View Full Version : Call of Duty Gets Steamed
Evil Avatar
10-12-2006, 02:27 PM
From Valve:
Activision, Inc and Valve today announced an agreement to distribute four of Activision's PC games -- Call of Duty 2, Gun, Call of Duty and Call of Duty United Offensive -- using Steam.
Steam is the first full-featured broadband platform for the delivery and management of games and digital content, and has pioneered its broadband services to over 10 million customers with core titles such as Valve's Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike.
"Activision has been a player on every major gaming platform dating back to the Atari 2600," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "We're delighted to welcome them to Steam, and offer this legendary company's products."
"Our agreement with Steam enhances our current online distribution model by allowing us to bring our games to the broadest possible audience," said Dave Anderson, Activision's Senior Director of Business Development. "As broadband penetration continues to grow worldwide, offering our titles digitally to the millions of gamers connected through Steam makes sense to us."
Beelzebud
10-12-2006, 02:28 PM
First they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
Then you win.
51|RandoM
10-12-2006, 02:29 PM
Sweet news. Good job Valve.
f1sh3r
10-12-2006, 02:36 PM
i was thinking about picking up cod2 again, i think i'll do it thru steam!
Averic
10-12-2006, 02:41 PM
This is AWSOME news for my internet cafe. Hopefully it comes with the rest of the Valve Cyber cafe pacakage.
Disgustipated
10-12-2006, 02:43 PM
Great move on Activision's part.
J Arcane
10-12-2006, 02:44 PM
Yanno, I'm wondering something, about all these publishers striking deals with Steam.
When a developer strikes a deal with Steam, I feel quite a sense of joy about that, because I know that it means by buying a game through Steam, I'll be giving my money straight to the guys who made the game.
When a publisher strikes a deal with Steam, well, how am I to expect it's any different from the usual publisher shaft-a-thon? Are the CoD teams going to be getting any more money from the Steam version as the boxed version? Especially since these are already in budget title status? Somehow I highly doubt it.
Sure you get the convenience of the Steam system, but the other part that I always lauded it for kinda falls by the wayside, and I don't like that.
torrefaction
10-12-2006, 02:46 PM
When a publisher strikes a deal with Steam, well, how am I to expect it's any different from the usual publisher shaft-a-thon? Are the CoD teams going to be getting any more money from the Steam version as the boxed version? Especially since these are already in budget title status? Somehow I highly doubt it.
You realize publisher's aren't always shafting the developers. This isn't as bad as a lot of people make it out to be. Of course, you'd hope the dev would get a higher cut, but this is for a publisher's library...making that unlikely. Deals cut before the advent of digital distribution are probably just the way they are.
That being said, developer's going forward are probably being much smarter about this.
BLiTzKrIeG
10-12-2006, 02:50 PM
"should i play counterstrike, day of defeat, defcon, oh hell i'll play cod2". yeah that sounds nice.
51|RandoM
10-12-2006, 02:51 PM
Yanno, I'm wondering something, about all these publishers striking deals with Steam.
When a developer strikes a deal with Steam, I feel quite a sense of joy about that, because I know that it means by buying a game through Steam, I'll be giving my money straight to the guys who made the game.
When a publisher strikes a deal with Steam, well, how am I to expect it's any different from the usual publisher shaft-a-thon? Are the CoD teams going to be getting any more money from the Steam version as the boxed version? Especially since these are already in budget title status? Somehow I highly doubt it.
You seem to think that all publishers are inherently evil, while all development shops are bastions of virtue and goodwill.
If the development shop doesn't negotiate a reasonable deal, with adequate compensation---it is their own fault. Blaming the publisher for striking the best deal they could is silly.
Publishers aren't going to pay more than they have to, nor do most of us. Anybody go to the grocery and add $1 extra to every item, out of goodwill to the people who produced it?
F3nyx
10-12-2006, 02:56 PM
This is AWSOME news for my internet cafe. Hopefully it comes with the rest of the Valve Cyber cafe pacakage.What is Valve's Cyber Cafe package? I hadn't really thought or heard about the ramifications of Steam for cyber cafes.
Varsity
10-12-2006, 02:58 PM
When a developer strikes a deal with Steam, I feel quite a sense of joy about that, because I know that it means by buying a game through Steam, I'll be giving my money straight to the guys who made the game.
When a publisher strikes a deal with Steam, well, how am I to expect it's any different from the usual publisher shaft-a-thon? Are the CoD teams going to be getting any more money from the Steam version as the boxed version? Especially since these are already in budget title status? Somehow I highly doubt it.
Sure you get the convenience of the Steam system, but the other part that I always lauded it for kinda falls by the wayside, and I don't like that.
ZING! (http://www.steamreview.org/posts/dealswithdevil/) Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters.
J Arcane
10-12-2006, 03:01 PM
ZING! (http://www.steamreview.org/posts/dealswithdevil/) Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters.
Reading that makes me sad.
I hate the whole existing system for distribution, and systems like Steam have long given me hope that it will one day prove obsolete.
This does something to damper those hopes. Reading that, it seems that with publisher deals like this, the devs potentially get even less of a share of the end than with retail.
Varsity
10-12-2006, 03:08 PM
Don't take it too badly: it's not going to happen any other way once you've signed your IP away.
PacoTaco
10-12-2006, 03:13 PM
"If the development shop doesn't negotiate a reasonable deal, with adequate compensation---it is their own fault."
Eh... in this case the publisher owns the CoD property so it doesn't have much to do with the developer when it's decided that the game will be sold over Steam. And he never said that developers are "bastions of virtue and goodwill".
The point was that developers make the game while publishers put their name on it... a main selling point of digital distribution was that the middle men (ie - publishers, wal-mart) could be cut out of the picture leaving a larger slice of the pie for the actual creators of the game. Most games (and movies/tv for that matter) have a credit list a mile long with only a handful of those people who had direct involvement with the project... but the other guys certainly got paid for it.
agentgray
10-12-2006, 03:15 PM
I love Steam announcents of games.
I love Steam announcements without prices even more.
How about combining all of these "Get Steamed" news posts into one big, happy post
KingGorilla
10-12-2006, 04:14 PM
MOTHERFUCKER, bring me Call of Duty 2, I played this shit already.
mister_slim
10-12-2006, 05:17 PM
I do love seeing GameTap and Steam really starting to take off. Sure, I'm sure both will lead to some of the same problems casual game developers have with aggregators, but at least it's a different business plan that's more friendly than retail.
JupiterV2
10-12-2006, 06:43 PM
When? That's what I want to know. Will it cost me money or can I use my current CD keys to unlock CoD on Steam?
Yeah, I could just install from CD again...but meh...steam provides a nice little package without the need to find and install updates as well as switch CD's out of my drive bay. Lazy? Hell ya!
hund_
10-12-2006, 06:44 PM
my steam folder is 24 gig and evidently going to get bigger ;)
MOTHERFUCKER, bring me Call of Duty 2, I played this shit already.
You mean 3 right?
Sandman
10-12-2006, 08:00 PM
Lets get Bioware, Blizzard and Bethesda hooked on steam and then we'll have something.
KingGorilla
10-12-2006, 08:02 PM
Yeah I meant 2, my rage was so great I could not hit the 3 key.
Bioware and Blizzard, ok...but not Bethesda. Micropayments through Steam mean you get even less for even more :(
Varsity
10-13-2006, 03:01 AM
can I use my current CD keys to unlock CoD on Steam?
Don't bet on it. Only Valve's games have ever worked like that. It costs money to deliver stuff over Steam, and if none of that is going to Valve then it's going to be unsustainable to allow retail-to-Steam jobs.
Uhm.. one question.
When? They aren't on Steam as of yet and the headline for this news item made me think they were already pushed out to it.
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