DCS available on Steam soon please?

[fearlessfrog]

Hi,

 

Any chance DCS BlackShark and upcoming Warthog will be available to buy on Steam?

 

I know not everyone loves it, but I'd really like it - an DCS instant purchase if I could.

 

Over the holiday season (and their excellent holiday sales they do) most of my PC purchases have been on it - really convenient in these times of good bandwidth...

 

Thanks!

[GGTharos]

No, DCS will not be available on Steam any time soon.

[element1108]

You can buy it online off the dcs website. It's better than steam because it's not steam ;) jk.

[fearlessfrog]

Thanks for the quick reply GGTharos.

 

Just out of curiosity, what was the issue with Steam? -I'm guessing it's due to the % they take as the distribution platform or was it something else?

 

I multiplayer on it a lot, i.e. it's the PC's equivalent of Xbox Live really, and being able to do that on DCS would have have been ideal. I.e. online community aspects of it etc.

[GGTharos]

If I recall correctly, and don't quote me on that because I don't know the exact details, it was too expensive, as well as it did not offer the protection that SF would.

There are other caveats as well, IIRC, that may have to do with mods.

[fearlessfrog]

Makes sense - thanks.

 

I think other Steam games, i.e. Bioshock and GTA4 use SF as additional protection as well, but not sure if that's a new thing or not.

 

My thinking is kinda selfish (as I just seem to purchase games via Steam, and it's ideal to have them in one place :)) but also for ED, i.e. for how excellent these DCS sims are I don't think they get enough notice or attention.

 

A year a go Steam was not so successful as it is today, so basically my thinking is that if more people knew about DCS then more people would buy it - and Steam could be a way to do that.

 

I'd only see it as an additional option, i.e. keep the ED download and DVD retail ways but just add Steam as an option, even with a $59.99 US mark-up to protect margins...

 

PS IL-2 is one of my most used Steam games - lots of mods too!

Edited January 7, 2010 by fearlessfrog

[GGTharos]

Adding SF on top of Steam is basically paying twice :)

 

And I don't think Steam would care for the higher price-point...why would people buy that? :)

 

In any case, ED made the correct decision for them.

[GhostDog]

DCS on Steaming POS? Blasphemy!

[weasel75]

While I do not give the smallest F:music_whistling: about "steam", the idea for the "mass-market" remains valid - expose the game to a really large audience.

 

But then again - if Steam would enforce exclusive rights, it would be a loose-loose for all of us - ED would not target the right folks, and the steam-punks (pun intended) would not get/understand ED's simulations ... mostly.

 

So let's praise what we got.

FC2.0 anyone?! :D

[fearlessfrog]

I don't think Steam would ever need to be exclusive, especially for DCS. I agree that would make no sense: But there are over 50,000 people playing COD:MW2 on steam at the moment (http://store.steampowered.com/stats/) and they basically paid about $10 more due to the convenience of being it on that platform (rather than via Amazon.com and the disk). People might actually pay more, even than the ED download option?

 

In the area of strategy games and simulations then Steam is helping that market, mostly through downloadable content, i.e. perhaps DCS being modular could offer maps, aircraft/vehicles on a per pay model?

 

http://store.steampowered.com/genre/Simulation/

 

Older games tend to do well too, as people browse back catalogues and 'impulse' buy quite a bit. Hardcore sims like ARMA 2 actually draw quite a following on steam, so it's not all 'mass market' morons :-)

[GGTharos]

ED is quite happy with D2D, and they see no reason to switch to Steam at this time :)

[Krippz]

ED is quite happy with D2D, and they see no reason to switch to Steam at this time :)

 

I'm happy with D2D aswell, awesome service; purchased both Black Shark and Allied Force through D2D.

[isoul]

Keep in mind that, as far as I know, Steam has some restrictions in place for modders.

 

I used to play Warhammer40k : Dawn of War(fantasy strategy) and I liked the feature you could put your own army badges&banners. Now that DoW2 is on Steam the modding isn't that easy...not to mention that Games for Windows Live restricts every mod that isn't from the game company.

 

More or less putting DCS on Steam would be just another reason to be frustrated since I only reasons that Steam is install in my PC is DoW2 and Empire:Total War. If I had the option to get these two games without having to use Steam I would go for it even if it would prove 10euros more expensive SINCE STEAM OFFERS ALMOST NOTHING!

Edited January 8, 2010 by isoul

[Bucic]

I want to be able to pay for DCS Black Shark with live stock. Also I want it to be delivered to me by Polish Postoffice. Pocztex service only. As for the download version - I want it to be delivered by swistak.pl - a file hosting service, which I think is cool. Oh, and I don't want StarForce.

This is pretty much how it sounds to me.

[Lucas_From_Hell]

they basically paid about $10 more due to the convenience of being it on that platform (rather than via Amazon.com and the disk)

 

I don't know if you'll ever understand it, but here's the thought: for one reason or another, a pretty good number of simmers prefer to have a hard copy with them, instead of the downloaded one. I'm one of these.

 

I would pay more for the boxed version than for a downloaded one any day of the week. It's just more practical to reach for the box, put the CD and do your thing than download it and access it directly from the computer. It's just... wrong :P

 

All simulators I have installed are the good ol' boxed version. Lock On, Rise of Flight, DCS, IL-2... And I hope it continues this way forever :D

[isoul]

I don't know if you'll ever understand it, but here's the thought: for one reason or another, a pretty good number of simmers prefer to have a hard copy with them, instead of the downloaded one. I'm one of these.

 

I would pay more for the boxed version than for a downloaded one any day of the week. It's just more practical to reach for the box, put the CD and do your thing than download it and access it directly from the computer. It's just... wrong :P

 

All simulators I have installed are the good ol' boxed version. Lock On, Rise of Flight, DCS, IL-2... And I hope it continues this way forever :D

 

Still many companies believe that its less expensive for them to distribute digitally only. I understand that since there are no DVD copying or manual printing etc. etc. But wait...are the digital versions any cheaper than boxed ones? Nope, you just pay the same and get less! The only thing a digital download is good for is to find games that somehow never published in your country or find games that aren't sold(or are rare to find) in the selves of most stores.

[Lucas_From_Hell]

Isoul, but in none of these I got any printed manual or what-so-ever, so it has no advantage over the digital...

 

It's just the box and the disk, nothing else. Still, I prefer it :D

[Total]

There's no way to fit that manual into the box unless it was a REALLY BIG box.

 

Still, I waited for the box to come out. Call me old fashioned, but I always enjoyed seeing the box edge and the title on my shelf :D

 

Now, if I was addicted to buying games like alot of people, I wouldn't have the shelf space for all of the boxes. In that case, digital downloads are more convenient. I think I have MAYBE 13 games on my shelf lol!

[Bucic]

I have two questions:

 

1. Why would anyone prefer D2D over paying by PROTX and downloading from the official site?

 

2. Are both methods instant i.e. one can start playing DCS BS as soon as the download process finishes?

[EtherealN]

Still many companies believe that its less expensive for them to distribute digitally only. I understand that since there are no DVD copying or manual printing etc. etc. But wait...are the digital versions any cheaper than boxed ones? Nope, you just pay the same and get less!

 

Get less? I am able to access my copies of DCS and FC at any time, from any computer. I've worked through no less than three physical copies of LockOn that have ended up with their physical media either scratched or simply lost while moving house.

 

I have never lost my copy of FC, simply because all I have to do to retrieve it is remember the adress to the LO website. Even if I have forgotten my password and all that stuff - I do remember my e-mail adress and therefore my copy is secure.

 

The only thing a digital download is good for is to find games that somehow never published in your country or find games that aren't sold(or are rare to find) in the selves of most stores.

 

Also good for avoiding the pitfalls of physical media.

 

As for why digital publishing is good for developers is quite obvious: first of all it allows a smaller developer to self-publish, since it is a lot easier to devise a digital distribution method than to set up contracts with printers, distributors for all continents, contracts with all the zillions of outlets out there AND with a very limited overhead.

 

Google Atari and find out how they pretty much went bankrupt on spending money on printing cartridges that didn't get sold. (There's literally hundreds of thousands of cartridges in landfills in the US.) Digital distribution allows costs to be tied to actual sales and cuts out the risks of either losing sales because you didn't print enough or going bankrupt because you printed too much.

 

...

 

All of that said, I am still old-fasioned myself and love picking a box up. I was part of the people who absolutely RAGED when publishers stopped using the old big boxes and started with those awful DVD cases. It just wasn't the same! But the advantages vastly exceed the sentimental loss, imo.

 

I have two questions:

 

1. Why would anyone prefer D2D over paying by PROTX and downloading from the official site?

 

Good question, though D2D does offer additional exposure since it's a big hub. I have myself purchased games that I wouldn't have known about at all if I didn't spot them while browsing D2D. In this sense it is similar to Steam. (Same story there on my part.)

 

2. Are both methods instant i.e. one can start playing DCS BS as soon as the download process finishes?

 

Yes.

[Bucic]

Good question, though D2D does offer additional exposure since it's a big hub. I have myself purchased games that I wouldn't have known about at all if I didn't spot them while browsing D2D. In this sense it is similar to Steam. (Same story there on my part.)

 

Thank you but by "anyone" I mean users - not developers/publishers :) I guess there is no rational reason to go for D2D if one knows of both methods - D2D and official site.

[H-street]

i know its been said No to steam but i really hope in the future ED reconsiders.. i can understand they want to keep margin high but steam is just so convenient.

 

in the end as long as ED will let me redownload BS in 10 to 15 years it doesn't really matter but have to say i love the centralization of steam. also the idea of keepign saves/configs (missions?) in steams cloud would also be a great feature. Then reinstalling or crashes or anything like that won't matter because your pilots data, your missions etc would all be saved on the cloud :)

[RvEYoda]

I think steam is not being considered due to high costs?

But also have a look at one of the competitors :

"Impulse", which I think in most ways is superior to Steam.

http://www.impulsedriven.com/

( wow their main page is ugly, luckily their app is pretty :))

[71st_Mastiff]

steam is a good way to push games out the door, they like to buy in bulk and sell in quantity.

 

Very good business model in that they can sell allot of games and push them out to the market.

 

Also it save you from losing to much software.. as you can down-load if you get a new system..

[Erdem]

I think devs are making a great mistake by not putting this awesome simulation on the biggest/best game distribution market on the internet.

 

I would buy DCS again on Steam just because of it's convenience and ease of use. D2D is "draconian" and "archaic" by comparison to Steam.

 

Also what's with the "high costs" thing? There are LOTS of indie developers earning money from Steam. Heck, even devs like Tripwire interactive managed to sell 500.000 copies of their generally unknown game of "Red Orchestra" and made it a popular franchise. Steam also doesn't charge for bandwith, developers can roll out as many updates/content as they want.

 

The "Starforce" argument is also false, because developers can choose to use "3rd Party DRM" if they want. There are many games using SecuROM and TAGES on Steam.

 

Seriously some people on this forum should check it out, rather than bad mouthing about it. It's not the 2003 "barely working" Steam anymore.