Is Steam on the verge of being sold?

[Fanatical Meat]

Originally posted by: crownjules

Originally posted by: Red Irish

"Plans" do not constitute a binding contractual agreement.

No, that's part of the buyer-seller agreement you enter into with Valve every time you make a purchase. You purchase the right to own a copy of and play that game and therefore Valve must plan for the possibility that Steam service has to be shutoff and people still need to play those games they've paid to own. Not doing so exposes the company to an incredible amount of risk and loss of credibility. Valve are not stupid.

I'm pretty sure they've stated as much as well. I can't search the Steam forums at work, but I've seen the contingency plan talked about on other forums.

I think the original poster is trying to say that a statement is just that, if Valve was going bankrupt or chaper 11/13 or even sold to another person this could all change, who cares about reputation for a bankrupt company also how do you plan on getting your games? Are you really going to hire a lawyer to recoup loses from games? Let's pretend another company buys Valve and starts charging to re-download games you have uninstalled. I see his point regardless I am a big steam fan, I have lost more disks and stupid game keys than I can imagine so for me steam is an easy decision. Even if I may lose them due to Valve going under or they somehow expire. I really am not that concerned about keeping a game more than a year or two.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: Fanatical Meat
I think the original poster is trying to say that a statement is just that, if Valve was going bankrupt or chaper 11/13 or even sold to another person this could all change, who cares about reputation for a bankrupt company also how do you plan on getting your games? Are you really going to hire a lawyer to recoup loses from games? Let's pretend another company buys Valve and starts charging to re-download games you have uninstalled. I see his point regardless I am a big steam fan, I have lost more disks and stupid game keys than I can imagine so for me steam is an easy decision. Even if I may lose them due to Valve going under or they somehow expire. I really am not that concerned about keeping a game more than a year or two.

Does anyone truly believe if Steam went out of business they'd lose access to 100 games? I mean outside of playing devil's advocate and just arguing for the sake of arguments.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Once again I understand his point, I do believe he is being a bit crazy. Also keep in mind you have no physical CD so transfering them to a new PC would be difficult.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: Fanatical Meat
Once again I understand his point, I do believe he is being a bit crazy. Also keep in mind you have no physical CD so transfering them to a new PC would be difficult.

I transferred all my games to a new computer 2 weekends ago, was the fastest 100+ games I've ever installed in my life.

Although, if Steam were to go bye bye with no way of redownloading content (which I don't think would be the scenario), I'd start by burning a few bluray disks....

 

[alcoholbob]

Wait you mean downloading from steam was incredibly fast? I mean I know downloading can be fast depending on your connection but a DVD will install at 20+ MB/s, it would be hard to find an internet connection that fast.

 

[Kelvrick]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
Wait you mean downloading from steam was incredibly fast? I mean I know downloading can be fast depending on your connection but a DVD will install at 20+ MB/s, it would be hard to find an internet connection that fast.

Probably getting the dvd, putting it in, finding whatever serial number it needs. Then being there to click all the "Next" buttons. With steam, highlight a bunch, hit install and do other shit.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Fanatical Meat

Originally posted by: crownjules

Originally posted by: Red Irish

"Plans" do not constitute a binding contractual agreement.

No, that's part of the buyer-seller agreement you enter into with Valve every time you make a purchase. You purchase the right to own a copy of and play that game and therefore Valve must plan for the possibility that Steam service has to be shutoff and people still need to play those games they've paid to own. Not doing so exposes the company to an incredible amount of risk and loss of credibility. Valve are not stupid.

I'm pretty sure they've stated as much as well. I can't search the Steam forums at work, but I've seen the contingency plan talked about on other forums.

I think the original poster is trying to say that a statement is just that, if Valve was going bankrupt or chaper 11/13 or even sold to another person this could all change, who cares about reputation for a bankrupt company also how do you plan on getting your games? Are you really going to hire a lawyer to recoup loses from games? Let's pretend another company buys Valve and starts charging to re-download games you have uninstalled. I see his point regardless I am a big steam fan, I have lost more disks and stupid game keys than I can imagine so for me steam is an easy decision. Even if I may lose them due to Valve going under or they somehow expire. I really am not that concerned about keeping a game more than a year or two.

No one is going to buy Steam just for their platform , they would be buying them for their customer base. If someone bought them and did something like that, then you lose that customer base immediately.

I work in the SaaS industry and know how much it costs to build a platform with Steam's capability. It doesn't cost so much (in time or money) that you would just buy Valve and tell the customers to piss off to get a leg up on platform development.

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: aka1nas

Originally posted by: Fanatical Meat

Originally posted by: crownjules

Originally posted by: Red Irish

"Plans" do not constitute a binding contractual agreement.

No, that's part of the buyer-seller agreement you enter into with Valve every time you make a purchase. You purchase the right to own a copy of and play that game and therefore Valve must plan for the possibility that Steam service has to be shutoff and people still need to play those games they've paid to own. Not doing so exposes the company to an incredible amount of risk and loss of credibility. Valve are not stupid.

I'm pretty sure they've stated as much as well. I can't search the Steam forums at work, but I've seen the contingency plan talked about on other forums.

I think the original poster is trying to say that a statement is just that, if Valve was going bankrupt or chaper 11/13 or even sold to another person this could all change, who cares about reputation for a bankrupt company also how do you plan on getting your games? Are you really going to hire a lawyer to recoup loses from games? Let's pretend another company buys Valve and starts charging to re-download games you have uninstalled. I see his point regardless I am a big steam fan, I have lost more disks and stupid game keys than I can imagine so for me steam is an easy decision. Even if I may lose them due to Valve going under or they somehow expire. I really am not that concerned about keeping a game more than a year or two.

No one is going to buy Steam just for their platform , they would be buying them for their customer base. If someone bought them and did something like that, then you lose that customer base immediately.

I work in the SaaS industry and know how much it costs to build a platform with Steam's capability. It doesn't cost so much (in time or money) that you would just buy Valve and tell the customers to piss off to get a leg up on platform development.

Whilst I agree that it is highly unlikely that Steam users would be left out in the cold in the event of the sale of the platform, I think that it is misleading to suggest that Steam customers would have legal grounds to sue Valve if their access to the service was revoked or modified. Have you read the terms of the contract? Are you leasing a licence to use the game or is it your property? I am not a lawyer; however, I feel that it is wrong to allay fears via conjecture. It is not my intention to be a fear-monger, but statements of goodwill do not represent legally binding contractual agreements, whereby, from a legal point of view, Steam users may find their options limited. Unfortunately, all transactions involving pc games now require the user to read over the contract with a magnifying glass. Hopefully, another poster with greater insight into the legal implications will reply with evidence to prove that Steam users have no grounds for concern; however, until such time, I would suggest that grounds for concern do in fact exist.

 

[sandorski]

Repost----Seam is not For Sale.

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: sandorski
Repost----Seam is not For Sale.

I also doubt that Valve is on the verge of selling a very lucrative platform. However, even as a hypothetical situation, the thread has brought up several issues that bear consideration.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
Wait you mean downloading from steam was incredibly fast? I mean I know downloading can be fast depending on your connection but a DVD will install at 20+ MB/s, it would be hard to find an internet connection that fast.

Copied D:\Steam from 1 HDD to the other HDD, reinstalled Steam back over itself, opened it up, it saw all my games as installed and I launched TF2 / Drakensang and off I went. Was a beautiful thing.

I've also reinstalled all from Steam on another occasion, it was nice, in that it was easy, but it was a long process, I kicked it off overnight and then went to sleep, it was done when I woke up.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Red Irish

Originally posted by: sandorski
Repost----Seam is not For Sale.

I also doubt that Valve is on the verge of selling a very lucrative platform. However, even as a hypothetical situation, the thread has brought up several issues that bear consideration.

This was discussed last August/Fall. It was bogus.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
If EA buys Steam, I will insist on DRM-free DVDs for all software purchased on Steam, at EA's expense.

Last I checked, you can back up all the files on your own media for safe keeping to to just eliminate the need to re-download the files. Personally, if EA took the helm I would download, delete, and re-download games I don't play anymore as many times as I could before they stopped me.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: zerocool84

Originally posted by: Lonyo

Originally posted by: Superrock
They are positioning themselves to be service providers rather than purely a software company. I think in the far future they'll charge a nominal fee for better service and consumers like us will welcome it.

They already charge a nominal fee. It's called inflated prices over retail.
If you want to tell me that the cost for bandwidth/hosting is equal to the cost of manufacture, shipping, retailer cut, then please go ahead.
Until Steam prices games lower than retail they are already charging a nominal fee through their pricing and people are (as this thread would indicate) not getting good enough service.

I have never paid retail or above retail for any game on Steam.

Me either, but I have purchased many games on disc that are below Steam's prices. I'm also willing to pay more for a disc than what Steam is charging as long as Internet activation or installation of system level drivers (cough...Starforce) isn't involved in the installation process.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: crownjules

Originally posted by: Red Irish
Didn't they promise to offer you an activation revoke tool or make a commitment to ensure that your agreement with them would be honoured in the event of Steam being sold on to another company? What's that, they didn't? Oh well, time for the juice again.

Valve has had plans in place since the beginning of Steam to unlock all games for people for offline play in the event that they have to shut down Steam. Just think for a minute at the size of the class action lawsuit that would be thrown at Valve if they said "Well guys, sorry we can't keep Steam running and all that money you spent to buy games is gone because we're not letting you play your games anymore. Sorry, but you're SOL." It would be suicidal on their part to operate without such a contingency.

Some other responses on things mentioned in posts here:

Valve still needs to charge full price for games through Steam because of B&M retail stores. Those stores will not sell games if there's a place that is going to undercut their prices right from the get go. Valve compensates for that by offering a lot of sales and discounts - a lot of the time you can pre-purchase for 5% off.

I also doubt Blizzard would be a potential buyer of Steam since they are in the process of turning Battle.net into a similar type service.

Ever tried suing and collecting on a bankrupt company?

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Red Irish

Are you leasing a licence to use the game or is it your property?

It's always just a license to use the game, the only thing you ever own when buying physical media is a piece of plastic with bits etched into it.

 

[BassBomb]

Heres hoping we see a Episode 3 or Portal 2 in 2009

 

[videogames101]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
Heres hoping we see a Episode 3 or Portal 2 in 2009

This! :beer:

 

[Modelworks]

Well right now it is kind of a dry spell for pc game releases so Steam isn't going to be doing a whole lot, sort of taking it easy for a bit. Doesn't mean they are being sold, just that things are working okay for the majority of folks and there isn't really that much to do, so priorities are elsewhere.

When you run a business you place your focus on what is generating the most revenue. Remember that if nobody buys games , steam makes no money. There is no monthly fee keeping it going during dry spells.

Steam also can license its technology to companies without ever selling the service. So that always remains a option for income.

 

[badnewcastle]

Maybe steam is just big now and they simply don't have the time that they used to have.

That's my take on it.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
Heres hoping we see a Episode 3 or Portal 2 in 2009

Please no more episodes, they were aweful. I want Half Life 3. Come on guys, it's been almost 5 years.

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: aka1nas

Originally posted by: Red Irish

Are you leasing a licence to use the game or is it your property?

It's always just a license to use the game, the only thing you ever own when buying physical media is a piece of plastic with bits etched into it.

Yes, that was my point. Therefore, if the company folded, they may be revoking your licence but they are not stealing your property, which may limit your grounds for legal action.

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: Red Irish

Originally posted by: sandorski
Repost----Seam is not For Sale.

I also doubt that Valve is on the verge of selling a very lucrative platform. However, even as a hypothetical situation, the thread has brought up several issues that bear consideration.

This was discussed last August/Fall. It was bogus.

Sorry, but I fail to see how a hypothetical situation can be bogus.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Red Irish

Originally posted by: aka1nas

Originally posted by: Red Irish

Are you leasing a licence to use the game or is it your property?

It's always just a license to use the game, the only thing you ever own when buying physical media is a piece of plastic with bits etched into it.

Yes, that was my point. Therefore, if the company folded, they may be revoking your licence but they are not stealing your property, which may limit your grounds for legal action.

You'd be in the same boat if EA or some other publisher went under and their online activation scheme stopped working, your physical media would be a useless piece of plastic then.

 

[Red Irish]

Yes, I am aware of that: two wrongs don't make a right.