Good news if you plan to dive into Diablo 4 with the Steam release coming on October 17th, as it has been Steam Deck Verified. There's some bad news if you already purchased it on Battle.net though.
For Diablo 4 being Steam Deck Verified, this means everything should just work out of the box directly from Steam and Valve's Diablo 4 verification was done on Proton Experimental. It already worked pretty great on Steam Deck anyway, as I showcased previously.
The bad news? Well, if you were hoping to simply transfer your Battle.net purchase over to Steam, it's a solid nope. Even though Steam keys cost developers / publishers nothing, Blizzard aren't going to provide you with one. As mentioned on X (formerly Twitter) by Adam Fletcher, the Global Community Development Director on Diablo, in reply to a user asking about having to buy it again Fletcher replied: "Yes. Two different store fronts run by two different companies."
Why don't some publishers do this? The reasoning is pretty simple really: Valve take a cut of all sales on Steam, including DLC and micro-transactions. So if you purchased directly before, publishers will want to keep you there so any extras you purchase don't get a cut eaten by Valve.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Linux_Rocks Oct 13, 2023
Quoting: Linux_RocksI'm glad that I waited & I didn't buy it on Battle.net yet. I'll probably wait for it to go on sale too.
Last I heard, the game isn't actually "finished", so waiting for a proper endgame to appear would be a good idea.
Quoting: EhvisValve would never allow them to generate so many free Steam keys.What makes you say that? I see no reason Valve wouldn't allow it for such a publisher.
hardpenguin Oct 13, 2023
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: EhvisValve would never allow them to generate so many free Steam keys.What makes you say that? I see no reason Valve wouldn't allow it for such a publisher.
If small publishers can't, why should big ones be able to? Don't see Valve setting such a precedent.
Quoting: EhvisSmall publishers absolutely can. How do you think they do it for itch sales? For Kickstarter backers? For Steam keys on other stores? It's been a thing for a long time.Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: EhvisValve would never allow them to generate so many free Steam keys.What makes you say that? I see no reason Valve wouldn't allow it for such a publisher.
If small publishers can't, why should big ones be able to? Don't see Valve setting such a precedent.
While Valve generally limit key generation, I've no doubt they would work with bigger publishers on this. There's nothing to say they wouldn't. It would be a win for Valve, because then they would get the extra cut from DLC and micro.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 13 October 2023 at 2:36 pm UTC
Quoting: Liam DaweWhile Valve generally limit key generation, I've no doubt they would work with bigger publishers on this.
That's quite the assumption. Valve hasn't shown much of a will to bend to publishers. They've let them leave steam because the publishers didn't get what they wanted.
Quoting: EhvisBack at ya, you're assuming something that neither of us actually know. I'm just coming from the side of: we know Steam keys are already a thing and have been for a long time, and it would be to Valve's benefit to do it and would take little effort from Valve.Quoting: Liam DaweWhile Valve generally limit key generation, I've no doubt they would work with bigger publishers on this.
That's quite the assumption. Valve hasn't shown much of a will to bend to publishers. They've let them leave steam because the publishers didn't get what they wanted.
Quoting: EhvisQuoting: Liam DaweQuoting: EhvisValve would never allow them to generate so many free Steam keys.What makes you say that? I see no reason Valve wouldn't allow it for such a publisher.
If small publishers can't, why should big ones be able to? Don't see Valve setting such a precedent.
Key generation limits are tied to store sales. If you don't have sales, you won't be allowed to generate a million keys. But a few thousand, sure. In the case of Diablo 4 there are sure to be a lot of sales so the keys will be pretty much unlimited. And even before release I'm sure they would be allowed to generate as many keys as they wanted. Why? Because they can be trusted not to abuse it. It's not *just* about being big vs small.
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me