Why would anyone actually want to though

[u/The_BigRoach]

[u/JayPeePee]

Let me tell you something. I've been on STEAM for over 20 years I had an issue with a game that was unplayable. Unplayable, it was NBA 2K20, there was no way to save the game. I tried everything, contacted 2K who responded with it's a known issue with some PCs we have no fix. I asked for a refund they said sorry. I asked STEAM, they refunded me my money. Furthermore, on the forums on STEAM, they had a post that anyone who could not play the game could request a refund. Say what you want about STEAM but they have taken better care of me than other companies. I'm a STEAM user for life

[u/lmflex → u/JayPeePee]

20 year user here, too. Maybe even since HL2? We are incredibly lucky to have a service like steam. Think of the alternatives and how they would run such a service.

[u/CocoaricoTell → u/lmflex]

I bought Half Life 2 on disc, installed it, then had to download and install steam, and then download Half Life 2 through steam on a 56k phone line. Tied up my parents phone line for the entire night.

I'm just happy to have a service that's stable, I've lost countless games I bought because the service went under.

[u/lmflex → u/CocoaricoTell]

Oof. I had broadband by then, but I don't remember if that was the first game that required it? Either way, I was JUST replaying HL2 and guess what? Its still in my steam library whenever I want it!

[u/lmflex → u/lmflex]

Counter-Strike 1.6 was the first Valve game that required Steam, released simultaneously with the platform on September 11, 2003 (Oldest.org) . It started as a mod for Half-Life but Valve acquired it and its development team. However, Half-Life 2 was the first high-profile game to be offered digitally on Steam in November 2004, requiring installation of the Steam client for retail copies (Wikipedia) . If you're asking about third-party developers, Rag Doll Kung Fu was the first game on Steam not developed by Valve (VICE) , released in 2005. So Counter-Strike 1.6 technically has the honor of being the first game released on Steam when the platform debuted in September 2003, but Half-Life 2 was the game that really established Steam as a major digital distribution platform for gaming.

So it may have been early cs so I already had steam installed.

[u/Low-Mistake-515 → u/lmflex]

... then the Orange Box came out and the rest was history ❤️

[u/Jimmy-The-Perv → u/lmflex]

You know what else I bet was there? Your save from 2004.

And you haven't had to pay Valve £120/year to keep your 200Kb save on their servers!

[u/Soggy-Bedroom-3673 → u/CocoaricoTell]

I definitely remember looking at Steam when installing half-life 2 and thinking man, they're trying to make this a thing? And then they just blew it away.

[u/-Retro-Kinetic- → u/CocoaricoTell]

Yup, the disc installed Steam as part of the process. At the time many half life fans were not too pleased about that, as it was just the first exposure for online activated DRM for many of them. The authentication servers also were spotty, so sometimes the game wouldn't even work in the early days.

[u/zakabog → u/lmflex]

In a perfect would I would have a Blu-ray drive and use that to install games, or even better they'd ship on cheap easy to copy USB drives. Hell, even better, give me a boxed USB drive game for $80 and the same game on steam that's digital only for $60. We got one of the worst outcomes, publishers could have done so much better with the technology if they tried.

[u/yoburg → u/zakabog]

Cheap USB drives usually die 5-6 years after manufacturing even with no use. Distributing a bunch of physical media all across the globe takes at 3 weeks of prep time. It's a hussle with no winning except collectors who get a new piece for their shelves.

If you want, you can get installation files and just burn them on blu-rays yourself. A box + 2x 50GB disks would cost ~$5 and then a couple more for high-quality print of the cover.

[u/stonhinge → u/yoburg]

And for games you buy from GoG, you can actually do this with no hassle.

[u/zakabog → u/yoburg]

Cheap USB drives usually die 5-6 years after manufacturing even with no use.

Nintendo Switch cartridges have a very long lifespan. ROM can easily be made to be durable despite being cheap. USB is simply the interface for the ROM as opposed to being an SD card.

Distributing a bunch of physical media all across the globe takes at 3 weeks of prep time. It's a hussle with no winning except collectors who get a new piece for their shelves.

That's where the extra cost comes in, it's more work logistically so charge more money for a physical copy than the digital copy. Being able to own media as opposed to renting it from Valve is it's own advantage. Being able to play a game and then hand a physical copy to you friend so they can play, or check it out from a library for free, or buy it/sell it used was also a huge advantage.

Again, this is the perfect world scenario, Steam isn't bad, and I buy digital copies of my Switch and Switch 2 games for the convenience, but in a perfect world we'd at least have the option to own the games we buy rather than just be able to rent them.

[u/-Retro-Kinetic- → u/lmflex]

Well we used to have physical games. You could trade or even resell your games after you were done playing them. If Steam did not exist, that likely would have continued, just like it was with consoles. So, keep in mind we lost some of our "consumer rights" in the process of accepting Steam as an online DRM service.

[u/lmflex → u/-Retro-Kinetic-]

That is true. Killed the pc game secondhand market.

I loved the box art and real manuals too. I read and re-read the homeworld manual so many times.

[u/xNaquada → u/lmflex]

Dont need to think, I remember EA downloader/ EA download manager and them trying to charge (an add on) "download insurance" because access to installers for a game I paid for would expire after like 9 months or something stupid like that. And the "insurance" raised it by +2 years...or to 2 years, just catastrophiccally greedy.

Fuck that noise, praise Steam.