Digital Distribution Service Shutting Down

Fidelis

Triton was the service used to digitally distribute Prey, it's now offline. John Siegler of 3DRealms cofirms:

http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/showthread.php?p=425005#post425005

Is this not the main concern involving digital distribution? I'm not particularly a fan of the media delivery platform myself and this shows why.

What if Steam went belly-up? People using using the digital version of games no longer have access to them. Does this not worry people?

BloodBath

Steam is valve's in house distribution though. That's the difference and by all means it's a success so I don't see it going belly up any time soon. It's a perfectly good system. I don't see why anyone would still have reservations about it.

Nietzschean

also i see it as envitable that other people will try emulate steams success and fail, though there is no reason to think steam will shutdown anytime remotely soon.

KdjaCL

BloodBath wrote:

It's a perfectly good system. I don't see why anyone would still have reservations about it.

Its cheaper to buy the games in a shop is my reservation about it, the idea was that it would be cheaper.

DOD Source was 29,99 on it when i bought it in game for 20.


kdjac

Cuddlesworth

Hmm you do raise a good point, if steam was to go there will be alot of people without any real way of keeping their game.

jesus_thats_gre

Besides for some early teething issues, I think Steam is a very good solution. Tbh, I wish all online games used the exact same system. I long for the day of never having to loada CD or DVD into a drive to play a game.

jesus_thats_gre

krazy_8s wrote:

Hmm you do raise a good point, if steam was to go there will be alot of people without any real way of keeping their game.

They would just release an update or patch that would remove the need to ever authenticate with a steam server again, i.e. infinte offline mode sorta thing.

jesus_thats_gre

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Besides for some early teething issues, I think Steam is a very good solution. Tbh, I wish all online games used the exact same system. I long for the day of never having to loada CD or DVD into a drive to play a game.

What happens if your PC goes tits up and you need to reinstall? are you able to make a backup of the game with all relevant patches etc? I like having a hard copy of the game for those "just-in-case" moments. I dont relish the idea of having to download gigs of software if things go wrong.

ShiverinEskimo

Steam had Half-Life 2. Always easier to push a new media delivery platform when you're releasing the most anticipated game in history and a sure-fire multi-million selling classic.

A theory.

Fidelis

Deleted User wrote:

are you able to make a backup of the game with all relevant patches etc?

It is possible with Steam, but it just negates the whole idea of the digital delivery sevice.

I also like having a hard-copy of the software, something tangible.

BloodBath

Besides for some early teething issues, I think Steam is a very good solution. Tbh, I wish all online games used the exact same system. I long for the day of never having to loada CD or DVD into a drive to play a game.

I agree. I never thought i'd say it but I actually like steam. Although there is only 1 game that I need to use the cd for. (Bf2) The rest (40+) all load without the cd thanks to mini images and no cd cracks so it's not so bad.

The prices for a lot of the games should be cheaper though. I'm aware making decent mods these days is no longer cheap or easy but charging $20 for games like "the ship" is a little steep. Also some of the newer games like Dark Messiah M&M should be a little cheaper than $50. It's still only 40e though. Not bad for a new game.

Is it really much cheaper to distribute online though? The cost of a dvd + packaging, shipping, the publisher's cut + the shop's cut can't be much more than the cost of servers + the distributer's cut.

thebman

Steam is a bastard if you are on dial up though!

Step one for digital distribution is to kick European governments in the ass that have not managed to roll out affordable broadband nationwide faster.

BloodBath

True ^^ but valve have signed up with ea to publish their games so you can still buy them in store.

thebman

BloodBath wrote:

True ^^ but valve have signed up with ea to publish their games so you can still buy them in store.

You still have to decrypt them over steam though or at least you did with HL2.

Do you have to with the episodes because the only reason I didn't buy them yet is because I don't have broadband.

BloodBath

True steams "offline mode" is far from reliable. I don't know if they have sorted it recently but I wouldn't bet on it.

DarthWraak

BloodBath wrote:

True steams "offline mode" is far from reliable. I don't know if they have sorted it recently but I wouldn't bet on it.

Steams offline mode works okay for me anyway.

Fidelis

Latest news on this is that all Triton customers will receive a boxed copy of Prey in the post.

http://www.3drealms.com/news/2006/10/prey_update_for_triton.html

monument

KdjaCL wrote:

Its cheaper to buy the games in a shop is my reservation about it

It's not cheaper in many cases. One of my ex-local shops with games in it had HL2 E1 on sale for something like the cost of a full priced game.

On another note it pisses me off that because I'm without broadband atm and maybe for a while I can't play any of them.

aidan_walsh

Fidelis wrote:

It is possible with Steam, but it just negates the whole idea of the digital delivery sevice.

I also like having a hard-copy of the software, something tangible.

No, it doesn't. As long as the file gets to you over the network originally, the file has been distributed. You didn't get any disk from the publisher. You have the option to create a local backup so that you can avoid the hassle of having to redownload the file (assuming the service allows you to if you need to), which only speeds up the reinstallation of lost files.

Fidelis

aidan_walsh wrote:

As long as the file gets to you over the network originally, the file has been distributed.

Yes, the file has been distributed but it should also be available to download whenever you want. If you purchase a CD-ROM game, you re-install it with the CD-ROM, if you download a game, should you not be able to re-download it?

aidan_walsh wrote:

You have the option to create a local backup so that you can avoid the hassle of having to redownload the file

Why choose the digital media route when you're ultimately relying on the physical form? It's not cheaper and it's certainly "hassle", as you put it, to re-download

thebman

Fidelis wrote:

Yes, the file has been distributed but it should also be available to download whenever you want. If you purchase a CD-ROM game, you re-install it with the CD-ROM, if you download a game, should you not be able to re-download it?

Thats exactly how steam works and it offers a backup downloaded content option.

Why choose the digital media route when you're ultimately relying on the physical form? It's not cheaper and it's certainly "hassle", as you put it, to re-download

It's easier than keeping the CD/DVD's. I've lost so many games over the years, I prefer a system where if I lose it, I can restore from backups or redownload it.

It's just there isn't broadband in Ireland to support. Works fine in countries with real governments, that you know, work for the people.

Steam is great if you have broadband. Without it, the downloaded content becomes a pain because if you go online it tries to update it and then you don't have 100% of the game again and can't play it until you download the rest of the update.

It'd be the same if they constantly updated games that come on CD/DVD. Valve are constantly fixing bugs and improving the engine which is better for users.

Fidelis

brim4brim wrote:

Thats exactly how steam works and it offers a backup downloaded content option.

Yup, I know it's possible with Steam, but my arguement is 'what if' Steam were to close down and you couldn't re-download the content etc.

It's easier than keeping the CD/DVD's. I've lost so many games over the years, I prefer a system where if I lose it, I can restore from backups or redownload it.

You lose the original CD/DVD but never lose the backup CD/DVD?

My point is that if you're going to download the content and then back it up on a CD/DVD, then why bother at all? Why not simply buy the physical game?

Nietzschean

firstly ye don't need to bother going into a shop.
secondly you get it faster.
thirdly, its just convenient.

Also the whole loosing of the backup cd/dvd is a silly argument, on the remote chance that steam closes AND you loose the backup cd sure your rather bollixed, but then again if you loose a retail cd your just bollixed from the get go.

thebman

Fidelis wrote:

Yup, I know it's possible with Steam, but my arguement is 'what if' Steam were to close down and you couldn't re-download the content etc.


You lose the original CD/DVD but never lose the backup CD/DVD?

My point is that if you're going to download the content and then back it up on a CD/DVD, then why bother at all? Why not simply buy the physical game?

Thats what my external Hard Drive is for. Well that and movies and music.

Laguna

brim4brim wrote:

You still have to decrypt them over steam though or at least you did with HL2.

Do you have to with the episodes because the only reason I didn't buy them yet is because I don't have broadband.

Yeah you have to login to decrypt them and download the updates or it won't let you play, it was a bitch back in June when I was still on 56k, I dread to think of the download size now. Episode 1 is worth it though!.

Fidelis

Nietzschean wrote:

firstly ye don't need to bother going into a shop.
secondly you get it faster.
thirdly, its just convenient

Order online e.g. play.com. They generally post them a few days early so the game arrives at your house on release day and that's about as convenient as it gets. I still don't see the attraction to digital delivery