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it just struck me, has anyone ever considered what would happen to your games if steam were to go down as a service or valve going bankrupt ? yes there is offline mode but you cant play your games forever like that. what would the outcome really be in such a scenario ?
Even with offline mode, it requires you to have been logged in recently but if there are no steam servers to log in to then that wouldn't even be possible.. yoh i think there would hectic protests hey.. all of the world. That would be a hell of a lot of money to just deactivate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dohc-WP
I'm sure they'd release a final patch to let steam run in offline mode only then.... right?
yeah, good idea, but another issue is future installs, say you want to install and play Dishonored again for old times sake.Quote:
Originally Posted by MalicE
But what about that crap that you dont "own" a STEAM game or something?
well then you just download a bootleg :DQuote:
Originally Posted by VirtualForce
It's a very interesting thought exercise about what would happen if Steam just closed down shop. Obviously this is a highly unlikely event, but here is some points I think will most likely happen:
Should Steam go under, you can be pretty sure there will be a boat load of investors/entrepreneurs/business owners that will be clambering to buy the rights to the software. My guess would be that most of the architecture will be sold piece-meal style to the highest bidders. In the big sale, a lot of contracts will be up for offer for other platform owners to come and scoop up. Players in the industry like GOG, UPlay and Origin will gladly pay huge amounts for the rights to publish and sell different games from Steam.
As far as servers and game availability is concerned, the fallout of the fire sale of Steam assets will cause these competitors to move over the assets as they've bought it from the Steam servers to their own server farms. I believe that will ensure that most, if not all of the Steam library should be available, just on a different platform, or even on a few different one's.
Going forward, depending on which contracts the various platforms picked up, new games will become available on these other platforms, ensuring that digital downloadable games will always be available.
As for legacy installs and ownership, my thought would be that it will be depended on who scores what in the Steam fire sale. If, for example, Origin buys all the rights to Warner Bro games distribution from the Steam liquidation sale, all of the games will be available via Origin. I believe that the owners of these platforms will write API's to import ownership and identification over from Steam's old databases onto their own, ensuring that the proper people claim their games on the new platform.
Steam has proved that games will probably always be available for digital download, so it won't be a case that you all of a sudden won't get access to your games. You'll just have to claim them on the platforms that buys the right to resell them and play from there.
They said somewhere along the lines that they would disable it if the company goes under.
Plus I know that the encryption has been broken. Or at least was...can't say whether its been updated.
No you don't, I've had no internet for extended periods of time and all my games work fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Keepa34
I have found myself thinking about this many times over the years. Which leads to another question. Do we really own the digital goods we have bought? With rules like you have to be signed in to use them etc.
Also steam is utterly genius because they never run out of stock, its just files that are constantly duplicated. In a way its a massive swindle, now you pay R500-R600 for an empty box in the shop that holds nothing but air and paper with a code on it.
Ah okay.. sometimes mine just doesn't want to accept the password.. do you log into different profiles or just the same one?Quote:
Originally Posted by Grievous