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STEAM | November 2015 - Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty Never Changes

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Thorgal

Member
Skyrim after 4 years of modding still looks pretty awesome .

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Aren't the publishers sill getting the money in some form? Unless there are spies at these company's handing out keys.

Not counting marketplace style sales obviously. But I doubt the bigger "unauthorized" stores are running a stolen credit card ring.

To me it just feels like places such as GMG are doing what we used to. Which is taking advantage of regional pricing.

Based on the post that YianGaruga linked in the "explain cdkeys to me" thread on gaming side, the publishers still get money, unless it's a case like the polygon article where the key to Gravity Ghost which they bought had originally sourced from a review key the dev had provided to someone. Hell, the post that was linked talked about how the publishers sold the keys to his company directly and then he provided them to g2a or kinguin or whatever.

So I think the publisher still gets money, just not directly from the sale, unless the keys have been sourced through channels where they were provided for publicity.
 

lashman

Steam-GAF's Official Ambassador to Gaming-GAF
Endless Legend and Dungeon of the Endless updates incoming

A few months ago Amplitude announced Endless Space 2, but that doesn't mean the developers there (the "Amplidudes and Amplidudettes") aren't working on anything else. In fact, both Endless Legend and Dungeon of the Endless are due to receive updates later this month.

First, on November 19 (this Thursday), Endless Legend will get a free update the team is calling "Forges of Creation", which—as the name suggests—is related to modding. While modding is already available, this update connects it to the Steam Workshop and makes further improvements: "for example by adding compatibility to a popular Map Editor (bring forth your favorite fantasy worlds to Endless Legend!) or the ability to reskin 3D units". The update also makes improvements to the AI, which will carry forward to Amplitude's other games in future.

That's all free, but they'll also release a paid-for content pack called The Lost Tales that includes 20 quests related to Minor Factions. There's also Echoes of Auriga, a pack of seven musical tracks composed by FlyByNo, along with some related items such as the "Harp of Noby Fly".

On November 24, Dungeon of the Endless will also get a free update called "Organic Matters", which contains content that was conceptualised by players in competitions. It includes the Organic Spaceship, three new monsters, a new Rosetta hero, new minor modules, a new ending sequence, and a gamepad interface.

Dungeon of the Endless will also get a mini content pack called The Rescue Team that adds three Rescue Team heroes with "very unique skills", two new monsters, and a new major module. If you want to find out more, Amplitude will talk about the updates on Twitch on this Thursday November 19.
 

Grief.exe

Member
Aren't the publishers sill getting the money in some form? Unless there are spies at these company's handing out keys.

Not counting marketplace style sales obviously. But I doubt the bigger "unauthorized" stores are running a stolen credit card ring.

To me it just feels like places such as GMG are doing what we used to. Which is taking advantage of regional pricing.

Not really.

To break into some of these regions the publishers need to partner with regional partners for key distribution, these corrupt partners then turn around and sell these keys to GMG, G2A, and other resellers.

The publishers do see some money from the initial sale, but a very small percentage of what the game ends up selling for.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
So... GMG isn't an authorized key reseller?



Like, how was this not known earlier.

WB is a bit of a surprise, however GMG's promotional prices for Anno 2205 and Black Ops 3 made it quite obvious that the keys were in fact lifted from retail copies.
 

Grief.exe

Member
But its a PC-Franchise first and foremost and modding. Also cheap steamkeys from g2a, thats why the console version still made 1000% more revenue.

Did it?

Generally the PC version has higher margins. Even if it has lower sales, it tends to equal or succeed the console versions in revenue.
 

Sch1sm

Member
But its a PC-Franchise first and foremost and modding. Also cheap steamkeys from g2a, thats why the console version still made 1000% more revenue.

You can mod Fallout 4 on console now, though, right? But the PC version is superior regardless, I guess, no difference.
 

SSPssp

Member
Fallout 4 already close to that number on pc alone based on Steamspy.

Steamspy has it at 1.8 million on Steam alone now.

After seeing it hit almost 500k simultaneously, I figured it was at least at 2-3 million on Steam. If those numbers are correct, that means on launch day at one point almost half of the people who bought it were playing at the same time.

The article is about digitally distributed copies though. The difference might be retail boxes, they actually produced quite a bit. Most of those keys are probably resold online but won't count as digital.
 

Lomax

Member
The article is about digitally distributed copies though. The difference might be retail boxes, they actually produced quite a bit. Most of those keys are probably resold online but won't count as digital. (Funstock etc.)

Except there's no way for them to learn those numbers from anyone. In fact, it looks like the three day steam total was taken directly from steamspy.
 

Parsnip

Member
I'm retiring Castle in the Darkness after about 8 hours.
Got as far as
the Sorcerer's Quarters and beat the doppelganger boss
.
Just can't deal with more instant death spikes. Just can't. Also the more I play the more the weird screen switching/scrolling is getting on my nerves. And there's something weird about the controller support on that one as well, it feels odd but I can't quite put my finger on why exactly.
 

SSPssp

Member
Except there's no way for them to learn those numbers from anyone. In fact, it looks like the three day steam total was taken directly from steamspy.

Oh, so they don't actually source their own information? Sorry, never mind then!
 

Grief.exe

Member
You can mod Fallout 4 on console now, though, right? But the PC version is superior regardless, I guess, no difference.

Not really.

On PC, people think about visual fixes, bug fixes, hacks etc, these won't be available on console. People will be able to build a town and mod their console game, so there's that.
 

Lomax

Member
Oh, so they don't actually source their own information? Sorry, never mind then!

Specific retail/digital sales numbers aren't available. All of those numbers are estimates, or calculated using a system like steamspy. I'm not saying the numbers are wrong persay, but they aren't going to have the means to isolate retail steam copies sold digitally.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Aren't the publishers sill getting the money in some form? Unless there are spies at these company's handing out keys.

Not counting marketplace style sales obviously. But I doubt the bigger "unauthorized" stores are running a stolen credit card ring.

To me it just feels like places such as GMG are doing what we used to. Which is taking advantage of regional pricing.

True, but as far as I'm aware nobody here started a business taking advantage of the regional price gap where they went on to sell to thousands or hundreds of thousands of customers. Even the more prominent regional price sellers around here such as Dunder didn't have nearly the same scope as sites like GreenManGaming. For example, I wouldn't put a link on Enhanced Steam saying "Email this guy for a better deal..."

Based on the post that YianGaruga linked in the "explain cdkeys to me" thread on gaming side, the publishers still get money, unless it's a case like the polygon article where the key to Gravity Ghost which they bought had originally sourced from a review key the dev had provided to someone. Hell, the post that was linked talked about how the publishers sold the keys to his company directly and then he provided them to g2a or kinguin or whatever.

So I think the publisher still gets money, just not directly from the sale, unless the keys have been sourced through channels where they were provided for publicity.

Yes they still get paid (in a way) but as others have said it's almost certainly an issue where regional prices are being exploited. So let's say you're GMG - and WB offers to sell you keys for the latest Batman game that are authorized for distribution in the UK and US at $42 each. You can turn around and flip those for $60, meaning you walk away with a hefty $18 profit as the middle man. Now let's say you find a source similar to the one linked in the other thread where a local branch of WB offloads 100,000 keys for Batman to a seller at $10 each who wants to double that and sell them to GMG for $20 each. GMG takes the deal and ends up with $40 profit each (vs $18) and it's pretty easy to see how this would be an easy business decision for them.

However, the publisher just made $32 less per sale, giving them a huge incentive to want to try to clamp down on this sort of behavior in the future by using region locking or other DRM that's, generally speaking, unfriendly to consumers.

So while I think I understand the scope of what's happening here - the more that sites continue to operate like CDKeys and now GreenManGaming become popular, the more likely it is we'll see further and further regional restrictions and DRM put in place to curb this behavior. We saw it happen on the Steam store directly, and I think it's only a matter of time before it happens on the "key redemption" side as well.
 

Vlad

Member
Gunpoint was a little gem, Ronin seems like a rushed title, it lacks polishing, it lacks a plot, it lacks variety, unlock skills is way too difficult because to get one you need to complete each bonus objective in a level, and 99% of them are basically impossible to do on your first try, this means play the same level many times. Also when you get new skills, you need to fill a combo bar in order to use them. This is almost impossible, since 99% of the time you are avoiding bullets, and each time you avoid a bullet, you lose the combo.

I think you might have been playing Ronin a bit wrong. I know it's all up to individual skill level, but I had no problem completing the side objectives first time, every time. The objectives were almost always "kill everybody", "no lockdown", and "don't kill civilians". I had some issues with one mission where the civilian AI was acting up a bit, but otherwise it was fairly straightforward.

And it's not so much that you lose your combo when you avoid a bullet, but you lose it when you don't DO anything in a turn. I'd have good luck keeping a combo going if I aimed my jumps so I'd end my turn right above an enemy. Everybody would then be aiming up in the air at me, but I'd have the option to drop down and kill the guy. You said you were having issues with jump accuracy? That would only be the case if you bump into somebody along the way. Obviously that would interfere with your trajectory. Also, your jump line would change color if your turn would end mid-jump.

After playing through Ronin and really enjoying it in the end (although I initially didn't like the last level, either) I did play through Gunpoint to see what all the fuss was about.

Gunpoint was garbage.

I personally don't mind a game that doesn't have much enemy variety if you keep fighting them in interesting situations (both Mark of the Ninja and Ronin were good with this), but Gunpoint had, what, two types of enemies?

It also didn't help that every single level in Gunpoint was exactly the same. Wirejack the colored circuits in a certain order, rewire doors/lights to manipulate guards, get to laptop/whatever, leave.
 

Red Hood

Banned
When is the soonest we can expect Fallout 4 to get a sale? I've been yearning to buy it day one, but I have an important paper due and I'm very easily distracted.
 

SSPssp

Member
Specific retail/digital sales numbers aren't available. All of those numbers are estimates, or calculated using a system like steamspy. I'm not saying the numbers are wrong persay, but they aren't going to have the means to isolate retail steam copies sold digitally.

Thanks. I guess I'll just take everything but the headline numbers with a grain of salt then. I didn't know specific data wasn't available.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Oh wow, I think I might rebuy this game.

I'm definitely down for double dipping on a physical release. Will probably get a PS4 copy so I have an excuse to play it again to get all the achievements again on another platform.
 
Free steam game: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/11/16/free-steam-game/

cultofthewind2.jpg


Cult of the Wind [official site] is a third-person multiplayer shooter in which your character casts their arms wide and pretends that they’re an airplane. You need to be moving in order to shoot and you can briefly morph into an actual plane in order to launch yourself short distances. It’s silly and simple and we’re giving away 300,000 copies of it for free below.
 

Lomax

Member
Let's see now what the consoleboys will say to discredit that.

As a pc exclusive gamer since before the first Fallout came out, seeing a Fallout game sell over 80% of its copies on consoles is a bit weird to me. Especially given that it's both cheaper and better on PC.

Thanks. I guess I'll just take everything but the headline numbers with a grain of salt then. I didn't know specific data wasn't available.

That's why we love steamspy, it's shown us real digital sales numbers pretty much for the first time ever.

When is the soonest we can expect Fallout 4 to get a sale? I've been yearning to buy it day one, but I have an important paper due and I'm very easily distracted.

I can see it getting a small discount on GMG and then there being a voucher, which could bring it to 35-40% off total.
 

dex3108

Member
I just did Level 23 contract with Level 12 Geralt :D It took me 20+ minutes but i did it in first try :D I really love this game. But yeah combat is missing few more moves.
 

madjoki

Member
We saw it happen on the Steam store directly, and I think it's only a matter of time before it happens on the "key redemption" side as well.

There seems to similar locking system for keys. It's just matter of publishers starting to use it and distribute different keys per region. (So no need for separate subs or anything).

Afaik. so far only some indie dev used and accidentally locked keys for a bundle to Russia.
 
Thanks for the birthday wishes, guys. Here's some more stuff:

ModBot said:
Instructions for ramoisdead:
Press the quote button to the left of this PM, select the quoted text, copy, and paste in the thread. You can remove these lines from the version you paste.

Instructions for participants:
I am giving away 9 Steam keys. To enter this giveaway, send a PM to ModBot with any subject line. In the body, copy and paste the entire line from the message below that corresponds to the game you want. (if you include more than one game, you will be blocked from entering). Confused? Watch this GIF tutorial or ask for help.

ModBot Basics:
- I really appreciate thank you messages, but please send them to me (ramoisdead, not ModBot!) via PM instead of in thread.
- Do not trade keys you win off-site to enrich yourself. Don't try to claim games you have no interest in collecting or playing. Don't claim games to give them to friends off-site.
- If the key is already taken you will not receive a reply. Replies may take a minute or two.

Rules for this Giveaway:
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Fairy Bloom Freesia -- MB-CF39B6018259DEBD - Taken by Beelzebubs. 1 entrants total.
Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians -- MB-3302AEDFC6D9B77B - Taken by Costa1774. 1 entrants total.
Insurgency -- MB-E21DB3E668911803 - Taken by texhnolyze. 1 entrants total.
Teslagrad -- MB-E6C63F9DC9303D1D - Taken by Kifimbo. 3 entrants total.
Contagion -- MB-266D1595577DF7E3 - Taken by Megauap. 1 entrants total.
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger -- MB-B8F674A4C182F651 - Taken by MarcoZombieCannon. 4 entrants total.
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t1447695129z1.png
 

Lomax

Member
I almost think publishers are afraid to region lock keys because it would reveal what a high percentage of the stuff out there is being sold that way.

Speaking of region locks, did any steam copies of Witcher 3 ever end up locked? I know there was a lot of debate before release but I can't remember hearing if any did or not.
 

Tizoc

Member
So I decided to try Batman Arkham Knight
I set just about everything to Low, and enabled AA and Vsync.
Apparently higher video graphic options cause stuttering but as is the FPS is...well it's playable for me.
Honestly it's strange; Fraps shows it runs between 20-30 FPS, yet the game performs well for me without issues.

Can I still get a refund on the Season Pass if I beat the game?

Speaking of which how do I change Bats' outfit and Batmobile skin?
 

Sober

Member
So I decided to try Batman Arkham Knight
I set just about everything to Low, and enabled AA and Vsync.
Apparently higher video graphic options cause stuttering but as is the FPS is...well it's playable for me.
Honestly it's strange; Fraps shows it runs between 20-30 FPS, yet the game performs well for me without issues.

Can I still get a refund on the Season Pass if I beat the game?

Speaking of which how do I change Bats' outfit and Batmobile skin?
Yes they are still taking refunds until the end of the year.

Also to switch Batman's outfit, go to Showcase in the main menu. Batmobile you can't do anything about until later.
 

Lomax

Member
So I decided to try Batman Arkham Knight
I set just about everything to Low, and enabled AA and Vsync.
Apparently higher video graphic options cause stuttering but as is the FPS is...well it's playable for me.
Honestly it's strange; Fraps shows it runs between 20-30 FPS, yet the game performs well for me without issues.

Can I still get a refund on the Season Pass if I beat the game?

Speaking of which how do I change Bats' outfit and Batmobile skin?

Pretty sure they said you can only get a season pass refund if you refund the main game as well.
 

Tizoc

Member
Yes they are still taking refunds until the end of the year.

Also to switch Batman's outfit, go to Showcase in the main menu. Batmobile you can't do anything about until later.

Alright thanks.

My copy of Batman AA is one of those NVidia Key things, but the Season Pass I bought myself, what's the situation in this case?
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
So in light of GMG's recent shenanigans and their flippancy on Reddit I've decided to remove their deals from Enhanced Steam. It's always been my policy that the vendors included in Enhanced Steam's deal links be authorized by the publishers to distribute keys. It seems that Green Man Gaming no longer fits this criteria.

They've been removed from the API server side, and the next version released will remove their options from the extension options as well.

I've reached out to GMG and have asked them to provide properly redacted contracts from the publishers whose games they sell, which I believe is the same request that mods on /r/GameDeals made. I also said that if they provide the mods of /r/GameDeals with sufficient enough evidence for them to be reinstated there then I will do the same without needing to see the actual documents.
 

Lomax

Member
So in light of GMG's recent shenanigans and their flippancy on Reddit I've decided to remove their deals from Enhanced Steam. It's always been my policy that the vendors included in Enhanced Steam's deal links be authorized by the publishers to distribute keys. It seems that Green Man Gaming no longer fits this criteria.

They've been removed from the API server side, and the next version released will remove their options from the extension options as well.

I've reached out to GMG and have asked them to provide properly redacted contracts from the publishers whose games they sell, which I believe is the same request that mods on /r/GameDeals made. I also said that if they provide the mods of /r/GameDeals with sufficient enough evidence for them to be reinstated there then I will do the same without needing to see the actual documents.

Eh, that seems unnecessary to me. It's not like they are sketchier than most of the bundle sites. Are you still listing Nuuvem now that most of their stuff is locked?
 
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