Valve and Vivendi reach settlement over Steam

Submitted by charlie.collins on Mon, 05/02/2005 - 12:56

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Technology

Ars has the details. Basically Vivendi was selling the retail Half-Life and so on games and Valve came up with that Steam crap. The Vivendi deal goes back to a deal which Valve had with Sierra (Liesure Suit Larry Sierra). Vivendi/Sierra got pissed at Steam for subverting the distribution chain, Valve said piss off. Valve it seems has triumphed as the new agreement gives Valve pretty much all the control. Now I said Steam was crap, because it is. I am not opposed to having an online distribution mechanism, not at all, I think thats a great idea in and of itself. What I dont like is having to use the "Steam" account and so on and sign in just to play a standalone game for which I own the CDs. Sure I might get an "update" on my own, as with other games, but I dont want to HAVE to be online and use a net linked PC and such just to play the damn game (and yes in many cases this argument would be weakened because there is no single player mode, or that mode sucks, but in the case of Half-Life 2 the opposite is true, its single player non online only). Steam is a good *optional* component to speed up updates, prevent piracy, prevent cheats, etc, but it should not be required for the standalone game.

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lol 5 years later you look

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 20:38.

lol 5 years later you look back and like lol im an idiot

Um, pretty much nope, still

Submitted by charlie.collins on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 09:19.

Um, pretty much nope, still right on. I would completely agree with that if you read all of it. I'm not against Steam in general (as an option), but I still vehemently disagree with *having* to use it just to play a local game for which I have the media. Of course that "having the media" will be a relic of the past in another few years, but it still pisses me off now to buy a game, then have to login to some online crap (not just Steam, others do it now too), and then download a shitload of updates TO THE ONLINE SYSTEM (not the game, those I appreciate), before I can play it. Guess I don't play often enough, but every time I try to buy a game anymore it's annoying as hell.