http://store.steampowered.com/news/2116/
"Just in time for the holidays, Valve announced that, Spore™, Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™, Mass Effect®, Need for Speed™ Undercover and EA SPORTS FIFA Manager 2009 are available now to gamers in North America via Steam..."
Despite the fact that those games are only initially available in North America, this is a BIG improvement over EA's stance on DRM. I know from reliable sources that at leat Bioware's Mass Effect has only Steam's built-in copy protection. Kudos to reason...
Now, it only begs the question: could Impulse get in the loop of this EA bonanza as well?
If Steam Spore uses only Valve's DRM, I am so there.
I have suggested to BW staff to consider Impulse as well. So we shall see...
I just hope Relic will be using Impulse by the time Homeworld 3 comes out. I hate that i keep having to dig out my CD for Homeworld 2 every time i get a reminder how awesomely amazing. God i love that game. LOVE. lovlovelove that game...
I guess steam would work too.
Now if these games become available in EU and Valve realizes that 1€ != 1$, this will be great!
The better question is: Do we want crappy EA games on Impulse? Sure it could mean more money, but look at the quality of EA games... Dumbed down for the masses... I would prefer they avoid EA at all costs since I don't want the plague of 'more money but crappier games' to spread...
Business is business and Impulse could use the title base to be sure. Moreover one man's treasure is another's trash. Additionally one must consider that EA has acquired some great developers such as BW and I doubt anyone would call BW titles "crappy". The bottom line to give gamers a choice in how, what and where they purchase their titles. Currently Impulse is the best DD system out there but it is not well known.
We are open to working with pretty much any publisher to get their titles on Impulse.
Hey just a tiny FYI but Crysis on steam still has Securom... look out for it when you buy these games too.
ugh the false hope that is homeworld 3.
Although Relic "owns" the homeworld rights they don't really have much of a say on what games they make anymore. THQ currently owns them and the rights but they have no current "known" plans for a sequal to homeworld 2. So anyone who wants homeworld back needs to write to THQ instead of relic.
BTW also put into your letter that you would like relic to be the main developer on it and not have it swap hands like an old pokemon card.
Actually it does not say 3rd party DRM on the spore page but it still does for the Crysis page. Stinks, cuz I probably would've bought Crysis via steam. Instead I guess I'll buy spore.
Impulse isn't some exclusive club for gamers with a specific taste or favorite publisher. I say if they can get some EA games on Impulse it would only be a good thing. Whether or not I like the titles doesn't matter. The more games, developers, and publishers they can get to use Impulse, the more will be likely to use it in the future and that can only be a good thing for us gamers.
I think if EA gets on board with Impulse, some of the known stance concerning stardock towards DRM will need to be tone down, especially Frogboy's opinion on the issue. I share Frogboy's view on DRM, but considering Frogboy's position within Stardock, it does not favorable or compatible with EA's view on DRM usage in their games and hence EA willl interpret that there will be a clash in IP protection philosophy.
Warhammer online is on Steam? How does that work exactly? Do you have to log into Steam to start the program then log in with your account and password?
It still might be worth the backup convenience for all that.
Business is business and EA seems to be coming around. As long as Impulse continues to grow, it can't be ignored for much longer.
Also, Steam is making a series of moves to further "control" user access from different regions. Their 1USD=1EUR policy is not helping either. Those are the reasons why I don't use Steam (anything that messes with my wallet and my rights does that) and it's sure to further infuriate more of its customers. A good growth opportunity for Impulse right there.
Alas, this is the story for many great games - frankly, one practice I'd love to see stopped is the insanity of "rights" to games being separated from the original developers and being taken over by publishers. Because then all too often the publishers seem to forget they own the rights and the game gets swept under the rug, never to be seen again. Many times, even if the devs want to make a sequel, they are unable to do so. In addition, I've seen games flop because the publisher decides for some odd reason to give the development to somebody else who decides to take the game in a "new direction" that is nothing at all like what the should've been like.
EA is notorious for this idiodic practice of playing shuffle with game "rights" and losing track of game rights they own. Frankly, I think it's the wrong way to go. The teams that make the games should keep the rights, IMHO, and if they need more resources, they should do what Stardock and Ironclad did with Sins and create partnerships.
The music & movie industries have the same problem. It comes down to the original owners selling out for short term gains. Those industries have been around for many, many years longer than video games and they have not resolved the issue yet. Moreover with the current direction of IPR and M&A activity on the part of media companies chances are small anything will change in general for them. Accordingly it is highly unlikely that the video game industry will as well.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
