ARMA2 & OA's Steam Thread: All Steam Q's/discussions go here [covered by Dwarden]

[kavoven 4]

No, it hasn't, UK and US get the cheap deal, while rest of the EU get the ripoff price.

US: $49,99 (35,10€)

UK: £29.99 (34,60€)

Europe: 47.99€ (£40,60 / $66,90)

:j:

Thats just fooling customers, nothing less...:mad:

[Rhodite 3]

Hi Sniperwolf572

Currency fluctuations make assessing prices like that pointless, check back in a week and will have all changed.

You think that is bad, try having thousands in a multi-currency business accounts over the last year. The relative value of our money has devalued by 25% then rose 50% then back down again, then up, then down, etc.

Commodity price fluctuations are impossible to predict; ditto currency fluctuations, in the end all you do is take a punt and if companies like BA and Ryan Air get caught out by it and Virgin guess it right you can see how hard it is to guess right.

So you just buy the game and take your chances.

Kind Regards walker

Last time I checked steam is not affected my the money markets in that direct manner.

I have seen many titles retain there prices irrispective of local shop prices here in the UK or in Europe.

I honestly do not believe for a second that STEAM are powerless to reduce the prices of games that are marketed at the numeric price in euros or pounds as they are in US dollars. Profiteering at its most greedy imho.

[walker 0]

Thats just fooling customers, nothing less...:mad:

No kavoven

That is just the UK Pound is strong this week. Steam probably run a predictor algorithm to stabalise price over time.

Rhodite the question is not the advertised price but the price at the time Steam take the money. I am certain the adjust prices to their advantage, same as every one else.

Kind Regards walker

Edited June 3, 2009 by walker

[Richieb0y 0]

at CD wow there at 28 euro inc shipping but it says 26/06/09 and i eamail them about it. they still ship it 26june

http://www.cdwow.nl/search?query=armed+assault+2&category=all

Edited June 3, 2009 by Richieb0y

[Commando84 0]

Steam has one or say 2 big advantages compared to a boxed version and that is that it can't run out of stock I think at least...

Also how many times have you used up a disc or a friend or relative acidentally broke your disc somehow and you gone to the store to buy a new one? for me I have buyed 4 ofp games and 3 Arma 1 games, though Arma 1 discs where mostly for Lan game usage :D

Sadly when Arma 1 came out most of my friends moved on to other things or got tired of ofp/Arma :P

But I'll try to make them try Arma 2 when I get it so they might change their minds and give it in for Bis. :)

Also Steam games are locked to your steam account so you can always download them when you want or need them, very nice especially after buying a new system or a format of the harddrive :D

[Dwarden 1125]

well there was issue with some games on STEAM they sold so well that they ran out of pregenerated keys :)

[TCEd 0]

As a long time user of Steam to buy games, once they set their price it usually stays there & not move until the game has been out for a while, then it will go down.

Honestly, the US price of $49.99 is right on target of what we normally pay for games of this magnitude. Top selling titles usually hit around the $50 mark, so I was not surprised or disappointed by this price, actually I was expecting about $10 more.

So all is good, this is reasonable & expected, oh.... got it pre-ordered through Steam btw.

[granQ 293]

TCEd, you just missed the point, its 49.99 dollars for you, but for us in Europe its like 66 dollars.. (not taking a stand in the discussion just pointing it out)

anyway.. the ONLY reason i would go for steam is if I know it will take care of all updates like it does with other games.

[andersson 285]

Will STEAM use beta patches? If not I guess youll have to take care of it anyway.

[Dangerdog 0]

Anyone know how many online activations are allowed before you need to contact customer support for further installs?

[f2k sel 164]

I only have one game bought through steam all others are on disc I don't have any problems either way.

As some people have the game now do they use steam to run online or can you bypass it?

BTW I have it on Pre-order for £17.95 half the price of steam.

[TCEd 0]

TCEd, you just missed the point, its 49.99 dollars for you, but for us in Europe its like 66 dollars.. (not taking a stand in the discussion just pointing it out)

anyway.. the ONLY reason i would go for steam is if I know it will take care of all updates like it does with other games.

Yes but you folks in Europe have many other options available to you to buy the game at different prices, you don't have to use Steam at all.

Up to this point Steam is the only vendor selling directly to the US market, yes we can get at other sites around the world, but Steam is the only one directed at our market, which for us works out great at a decent price.

If Euro's are unhappy with the Steam price, simply buy it off Amazon.co.uk or any other number of sites selling to your area.

Will STEAM use beta patches? If not I guess youll have to take care of it anyway.

You will be able to patch & update your game without having to use Steam at all. Always get your updates & patches from Official sites & just use Steam as the means to buy/download/install.

[hoak 0]

TCEd is correct, you won't see games go 'on sale' on Steam till well after they've hit sell-through -- that window can of course depend on the game, peak and mean sales volume, and sales performance in other channels outside of Steam.

Games on Steam, are just like games installed from a DVD, they are just installed to a different directory, with different DRM -- so as TCEd says you can use official downloadable patches to update Steam purchased games just like any other game.

The exception to the above are some games that roll with SteamWorks, though even most of these games support patching via downloadable patches.

The price disparity on Steam internationally is complex, and really more closely reflects the value of your currency in your local market (i.e. the cost of bread), then the cost of a media version of the same game in your market. If you think ArmA II is expensive in Germany, you have no idea how bad the U.S. Economy is...

The advantages of buying ArmA II on Steam, and I'm not suggesting it's for everyone, but the benefits I value include: unlimited downloads without any 're-authorization', integrated CRC checking and repair (so if some game files are corrupt, you only have to redownload those), and transparent DRM.

The last; Steam's DRM is what makes it all worth-while for me, even when it costs a little more -- Steam installs no Ring-0 level drivers, and will never cripple the stability or performance of your game (or PC) like so many other copy-protection schemes. So for me the unlimited no-hassle downloads, and functionally DRM free performance is worth a little extra.

Glad to see ArmA II is performing so well in sales, I knew if they got in early in the North American market it would take off -- rewards well earned IMHO, and even though BI has always been unsurpassed with their support for their games, their performing well financially just adds assurance to the quality and longevity we can look forward to.

[Kite 0]

So currently I have installed ARMA 1.14 and beta 1.16. I run various addons and mods depending on what server I connect to. Using the STEAM version of ARMA 2, will there be issues with this?

That's one thing I really love/hate about ARMA - the addons and betas. I'm afraid STEAM will lock down only one allowable version. Not such a bad thing in theory but with ARMA 1 it would be problematic.

If this is a non-issue, then I would buy it via STEAM without fear.

[Nicholas 5]

I wish I would have waited for hte Steam release lol but i couldnt wait. I bought from petergames.de, and they charged $53USD to my bank account compared to what steam is selling for $49.99USD....And I only have a limited number of activations(Which I really hate because hell, I bought the game its mine i should be activate it as many times I want on my PC.)WHich on steam, you can download and activate as many times as you want cause its with your account, so i kinda got ripped off on that. STEAm doesnt mess with any mods/addosn you put in either.

[BOTA:16 0]

So currently I have installed ARMA 1.14 and beta 1.16. I run various addons and mods depending on what server I connect to. Using the STEAM version of ARMA 2, will there be issues with this?

That's one thing I really love/hate about ARMA - the addons and betas. I'm afraid STEAM will lock down only one allowable version. Not such a bad thing in theory but with ARMA 1 it would be problematic.

If this is a non-issue, then I would buy it via STEAM without fear.

From my understanding so far you can run ArmA 2 without Steam once it's been downloaded, installed and activated. So it should run just like a normal retail copy. Even with Steam you can have multiple startup options for different versions/mods/addons. So either way it shouldn't be a problem.

[BOTA:16 0]

I wish I would have waited for hte Steam release lol but i couldnt wait. I bought from petergames.de, and they charged $53USD to my bank account compared to what steam is selling for $49.99USD....And I only have a limited number of activations(Which I really hate because hell, I bought the game its mine i should be activate it as many times I want on my PC.)WHich on steam, you can download and activate as many times as you want cause its with your account, so i kinda got ripped off on that. STEAm doesnt mess with any mods/addosn you put in either.

You can still have as many activations as you want, just a limited number of simultaneous activations. Activation limits are not absolute.

[xav 0]

Does BIS earn the same amount of money from 1 sale of a 505 box compared to 1 sale on Steam (electronic) or do they make more money from 505?

[boneboys 0]

Anyone know how many online activations are allowed before you need to contact customer support for further installs?

Up until now, for any Steam game, once its in your Games List you can do as you wish. Which in my opinion is the way it should be.

I've pre-ordered my ArmA2 from a certain Play.c*m.

The game is at the top of the pre-order chart, for the delivered price of 32.49€s. 505 version without any activation limits.

I've been an avid Steam user for more than 5 years and I must say that I'm a little disappointed by the recent direction/price scaling that Steam has taken.

The price will vary between 50 & 55 odd €s in the shops here in France.

So, I like Steam a lot but I'm slowly but surly trying to find other methods of buying.

The possibility to activate a real copy (UT3 for example) is a pretty interesting option although I have not yet sucommbed...

[sgt gul 0]

is there a chance that steam will make an earlier release ? now its on 30 june, maybe they will release it same time with UK release?

[Nicholas 5]

The date on Steam is Correct, it'll change if it gets released earlier...

[sgt gul 0]

so i am better of buying it from steam, cuz i allready have many games on steam. I was thinking about buying the german version, but better to wait. steam version will be most up to date, plus maybe well get a demo this week or next week before release.

[TCEd 0]

Does BIS earn the same amount of money from 1 sale of a 505 box compared to 1 sale on Steam (electronic) or do they make more money from 505?

I would assume that each deal is different to some degree, Steam may have purchased the game from BIS at a different price than say 505, each deal is worked out individually, with some margin of what it was sold to others playing a part, but not necessarily the same for all publishers, this of course is my opinion as I don't know for sure.

[giantsfan24 10]

I wish I would have waited for hte Steam release lol but i couldnt wait. I bought from petergames.de, and they charged $53USD to my bank account compared to what steam is selling for $49.99USD....And I only have a limited number of activations(Which I really hate because hell, I bought the game its mine i should be activate it as many times I want on my PC.)WHich on steam, you can download and activate as many times as you want cause its with your account, so i kinda got ripped off on that. STEAm doesnt mess with any mods/addosn you put in either.

Being in the US, did it work out ok? Do you know if, when the UK version is released, you can patch it to English?

[Ferox 0]

Greetings,

I'm not really a steam fan, although i do have close to 8 games on it so I don't have too many complaints. I worry though about arma 2 steam being able to have no problems with the amount of mods, missions, and conversions that the average arma 2 player has( I know my squad always loves to try the newest most realistic mods etc).

anyone have any concerns with that or heard anything about it? because i'm hesitant to pre order it really until I find out more.