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[Pixieking]

I think being able to download and update games is still enticing enough for Publishers.

If Steam were in a vacuum, sure. But Origin and UPlay are both things which do the basic download/update (and, hell, I think you can gift games in both clients, too!).

Steamworks is a lot of things

Steamworks tools
Edit your product's Steamworks metadata
Add and edit Achievements
Create and edit your product's presence in the Steam store and community
Author gameplay stats definitions and descriptions

Steam Community Integration
Game Hubs – A collection of the most popular official and user generated content for your game including Screenshots, Videos, Game Guides, Artwork, Discussions, Workshop Items, News Posts, and Official Announcements
Official Game Groups - Communicate directly with users by using your dedicated game group
Steam Workshop - Allow users to easily share and download custom content for their game or software

That's a lot that is useful, but also, not so much that charging is a foolproof idea.

 

[Popstar]

Ten sausages but it's not really clicking with me yet.

Anyone else making better progress?

 

[DasFool]

Ten sausages but it's not really clicking with me yet.

Anyone else making better progress?

Yeah, beat the first area, but the second is a pretty big spike in difficulty. Try to suss out the rules of sausage manipulation rather than go for a solution. Things like: if a sausage is jutting out over a cliff and there's no way to get parallel to the loose portion, then there is no way to return it to its original position.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

I just tore my ACL by looking at that.

 

[FLD]

Ten sausages but it's not really clicking with me yet.

Anyone else making better progress?

41 sausages here. So far I've been able to solve every puzzle that stumped me by taking a break from the game and coming back with a fresh mind. They're starting to get more complex, though...

 

[pantsattack]

I always thought it was a matter of time until pubs can't generate keys from Steam to sell other places. I'm feeling that more than ever with the gifting news.

 

[JaseC]

RIP Bernardo and JaseC

Since the recipient also receives an e-mail, there's the option of sending the gift to an alt account and making note of the redemption URL. The wrinkle here is that it's not possible to send multiple gifts of the same game to the one account, so if you want multiple spares, you'll need multiple accounts.

Edit: Ah, I just did a quick test and this doesn't actually work: the link is only valid for the recipient. Anybody else will receive a generic error message.

I always thought it was a matter of time until pubs can't generate keys from Steam to sell other places. I'm feeling that more than ever with the gifting news.

That's never going to change. Even Valve sells its games on a few other digital storefronts. Keys may not always be as free and simple to generate as they are now, though.

 

[pantsattack]

Since the recipient also receives an e-mail, there's the option of sending the gift to an alt account and making note of the redemption URL. The wrinkle here is that it's not possible to send multiple gifts of the same game to the one account, so if you want multiple spares, you'll need multiple accounts.



That's never going to change. Even Valve sells its games on a few other digital storefronts. Keys may not always be as free and simple to generate as they are now, though.

Do you think stores like Humble, for example, will get a system to redeem games directly to your Steam account? Where you would never see or handle a key at all?

 

[Madventure]

Do you think stores like Humble, for example, will get a system to redeem games directly to your Steam account? Where you would never see or handle a key at all?

They had that for about a week? or something on humble before everyone bitched like crazy

Don't remember why they changed it back, but you were unable to do separate keys for games or anything like that when they did it

 

[JaseC]

Do you think stores like Humble, for example, will get a system to redeem games directly to your Steam account? Where you would never see or handle a key at all?

Such a system actually already exists and was used by a few bundle sites for a while before Valve ditched it for some reason. I can definitely see it coming back and being more widely available as a means of curbing key reselling.

 

[Popstar]

Yeah, beat the first area, but the second is a pretty big spike in difficulty. Try to suss out the rules of sausage manipulation rather than go for a solution. Things like: if a sausage is jutting out over a cliff and there's no way to get parallel to the loose portion, then there is no way to return it to its original position.

Yeah, I've figured that "rule". I think I need to get more of a feel for moving sausages around each other when necessary.

41 sausages here. So far I've been able to solve every puzzle that stumped me by taking a break from the game and coming back with a fresh mind. They're starting to get more complex, though...

Did a couple that stumped me yesterday today. I'm sure if I keep at it I'll eventually start having sausage dreams.

 

[iosefe]

so what happens to items currently in inventories?

 

[JaseC]

so what happens to items currently in inventories?

Nothing.

 

[Coldsun]

so what happens to items currently in inventories?

Free to trade them as you wish.

 

[Ascheroth]

You guys it is mutha fuckin Spaceplan. http://store.steampowered.com/app/616110/SPACEPLAN/

You like clicking things right? Right. And potatoes? Those too. Who needs this steve guy anyway.

Whoa, never thought I'd see this on Steam.

 

[Tagyhag]

Whoa, never thought I'd see this on Steam.

I feel like I've been saying that for the past 5 months, it's been sweet.

 

[Chance Hale]

Wrong thread

 

[Ascheroth]

I feel like I've been saying that for the past 5 months, it's been sweet.

It's been a good time indeed.

Apparently there's some new content to go with the new presentation and platform as well.

Nice.

 

[Hektor]

The threshold for gifts is 10%? That means I wouldn't even be able to gift to brits or Americans lmfao

€: or rather it's the other around. I'm stupid

 

[Kadin]

Got a new 480 GB SSD which I'm planning to use mostly as a Steam drive. Opinions on how much space I should leave for optimum performance? My OS is also on an SSD and have a backup HDD.

 

[Catshade]

You guys it is mutha fuckin Spaceplan. http://store.steampowered.com/app/616110/SPACEPLAN/

You like clicking things right? Right. And potatoes? Those too. Who needs this steve guy anyway.

The free browser version of Spaceplan for those who want to try the game.

 

[zkylon]

would be funny if after all this nonsense valve went and raised argie prices 15% just to fuck with us

 

[Pixieking]

would be funny if after all this nonsense valve went and raised argie prices 15% just to fuck with us

Somethingsomething publishers set prices, Valve only set prices on their own games (and we know how few of them there are) somethingsomething

 

[zkylon]

Somethingsomething publishers set prices, Valve only set prices on their own games (and we know how few of them there are) somethingsomething

yeah just joking

honestly i just gifted people through humblestore, which was lame cos they don't get a cool email with a league of legends download link like they should but you know, it works

codemasters regionlocking the humble monthly keys tho is pretty lame and probably means region locking is eventually gonna spread out to other stores i guess

which in the end is like, sucky, cos i can't gift stuff, but not the end of the world i suppose, i don't buy off grey market dealers anyways so nothing big changes for me here

 

[Arthea]

what I find most weird about this whole situation: buying gifts (inventory ones) and just buying them for giveaways makes valve extra money, the new system just makes them less money without any benefits. Or am I missing something?

This is really odd.

I especially am sad for all region locked games that now can't be gifted to those regions. This sucks.


aww, Trails started dropping down in the bestseller list, no longer third.

 

[JaseC]

what I find most weird about this whole situation: buying gifts (inventory ones) and just buying them for giveaways makes valve extra money, the new system just makes them less money without any benefits. Or am I missing something?

That it's now impossible to buy a gift for later use means it's impossible to buy gifts to resell.

 

[Arthea]

That it's now impossible to buy a gift for later use means it's impossible to buy gifts to resell.

but how is it a benefit? it just makes them less money when people can't buy gifts to their inventories, especially of games that are removed.

 

[NingenJanai]

Time to move to GOG.

 

[JaseC]

but how is it a benefit? it just makes them less money when people can't buy gifts to their inventories, especially of games that are removed.

Well, Valve's the one with the data. I can only assume it concluded that snuffing out gift reselling would be more beneficial to both it and publishers than continuing to allow people to buy spares.

 

[Arthea]

Time to move to GOG.

you mean back to gog? I just moved to steam like 5 years or so ago!

Spoiler

the problem with this is... I have 5K games on steam and only 400 on gog

 

[Kaleinc]

Phil Fish didn't lie after all. You need a fucking calculator and spreadsheets to gift on steam now, very convenient indeed.

 

[Ozium]

You guys it is mutha fuckin Spaceplan. http://store.steampowered.com/app/616110/SPACEPLAN/

You like clicking things right? Right. And potatoes? Those too. Who needs this steve guy anyway.

the web version was great, I wonder what's different...

I'll probably just buy it anyways to support him

 

[Pixieking]

Well, Valve's the one with the data. I can only assume it concluded that snuffing out gift reselling would be more beneficial to both it and publishers than continuing to allow people to buy spares.

I wonder if the rare game hoarding/reselling market is something they're actively trying to stamp out? Removed games being sold for 3 or 4 times their original RRP to collectors.

 

[Ludens]

This is for the players.
Also is White Day: A Labyrinth Named School playable without a VR?

 

[JaseC]

I wonder if the rare game hoarding/reselling market is something they're actively trying to stamp out? Removed games being sold for 3 or 4 times their original RRP to collectors.

I wouldn't think so. That's not an inconvenience as the game is no longer available. What can be harmful, though, is people hoarding spares during sale periods and selling them for a cheaper price than the store once the discount period is over.

 

[Chairmanchuck]

What happens to games that arent available in my region?

Lets say I want to get DQH2 when there is a sale. Would that be possible if someone gift it to me from the US to China?

 

[Pixieking]

I wouldn't think so. That's not an inconvenience as the game is no longer available. What can be harmful, though, is people hoarding spares during sale periods and selling them for a cheaper price than the store once the discount period is over.

Ohhhh yeahhhh... Didn't think of that. Ages since I've used SteamTrades, but, yeah, there was a time when I was checking it all the time for bargains traders picked-up in the sales.

 

[Arthea]

What happens to games that arent available in my region?

Lets say I want to get DQH2 when there is a sale. Would that be possible if someone gift it to me from the US to China?

no longer, no, and that's what makes this update a very bad thing

 

[ashecitism]

You've got the wrong end of the stick. I was responding to the now-outdated belief that Valve "is not in the single-player, narrative-driven game dev business any more", so the particularly relevant portion of the article I linked to is the paragraph above that which you refer to. Namely:

This is far more affirmative than past comments from Newell: first that Portal 2 may very well be Valve's "last isolated single-player experience", and, more recently, that there would have to be a very compelling case for a cabal to double-down on a traditional single-player SKU. To state the obvious, that Valve is working on "fully-fledged single-player games" means it is not done with single-player games, which is all I was getting at.

My bad. I'll believe it when I see it though. Valve is always working on stuff. Though I imagine their VR games will be SP. MP wouldn't make much sense given the limited audience.

Respawn just has its heavily modified Source engine. There's no Source 2 SDK just yet and at this point I'll be surprised if one surfaces before L4D3 or whatever Valve's flagship Source 2-powered game is to be. A release later down the track would be for the best considering the growing pains Troika had to endure when developing Bloodlines with a pre-HL2 Source SDK (well, that and the fact that Valve doesn't need to rush out an SDK since game engine licensing is firmly one of its tertiary concerns).

Let's be real, no one is going to use Source 2 outside of Valve.

 

[Chairmanchuck]

no longer, no, and that's what makes this update a very bad thing

That sucks for games that are only available via Steam....

So people in those countries CAN only pirate those games if they wanna play them.

 

[Hektor]

Let's be real, no one is going to use Source 2 outside of Valve.

What about the source film maker and its porn community

 

[Corpekata]

What we need is one of the consoles to finally add easy gifting to get Steam more competitive on that front instead of taking away features every year.

Or hell, EA and Ubi, get started on it on your own PC platforms.

 

[Dusk Golem]

What bugs me about the new gifting system is I often bought games to gift to others to play multiplayer with down the line, I would buy them sometimes full price to play later.

This sucks for wanting to buy games for poorer friends than you to play multiplayer with.

 

[Ascheroth]

That sucks for games that are only available via Steam....

So people in those countries CAN only pirate those games if they wanna play them.

I thought Valve were the one that said that piracy is primarily a service problem.
Hmmm.

 

[JaseC]

Let's be real, no one is going to use Source 2 outside of Valve.

Yeah, I don't expect it to gain much traction and in fact wouldn't be surprised if Valve simply nixxes plans to licence it out.

 

[Pixieking]

What we need is one of the consoles to finally add easy gifting to get Steam more competitive on that front instead of taking away features every year.

Or hell, EA and Ubi, get started on it on your own PC platforms.

Origin now allows you to send/receive gifts, have a wishlist – but not without some bizarre limitations

But wait, EA have a restriction similar to the new one Valve have just put in

However, and perhaps the strangest limitation of all, is that you're only able to gift friends in the same country as you. What's interesting here is that EA doesn't have a regional limitation, but a country-specific one.

This is actually quite interesting... Could it be publishers have used this as a small amount of leverage with Valve? Origin doesn't allow you to gift third-party games, but maybe pubs saw it and went "Hmmmmm, do something like this"?

 

[Mivey]

Yeah, I don't expect it to gain much traction and in fact wouldn't be surprised if Valve simply nixxes plans to licence it out.

They would probably be open about people making mods, and then perhaps selling them as full games, like Dear Esther, Stanleys Parable and many, many others. That would stay totally within their ecosystem, after all.

 

[JaseC]

What happens to games that arent available in my region?

Lets say I want to get DQH2 when there is a sale. Would that be possible if someone gift it to me from the US to China?

As long as the game isn't notably cheaper (the threshold is currently 10%) in the US, then yes.

 

[Chairmanchuck]

As long as the game isn't notably cheaper (the threshold is currently 10%) in the US, then yes.

Its not available at all in China.

 

[Lanrutcon]

I think the new gifting change made a lot of people over at Denovu very happy.