Make Aces High Available on the STEAM system

[hitech]

Steam would never work from what I am seeing.

Steams purpose is to sell products online with a method of making the distribution secure with out the CD. I.E. I would bet products like EQ still do there own updating.

AH on the other hand is a free distribution unlike the other products. And hence steam would not be interested.

HiTech

[Ack-Ack]

1 Question , This is the first I have heard of steam. My question is simply , what games distributed on steam have a recurring monthly charge?

HiTech

Our company recently put up our game (FINAL FANTASY XI) up on Steam.  SOE has most of their games on Steam (EQ/EQ2/PotBS/Vanguard).

Other MMO games on Steam:
Age of Conan
Lineage I/II
GuildWars
Champions Online
Warhammer

Speaking of the experience we went through to get it up on Steam, it was kind of a pain in the ass.  It took about 4 months or so to resolve the compatibility issues with the Steam wrapper that is used for games on Steam.


ack-ack

[Ack-Ack]

Steam would never work from what I am seeing.

Steams purpose is to sell products online with a method of making the distribution secure with out the CD. I.E. I would bet products like EQ still do there own updating.

AH on the other hand is a free distribution unlike the other products. And hence steam would not be interested.

HiTech

For the MMO games, the Steam wrapper works like you describe.  For our game that we put up on Steam, the only difference between the Steam version and our boxed version is the Steam launcher that installs the game without CDs but it still takes a bit of coding to get it to work properly.  We had compatibility problems with the Steam wrapper that took quite a bit of time to over come because the game also has to be made compatible with the Steam system and launcher.

Valve would be interested in putting any game on Steam, as long as you're willing to pay the money (a lot of money) to get it hosted.  There are a few free games available on Steam but mostly from small indie studios trying to get their name and product out.


ack-ack

[OOZ662]

I know Pirates of the Burning Sea is a monthly paid game...

[K-KEN]

My only experience is with ARMAII Demo. But it's a little annoying to click Exit or play offline every time the Steam popup opens on Startup. I know it can be fixed...but when I fix it it will be a permanent thing.

[OOZ662]

My only experience is with ARMAII Demo. But it's a little annoying to click Exit or play offline every time the Steam popup opens on Startup. I know it can be fixed...but when I fix it it will be a permanent thing.

That means you need to take better care of your computer anyway. I'd hate to see your Startup list.

[Knite]

1 Question , This is the first I have heard of steam. My question is simply , what games distributed on steam have a recurring monthly charge?
HiTech

As far as I know, Everquest 1 and 2, Aion, Champions Online, Eve Online, Lineage I and II, Warhammer Online, and Pirates of the Burning Sea (at least that I remember).

The thing these all have in common is an upfront price to buy the game, something AH has never had that I remember. I'd suspect there's licensing and hosting fees to valve, but the backend (i.e. Servers, network) is still controlled by the developer.

Also, for those with Steam that would like to still use your friends list and stuff, you can actually ADD Aces High II to the Steam games list (click Games -> Add non-Steam game), and as far as I've been able to tell, works fine for me with my Vista 64 system, and the "Shift Tab" Steam overlay works as well.

[Knite]

My only experience is with ARMAII Demo. But it's a little annoying to click Exit or play offline every time the Steam popup opens on Startup. I know it can be fixed...but when I fix it it will be a permanent thing.

Unless you're referring to something I'm not understanding, you can stop Steam from starting on windows start, and not have it pop up messages in Steam's settings.

[K-KEN]

That means you need to take better care of your computer anyway. I'd hate to see your Startup list.

Unless you're referring to something I'm not understanding, you can stop Steam from starting on windows start, and not have it pop up messages in Steam's settings.

Thanks guys, I am very aware of msconfig and how to customize it. The new PC isn't tuned or anything yet and Steam is likely short-lived.  I keep those subtle reminders to remind me play the game or get off the pot. I am not sure I like ARMA II Demo and therefore it's life and Steam's are tentative at best. My startup list is minimal, rest assured.

 

[OOZ662]

Alrighty then. Actually, thanks for that, because I couldn't for the life of me remember what that was called (msconfig). I use programs to do it, but I'm working on a machine that I don't want to put those on and I couldn't remember the old fashioned way!

[Knite]

Actually, I was referring to inside Steam itself.
You can change how Steam starts (either manually or automatically with windows (as well as online or offline mode), notifications for new products turned on or off, or even notifications about friends coming online/offline/etc.

[Saurdaukar]

What does STEAM do better?

Specific to AH, it would create a massive influx of new players.  Massive as in several multiples.

[Masherbrum]

steam SUX....and my pc bogged down so much, I tried to delete it.....but it just wont stop asking to be reinstalled....bugger!

I use Steam for Left 4 Dead.   My guess is you have out of date PC, so that will negate the "blame of the Software". 

[Spikes]

Specific to AH, it would create a massive influx of new players.  Massive as in several multiples.

I guess the argument here would be the new players vs the amount of work to be done to get them.

[Saurdaukar]

I guess the argument here would be the new players vs the amount of work to be done to get them.

I cant comment on the cost/benefit side of things because I dont work at HTC and I dont know what it would actually take (cost) to involve a distribution system like Steam.

That said, any other, similar sort of distribution service would surely spark a great deal of interest.

Since the prospect of new players is obviously appealing from a business perspective - I wonder if HTC has ever considered something as simple as a Fileplanet promotion.