News - 2K Games will transition a few key legacy titles to Steamworks

[HEXUS]

Borderlands and Civ titles are saved from GameSpy shutdown - but lots of others aren't.

Read more.

[Ferral]

From what I have read of this Borderlands on PS3, they are looking into the viability of transferring that one.

Crysis 1 & 2 are not getting transferred to another service on PC.

EA are however doing Battlefield 2, Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 2142 to keep the games alive.

[Spud1]

It's good that publishers are going to save some of the more popular games, so all credit to them.

I'm still pissed at Ziff & now Glu mind - shutting down NwN and FSX was a pain a few years back, and then a complete shutdown this year..I mean, Gamespy was truely awful throughout it's entire "life" as a service, but still, it's a bit rich to just shut it down wholesale like this.

[Jingee]

Good riddance. Death to the over-abundance of pointless clients that spam our home computers. For every Steam, there's a Windows Live Marketplace that refuses to allow you to play your copy of Arkham Asylum, meaning you have to pirate a copy...

[cps1974]

good riddance to bad rubbish

[Saracen]

....

I'm still pissed at Ziff & now Glu mind - shutting down NwN and FSX was a pain a few years back, and then a complete shutdown this year..I mean, Gamespy was truely awful throughout it's entire "life" as a service, but still, it's a bit rich to just shut it down wholesale like this.

And what happens if, at some point, Steam shuts down?

Granted, it's not looking likely right now, but with corpirations, you never really know. For example, Lehman, GM, Woolworths, and many more have found the ground shifting under them and they struggled to, and in some cases, failed, to stay afloat.

Let's face it, ANYONE buying Steam-dependent games implicitly accepts this risk. It may or may not hapoen, but if it does, you can probably kiss goodbye to any remaining value you felt you had in Steam games.

So, either you accept that risk and continue to buy Steam games (like most people), or you don't, and just don't buy anything requiring Steam (like me).

Either we play games we want, right now, and accept it might all disappear overnight, and that that risk is a price you're willing to pay. Or, like me, you refuse to run that risk, in which case the price is not playing games you otherwise would have played (and bought). It's saved me a fortune, by not being prepared and/or willing to put up with Steam.

[Agent]

And what happens if, at some point, Steam shuts down?

The same can be said about almost any game that features multiplayer though. Almost all of them will need some sort of master server to register their hosted games at. Which of course, could vanish overnight. It's not specifically a Steam thing.
Sure, you can often IP connect directly with a lot of them, but that's not really much use to anyone but the most tech savvy and you already need to know someone who wants to play at that moment in time.

[Saracen]

The same can be said about almost any game that features multiplayer though. Almost all of them will need some sort of master server to register their hosted games at. Which of course, could vanish overnight. It's not specifically a Steam thing.
Sure, you can often IP connect directly with a lot of them, but that's not really much use to anyone but the most tech savvy and you already need to know someone who wants to play at that moment in time.

True, I s'pose, but I'm not really interested in multiplayer games. Or more accurately, not in online multiplayer games. Multiplayer console gaming, to an extent, yes. And from one to a few friends together, here at my place or at a friend's, yes. But online? Not really. I'd rather play standalone than that, TBH.

[shaithis]

And what happens if, at some point, Steam shuts down?

You lose multiplayer and download a crack?

While it was a bit of a joke....it is still what most would probably do. But seriously, there is a big difference between Steam and GFWL. Steam actually is a profit making platform, whereas GFWL was not.....in fact, I still wonder what the hell Microsoft were thinking when they cobbled together the GFWL platform and am still mystified as to why they did not just extend all XBL functionality to Windows....especially when they have now written the new client for Windows 8.1 (XB1)...and maybe they could have even asked for the 40 quid a year subs for it.

At the moment I am more worried by UPlay and Origin. UBI are ~$200m in debt....EA around $600m.

[Saracen]

You lose multiplayer and download a crack?

While it was a bit of a joke....it is still what most would probably do. But seriously, there is a big difference between Steam and GFWL. Steam actually is a profit making platform, whereas GFWL was not.....in fact, I still wonder what the hell Microsoft were thinking when they cobbled together the GFWL platform and am still mystified as to why they did not just extend all XBL functionality to Windows....especially when they have now written the new client for Windows 8.1 (XB1)...and maybe they could have even asked for the 40 quid a year subs for it.

At the moment I am more worried by UPlay and Origin. UBI are ~$200m in debt....EA around $600m.

I take the semi-joke point, but I resent the notion that I can legitimately buy a game and pay my money, and then have to break the law and download a crack in order to, at some point, be able to play it. If I wanted a cracked game, why would I buy it in the first place?

It's the principle, and while there are a few software packages that are important enough to me that I'd put up with it, I do so very resentfully, and there isn't a game important enough to me to put up with that.

[bombinho]

From what I have read of this Borderlands on PS3, they are looking into the viability of transferring that one.

Crysis 1 & 2 are not getting transferred to another service on PC.

EA are however doing Battlefield 2, Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 2142 to keep the games alive.

Pretty late answer, but as time did tell, it was only announced as so often in the history of EA.
They could have either integrated Origin or even Steamworks or allow the community to help with this.

So many oldsters sell on Steam brilliantly and EA apparently does neither need the money nor do they seem to need their previous fans that ripped them the battlefield titles out their hands. They rather risk people not buying anymore just to squeeze a few pennies more out in the short term.

Why should anyone buy an EA product anymore? If you feel like digging it out and doing once more what you used to love you just will find out, it does not work anymore artificially and deliberately.

On the one side revolutionary concepts, brilliant customer service but products with a short life span and often not usable at all.

BF3 was brilliant in its first days and with every new patch it became more and more unplayable. My hitbox became more and more a separated person from me. Often I got shot in places I had left seconds ago. But there were good days as well.

BF4 took almost half a year before I could start it. Though the beta worked fine just the final crashed straight to desktop.

BF2 did not work in the Origin version since years. But the Steam version worked a treat.

BF2142 in the Origin version has not been able to be used for almost two years but the DVD version did work like a treat. I would love to see a Steam version but with integrated Steam Works instead.

BF Bad Company in the Origin Version does not start anymore. but my Steam version ... you get the drift.

Please wake up EA, accept that in terms of versioning, updates and server accessibility Steam is decades ahead. And I can not see that those servers run for EA really safe them so much money. The steam ones are there anyway. And well maintained for a change. You do not cut your own hair for a fairly simple reason! Well one should not anyway. Keep your Origin as a hobby and a strategic instrument. But you have shown anyway that you are unable to keep your own servers alive for long enough. Which means the strategic effect is more of an long term unattended scare crow.