Sins on Steam?

from Stardock Forums
Just a suggestion that Sins should be made available on Steam. Hope I'm posting it in the right place.

For those who don't know, Steam is a digital distribution programme. You have an account, where you can access all your purchased games (it offers a varied and great selection). You can buy new games there. They can be accessed at any computer, by simply logging in. They auto-update. It has a great community.

I think Sins can benefit from this.

Now, you'll probably say "Stardock offers this!" I don't personally know how it works, but I'm guessing it works in a similar way to steam. So why should Sins be made available on steam? No doubt it will increase sales and add to the community.

I think it would be great if this was made possible. I know I'd buy it from Steam, as would many others. It makes things simpler having downloaded games together, rather than, say, Steam for some games, stardock for others, along with Direct2Drive etc.

In terms of just ease of use, it will make the game more accessible for many. Steam offers various other features which will be beneficial to Sins, such as messengers, server browser (which may not be applicable here) and community groups.

But the main point is that it will definitely provide a larger market and make it easier to acquire, thus meaning better sales etc.

Also, as there is no retail version available in Europe, it will make it much more easily available here.

It's not hard to get a game on Steam I would think. Lots of new games come out on it, whether they are big releases or from small independant developers.

What do you think?

I'm also hoping someone from Stardock sees this and considers it.

:)




124,654 views 143 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
It's not going to be available for purchase on Steam, because Steam is a competing service :P That's been answered before.

And everyone knows what it is :)
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
I doubt it would happen to be honest. Additionally competition aspect aside, Steam does have far more DRM implementations then SD has had or will likely ever have. So unless Steam buys Frogboy out since SD a privately held company as well as IC it would likely never happen.
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Annatar11:

There's bound to be one or two people who ask "what's steam???" so I added that in there.

There's not really a point in competing with Steam. Steam is much more widely used and established.

There is much more to be gained by selling the product on it, rather than competing with it.


Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
So unless Steam buys Frogboy out
End of quote


*pinky to lips* One meeeeeeelion dollars!

There's not really a point in competing with Steam. Steam is much more widely used and established.
End of quote


Windows is used much more widely than MacOS. Don't see Apple switching to Windows ;)
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
It doesn't have to be bought out to be available on Steam. If you have a look, many publishers games are on steam, including some very big ones (ie. Sega, Activision, 2k, Rockstar, THQ etc).

And now that you bring the Mac idea into it...

Microsoft office is available (legally and in the shops) for MAC. Same kind of principle...

Hmmm....
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Microsoft office is available (legally and in the shops) for MAC. Same kind of principle...
End of quote


Except you've got it backwards :P For an analogy, Office being available for Macs would be like TF2 being available for SDC. Apple developing for Windows would be Sins available on Steam.

Unless of course I'm completely off and MS Office for Mac is actually not developed by Microsoft? I can't imagine they'd let it go.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Microsoft office is available (legally and in the shops) for MAC. Same kind of principle...Except you've got it backwards For an analogy, Office being available for Macs would be like TF2 being available for SDC. Apple developing for Windows would be Sins available on Steam.Unless of course I'm completely off and MS Office for Mac is actually not developed by Microsoft? I can't imagine they'd let it go.
End of quote

Fair point, but that idea doesn't really come into play here. Plus, Steam and stardock aren't on the same scale as MacOS and Windows.

For an analogy, Office being available for Macs would be like TF2 being available for SDC.
End of quote

The way I see it, Sins going onto steam would be putting it on a bigger and more popular platform, which would be beneficial overall.
Your TF2 analogy suggests putting a game on a big platform on something less popular, which is kinda the opposite to what I'm saying.
I suppose it depends how you look at it.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
There is a sins group on steam... started by me!
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Since Stardock runs their own electronic delivery system, TotalGaming.net, it's beyond unlikely they would pay money to have it available on a competing service. Then they might as well put everything they develop on Steam and shut down TotalGaming.net.

-HM
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Or keep TotalGaming.net and not give steam even more money.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
Has anyone else had problems running Sins through Steam? When I do, the fonts don't seem to render at all, leaving me with an entirely blank menu. It's very strange.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
Has anyone else had problems running Sins through Steam? When I do, the fonts don't seem to render at all, leaving me with an entirely blank menu. It's very strange.
End of quote


I think someone posted that if you point Steam to the Sins_launcher.exe it will work.

But I haven't tried it.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
guys, they stated quite clearly there is NO steam support. zero, zip, notta. they did not design sins to use the steam overlay.

having to run Stardock once in awhile to check for updates/downloads isnt that bad.

"There is much more to be gained by selling the product on it, rather than competing with it." Thats silly, kinda like saying Zmart should offer special deals through Qmart just due them being in the same type of business.

im not shaking my finger suggesting people stop with the steam posts, i just think since they have made it VERY CLEAR there is no steam support. You folks should make one or ask steam to. However, i bet VALVE isnt interested in making the overlay work for Soase....course has anyone asked them yet?

void

ps: sorry if i sound cranky, im tired of steam posts...and the cold lol.

Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
@McLovin_Nice - you missed the point. The ONLY way SD titles would get on Steam is if Frogboy did not own the company anymore. He is very adamant about the DRM thing and Steam is on the side of the divide philosophy wise.

@Annatar11 - I think Brad would get well into the 10s of millions now and after the next SD release I would expect that to grow into the 100s of millions.
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
I think Steam is a fairly good platform. People bitch about its reliability, and I will agree it has problems, but on the whole its damn good for managing your games.

I recently got a new computer, and migrating my Steam games was as simple as downloading Steam on the new computer, logging in, installing the games, shutting down Steam, copying the whole steam directory from old computer (i made sure everything was up to date on old PC first), and then starting Steam again. Took me about 30 minutes to copy the ~20gb of files. Would have taken alot longer than that to install each one manually, worry about CD keys, yadda yadda yadda.

Personally, I don't like Stardocks system (i can't remember why, but i remember I dislike it for some reason), and I think internet content delivery is the way of the future, not just for music and movies, but for games as well. Companies that get onboard early, will benefit from it.

On another note, what do you mean 1Spartan about "He is very adamant about the DRM thing and Steam is on the side of the divide philosophy wise. " ??? Steam is a much better system to fight piracy than everything else, because:
1. Doesn't get in the way of legit users (no crap about "CD key in use)
2. Allows legit users simplified updating without having to worry about updating their no-cd cracks
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
Sins will never appear on Steam as long as Stardock holds the licensing rights for it.  People love Steam for some reason, but it will have some serious competition in a few months...
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
Sins will never appear on Steam as long as Stardock holds the licensing rights for it.  People love Steam for some reason, but it will have some serious competition in a few months...
End of quote


The Amazonians will arrive!! Love it and fear it!!
Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
Sins will never appear on Steam as long as Stardock holds the licensing rights for it.  People love Steam for some reason, but it will have some serious competition in a few months...
End of quote


People love it because it works (it's had plenty of time to iron out the kinks). And also because Valve makes great games that go onto it at relatively cheap prices. It's also a good way to authenticate games before jumping in for mp games (makes publishers/devs happier). Yes, it is a form of DRM, but it is relatively painless (no cd in drive etc etc).

Competition would be good though, keeps em on their toes. Good luck with it stardock :)
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
On another note, what do you mean 1Spartan about "He is very adamant about the DRM thing and Steam is on the side of the divide philosophy wise. " ??? Steam is a much better system to fight piracy than everything else, because:1. Doesn't get in the way of legit users (no crap about "CD key in use)2. Allows legit users simplified updating without having to worry about updating their no-cd cracks
End of quote


IIRC it's not the type of DRM that Steam uses that is in question here, it's the use of DRM in the first place.
Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top
Isn't Steamworks free now?

http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/

I have been happy with steam having purchase a few games through the service well as activated boxed games through steam.

Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top
Steam works fairly well now, but let me tell you, it was terrible when it first came out. Its debut was for playing the beta of Counter-Strike 1.5, which I did, but getting it and downloading the beta was a nightmare. Their servers were swamped and it was next to impossible to get the game running. Errors like crazy.

For another year or two Steam still continued to have issues. The biggest nightmare for me was trying to play games offline, either SP or on LAN. There were two separate checkboxes you had to click to enable this mode. On top of that, you had to enable this "offline" mode before going somewhere for a LAN party w/o the Internet. If you did not do this ahead of time, you could not play your game. And even if you DID put it in offline mode, you usually had to trick the game into running by removing the ethernet cable from your PC. Otherwise the PC would sit there looking for the 'net, but never timing out so you could play on LAN.

This is what happens when you go too crazy to try to thwart piracy.

It's finally fixed. There's one checkbox you still have to click to keep your credentials cached, but at least if this is set properly, you can launch games w/o an Internet connection.

I prefer Stardock's solution. It's not perfect, but at least once I have my Stardock game installed, I don't have to use SDC to launch my games. I simply use it to download patches.

-HM
Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top
I have steam. I like the games I have on there.

I hate steam.

I hate Valve.

I hate Garry Newman.

All are involved with steam (or are steam) and can't get their servers working right. :(
Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top
The fact of the matter is that while steam is a similar service, it's one that has an incredibly huge player base. Frankly, most thinking people who know anything about Stardock immediately think of Windowblinds and the like. Anyone who's ever tried to uninstall or deactivate a stardock product knows the reformatting which it will likely entail (has anyone tried switching back to a standard xp/vista theme?). Ironclad has a strong reputation. Sins is a great game. So was Galciv, and perhaps also massive assualt. 99% of the software on Stardock Online are not worth money, or the risk of installing a stardock product.

Steam would generate significantly more sales and publicity for Sins, and Ironclad would be wise to find itself a publisher willing to utilize the most effective online sales vehicle in existence at the moment.
Reply #25 from Sins Forums Top
I love steam and i'm glad a lot of publishers are moving their games to it. Not to mention it allows great small indie games games like Audiosurf to get exposure. That said there is absolutely no reason for stardock to put their game on steam as long as they have stardock central.

SDC is a great service but just doesn't have as many games or the exposure that steam has. If SDC had a community feature like steam, as much games as it has, etc I would use that in a heartbeat. I'm curious to see what this competition is coming in a few months, steam is huge and still growing(15 million users).