Current [POLL] Would you use Steam for Rebirth?

[elexis]

Welcome to our world.

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

Welcome to our world.

Sounds like ultra-rip-off Australia - I would check how much of the price can be accounted for by taxation (inc. Import Duty).

Historically, UK prices can be equated to US prices on a pure numbers basis (no currency conversion - i.e. things are often cheaper in the USA). Not sure how things match up now - or in the context of games.

[elexis]

Actually, hardly any of it, publishers are just jerks.

[trindermon]

Love picking up games on steam, and especially like that egosoft seem to support nosteam.exe's later in the patch cycle

[nova beacon]

I would really like to buy the game but i prefer not to use Steam. I do have some games on Steam because i don't have a choice. And that's what it is about choice. Developers should be giving gamers options and not forcing people into to using Steam. If i do buy a game that requires Steam i will wait till the price is heavily reduced i will never buy it at full price.

Considering the vast majority of money from your purchase is going to the developer, you're only hurting them more. Valve employees take baths in cash, they're not the ones you're going to hurt by doing that as an act of spite.

I buy stuff on sale because I like sales, not out if spite.

Steam, to me, is like Wal-Mart. You can't beat their prices now, but wait until they smother out any competition.

Steam was around and excellent before there was competition.

Edit: Also, there seems to be a lot of low-tier trolling going on here, knock it off and try to make an intelligent argument if you have issues.

I maybe hurting the developer by buying at a lower price but that isn't my problem. If they going to force people to use Steam then they will have to expect they will receive a backlash. And from their open letter they are expecting one they just don't know how much it will affect them. I am only a noob here but Egsoft have managed to upset a lot of long time users of the game who may never buy this because of Steam. You also have to factor off attracting new players like me who may not buy the game.

As for developers getting most of the money from the sale off Steam from what i understand is it is the other way round because the developer is paying a premium to have it on Steam. I know this because i know a company who looked into Steam and found that selling games on Steam wasn't viable mainly because of the premium which also gets passed on to the gamer which meant that the developer was making less money.

[Texhnolyzed]

The people villainising Steam and refusing to buy the game because of it, are just a vocal minority that will be fairly irrelevant in the big picture, just due to the exposure of X Rebirth being on Steam alone. On top of that X Rebirth is already getting a lot more hype from outside the "old X fanbase" than any previous game in the franchise.

As for developers getting most of the money from the sale off Steam from what i understand is it is the other way round because the developer is paying a premium to have it on Steam. I know this because i know a company who looked into Steam and found that selling games on Steam wasn't viable mainly because of the premium which also gets passed on to the gamer which meant that the developer was making less money.

"So I heard this from that guy I know that said that this thing is like that, so it's clear that that thing is actually nothing like what the common consensus of it being seems to be."

[EmperorJon]

Yeah, it seems pretty clear to me that publishing a game on Steam isn't economically viable as a business plan, hence the fact that nobody publishes anything on Steam and more companies like Egosoft are refusing to do so...

[Inverness]

I maybe hurting the developer by buying at a lower price but that isn't my problem. If they going to force people to use Steam then they will have to expect they will receive a backlash. And from their open letter they are expecting one they just don't know how much it will affect them. I am only a noob here but Egsoft have managed to upset a lot of long time users of the game who may never buy this because of Steam. You also have to factor off attracting new players like me who may not buy the game.

I don't think using Steam will result in a backlash, because there are just as many new people who use Steam that will be able to jump into the series with X Rebirth. If Steam is all it takes to send them away, well then that's their problem. We'll see what they think after more information about Rebirth gets out and whether features like Oculus Rift support is added.

As for developers getting most of the money from the sale off Steam from what i understand is it is the other way round because the developer is paying a premium to have it on Steam. I know this because i know a company who looked into Steam and found that selling games on Steam wasn't viable mainly because of the premium which also gets passed on to the gamer which meant that the developer was making less money.

First of all, your evidence didn't prove your claim. Steam premiums are negotiated on a case by case basis, but it's never going to be as much as half of the profit. Anywhere from 10% to 30% is a more reasonable range. What I know for certain is that Steam takes significantly less of a cut than a typical publisher would if you wanted to sell in brick and mortar stores.

Also, the person making the sales on Steam is the one that determines the price. Premiums only get passed on to the gamer if the developer/publisher wants them to be. The premium offered to Steam is counterbalanced by Steam's wide audience and distribution resources. I have to doubt the credibility of your information on the subject if your source thinks Steam wasn't viable. My assumption is that they had low enough expectations that they thought it wouldn't be worth it to go with Steam even though they likely would have been proven wrong.

[the-danzorz]

Yeah, it seems pretty clear to me that publishing a game on Steam isn't economically viable as a business plan, hence the fact that nobody publishes anything on Steam and more companies like Egosoft are refusing to do so...

I would really like to buy the game but i prefer not to use Steam. I do have some games on Steam because i don't have a choice. And that's what it is about choice. Developers should be giving gamers options and not forcing people into to using Steam. If i do buy a game that requires Steam i will wait till the price is heavily reduced i will never buy it at full price.

Considering the vast majority of money from your purchase is going to the developer, you're only hurting them more. Valve employees take baths in cash, they're not the ones you're going to hurt by doing that as an act of spite.

I buy stuff on sale because I like sales, not out if spite.

Steam, to me, is like Wal-Mart. You can't beat their prices now, but wait until they smother out any competition.

Steam was around and excellent before there was competition.

Edit: Also, there seems to be a lot of low-tier trolling going on here, knock it off and try to make an intelligent argument if you have issues.

I maybe hurting the developer by buying at a lower price but that isn't my problem. If they going to force people to use Steam then they will have to expect they will receive a backlash. And from their open letter they are expecting one they just don't know how much it will affect them. I am only a noob here but Egsoft have managed to upset a lot of long time users of the game who may never buy this because of Steam. You also have to factor off attracting new players like me who may not buy the game.

As for developers getting most of the money from the sale off Steam from what i understand is it is the other way round because the developer is paying a premium to have it on Steam. I know this because i know a company who looked into Steam and found that selling games on Steam wasn't viable mainly because of the premium which also gets passed on to the gamer which meant that the developer was making less money.

I just want to clarify a few things here as i am starting to find them a little annoying.

1) No one is forcing you to use steam, Egosoft doesn't have a gun to your head forcing you to use steam.

What Egosoft is actually doing is looking at a platform that offers them a better future for multiple reasons (read the sticky).

2) Egosoft are not intentionally trying to upset anyone, the opposite is actually true. Egosoft listens to their fans a lot, a huge amount. However THEY have done their research and know what is going to best for the large user base as a whole.

A few gamers are always going to be upset:

Oh no the requirements are too high
I have to use steam
I have to do X-Y-Z before i can unlock this
blah etc

Truth is Egosoft are designing a game the large majority of the fans want to play and they themselves want to play. Steam seems to be the better option for them in creating the experience they find best in the long run.

Steam is just one, ONE thing you have to use to play the game. It is one small requirement that doesn't cost you anything. I can understand users have problems with steam because of connection issues etc, and i feel sorry for you, that does suck. However a good internet connection is MUCH cheaper then the PC required to run the game. If you can't get a good connection but can afford the PC to run the game, then something is wrong. Even in very rural spain, 1500m up a mountain, i still can get 6mb connection.

3) As for the last thing that annoys me at the moment, is people think they know the payment and agreement between egosoft and valve. You don't, you can't assume anything or even use any other games as an example. Every game has different costs depending on a number of factors.

But lets use Skyrim as one example, A lot of loyal fans wanted to boycott that game because of steam. It still ended up being one of the most sold games that year and still gets new sales today.

Conclusion)

So you don't like steam and or want to get the game cheap, fair enough. However egosoft aren't going to change their plans when a strong 73+% of the current community, not including new fans loyal to steam don't mind steam at all.

hold off on buying the game, wait to see peoples reactions and then see if it's worth buying. Or wait for it to be on sale? but to be honest you not buying the game full price will not hurt them, at all. That's not a backlash! EA with ME3 was a backlash. Because when the game goes on sale, it will still have plenty of sales during those time from people who can now afford the game rather then at full price.

[Ebany]

Possibly, but none of us can predict the future. And by the way, Skyrim had huge recognition across the world before it hit Steam.

And while we're not been forced to buy the game, if we do want to play then we are been forced to use a 3rd party many of us don't trust.

This poll is more about seeing how many people could be persuaded from a definitive "no" to a "maybe/yes" and under what circumstances this would happen.

No-one here is trying to ram this down Egosoft's throat, but we are curious to see peoples valuable opinions on the matter ........... and 30% is a massive number, if my business slid by 30% I would be facing severe financial problems.

[Inverness]

Possibly, but none of us can predict the future. And by the way, Skyrim had huge recognition across the world before it hit Steam.

And while we're not been forced to buy the game, if we do want to play then we are been forced to use a 3rd party many of us don't trust.

This poll is more about seeing how many people could be persuaded from a definitive "no" to a "maybe/yes" and under what circumstances this would happen.

No-one here is trying to ram this down Egosoft's throat, but we are curious to see peoples valuable opinions on the matter ........... and 30% is a massive number, if my business slid by 30% I would be facing severe financial problems.

30% is way too high a number.

The people who dislike Steam and complain the most are very vocal and very much in the minority. As in less than 1% of the minority.

Edit: As for trust issues. There will plenty of people that will chose not to trust Steam as a matter of principle as opposed to any action on Steam's part, simply because they attach the idea of DRM to Steam and rail against the idea instead of the actuality. Those people can't be reasoned with.

[the-danzorz]

Possibly, but none of us can predict the future. And by the way, Skyrim had huge recognition across the world before it hit Steam.

And while we're not been forced to buy the game, if we do want to play then we are been forced to use a 3rd party many of us don't trust.

This poll is more about seeing how many people could be persuaded from a definitive "no" to a "maybe/yes" and under what circumstances this would happen.

No-one here is trying to ram this down Egosoft's throat, but we are curious to see peoples valuable opinions on the matter ........... and 30% is a massive number, if my business slid by 30% I would be facing severe financial problems.

Indeed, don't get me wrong, my post wasn't targeted at people like you (who seem to keep rational and open minded), even if you don't like steam you voice it in a very good way that's understandable.

keep in mind though that is just the forum users, egosoft is the only forum for a game i actually play that i spend time on. Though i play skyrim etc very much also. But never post my opinion in the skyrim forum. By this, i mean that 30% of the forum members isn't that high considering that a large player base of the game don't come here and play the x-games and will likely buy rebirth.

I can understand being against DRM that is intrusive, to me the old X-Series DRM used was way worse then steam. DRM in a lot of cases is bad, but steam does it in a less intrusive way and keeps things clean.

Considering you don't always need to be online to play the game, just to activate it a few times through-out the year (at most) there shouldn't be a problem. My steam always loads in offline mode for months at a time now and i never run into issues.

the amount of miss-information going around really hasn't helped.

[Mountain_Puncher]

I would really like to buy the game but i prefer not to use Steam. I do have some games on Steam because i don't have a choice. And that's what it is about choice. Developers should be giving gamers options and not forcing people into to using Steam. If i do buy a game that requires Steam i will wait till the price is heavily reduced i will never buy it at full price.

Considering the vast majority of money from your purchase is going to the developer, you're only hurting them more. Valve employees take baths in cash, they're not the ones you're going to hurt by doing that as an act of spite.

I buy stuff on sale because I like sales, not out if spite.

Steam, to me, is like Wal-Mart. You can't beat their prices now, but wait until they smother out any competition.

Steam was around and excellent before there was competition.

Edit: Also, there seems to be a lot of low-tier trolling going on here, knock it off and try to make an intelligent argument if you have issues.

So steam was the first retailer of video games? I was talking about once physical copies are just made economically unviable then they will basically be the only place to get games (who uses Origin or whatever else there is anyway?) .
Also, I too would say that they probably had low prices in the beginning of their venture as well. Though that was probably more to do with getting their "foot in the door".

[Stars_InTheirEyes]

Possibly, but none of us can predict the future. And by the way, Skyrim had huge recognition across the world before it hit Steam.

And while we're not been forced to buy the game, if we do want to play then we are been forced to use a 3rd party many of us don't trust.

This poll is more about seeing how many people could be persuaded from a definitive "no" to a "maybe/yes" and under what circumstances this would happen.

No-one here is trying to ram this down Egosoft's throat, but we are curious to see peoples valuable opinions on the matter ........... and 30% is a massive number, if my business slid by 30% I would be facing severe financial problems.

... and this poll is not a census.
It doesn't represent 30% of Egosoft's stakeholders. It represents 30% of a poll that attracts more people who want to show their dislike of Steam.

The poll and it's wording are biased to hell and back.

There are many fans of Egosoft/X who:
1. Don't visit the forums
2. Don't care about 'polls' to show their interest
3. Don't feel the need to whine and don't bother voting on polls/complaining

I doubt your business is similar to that of Egosoft's. They get money when they release a game, that game needs as much reach as possible to make as many sales as possible.
They're not releasing new games every month, they need their games to be individually successful as possible.
Steam is the way they can do this without spending millions on promoting.

I bet they would make at least double the amount of your 30% of steam-haters in new customers by using Steam.

30% is way too high a number.

The people who dislike Steam and complain the most are very vocal and very much in the minority. As in less than 1% of the minority.

Edit: As for trust issues. There will plenty of people that will chose not to trust Steam as a matter of principle as opposed to any action on Steam's part, simply because they attach the idea of DRM to Steam and rail against the idea instead of the actuality. Those people can't be reasoned with.

I agree completely. 200% so with that last sentence.


Edits: grammar/typos

[Kor'ah]

If it wasn't for steam selling X3: Reunion for $20 back in 2007 I would've never even discovered the series. The workshop is going to be a huge hit with the modding crew here.

[Raider480]

The Steam Workshop is terrible, what with the upload restrictions and pay portal just to toy around with the mods. There's a reason the Skyrim Nexus is still so active.

[Nanook]

Nope. I refuse to have my gaming controlled by a third party. If I'm buying a game developed by Egosoft, I will not allow a third party like Steam to determine when and where I can load and play it. And then there's the fact that I can't give away or sell any of my games if I wish. I refuse to pay 'rent' for my games. The nail in the coffin is their ability to arbitrarily lock and delete my account on any pretext and I have no recourse. Even the slim possibility of losing hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of games is just too high a price to pay, IMO. To me, Steam is the epitome of a dictatorial overlord.

If Steam changes these policies and becomes more customer friendly in the future, I'll reconsider my stance. But for now, I guess I'm just out of luck.

[Nikola515]

It's not like we have choice anymore

[Nanook]

We always have a choice. Mine is to not patronize Steam. I have well over a thousand older games in my collection, and with age (mine) many of them are becoming new again.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

And while we're not been forced to buy the game, if we do want to play then we are been forced to use a 3rd party many of us don't trust.

Do you trust TAGES? Because with previous X games you were forced to have that 3rd party utility installed if you wanted to play.