to prevent/ban s/h sales, this is in fact illegal in the EU at least. Once a game is sold the original publisher loses all/any rights to that copy, even if the license agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rights holder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy. This is because the 'doctrine of first sale' applies to digitally distributed software just as much as it does its physical counterpart - http://www.bit-tech....l-distribution/

[Goldwell]

Yeah but that dosen't include the postage of £1-2 then your close to what I paid for it without having to wait.

 

I think you misunderstand that website sells the CD-Keys it's instant. You buy the game you want and about 10 minutes later you get a CD-Key and enter that into Steam and boom off you go.

 

Although if you wanted a physical copy of the game (I always do with my favorites) then yeah it's no good of course. But if you want to buy a game for cheap and instant I really recommend that site.

 

Either way I bought Deus Ex HR when it first came out at full price and it was worth it then, if you haven't played it yet you are in for a treat because it's fucking awesome

[Sotha]

Heh.. Welcome to the dark side, biker.

 

The first time may hurt, but over time I'm pretty sure you're gonna enjoy it.

[Diego]

I guess it depends on where you live. Here Steam prices represent a major paradigm shift, as before steam you either pirate games or shit money. I really don't know how they're able to charge these prices now, maybe something about how things are taxed changed here and I'm not aware yet. However, prices on stores are still ridiculous! I just made a quick search of a book store I visit often to see how they're charging for a pc game, Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition. costs R$179.90 and on Steam is R$39.90. Almost 5 times the steam price.

[someTaff]

What so dark about Steam? Its accuallly better than hard copies of games and discounts are decent

[Bikerdude]

Although if you wanted a physical copy of the game (I always do with my favorites) then yeah it's no good of course. But if you want to buy a game for cheap and instant I really recommend that site.

Ah ok, cool!

What so dark about Steam? Its accuallly better than hard copies of games and discounts are decent

Ive always intensely and vehemently been against any company trying to dictate to me what I can or cant do with something I have legally purchased, and the discounts here in the Uk arent all that great, hence why I shop around for a game then activate it on steam.

[7upMan]

What so dark about Steam? Its accuallly better than hard copies of games and discounts are decent

 

Absolutely. Also, @jtr7, it's always about you and your self-control. I only buy games that I really really want and that I know will appeal to me (watch a Let's Play on YT to make sure you actually like what you see), so I can't fall into that trap. Also, as STiFU said, there is the wishlist that automatically reminds you of any deals you might be interested in.

[Mortem Desino]

Ive always intensely and vehemently been against any company trying to dictate to me what I can or cant do with something I have legally purchased,

I can sort of sympathize with that. I got very nervous a year ago when publishers & Microsoft started using the phrase "licensing games" instead of "selling games". It's almost as nonsensical as if film companies were "licensing out" DVDs to Joe Consumer (like they "license out" movies to movie theatres) for fear that "everyone is a potential pirate!"

 

If you sell me something, it's mine now; it doesn't belong to the seller or the publisher anymore. After I buy a game disk nothing should prohibit me from: installing it, playing it, modding the game, freely distributing the mod, turning the disk into a flying saucer, throwing it at a tree: all of which do no harm to or actually benefit the publisher's bottom line indirectly.

 

Part of me sympathizes with publishers' dislike of rentals, but a large portion of that rental crowd can be appeased by releasing a demo. I really think Valve needs to figure out how to use Steam's DRM+distribution service to let folks freely download a game and try it unrestricted for 2 hours. Instant demo.

[Bikerdude]

to let folks freely download a game and try it unrestricted for 2 hours. Instant demo.

The irony of that comment is 'some' AAA titles barley even last that long...coughportal and the publishers coughvalve'r'wankers initially charging full retail for it...

[STiFU]

Portal 1 was merely an experiment and it was never full retail price as far as I know. Portal 2 was a game of decent lenght and also had a pretty long coop as well as editor support. It actually even has an ingame mission downloader just like TDM. I think P2 was excellent and worth spending money for.

 

I really think Valve needs to figure out how to use Steam's DRM+distribution service to let folks freely download a game and try it unrestricted for 2 hours. Instant demo.

They already have such a system running, they just need to start using it for playtesting. Every now and then there are free weekends for certain games, where you can play the full game a whole weekend and maybe even get it for a reduced price.

[Bikerdude]

I think P2 was excellent and worth spending money for.

I have to assume then you didn't pay anywhere near full price then, for a game that barley lasted 4-6hrs...

They already have such a system running, they just need to start using it for playtesting.

The issue with that is that if after playing it you DON'T want the game they(valve) point blank refuse to remove it from your games list sighting some BS excuse.

[brethren]

Man, lots of Steam bashing going on here. I personally love Steam, and yep I have a large backlog but it's filled with stuff I actually want to play - someday. The reason it's a backlog at all is because nearly all of it I got on sale far below what I would have had to buy it for elsewhere. Example, I got the Star Wars package on sale recently for $30, 14 games that now will cost you $100 on Steam and probably tons more if you had to collect it all elsewhere on your own.

 

But even if it was a brand new game costing $50-60, and I really wanted it on release day, I'd buy it on Steam for the convenience. The theory that it should cost less just because it's not a physical thing is just an antiquated notion that doesn't have a place in today's world. What's a DVD and jewel case cost, a buck or two? Big deal. I'd rather be able to download and play my game anywhere in the world, anytime I want, and be able to sync my saves between multiple computers if I choose to do so.

[Mortem Desino]

But even if it was a brand new game costing $50-60, and I really wanted it on release day, I'd buy it on Steam for the convenience. The theory that it should cost less just because it's not a physical thing is just an antiquated notion that doesn't have a place in today's world. What's a DVD and jewel case cost, a buck or two? Big deal. I'd rather be able to download and play my game anywhere in the world, anytime I want, and be able to sync my saves between multiple computers if I choose to do so.

A full-color-printed DVD and full-color-printed case and printing and (in come cases) an extra full-color-printed cardboard box might be a buck or two at cost. Shipping massive quantities to stores worldwide costs even more. The time and electricity to burn all that data onto a disk costs money, too (so does a download server, too, I guess). I suspect knocking off ~$5 USD for a download version would encourage some people to stop buying physical copies. Whether that's a good thing or bad thing, though...

 

One thing that surprised me about Steam downloads: My dad just got The Walking Dead. But it's a ~4 GB download that he doesn't have the bandwidth for. I took my Ext. HD and copy-pasted my Steam version The Walking Dead data files onto his computer. When Dad logged into Steam, that download bar was up to 95%. Steam must do a CRC check for existing files. Good deal, especially if I ever have to wipe my HD or build a new computer. Won't have to download hundreds of GB.

 

Right on about the sales. I enjoy taunting my cousins about game prices and handcuffing themselves to a "generation" of games rather than a whole history of games.

[Mortem Desino]

They already have such a system running, they just need to start using it for playtesting. Every now and then there are free weekends for certain games, where you can play the full game a whole weekend and maybe even get it for a reduced price.

Totes.

 

The issue with that is that if after playing it you DON'T want the game they(valve) point blank refuse to remove it from your games list sighting some BS excuse.

Just tell steam to delete the local files. That's all I needed to do after a free weekend of Saints Row: The Third. It's annoying marketing, but relevant. "Hey, you've already downloaded this. Just give me your credit card number and your soul and instantly play."

[lost_soul]

The reason for "Steam bashing" is that it is mandatory to play so many games. We users deserve a choice in how to obtain and enjoy things. If I were able to get a game like say... Rage without dealing with Steam, why would I even care about Steam in the first place?

 

Imagine for a second that I hate Safeway or Wal*Mart for some reason. I'm free to get all of my groceries some place else. Safeway/Wal*Mart aren't the exclusive supplier of taco shells, so I can just ignore them and never go there.

Edited June 19, 2013 by lost_soul

[Diego]

If exclusivity is good or bad is debatable, but it wasn't invented by Valve. Origin, PSN, Xbox Live etc, for one reason or another, all have exclusive titles. Also, if I were to release commercially a game it's easier to release it on steam, as they handle the transactions and hosting of the files for me (assuming it was greenlit) so it's not always the case of deals between corporations or stuff like that.

Edited June 19, 2013 by Diego

[Bikerdude]

Just tell steam to delete the local files. That's all I needed

nope, the game still appears in the games list.

 

I have had to created a category called "useless shit" and put all the crap valve keep annoying us with in there. I would prefer to be able to remove the shortcut all together, yet valve in thier infinite wisdom don't allow that option.

[7upMan]

The reason for "Steam bashing" is that it is mandatory to play so many games.

 

And *that* is the first valid argument in this discussion, IMO. Personally, I like Steam well enough to use it for bargain deals, but it's that forced use for so many games (like Metro: Last Light) that annoys me to no end. If I could have gotten a copy of Metro that doesn't use Steam, I would gladly have bought it.