It seems Valve are quite serious about getting back into making games, as Campo Santo the developer of Firewatch has joined them.
Writing on their official website in a post, the team from Campo Santo confirmed that the news is true. They said they found that people at Valve share the same values that they do, so it became an "obvious match". Expanding on that, they said this:
We had a series of long conversations with the people at Valve and everyone shared the satisfaction we take in working with people whose talents dwarf our own to make things we never thought possible. Both sides spoke about our values and how, when you get right down to it, we, as human beings, are hard-limited by the time we have left when it comes to making the things we care about and believe in. They asked us if we’d all be interested in coming up to Bellevue and doing that there and we said yes.
They confirmed that their next game, In the Valley of Gods, is still being made and so it's now a Valve game.
Personally, I think it's great that Valve are bringing in some obviously talented folk to make games. Valve have a lot of resources and contacts that can help for sure. It should also mean they have good Linux support, since Valve are still committed to Linux gaming.
Since it will now be a Valve game, it will be interesting to see if In the Valley of Gods will make it to GOG. I wouldn't expect it to now, but maybe Valve will surprise us there.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: BOYSSSSSLet me get this straight, you are saying that you can buy a game on GOG and then go to piratebay and download it from there, and the GOG TOS allows that? I thought that you still need to download it from gog.com ....
GOG allows you to install the game from the personal backup. Steam does not (they don't necessarily enforce that for each game, but they still don't allow it). Analyze the difference.
Last edited by Shmerl on 23 April 2018 at 3:15 pm UTC
Quoting: DuncOkay, but as others have pointed out above, all vendors have Terms of Service.
Yes, and it's important what those terms are. I don't agree with claims above that GOG terms are the same.
Quoting: ShmerlThat's really confusing, so Steam TOS don't allow you to backup your games, and yet in my steam library when I right click a game there is "Backup Game Files"Quoting: BOYSSSSSLet me get this straight, you are saying that you can buy a game on GOG and then go to piratebay and download it from there, and the GOG TOS allows that? I thought that you still need to download it from gog.com ....
GOG allows you to install the game from the personal backup. Steam does not (they don't necessarily enforce that for each game, but they still don't allow it). Analyze the difference.
Quoting: BOYSSSSSThat's really confusing, so Steam TOS don't allow you to backup your games, and yet in my steam library when I right click a game there is "Backup Game Files"
And I assume same Steam client is needed to perform restore from it? I said TOS doesn't allow manual backup restore which is a requirement for DRM-free.
Last edited by Shmerl on 23 April 2018 at 4:32 pm UTC
@Shmerl You have a problem with these words "require the automatic download and installation"
I can't understand your interpretation of that as TOS not allowing manual backup. I mean clicking "Backup Game Files" is not an automatic process.
To summarize:
1. Steam TOS wording says that it needs to install and auto-update your games, and if you move your games you can't auto-update so that means you break the TOS.
2. They have not clarified what happens with your purchased games if they shut the store down.
3. Valve are evil so if they do close the store they won't allow you to play the DRM-Free games that you have purchased.
Am I missing something?
EDIT:How do I tag a user? @ doesn't work.
Last edited by BOYSSSSS on 23 April 2018 at 5:48 pm UTC
Quoting: BOYSSSSSI mean clicking "Backup Game Files" is not an automatic process.
The problem is with restoring from backup. Do you need Steam client to restore what Steam client backed up?
Quoting: ShmerlQuoting: BOYSSSSSI mean clicking "Backup Game Files" is not an automatic process.
The problem is with restoring from backup. Do you need Steam client to restore what Steam client backed up?
Yes, but again nothing is said in the TOS about backups.
It seems you have a problem with the wording "require the automatic download and installation" of the TOS, no matter how you look at it the steam backup is not automatic so by that logic Valve is giving you a tool to break their TOS.
Quoting: BOYSSSSSYes
So you can't restore it without the Steam client. It's very well aligned with the TOS, which implies that it's required for installation (which should cover official backup restoration). And you aren't even allowed to use the client in case when you aren't Steam user anymore. Or you simply won't be able to, if Steam closes down and all you are left with are some DRMed backups. That means in those scenarios, your backups will be useless. Q.E.D.
All that illustrates quite well that Steam is DRMed by its nature. DRM-free scenario would mean that you can back up your package, and restore it later without any requirement for such clients, both technical and contractual.
Last edited by Shmerl on 23 April 2018 at 6:11 pm UTC
Doc Angelo Apr 23, 2018
The only thing that is left are the different interpretations of the vague TOS of both Steam and GOG.
One thing to consider: If developers/publisher would know that the user wouldn't be allowed to play their game without a Steam account anyway, why would they choose to not use DRM? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Last edited by Doc Angelo on 23 April 2018 at 6:20 pm UTC
Quoting: Doc AngeloThe Backup/Restore-Wizard is a tool within Steam. You don't have to use this feature to back up your games. You can backup any game by just copying/compressing the game folder.
That's not what TOS says. Technically you can copy files yourself, but it would run afoul of TOS saying that you need their client for installation. At least that's how I understand it. And that's what my point above was. And if it's incorrect, why does the official backup tool make it impossible to restore it back without the client?
Last edited by Shmerl on 23 April 2018 at 6:21 pm UTC
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