Men of War on Steam

[Ludovsky]

Good luck with that patch. I really love Men of War(I even went as far as pre-ordering it from britain though I live in Canada, since I loved the open beta so much) so I hope it can succeeds as much as possibly can

It does make me wonders though. Have you guys ever thought of Valve software's Steam online distribution platform? In fact, I admit I was surprised to see no signs of Men of War on Steam, as I thought it would have been the kind of games to see presence there.

I'd say it'd be something to give a thought at, as Steam ties games to a player account on it. That way, a copy of a game bought on Steam can only be played by the account's owner, which permits to forego physical copy-based DRM which permits some developpers and publishers to cut on a lot of the different versions of a given game out there, which I hear can make patching easier(I know it was instrumental in the decision for Relic entertainment, the developpers behind the Dawn of War series, to go from physical copy protections to the type of authentication offered by Steam.

Plus, since a game authentification is tied to the player's account rather than computer as is the case with some DRMs, a player can reinstall the game as often as they want... even being able to re-download it from Steam itself should they ever lose their CD(which I know is one of the service's most loved features amongst many players who makes uses of it). Also, Steam even offer players the possibility to download the patches for their games directly from it.

// posts moved by Politruk

[Instinct]

It does make me wonders though. Have you guys ever thought of Valve software's Steam online distribution platform? In fact, I admit I was surprised to see no signs of Men of War on Steam, as I thought it would have been the kind of games to see presence there.

Yes, we thought about it and we will talk about this with our publisher. They are in charge of such decisions.

[hraventos]

Yes, I also think Steam would be a very good way of distributing Men of War. It's a great game, the only problem for me are the many different client versions that confuse the users when they want to play online. That would be solved with Steam as it makes sure the user has the latest verison available.

Other than that, I don't understand why *everyone* I play with is russian. I don't have anything against them, but I would like to speak in a european language to the people I play with.
Well, I hope time fixes these things.

Good job!

[Alucard]

All awesome news Instinct. I again say a Steam version would be great as Steam seems to do awesome for Indy games and other rather unknown games especially for the US. FoW wasn't easy to find in store out here.

Heh, I'm also now part of the Steam community group. :typing:

[Dwarden]

i fully supports MoW release on STEAM if possible
(think of it as another online distribution but this time with huge user base) ...
STEAM mean ~20 millions active user base and usually 2 millions active users at weekend times ....

even the annoucement about game availability if noticed by 1% mean 200k people knows about MoW
and if 0.1% buys then you sold 20k instantly ...

and ofcourse the price may be bit higher than on GamersGate / Retail to not undercut sales / partner deals ...

and always release game 'patched and up2date' on STEAM ...

[Alucard]

Steam will also auto update with out any installing or even noticing a download if you just start it up and let it go.

So this topics gone a bit off course I'll go make a topic in the general section!

[Alucard]

Well in the Patch thread for the MP one gone a bit off course and so! Here is a thread just for it.

I think it would do wonder for the publisher and the developers if a decent deal is worked out with Steam for Men of War on steam as I've seen many Indy games or rather unknown games to the US hit there best sellers list upon release! Now with the numbers of users Steam has that would be phenomenal!

[Dwarden]

just repeating what i said elsewhere

i fully supports MoW release on STEAM if possible
(think of it as another online distribution but this time with huge user base) ...
STEAM mean ~20 millions active user base and usually 2 millions active users at weekend times ....

even the annoucement about game availability if noticed by 1% mean 200k people knows about MoW
and if 0.1% buys then you sold 20k instantly ...

and ofcourse the price may be bit higher than on GamersGate / Retail to not undercut sales / partner deals ...

and always release game 'patched and up2date' on STEAM ...

[Mushroomcar]

But i hope that we who don't buy it through steam gets forced to use it through steam. I mean, you won't make a patch or something that forces us to use steam to play MoW? I wouldn't like that at all.

- Shroom

[Dwarden]

read carefully please ...
STEAM may be used just as another online distribution service (like GamersGate) with just bonus like autopatching
but it don't affect in any way and at all owners of retail or online distribued copies from other services ...

then there is variant
where developers may tie theirs game to SteamWorks and Steam directly
which needs Steam client for all variants of game ...

but this is not the case ... STEAM shall be used just as selling place ...

---
now on other hand STEAMworks is very powerful toolset and it's completely free for developers ...

i don't know about the deal with GameSpy but i'm sure it wasn't for free (GS Query for MP etc)
(and i seriously doubt they gave it to MoW developers just for the exclusive beta/demo)

try compare it with STEAMworks where is all for free and You can even use STEAMworks for games not tided with STEAM (just must in future release on STEAM)
as there are may ways and many modules you may use or not

see and read carefully all info here:
https://partner.steamgames.com/
http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/index.php

most developers would kill to get this and for free : :lol: