A poll regarding Steam keys for Elite : Dangerous owners
- Thread starter dreamer1986
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Hello all, sorry but I'm unable to officially vote. Think it's because I'm still new to these forums. But in either case I thought I would at least say "I WANT A STEAM KEY!"
I like having all of my games on Steam, this way I can go to one spot to download and play my games. Instead of going to other web sites to download my purchased products when I wish to play them again. I hate having to store backups of games I've purchased elsewhere, just so I can loose them, or loose the activation codes, etc, etc. Having ED activated on Steam would make it so much more convenient. Also I would love to be able to give a positive review of the game on Steam, right now I can't because my account doesn't show that I own ED yet.
Again, just putting my 2 cents worth here.
Thanks.
Hello all, sorry but I'm unable to officially vote. Think it's because I'm still new to these forums. But in either case I thought I would at least say "I WANT A STEAM KEY!"
I like having all of my games on Steam, this way I can go to one spot to download and play my games. Instead of going to other web sites to download my purchased products when I wish to play them again. I hate having to store backups of games I've purchased elsewhere, just so I can loose them, or loose the activation codes, etc, etc. Having ED activated on Steam would make it so much more convenient. Also I would love to be able to give a positive review of the game on Steam, right now I can't because my account doesn't show that I own ED yet.
Again, just putting my 2 cents worth here.
Thanks.
Sure, Ok.
I'm cool with this. Charge me $5 so Steam can have their pound of flesh... then give me Steam key. I really don't care how it works, outside of forking another $60 for the same game. (I don't even know how percentages would work out for the earliest of founders who dropped a C-note + on the game.)
There is a part of me that thinks they probably knew they were going in this direction for a while, though. And while that was going on, I have to wonder if part of that thought process could have been, "Oh, hey, we kinda said we weren't going to do Steam, but now we are so... you think any of our backers would probably want a Steam key?"
To which NO ONE replied, "Naaaaaaaah. Never would happen."
I'm cool with this. Charge me $5 so Steam can have their pound of flesh... then give me Steam key. I really don't care how it works, outside of forking another $60 for the same game. (I don't even know how percentages would work out for the earliest of founders who dropped a C-note + on the game.)
There is a part of me that thinks they probably knew they were going in this direction for a while, though. And while that was going on, I have to wonder if part of that thought process could have been, "Oh, hey, we kinda said we weren't going to do Steam, but now we are so... you think any of our backers would probably want a Steam key?"
To which NO ONE replied, "Naaaaaaaah. Never would happen."
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You need to prove 100% that your accusations are true otherwise we have to take frontier for their word.
You do understand that Valve is also a corporation too, don't you?
One which virtually dominates the PC gaming market. You do understand that Valve did absolutely nothing at all to develop Elite, but are now taking money from the sale of it, cutting into revenue for future development and the potential wages/bonuses for Frontier employees, don't you? You do realise that Valve do this to almost every PC game on the market now, don't you? Raking in vast profits from game developers at a time when game studios are struggling badly.
You do understand that a console exclusive title will get tech support from the console manufacturer to help develop it, as well as extra revenue for doing so (as 343 did for Halo), and that PC exclusives now will have to share any profits with Valve.... don't you?
Is it any wonder PC gaming is being overlooked by developers?
Yes Valve is a corporation, but you make it sound like steam came swooping in and forced frontier to publish through them, Valve hasn't forced anyone to publish through them. What Valve has done is create a reliable service that is now so loved by gamers that Game Developers have come rushing to sell their games through them. Frontier decided that it was now a good time to publish through steam because their sales numbers from the initial hype have fallen, and they want to take advantage of steams marketing platform to boost sales. Frontier, will make more money at this point by selling through steam than if they wouldn't, otherwise they wouldn't do it, that would just be bad business. And developers always have to give a cut of the profits to publishers, even if it's a console game. In fact, most publishers take way more than steam does because they have to cover the costs of printing disks and packaging and so on, Valve takes very little by comparisson, they oony have to sell digital downloads. That's also one of the reasons steam has such killer sales, copies of the game cost them nothing. If you really want to understand, you need to learn about the stockmarket and shareholders and the pressure they put on game companies. Take EA for example, EA is a publicly traded company, that means that you can buy their stock on the market. When a company goes public like EA, the whole game changes, it becomes more about pleasing shareholders than actually producing good games. That's why EA is so terrible and produces such trash, they will do anything that is technically legal to get every penny out of us, but that often means we get screwed. Valve on the other hand is not a publicly traded company, they don't make their money through the stock market and therefore need to answer to no one but themselves. That's why Half Life 3 hasn't been released, if Valve were publicly traded, we would be on Half Life 12 by now, but they would all be terrible with too much DLC and no story line. anyway, this all makes me sound like a Valve fanboy but I'm not, I trust Valve at the moment a little more than other companies, but if I feel like they're ripping me off, I won't hesitate to call them out. anyway, I'm so far from my point I don't know where I am any more. But I didn a little research, and lo and behold, Frontier Developments is also a publicly traded company. That means that basically half the power of the company lies in the shareholders hands. Probably even if the good people at FD wanted to give us free steam keys, they couldn't, because it will hurt their bottom line and that's all the shareholders care about. Most Shareholders base theis decisions on nothing more than the stockprice, they know absolutely nothing of the relationship between customers and developers, and that's no way to run a gaming company. So this is how I see it, Frontier is now moving to steam even though they said they wouldn't, for money, they are not releasing steam keys in the hopes that people will buy it agian, again, more money. Now if you actually look at Frontiers stock page you will see they are worth 76.72 million pounds. That's a lot of money, and remember, these guys needed a kickstarter campaign to release Elite Dangerous, that's basically free money with no risk, that's like if paramount needed kickstarters to make movies, could you imagine! (yes I know paramout is much bigger) Anyway, my final point is this, Frontier is doing crappy things to the people who funded this game, and it's so that they can please their shareholders. A lot of regular people put up their own hard earned cash because they wanted to see a new Elite game, many paying much more than the retail cost of the game. Many of these people were curious if it would be released on steam, Frontier said it wouldn't. 4 months after release, Frontier puts the game on steam. Alot of the original backers thought that was great, they always wanted it on steam in the first place, but wait, if I want the steam version I'm going to have to pay another €50? But I already paid €200 to help get this game off the ground! And I asked if it would be on steam and they said no! And why are they doing this? So they can please their shareholders! This is so frustrating, we can't trust game developers to keep their promises any more, this is why I am so angry.
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@Badben Michael Brookes said this: "For those of you who already own Elite: Dangerous from our store and asked about getting the game in your Steam collection: we hear you and we’re looking into it. We can’t speak for other cases where the same question has come up, but turning EliteDangerous.com customers into Steam customers unfortunately isn't 100 percent our decision and isn’t free for us in the context of the game’s ongoing growth and development. It could take a few weeks to work through, but we hear your feedback and addressing it is a priority for all of us."
So I hope that they will give a way to link accounts with Steam in a few weeks.
So I hope that they will give a way to link accounts with Steam in a few weeks.
that's what I hope too, and what I expect to happen. Honestly this will all blow over and we'll all forget about it soon. I'm not really angry with Frontier, not yet at least, if they release steam keys then all will be good and all of my blustering will stop. I just want to make sure that people see the bigger picture behind large corporate decisions, and try and steer Frontiers focus towards pleasing customer base rather than shareholders, the squeeky wheel gets the grease as they say.
You're right, Valve hasn't forced anyone. PC gamers have. In an act of absolutely brazen collective stupidity we've given a monopoly to a corporation. A corporation which does nothing to assist in the development of games developed on the platform it now owns (unlike consoles), and which takes quite a large chunk of any profits for doing considerably less than 30% of the publishing and advertising in a lot of cases (game companies still have to pay out to gaming magazines, websites etc for coverage).
Then in an act of collective cognitive dissonance we're complaining that PC gamers are being ignored by developers.
We did this.
Steam doesn't love you. I don't mean that in the sense that if you showed up at Steam offices and asked for a loan because you'd been such a loyal steam customer, traces of your DNA would be found in the faeces of their guard dogs the next day. Well that's true, but that's not my point. The point is that Steam simply doesn't give a monkeys uncle about you, just your money. I know you're already reaching for your keyboard, ready to say that FD is just the same, just after our money...
...you know what? Ok. I'll concede that point completely, but here is the difference...
..FD have to work for that money. FD have to produce a game that's fun, have to bring it to market, and have to keep developing it and have to keep on getting it right for us to keep getting expansions, paint jobs etc. FD have to give something to me in order to get that money.
Steam? Steam apparently just have to sit and wait. "You're trying to release a PC game and not give us a piece of the action? HAHA! Watch as our minions go forth and drag you to us!" And why is this? Because us idiotic gamers are cheering them on, a company who doesn't know our names and are glad of the fact, a company which is now massively profitable despite having only released about 3 games since 2010.
I actually like the service they provide. I completely understand why you'd want something to be on Steam. But the way of the world is this; if we give a corporation a monopoly on a service that we can't do without (and it's clear a lot of people here can't do without it) we're practically giving them permission to take all they can from us. That's bad for us, and it's terrible for game developers.
It seems your problem is with publishers in general, not steam. You seem to think that steam is the only publisher, and the only one who take a cut of the profit, That's not even close to true. all games must be published, in many cases that means disk printing, packaging, shipping, in steams case it doesn't because they only have digital downloads, but there are still costs related to releasing every game. Frontier at first decided not to go with steam, that's ok, they don't have to, they get to keep more of the profits, cool, good for them, but what do you think happened recently? secret valve ninjas showed up at Frontier and held them hostage until they sold through steam? No, Frontier has decided now to use steam because they see that they will over time be more profitable, better marketing, so on. The only thing forcing frontier to use steam is the fact that people love it, Steam is very popular, and for good reason. You seem to think that Valve is sitting on their hands all day while the money just rolls in, believe it or not, they work very hard to provide a service that also costs money to run. But I think you've really missed my point completely, I don't love steam, I don't need a steam key, and I don't care if Elite Dangerous moves to steam at all, if they hadn't ever, I would have no problem with that, that is their right. What I do have a problem with is telling everyone that the game is never coming to steam, and after only 4 months going back on your promise. It's obvious that they told people that it wasn't coming to steam so that people wouldn't wait around for it and instead buy the game immediately, It's obvious that now they are on steam because they need the marketing and promotion, regardless of what they said before, and it's obvious that they aren't giving out steam keys in order collect extra profits from people who will buy a second copy. These are the sleazy practices I have a problem with. I wouldn't be writing this if Frontier hadn't said "we're not coming to steam" if they had simply said, "yes, there is a possiblity we will release on steam" then I would have no argument, but they said what they said and I think it's kind of sleazy. I'm trying to hold a multi million dollar company accountable, there are many people who feel ripped off because of Frontier, why should they not matter? Too many corporations get away with underhand tactics, and it's up to us, the consumer to fight for equality in the marketplace, but then people like you come and defend these types of practices. In your eyes companies should be allowed to do whatever they like and we should sit by and take it and never complain. Listen, all we can do is complain, that's our only means of trying to tilt the scales. we have no legal recourse in this matter, Frontier is free to do as they like, nothing we say here will have any affect them whatsoever, I'm not hurting them, I'm tiny and incosiquetial to them, why do you feel like you have to defend them? All they want from you is money, all I want is to make sure your consumer rights aren't trampelled, I'm complaining on your behalf. It's like poor people defending the republican party for christs sake, you can't see who is fighting for you, and who is fighting against you anymore can you?
Oh, and about your acertations that steam is killing pc gaming, many people feel exactly the opposite, many feel steam saved pc gaming when it looked like it would loose out to consoles, today I don't think anyone thinks consoles are winning.
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Steam aren't a publisher, they are a retail outlet. Publishers generally give input into games, and (in some notorious cases) they've put up hundreds of thousands of dollars to assist in the development of games. They also handle most of the marketing. Remember that EA, Ubisoft et all are publishers who are also forced to use Steam for PC games. They're trying to fight Steams market dominance by developing their own platforms, but PC gamers (Christmas-voting turkeys that we seem to be), are all ignoring them.
But as I say, I don't blame Valve for this. Valve are just a company trying to make money. The ones I blame are the gamers who blindly support Steam. Rooting for corporations is absurd for reasons I've already gone into many times before.
I understand, and I really do appreciate your passion for the little guy. I just feel that passion is horribly misplaced here. All Valve want is our money. FD, of course, also want our money. But as I said earlier the big difference is FD have actually worked for it. They've gone and hired people, had people working hard to produce a video game, and brought to market. All by themselves. Steam did nothing to produce Elite.
Now you're telling FD that in order to support the little people you want them to share their profits with Valve, a multi-billion dollar company, vastly bigger than Frontier Designs, who have done nothing to develop the game at all. In economical/political terms this is like telling small fry companies that in order to trade they have to donate to Wal-Mart.
HOLY S%&T, I DON'T CARE ABOUT VALVE! I don't love valve, I don't even like them, it's a f%&king company, I don't want Frontier to share their profits, I wouldn't care if ED was never released on steam, it's not about Valve or steam, In this case Valve has done nothing, they aren't even part of the conversation! The conversation is, "I think Frontier shouldn't have lied about never being released on steam, and to make up for it they should release the keys" It's Frontiers fault for having said that they weren't coming to steam. If they had released on origin after saying "we will never release on origin" then we would still have the same issue! (not really cause no one likes origin). People Like Valve because they are trust worthy, because they aren't a publicly traded company, that is the true secret to steams success, providing a good service that is reliable. anyone else is free to develop such a platform, steam doesn't have a monopoly. And yes, steam is a publisher, http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/publishingservices.php many many games have been published exclusively through steam. but like I said, it's not about steam, or if I want the game on steam, it's about Frontier lying for no other reason than profit.
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Commander Keys Please
I as well would like to have a steam key for a game I already own. Buying the game twice seems a bit much, while I feel as if Elite has offered me a full great deal of content, it can often seem empty without my steam community on my side as I blaze through the star systems. That I all I have to say on this, and would like to see steam keys offered to players who already have purchased the game.
I as well would like to have a steam key for a game I already own. Buying the game twice seems a bit much, while I feel as if Elite has offered me a full great deal of content, it can often seem empty without my steam community on my side as I blaze through the star systems. That I all I have to say on this, and would like to see steam keys offered to players who already have purchased the game.
Why do you think I have to take anyone for their word? I'm a sceptic in all things, and if I know anything it's that companies lie. But seriously though, it's a damned good thing that we don't take companies for their word, otherwise there would never be an investigation into anything! Just imagine all the wall street bankers being like "no, no, we didn't collapse the economy, it was all the government". hmm, oh well, since we can't prove they did it 100%, let's just take them for their word. LOL
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And secondly, it's already been proven 100% that Frontier lied about whether or not elite:dangerous would ever come to steam, they said it wouldn't, and yet here we are. What more proof do you need? What makes you trust them so much?
FD have never said that.
well they certainly made a lot of people think it wouldn't. If it was an outright lie I don't know, needless to say they gave the impression it was never coming to steam, and that caused many people who usually only ever buy over steam (myself included) buy the game anyway.
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