Steam?

[Hunt3r.j2]

I'm surprised no one has ever said this yet, but why not distribute DCS sims over Steam?

 

Piracy is almost nil, StarForce wouldn't be needed, and distributing updates and whatnot would be automatic.

 

Gets rid of the pain associated with DRM and all that, and less frustration for users.

 

So why not use Steam Distribution? You just buy the game off the Steam Store, which will authenticate it for you, and whenever you start up the game it will check via connecting to the Steam servers to see you do in fact have a valid copy, and then you're off to the races.

 

I would personally love to see DCS Black Shark on Steam, because you'd open up a huge possible playerbase that could buy the game. I will take the Steam version of a game over a CD/DVD package any day of the week.

[Boberro]

Hehe there were many threads about DCS on Steam platform. Now it is not possible, remember that Steam = many costs :)

 

I advice to see similar threads about this. Personally I would like to have DCS on Steam platform.

[Hunt3r.j2]

Hehe there were many threads about DCS on Steam platform. Now it is not possible, remember that Steam = many costs :)

 

I advice to see similar threads about this. Personally I would like to have DCS on Steam platform.

Unless the costs outweigh the fact that people would most likely buy a copy for Steam because, well, it's basically DRM that works.

 

The game is tied to the account, and only one person can be on the account, but you can download the game onto as many computers as you want, just have to be using the account.

 

For future releases I would personally like to see them released on Steam.

 

And Steam doesn't have something that could potentially break Windows, like StarForce. Yes, StarForce is DRM, but that doesn't mean it could be done a different way. I'd rather deal with the requirement of having internet to play a game then having to have to deal with a person over the phone to try and get more activations since my copy of Windows went bonkers or something.

Edited September 12, 2009 by Hunt3r.j2

[Boberro]

I have Counter Strike Source on Steam and I am very pleased. I must say secure system is really good, simple it works without weird thing which Starforce does (did). But not every player wants to install Steam which can be heavy (many banners, flash, IMHO whole Steam is little too big). But advantages of Steam (chat, voice chat, stable platform and good security) cover disadvantages. For players. For companies it is not so good, I heard Steam takes more than half money increase from sold copies. It is really huge sum of money.

[Hunt3r.j2]

I have Counter Strike Source on Steam and I am very pleased. I must say secure system is really good, simple it works without weird thing which Starforce does (did). But not every player wants to install Steam which can be heavy (many banners, flash, IMHO whole Steam is little too big). But advantages of Steam (chat, voice chat, stable platform and good security) cover disadvantages. For players. For companies it is not so good, I heard Steam takes more than half money increase from sold copies. It is really huge sum of money.

Well I suppose then you can choose to pay the high price for the ability to not have to deal with StarForce and instead you get to use Steam.

 

Maybe a 20 dollar price hike?

[GGTharos]

DCS is not offered on Steam. The option was considered and rejected, at least for now. That's how it's gonna be.

[zokier]

AFAIK Steams protection system isn't very strong, and that's why many games have additional protection systems(Securom etc). So even if DCS would be available in Steam, that wouldn't mean that we'd get rid of StarForce.

 

Also afaik indie devs (like ED is) get better deals from Steam, but I'd assume that ED has already asked for a quote if they considered it.

 

Must say that as a customer I have been happy with Steam, and have purchased many games from it. Especially week-end sales are great.

[Hunt3r.j2]

AFAIK Steams protection system isn't very strong, and that's why many games have additional protection systems(Securom etc). So even if DCS would be available in Steam, that wouldn't mean that we'd get rid of StarForce.

 

Also afaik indie devs (like ED is) get better deals from Steam, but I'd assume that ED has already asked for a quote if they considered it.

 

Must say that as a customer I have been happy with Steam, and have purchased many games from it. Especially week-end sales are great.

In regards to that, easiest way to avoid piracy on Steam without the DRM would to make the multiplayer component the main reason for playing. Even if you get a pirated Steam game working, you will never be able to play online.

 

But to be honest, DRM is really more of a reason for people to torrent a cracked version of the game, sans StarForce. I understand the sentiment behind DRM, but the simple fact is that people who pirate a game will do so anyhow. Which really sucks, I know, but there's really nothing you can do.

 

But to the publishers: If there's going to be DRM, how about FADE? If anything, it's quite effective against piraters and people trying to copy it. That and piraters flocking to support forums whining that the game sucks because the missiles never hit the tanks and everything is all bugged would be worth a laugh. Eventually having all the instruments go completely off after two weeks and having the rotor blades shatter 10 minutes in flight would be hilarious and you'd be able to catch people who are playing on pirated software.

 

StarForce is going to be a major issue for me at least, I run a SATA combo drive, no IDE devices on my computer.

Edited September 13, 2009 by Hunt3r.j2

[GGTharos]

ED is going with online activation based SF (ie. driver-less).

 

Other solutions have been looked at and rejected. I'm locking this thread since it's pretty much going nowhere.