Steam problems - worth getting worked up about?

[Susurrus]

I am not a habitual user of digital downloads. I prefer having a hard copy, I don't mind switching disks over, and I loathe Steam activation every time I play on the games I do have.

Nevertheless, whilst in Steam, I happened across a sale of the RPG Risen, which sounded good, and was 50% off for the weekend. On a whim, I decided to buy it, though I'm not quite finished with F:NV yet. I bought it and downloaded it successfully Saturday lunchtime.

I have still been unable to play it, because Steam ran out of cd keys for the game - a problem they were obviously aware of BEFORE the sale really got started, on Friday afternoon, and certainly before close of business Friday. Despite this, it is still being offered for sale at the cut-down price, and it is still devoid of warnings that it is not playable until they get new cd-keys - which at this point looks like being next week at the earliest.

Now, as I said, I have other games, and I have other things to do, but it still seems like a pretty terrible advert for Steam. It seems extraordinary to me that they can sell a game they clearly don't have anywhere near enough copies of (especially if they were running out on Friday afternoon, and the sale ends on Monday...), yet offer no warning of such. More, it seems bizarre to me that it is even possible to run out of a digitally-distributed product. Certainly, it makes me wonder why they can market themselves as a more convenient way of buying games, when I could almost certainly have wandered into a local game store and bought the game for about the same price, and play it as soon as I get home. Lack of any warning, despite being aware of the problem is, to me at least, unforgivable, and renders potential counter-arguments, such as blaming the developer for not getting the keys to Steam quickly enough (either before the sale started, or once it had), entirely void.

Despite these strong words, I'm still only mildly irritated by this - there are a lot of people a lot more angry than me - presumably people who purchased it with the intention of using it to play over the weekend - the official Steam/Risen forum is here, and the thread has nearly 26000 views, suggesting that the issue is affecting rather a lot of people: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=730

I'd be interested on the community's take on this - is it a big issue? Do you think that it's pretty shoddy salesmanship, perhaps, but it is only for a weekend? Or do you think that issues like these undercut the whole concept (and often the price bump) of digital distribution? Or do you feel that it's a non-issue? Or are you someone prepared to defend Steam to the death, even when they have clearly erred? Should they have pulled the sale for a week when they realised they didn't (and wouldn't) have enough keys for the weekend?

EDIT: I should also add that whilst I have not encountered it before, this issue has apparently cropped up numerous times in the past, so its not a new issue for Steam.

 

[Something Amyss]

Wow, that's pretty freaking bizarre. How do you run out of an item in digital distro?

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Generally any error with any DRM that stops you playing a game is inexcusable... this is why I hate DRM like Steam, I prefer the old days of just a CD key and none of this online activation crap...

Generally I'd expect from a game that doesn't work for the problem to be fixed within 48 hours, and some kind of monetary compensation, even as simple as 50% off the next purchase.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I think it kind of sucks, but I also don't think it's a huge deal. I've seen it happen once before during one of the big summer or winter week-long sales, and it was resolved pretty quickly. It's bizarre that it can even happen in the first place, and it's not terribly fun when it does, but as far as I can tell it's less a Steam issue and more to do with the publisher of the game and how their key/SN system works. Most games on there don't have separate keys and are just tied to your account, so that can't happen in the first place, but sometimes a game gets put up that's basically the exact same version as the non-Steam one without any of that changed, and since they (the publisher/developer) usually only generate/authorize a limited number of keys at a time for various reasons, it's possible to run out if they sell more than they expected during a sale. You'd think they'd have noticed after the first time it happened and know to expect it by now, though...

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Wow, that's pretty freaking bizarre. How do you run out of an item in digital distro?

Basically, what happened is they ran out of CD keys to authenticate the game. Doesn't happen often really. Though it is puzzling as to how noone noticed the lack of CD keys earlier.

 

[KarlixLV]

I think that in this case one of the reasons might have been that even with 50% off the game they didn't really expect that many takers...

 

[Estocavio]

I think that in this case one of the reasons might have been that even with 50% off the game they didn't really expect that many takers...

Thats hardly an excuse for still letting people buy it even if they cant enable it properly - Either way, this doesnt happen often enough to be a true problem.

 

[Susurrus]

True, but they ran out of keys Friday, when the sale started on Friday....
- in office hours, so time to pull or edit the ad (even a warning would have been sufficient).
- the under-estimation was enormous.

 

[TheDuckbunny]

We're in the same boat, you and I. I also bought Risen this weekend.
Ofcourse it's pretty inexcusable that they ran out of CD-keys but because it was a pretty nice sale I'm willing to forgive them. If I buy myself a brand new game from Steam though, and this issue would occur I wouldn't be so forgiving.

 

[Antari]

Thats more a problem with the company releasing the game. Steam makes no bones about it. If you forget to add something to your store page, its not their fault. Missing key's, its not because Steam didn't ask for them. The game goes on sale? Its because the releasing company paid to have it put on sale for exposure.

So in this case its not steam's fault. They are literally just a store in this case, displaying the product as it was given to them.

 

[Dogstile]

DRM, how we loathe you

 

[Susurrus]

Antari: Sure, that's possible, but Steam are the ones that contract with the customer, not the developer. If Steam recognised a problem in their supply, then they could legitimately postpone or cancel the sale, with valid reason. They shouldn't take the money from the publisher for the exposure, then pass on any resultant problems regarding the sale of their goods to the customer. They've sold us a product they don't have any right to sell us at the moment -it's not a stock thing, where the stock is in transit and late arriving to Steam - and potentially, which they might never have the rights to sell (if, for example, publisher went bust overnight).

Additionally, unlike a late delivery due to unforeseen circumstances, lack of a sufficient number of keys ought to be immediately obvious, and thus Steam should be prepared to take action - it doesn't matter if they WILL have enough keys on Monday, its a case of EITHER screwing the consumer or breaking a deal with a company that hasn't properly fulfilled its obligations. Valve was supposed to be a developer on the side of the customer.

 

[Susurrus]

Double post, oops.

 

[Antari]

Antari: Sure, that's possible, but Steam are the ones that contract with the customer, not the developer. If Steam recognised a problem in their supply, then they could legitimately postpone or cancel the sale, with valid reason. They shouldn't take the money from the publisher for the exposure, then pass on any resultant problems regarding the sale of their goods to the customer. They've sold us a product they don't have any right to sell us at the moment -it's not a stock thing, where the stock is in transit and late arriving to Steam - and potentially, which they might never have the rights to sell (if, for example, publisher went bust overnight).

Additionally, unlike a late delivery due to unforeseen circumstances, lack of a sufficient number of keys ought to be immediately obvious, and thus Steam should be prepared to take action - it doesn't matter if they WILL have enough keys on Monday, its a case of EITHER screwing the consumer or breaking a deal with a company that hasn't properly fulfilled its obligations. Valve was supposed to be a developer on the side of the customer.

Ya thats the grey area behind it all. But the only thing you can be assured is the keys will arrive at some point. Yes its not a good way to do business but it is the way they have the contracts worked out. Its happened with quite a few games in the past, Tropico 3 had the same issues for its first 2 weeks. And officially Valve does treat Steam as its own entity somewhat. Its more a case of when Valve puts a game up on Steam, they don't have to worry about rules.

As nice as Steam has been to us all, they are still big business. Trust them as far as you can throw them.

 

[pope_of_larry]

knowing valve tho they will most likely do something to make up for it like the moder warfair thing where they gave every one left 4 dead to for free that got baned for no reason

 

[Susurrus]

That's fine, but this is not - should not - be an issue of trust for a business that actually works. In this situation, they're asking us to pay for a product, and then actually giving it to us when they feel like it.


Another point is that this kind of attitude directly sustains piracy. The number of people on that thread who have said "Go to gamecopyworld/some other institution, get a crack, play the game" is pretty large. Making a market for pirated products in the way that this does is irresponsible, and undermines a developer's ability to then complain about piracy afterwards. Indeed, it's actually making the DRM that the cd keys represents an incentive to piracy.

 

[Antari]

That's fine, but this is not - should not - be an issue of trust for a business that actually works. In this situation, they're asking us to pay for a product, and then actually giving it to us when they feel like it.


Another point is that this kind of attitude directly sustains piracy. The number of people on that thread who have said "Go to gamecopyworld/some other institution, get a crack, play the game" is pretty large. Making a market for pirated products in the way that this does is irresponsible, and undermines a developer's ability to then complain about piracy afterwards. Indeed, it's actually making the DRM that the cd keys represents an incentive to piracy.

You'll get no arguement from me on that point. But from their point of view, they are covered. Its a point of protocol between the releasing game company and Steam. The customer simply got caught in the crossfire. Since they can't be legally held responsible, they can either choose make an effort or not depending on how they feel. Again, not good business. But the only thing you can do about it is not buy from them. Then again with them taking over the DRM market, you don't have much choice. Something also they are well aware of.

 

[Something Amyss]

Wow, that's pretty freaking bizarre. How do you run out of an item in digital distro?

Basically, what happened is they ran out of CD keys to authenticate the game. Doesn't happen often really. Though it is puzzling as to how noone noticed the lack of CD keys earlier.

Yeah, that's what I meant. What happened was explained initially, but it's just how you run out of CD keys? It's such a bizarre situation, rare or otherwise.

 

[teh_gunslinger]

In other news: Legitimate customers are being screwed over by DRM. Also water is surprisingly wet. Stay tuned!

I wish I had read this post 2 hours ago, before I bought the damn game. So it seems I have yet another reason to hate DRM.

 

[Hiphophippo]

A lot of people seem to be missing the point entirely. They ran out of cd keys to authenticate the game, it's not really a DRM issue. Shit happens. It's not like Steam has been dipping their dicks in my drinks for years, (in fact, they've been nothing but great and reasonable to me) so I don't mind the occasional flub on their part.

Like I said, shit happens to the best from time to time.