STEAM SELLS BROKEN GAMES!

[Zantos]

My copy of Oblivion that I bought from Steam wouldn't work without the disk. If I'd known I'd need a disk anyway I'd have just bought the bloody boxed version.

You got a disk from steam?

No, I borrowed my flatmate until we figured out how to write registry keys for it. I eventually had to give it back, it still doesn't work without ridiculous work arounds though.

My copy of Oblivion that I bought from Steam wouldn't work without the disk. If I'd known I'd need a disk anyway I'd have just bought the bloody boxed version.

I bought my brother and a friend Oblivion on Steam, and neither of them had any issues with running the game.

That's fantastic for them, but it doesn't make me feel better about the fact that a game I bought I had to fix myself because they were no help what-so-ever.

 

[Kathinka]

steam is to blame for many, many bad things. but bugs in games are hardly their fault.

now, in my case things look different. if i try to start mw2 it tells me that this game is not avaiable right now. a complete reinstallation of the game, steam and even the operating system did not help, and steam support is unable to fix the issue. in the end, i had to apply a non-steam-crack just to be able to play a game i legally own.

this one they did cock up. and then they wonder why people pirate shit.

 

[Chris Sutherland]

The following is a direct reply to OP.

This is a cry to please, for the love of all that is holy, get your facts straight before ranting.

Firstly, Steam is a distributor. Steam began as a distribution platforms for Valve games, designed and published by Valve. Steam staff do choose which titles are distributed via the platform, but only in very rare cases do they refuse titles. Steam offers developers *and* publishers a chance to speak directly to the players for feedback and bug reports long after the game has been released.

Secondly, all of the games you mentioned have nothing to do with Steam other than the fact that you bought them from there. This isn't even taking into account the fact you are playing games like Max Payne and Commandos, which are games that were not built to run on Windows Vista/7. They may be available to purchase, but Steam can not take responsibility for bugs experienced within the game; they did not design it, and they did not publish it.

Here's something to consider, Mr McLeod; Steam sells you a product, and they take a percentage of the money you paid. The majority of the money goes back to the publisher. In the case of Max Payne, this happens to be Rockstar, seemingly a favourite publisher of yours. Now, if Steam had a refund system purely because "the game has game breaking bugs" (which, by the way, you would NOT get a refund for at a high street store), Steam will then have to give every single player back the money they got for SOLELY distributing the game.

Why not direct your hatred where it NEEDS to go and get at the publisher? It's like blaming BestBuy for your bugged copy of Modern Warefare 2 on Xbox 360. Not BestBuy's fault, is it?

 

[Chris Sutherland]

Edit: Urk, double post. Sorry.

 

[Klepa]

Never before has a publisher gotten away with such widespread distribution of essentially flawed/unplayable software.

I otherwise agree with you, except publishers have gotten away with publishing buggy unusable software since the dawn of internet, and the rise of the ubiquitous "we'll patch it after launch" development cycle.

To give you a few examples.

Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, RAGE, anything created by Obsidian Entertainment, Windows ME, PC versions of most games.

Edit: Of course, "everyone's doing it" is no excuse. It's a sad state of affairs. But it's hardly new, and the meat of the blame isn't on Valve.

 

[Valok]

Nothing else to say actually.

 

[Something Amyss]

You're right, they could just take the money and run, but that nearly never works more than once now does it?

It has before. For Valve.

Why would it not again?

The market has spoken. It has said "fuck customer service, we just want cheap games."

Of course he can still complain, but it's unlikely to have a different outcome.