oh, this is something I might be interested, but so far it seems very unlikely
Edit: Any chances of seeing Alan Wake during the sale?
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STEAM announcements & updates 2012 Thread 2 - Bad Rats Daily Deal for next 6 months
- Thread starter MRORANGE
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oh, this is something I might be interested, but so far it seems very unlikely
Edit: Any chances of seeing Alan Wake during the sale?
Steam had me sold on one thing: finding it when having trouble installing Half Life 1 and discovering I could use my HL1 key to freely download it and related expansions/mods (well, "games" now I guess) as often as I wished. Basically the service and convenience of Steam, combined with Digital River's presence elsewhere and having that ridiculous download "insurance", had me sold on the service, with respect for Valve coming second; I'm not really a huge fan of their games, though I like Portal plenty and the marketing for Team Fortress 2, but I respect how they run their business and consider it an ideal for the industry at large.
BertleTheTurtle
Member
I'm really OCD about my playtime. I'm not sure why, but that's why I prefer to have games on Steam. Damn you Minecraft.
Tony is quickly becoming my favorite poster. Sorry Salsa.
Tony is quickly becoming my favorite poster. Sorry Salsa.
Dog Problems
Banned
Amazon has some of the best damn customer service I've ever experienced. I hope Valve gets their act together on that end eventually.
toddhunter
Member
If you are, or pretend to be an American?
Imagine if we had Steam Video Gamer and Origin Video Gamer posting here as well, it would be glorious!
Amazon Video Gamer
Banned
Me too. I think what they did with TF2 will eventually (if it isn't already) viewed as a landmark in new product development and reaction to changing marketplaces.
They made a business out of selling digital hats...I kid you not, in every interview I've ever been in I've used that as my example for "tell me about a marketing initiative you think was really successful and why".
It's cool. Salsa is MY favorite poster so we've come full circle right?
Cheers,
Tony
dammit tony what's next, free candy?
BertleTheTurtle
Member
You messed up the decimal. It's more like .4694631%.
After they shit they pulled with D2D I flat out refuse to buy from them. I usually don't buy from GS but when they do have a steamworks game I burn my GS credit if it's cheap enough. Though I really should just spend it on a Steam card.
DeVeAn
Member
Amen! Love Amazon and I can't say that for any other online/retail store.
This is accurate
Also, on the Steam vs. Everyone else discussion:
I'll be the first to say, Valve has built an amazing platform for managing and playing games...one that I used before I worked in my current position and still use today.
They also built a phenomenal retail engine around it.
I've said it before and I will say it again. I don't care where our customers play their games, as long as they buy them from us and enjoy them.
One thing I think we (Amazon) do better than anyone in the marketplace is provide world class customer support.
This is hard to fully appreciate until 2 things have happened though:
1. You've needed a world class CS team and your problem was solved very quickly and to your satisfaction
2. You've needed a world class CS team and it didn't exist
If you've ever been in one of those situations you can marginally understand the value of a robust Customer-Centric corporate culture (which is what Amazon is built on).
If you've experienced both then you REALLY get why it is important.
Just my 2 cents.
Cheers,
Tony
World class doesn't mean that you need to provide services to everywhere in the world. It means that you're among the best in the world.
Dog Problems
Banned
It'd suck for customers no on GAF, haha.
Eh, they've been good to me.
I ordered some headphones a few months back, and one of the buds stopped working after about three weeks. Got on the Amazon chat service, and within 5 minutes they'd put through a new order for a replace, no questions asked, no cost to me. It was great.
I am in Australia.
Amazon Video Gamer
Banned
I really like the other company reps I've run into on the intertubes.
the Kmart guy on CAG was super awesome and the guy from GMG on Reddit is a really nice dude as well.
I hope I get to meet some of these guys eventually at E3 or PAX.
Cheers,
Tony
Amazon Video Gamer
Banned
It's probably James, I think he's their go-to community guy. He's a rockstar and I've learned a ton from observing how he builds community.
Cheers,
Tony
Among my other issues with the game I wanted to play in black and white... until it asked me to find a gold door handle.
I don't necessarily focus on Steam myself... I just end up generally stumbling onto deals for games I want on that service more and keep on getting keys specifically for that service whenever I jump on an indie bundle. I also use GoG and recently Desura, actually getting a key for a game on the latter service for a change. The other services, I never use at all.
toddhunter
Member
Reminds me of "Look that guy is eating a grey banana!"
bonus points to whomever gets that reference.
Glass Rebel
Member
I think I've used every major digital service except D2D/Gamefly because they won't let me for some reason. I've bought from Steam, GamersGate, Impulse/GameStop, Green Man Gaming, Amazon, GOG.com and even GetGamesGo so it's not like I won't go to other stores with my money but I haven't bought a non-Steamworks game in years (GOG.com is the obvious exception of course).
I mean, call it fanboyism but it's really laziness/convenience. The Steam client is always on when I'm on my PC and most of the time when I'm on my laptop as well, Steam chat has become my go-to IM and I like the added community features I so I'd rather have all my games on this service. I don't hate other stores (well, except for Origin because it's redundant) but I just don't want to use them for the mentioned reasons. I might use Desura in the future if Valve don't improve their indie situation though.
I mean, call it fanboyism but it's really laziness/convenience. The Steam client is always on when I'm on my PC and most of the time when I'm on my laptop as well, Steam chat has become my go-to IM and I like the added community features I so I'd rather have all my games on this service. I don't hate other stores (well, except for Origin because it's redundant) but I just don't want to use them for the mentioned reasons. I might use Desura in the future if Valve don't improve their indie situation though.
I don't see what's so different about Origin. It's a stand-alone storefront that you use to install games, just like GMG's Capsule or the Impulse client. You don't need to keep it running at all times like Steam.
toddhunter
Member
It's all about trust. I trust that Steam will be around in 2 years (if not the thread will be glorious). I don't see a big future for Origin, so I don't want to invest in a game library for it.
That and I only have to remember one password.
KrayzeeGloo
Neo Member
Well it probably doesn't mean anything, but I just went to purchase Space Marine and everything took exponentially longer than usual to load and even popped up with an error once or twice. It ended up going through, though, and download speeds are fluctuating between about 2 and 4 megabytes per second (internet usually holds a solid 3 or 3.5 when downloading from STEAM). At least I'll have somethin' new to hold me over if the sale doesn't start in 9 and a half hours!
endresults
Member
Instead of refreshing Steam, I'm refreshing this page. The collective orgasm that's going to go down in this thread when the sale hits is going to be epic.
D
Deleted member 10571
Unconfirmed Member
Say, Tony, is there an actual reason why Amazon isn't supporting Paypal? I would have bought a LOT of games (and other stuff) from Amazon so far if it wasn't for that :sadface:
im gonna guess that's because Paypal is owned by Ebay
Amazon has a competing payment service called "Amazon Payments". I'd guess that has something to do with it.
D
Deleted member 10571
Unconfirmed Member
Hmm, but that doesn't hinder other online retailers, does it? Is Ebay really that much of a threat to Amazon? Why would other, smaller shops use it, they have way more to lose. I guess I'm not made for the business world :/
they wanna push their own thing with Amazon Payments
Its like if the next xbox will use blu-ray discs or come up with its own thing
Small shops use it because they don't want to devote resources to developing their own payment processing system. For a larger company it doesn't make sense to use it and give up that % cut to PayPal when you can develop your own, and this is especially true for a giant company like Amazon.
Amazon Video Gamer
Banned
It has nothing to do with being a threat. It is just a directly competing service that affects more than just customer payment options.
To draw a VG parallel, we currently sell games that activate on Steam, but in cases where we don't (like Skyrim) we don't have an ad on the product page that says "want this thing digitally? Click here to purchase this game from Steam using your Amazon account."
It just doesn't make sense from a business perspective.
Hope that helps explain, it is a fairly complex scenario though.
Cheers,
Tony
For BF3 and ME3, the two Origin games I have bought, you do need to keep it running. This also seems to be the case for bigger releases (read: not The Sims Katy Perry 2) going forward.
Oh. That sucks.
I'd have spent around £40-£50 if Amazon took Paypal. But as they don't, and I don't want to get hit with bank charges, I'm just waiting for the Steam sale now.
Shame as there's some great deals for Americans there. Or for people who don't have bank charges for buying with foreign currency :/
Shame as there's some great deals for Americans there. Or for people who don't have bank charges for buying with foreign currency :/
Jables Swan
Member
I played in black and white on the Xbox and now in colour on the PC. Black and white was fun though.
Glass Rebel
Member
You need to have it running for BF3 and ME3, don't you?
But as I said, it's redundant. It doesn't provide anything that Steam couldn't have handled as well or even better. I'm not saying that EA isn't allowed to make their own store and make their games exclusive to it but I don't have to like it either. There isn't a single game that forces me to use the GMG client for example and while GameStop's system with the Impulse client is kinda stupid, for my purposes I just have to use it once per purchase to get my key.
I mean, I own several EA games on Steam but suddenly they decide that they don't want to sell stuff through Steam anymore because they don't want Valve to take a cut from their DLC sales even though everybody else is playing fair?
Then there's also the hilariously bad prices and lack of sales for Switzerland/Europe, hell, the whole region based shenanigans. I mean, Steam is sometimes as awful as Origin with publisher set prices but I can't even buy Syndicate on the Swiss Origin store even though it's sold at retail here.
Last but not least the whole trust issue. Buying a game from EA is mostly ok. I barely play MP and as a PC gamer I have the benefit of dedicated servers for the most part. But then there's all the other bullshit they've pulled in the last few years that makes it hard for me to trust them as a digital distributor on the PC marketplace. I'm not even talking about the quality of the releases but all the different ways EA has treated their customers, PC gamers specifically, like shit. Just a few examples that have affected me directly:
- American McGee's Alice was a preorder exclusive if you bought Alice Madness Returns on Origin but there's no other way to buy it now for some reason. Square Enix did almost the same shit with Dungeon Siege 1+2 on Steam. I wouldn't trust them with my money either.
- The Burnout Paradise Store has been closed. There is no way to purchase said content anymore and if you still want to play it, you have to resort to hacks which is basically stealing/pirating.
- I don't know about the Outbreak Map Pack but Dead Space 2: Severed isn't available on PC.
- The Cerberus store for Mass Effect 2. Instead of DLing the DLC through Steam you have to get it from their site and install it separately. Probably the single worst "store" I've ever used. BioWare points? Come on.
- I've yet to buy the Mirror's Edge DLC because it apparently won't work with the Steam version. I've registered ME on Origin for future use but come on, this is ridiculous.
- There's no DLC for NfS: Hot Pursuit on PC because of "limited ressources".
I mean, I could go on with how they haven't released several major titles on PC or how it took them years to get the same engine as the consoles for the PC verison for FIFA but this is kinda beating a dead horse. You can even look at other platforms to see how trustworthy EA is.
At least for me, these are enough reasons not to trust EA as a distributor but of course everybody is free to go wherever they want.
Witchfinder General
punched Wheelchair Mike
Bought Alpha Protocol for $5.99 at Get Games. Think I'll play it after I finish Crysis 2.
I really should start to play Alpha Protocol again. Can't remember if I was tired or just plain irritable but I only put it down because the hacking segment sent me into a "who the fuck ever thought doing it this way was a good idea" fury.
j0hnny_385
Member
AFAIK, yes.
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