Prey To Be Digitally Distributed 67
Gamasutra has word that the Human Head/3D Realms title Prey will be digitally distributed in a manner similar to the Steam service, though not over Steam itself. The Game xStream service, the chosen distribution channel, seems to offer improvements over Steam as well as convenience. From the article: "Gamers will be able to pre-order and pre-load Prey onto their hard drives, ready for instant activation and play upon the official release date...Or, after the official release, players will be able to buy the game and begin playing in minutes, as if the full game was already downloaded. This is what sets Game xStream apart from anything else the industry has seen."
Will it be cheaper? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Will it be cheaper? (Score:2)
Re:Will it be cheaper? (Score:1)
Seems to me you just need to hire some programmers, buy a few servers, and rent a fat data pipe.
Re:Will it be cheaper? (Score:2)
Re:Will it be cheaper? (Score:2)
Re:Will it be cheaper? (Score:2)
It's sort of like the shareware example that I gave in my previous post. There are plenty of people distributing software online and making some decent money at it. But it hasn't really reached its stride yet.
Re:Will it be cheaper? (Score:2)
Re:Will it be cheaper? (Score:2)
http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/6278 [techreport.com]
Re:Will it be cheaper? (Score:2)
Re:Will it be cheaper? (Score:1)
Or a medium bandwith server and a bittorent tracker.
Re:Will it be cheaper? (Score:1)
If every pc based studio goes to its own steam clone distribution method, it will be hard to know what games are new, and how to differentiate games which were made by quality companies from fly by night studios just looking to make a quick buck.
FTA (Score:2)
Hope you don't go beating levels too quickly.
Re:FTA (Score:1)
Re:FTA (Score:1)
Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:1)
I disliked it so much that I didn't buy HL2, and I'd been waiting for it for ages..
Re:Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:1)
Sure, you can "go offline", but this usually involves either unplugging your network cable, disabling the network connection under Windows, or screwing around with Steam files on your HDD.
Why can't they just include a switch, button, or check box that says "Play
Re:Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:2)
What's your point? Steam is just a distribution method. You have to get the game on your HD some way, either by CD's or by downloading it.
I bought HL2 over Steam and never had a single problem. I know there were a lot of issues with it when it was first introduced to replace WON, but I had grown tired of HL and its mods by that point, so I missed out. My first introduction to steam was when I bought HL2 a week before release date. It preloaded everything, and that day
Re:Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:1)
Re:Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:1)
Re:Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:1)
Re:Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:1)
the constant 20MB being sucked away from your machine, each game doesn't need to
load 20MB of custom user interface code full of it's own unique bugs (it just
inherits Steam's - and whatever skin you applied).
Steam's GUI is used as part of the Source Engine, basically.
By the way if you can think of better DRM I am sure Valve would love to hear it.
There is nothing as reliable as handshaking with an internet server, besides of
cour
Re:Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:2)
It seems about the only reasonably uncrackable i
Re:Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:1)
I'm not sure how they'd do it with biometrics but there must be a fairly
reliable way to link some biometric data (iris pattern, fingerprint, DNA
sequence?
Said cryptographic key can then be used to decode the music or movie. With
smartcards this works REALLY well and is the BEST authentication because
there really is only one smartcard for you, and you had to plug it into the
system to get logged in to even read the filesystem with your music on.
Getting everyone to buy a $60 smartcar
Re:Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:2)
Re:Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:2)
It allows me to have my games wherever i want them, whenever i want (as long as i have access to a fat pipe).
I travel often enough and it is quite nice to be able to setup a download for a game the night before and play the next day, anywhere, whitout having to bother about actually packing the CD.
Sure, if the service goes bust, i'll be shafted, but until that time comes, i get lots of usage. I installed at least 4 copies of my Steam games, on 4 different
Re:Am I the only one that doesn't like Steam? (Score:2)
Call me when it gets to 8 gigs. Easily with Steam's content library, and/or 3rd party mods, like Natural Selection, or Science & Industry or whatever. Then there is the addition of maps which will bring it up.
This would happen whether you used Steam or not though.
Steam has several great improvements, content downloading. The biggest problem of steam is probably that it takes up memory, roughly 24 MB in RAM. Also standardizing versions. Frank
The future of gaming... (Score:5, Insightful)
Until... (Score:1)
Re:Until... (Score:2)
Re:Until... (Score:1)
must... use... preview... (Score:1)
Maybe it's secretly an RPG (Score:1)
A massively complicated character generation process could explain how you could be "playing" within minutes of buying the game...:-)
This game still exists?!? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:This game still exists?!? (Score:1)
Prey To Be Digitally Distributed? (Score:2, Funny)
Dear Lord, please make me digitally distributed. Thank You.
Re:Prey To Be Digitally Distributed? (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re:prey (Score:2)
I even remember seeing a screenshot Prey with a comment about how nice 16-bit textures looked.
There's just too many levels of irony here...
Re:prey (Score:2)
Rob
Re:prey (Score:2)
Re:prey (Score:2)
Wow (Score:1)
Who cares it was delayed almost a decade?!? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Who cares it was delayed almost a decade?!? (Score:1)
Re:Who cares it was delayed almost a decade?!? (Score:2)
Re:Watch them sell zero copies (Score:3, Informative)
But... (Score:2)
Re:But... (Score:2)
You could pre-order HL2 and download all the content, then they give you the decryption keys on the official release day. The annoying thing about that was that it insisted on decrypting everything before you could play...
You could download the bare minimum (engine, some basic models, etc) and fire up the game. It would continue downloading as you played. The disadvantage is that neither HL nor HL2 provide progress bars on all those "loading" screens, an
Re:But... (Score:2)
You can copy stuff directly - I think it's just a matter of copying the whole Steam installation (via Ethernet, carrier-pigeon, floppy disk, IP-over-flatulence, whatever), deleting clientregistry.blob, starting Steam again and logging in with the new account.
Oh, one more thing -- if you're going to embed stuff, embed GOOD stuf
Re:But... (Score:2)
Like whatever you install with Steam? If they wanted to insist that you have an up-to-date Firefox or Mozilla, they could do it -- and even provide the distribution means.
or including a potentially-outdated Mozilla rendering engine.
Most apps embed Gecko instead of linking to it, which makes sense -- after all, if you're using Mozilla, anything you n
Re:But... (Score:2)
Shut that guy up!
Seriously, don't give them ideas. I use Firefox, but if I installed a game and it insisted on (amongst other things) that I install a particular web browser, it would just annoy the hell out of me.
I get wound up enough that the Steam icon that sits in the tray has UI that uses kewl skinz, which is sitting ther
Re:But... (Score:2)
There's a reason we have SHARED LIBRARIES. Too bad that translates into DLL HELL on Windows.
How to play without net connection? (Score:2)
blinded by marketing bs (Score:2)
Sorry, but I still can't understand what makes this service different than Steam. Looks like the marketing people have been locked up with their game in 3D Realms' basement for ten years.