Its SOP to give indie game buyers steam key, even if they get the game from another store. Sure its open to abuse, but I'd guess its not significant enough to avoid the practice. Handing out "free" steam keys means people are more likely to buy stuff from steam. Its marketing.
Hard to say what the case will be this time around thought because the copies were sold before the game was released in steam.
Its SOP to give indie game buyers steam key, even if they get the game from another store. Sure its open to abuse, but I'd guess its not significant enough to avoid the practice. Handing out "free" steam keys means people are more likely to buy stuff from steam. Its marketing.
Hard to say what the case will be this time around thought because the copies were sold before the game was released in steam.
I'm not sure whether or not it matters if people already bought copies before BGEE was released on Steam. I mean, using Steam means that all the BGEE players will naturally still be exposed to the same kinds of marketing that new BGEE buyers will and are. Giving out free keys to a Steam version is probably good for Valve in the long run because it potentially brings in new customers that may go on to purchase other games through Steam (or future BGEE DLC )
IThe overlay is so buggy with most games it's not even ...
i'll use this quote next time i need an example of excessive over exaggeration, i have over 300 games on steam and can think of 2 where the overlay bugs out.
haters gonna hate.
Then you must not use it very much, and no one cares how many games you have, because you probably bought them all on the sale like most. Also it's obvious you are in love with Valve, because you would not buy the game without a proper Steam release. Yeah like some how bringing content to Steam legitimizes the game like it did for War Z. Give us a break if you need a one stop shop, and can't deal with competition on this platform.
You also must not follow that Valve takes their cut, and this developer doesn't see a dime from this release. Look at Atari now, and a lot of good that Steam release is gonna do them. Support the developers, and not how publishers can monopolize their work with no investment.
I'm not even going to guess at the percentages. Safe to say by Trent's tweet that Atari and Steam are/were getting the majority, however. Which is a shame as it means less for Beamdog and future developments (which lends credence to the whole "PC market isn't profitable" line for developers these days) than had people simply bought directly from Beamdog. I am hopeful that the quantity within the Steam user base can offset the lower percentage that Beamdog gets, but I'm not holding my breath.
On a tangent, I still think it should have been released on Steam once more of the bugs were ironed out. But I'm guessing that the Steam release was a last ditch money-grab by Atari to boost the share prices (and to their credit, when BG:EE hit Steam on the 16th of January, it did see a jump of about 1 cent from €0.88 to €0.89 on the French side between the 15th and the 16th — which still wasn't enough) before finally going bust (News on Atari in France).
The entire Steam key issue is in the hands of Atari. They put the game on Steam and are in control of any Steam keys. I really suggest anyone who wants a Steam key to attempt to contact Atari and make their request known.
Why would beamdog, valve or atari even want that. Steam would just help a competitor, atari gains absolutely nothing and beamdog would basically help migrate customers back to steam killing itself.
im not seeing any keys handled out in near future.
The entire Steam key issue is in the hands of Atari. They put the game on Steam and are in control of any Steam keys. I really suggest anyone who wants a Steam key to attempt to contact Atari and make their request known.
-Trent
Could you assist us in how and where to contact Atari?
The entire Steam key issue is in the hands of Atari. They put the game on Steam and are in control of any Steam keys. I really suggest anyone who wants a Steam key to attempt to contact Atari and make their request known.
-Trent
Quoting also @Hydd, @TrentOster can you please give us a pointer in the right direction ?
Having read through all six pages of this thread, I must confess that I still do not see why a Steam Key would be desirable, but I hazard a guess that it's something to do with being freakishly codependent and having to remain in constant communication with everyone you know, or suffering from acute obsessive compulsive disorder and needing to know exactly how long one has been playing the game.
For and about this, I care little, however I shall address the misguided notion that failure to provide such a steam key is somehow a failing on the part of Beamdog. In particular, I note that one simile used was to suggest that not being supplied with a Steam Key was akin to being supplied with stale coke.
No.
What you have entered into is a contract. In this contract, you have purchased, and received, Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, along with a rather more fuzzy implied contract entitling you to further updates and improvements to the BG:EE code whenever supplied by the Developer, as you have notionally entered into a contract for a theoretical, bug free, end product.
At no point whatsoever did you purchase the right, explicitly or implicitly, to a Steam Key, as that service was not offered at the time of purchase. Equally, should that service become offered at a later date, that service would not be retroactive, any more than the inverse; that buying the game now should afford you the pre-order discount. You have not been sold a defective or lacking product, you have received exactly what you paid for.
Beamdog is in no way responsible for the acquisition, nor distribution of additional products or services outside of those you have entered into a contract for. Failure to supply additional services you have not requested is in no way poor customer service, and suggesting otherwise is overly entitled twaffle. When you're complaining that the Coca Cola you received with your pizza tastes strange, it probably shouldn't be because you ordered a Dr Pepper.
Any work that Beamdog does in any fashion to supply additional services above and beyond the standard merchant/customer transaction is above and beyond the call of duty, and exemplary service, and if it's so important that you get a Steam Key, rather than blaming the people you didn't buy one from, take responsibility for your own actions and then go and buy one.
Having read through all six pages of this thread, I must confess that I still do not see why a Steam Key would be desirable, but I hazard a guess that it's something to do with being freakishly codependent and having to remain in constant communication with everyone you know, or suffering from acute obsessive compulsive disorder and needing to know exactly how long one has been playing the game.
I think it has more to do with the fact that some people have all or most of their games on Steam. For the convenience of having everything in one place, a single platform to get all your patches and updates from, and to launch the game from. And if you ever get a new computer, they're all right there for you.
Also, for people who can be a little obsessive about having things orderly, having BG:EE be the only game that you don't have through Steam would annoying in itself. And if that sounds ridiculous, remember that like half the people on this forum, including myself, ritualistically clear all the fog of war on all the maps in BG; being a little obsessive is something I think most people here can understand.
And for the record, I only have one game on Steam, and am completely indifferent to whether we get Steam keys.
Having read through all six pages of this thread, I must confess that I still do not see why a Steam Key would be desirable, but I hazard a guess that it's something to do with being freakishly codependent and having to remain in constant communication with everyone you know, or suffering from acute obsessive compulsive disorder and needing to know exactly how long one has been playing the game.
For and about this, I care little, however I shall address the misguided notion that failure to provide such a steam key is somehow a failing on the part of Beamdog. In particular, I note that one simile used was to suggest that not being supplied with a Steam Key was akin to being supplied with stale coke.
No.
What you have entered into is a contract. In this contract, you have purchased, and received, Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, along with a rather more fuzzy implied contract entitling you to further updates and improvements to the BG:EE code whenever supplied by the Developer, as you have notionally entered into a contract for a theoretical, bug free, end product.
At no point whatsoever did you purchase the right, explicitly or implicitly, to a Steam Key, as that service was not offered at the time of purchase. Equally, should that service become offered at a later date, that service would not be retroactive, any more than the inverse; that buying the game now should afford you the pre-order discount. You have not been sold a defective or lacking product, you have received exactly what you paid for.
Beamdog is in no way responsible for the acquisition, nor distribution of additional products or services outside of those you have entered into a contract for. Failure to supply additional services you have not requested is in no way poor customer service, and suggesting otherwise is overly entitled twaffle. When you're complaining that the Coca Cola you received with your pizza tastes strange, it probably shouldn't be because you ordered a Dr Pepper.
Any work that Beamdog does in any fashion to supply additional services above and beyond the standard merchant/customer transaction is above and beyond the call of duty, and exemplary service, and if it's so important that you get a Steam Key, rather than blaming the people you didn't buy one from, take responsibility for your own actions and then go and buy one.
I'm really hoping that you're being sarcastic. Otherwise, yeesh, lol.
As Trent has said (and I said several pages back). Beamdog is in no way associated with the release on Steam. The only parties involved are Atari and Steam. If you have bought BGEE via Beamdog and want a 'free' Steam key then you will need to contact the parties involved - Atari or Steam.
I'm sure Steam will be happy to give you free stuff as you are such a valued customer...
-------------------
My concern is with BG2:EE. I foresee a large drop off in direct sales through Beamdog as many people will be waiting for the inevitable Steam release. This of course will severely impact profits for Beamdog and therefore threaten a potential BG3 or further EE releases.
I'm sorry you're building your point of view on wrong information.
first: Overhaul is actively working with Atari for the Steam release. do you really think that Atari just pirated baldur.exe, cracked out the launcher and pushed it to Steam ?
second: the whole Overhaul and the translation teams are already working on BG2:EE, it will be done and published, Trent said it more than once.
Steam will only help in gaining more audience that will be added to Beamdog user base, not subtracted.
@Fungostar actually no, Overhaul are working with Atari to try and get them to patch the Steam version sometime this era. long story short, Atari have digital distribution rights to Baldur's Gate and so have placed the Enhanced Edition on Steam... AFAIK the first Overhaul/Beamdog heard of this was the howls from the Steam forums about how crap the game is (partially because Atari 'released' BGEE to Steam just as a new patch came out and now are being tardy twats about getting the patch organized)
As Trent has said (and I said several pages back). Beamdog is in no way associated with the release on Steam. The only parties involved are Atari and Steam. If you have bought BGEE via Beamdog and want a 'free' Steam key then you will need to contact the parties involved - Atari or Steam.
I'm sure Steam will be happy to give you free stuff as you are such a valued customer....
It's not what he said, it's how he said it. And the characterization of Steam users/fans in the beginning of the post was a borderline insulting generalization.
The rest just looked like some pre-law student or teenager's attempt to appear knowledgeable about the legalities of the situation, by using a bunch of phrases/words that might sound authoritative to the layperson.
I know I can't speak for everyone, but I don't expect anything to actually happen. Sure, I would like a Steam key, but in no way should you misinterpret my opinion as a bloated sense of entitlement.
If you don't like the way Valve/Steam may reduce the profits made by sales, I can see the logical point of that argument. But if your beef is about friends on your friends list messaging you mid-game, than you are painfully ignorant about how the Steam client works (fyi, you can turn that off). There is absolutely no forced interaction between steam users or groups. A lot of the criticisms about Steam seem too irrelevant to the topic at hand, so we're left with a lot of trolling (from what I can see).
Atari has distribution rights and are solely dealing with the Steam release. As owners of the Baldur's Gate IP they have the right to do this.
This means that all patches/fixes/anything that Overhaul creates will first have to go to Atari and then to Steam to be updated. This is because there is no relationship between Overhaul and Steam other than Atari linking them. Of course Overhaul are working with Atari - however Overhaul are not working with Steam.
Overhaul is no way is responsible for the Steam release. This sits squarely with Atari.
I know BG2 is going to go ahead regardless, again you missed the point.
When BG2:EE is released then I expect that Overhaul profit margins will suffer because many people won't buy directly from them and instead will wait to buy it on Steam. This means Overhaul will receive less profit per unit sold.
BG3 and potential other EE projects (Icewind Dale1&2/Torment) are directly tied to the success of BG1:EE and BG2:EE. If the profits aren't there for the rights holders and developers then the chances are future games won't be made.
I don't know if @Pantalion is lawyer but I am and he's absolutely right from a legal point of view. In no moment Beamdog even implied that by buying the product from their store you'd receive a key from other store. What is being requested by some is not different from buying a book from Amazon and demanding to retrieve a copy from Barnes & Noble because it's from the same author.
The fact that BGEE in Steam and Beamdog is the same game does not entitle anyone to either get a free key from Steam because he bought from Beamdog or have the game registered at Beamdog because he bought it from Steam.
Personally I have no beef with Steam or their users. I have a couple of games on Steam but not lots. I can see the benefits of a Steam release a couple of months after intial release.
My personal issue is with some Steam users who come stamping in to the forums demanding Overhaul provide them with Steam keys for their BGEE purchase as if they are somehow entitled to it. I realise that this is probably a small vocal minority and not indicative of the larger community, however it's all to easy to tar all Steam users with the same brush.
Also can we please not lump those of us politely asking if this is possible with the... colourful personalities who are ranting about their right to a Steam key.
Also can we please not lump those of us politely asking if this is possible with the... colourful personalities who are ranting about their right to a Steam key.
I see no problem in asking as it would be a liberality from Atari in giving away keys. Beamdog has no say in this.
Comments
Hard to say what the case will be this time around thought because the copies were sold before the game was released in steam.
You also must not follow that Valve takes their cut, and this developer doesn't see a dime from this release. Look at Atari now, and a lot of good that Steam release is gonna do them. Support the developers, and not how publishers can monopolize their work with no investment.
On a tangent, I still think it should have been released on Steam once more of the bugs were ironed out. But I'm guessing that the Steam release was a last ditch money-grab by Atari to boost the share prices (and to their credit, when BG:EE hit Steam on the 16th of January, it did see a jump of about 1 cent from €0.88 to €0.89 on the French side between the 15th and the 16th — which still wasn't enough) before finally going bust (News on Atari in France).
-Trent
im not seeing any keys handled out in near future.
Trent will probably have a better idea than a Google search, so if you don't want to try either of those options then you can wait for him
-Trent
That is the reply:
Greetings!
Unfortunately, in order to have the game on Steam it has to be purchased directly at their store.
Sincerely,
Atari Customer Support
The same reply was sent to a friend of mine.
Probably automated too.
For and about this, I care little, however I shall address the misguided notion that failure to provide such a steam key is somehow a failing on the part of Beamdog. In particular, I note that one simile used was to suggest that not being supplied with a Steam Key was akin to being supplied with stale coke.
No.
What you have entered into is a contract. In this contract, you have purchased, and received, Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, along with a rather more fuzzy implied contract entitling you to further updates and improvements to the BG:EE code whenever supplied by the Developer, as you have notionally entered into a contract for a theoretical, bug free, end product.
At no point whatsoever did you purchase the right, explicitly or implicitly, to a Steam Key, as that service was not offered at the time of purchase. Equally, should that service become offered at a later date, that service would not be retroactive, any more than the inverse; that buying the game now should afford you the pre-order discount. You have not been sold a defective or lacking product, you have received exactly what you paid for.
Beamdog is in no way responsible for the acquisition, nor distribution of additional products or services outside of those you have entered into a contract for. Failure to supply additional services you have not requested is in no way poor customer service, and suggesting otherwise is overly entitled twaffle. When you're complaining that the Coca Cola you received with your pizza tastes strange, it probably shouldn't be because you ordered a Dr Pepper.
Any work that Beamdog does in any fashion to supply additional services above and beyond the standard merchant/customer transaction is above and beyond the call of duty, and exemplary service, and if it's so important that you get a Steam Key, rather than blaming the people you didn't buy one from, take responsibility for your own actions and then go and buy one.
Also, for people who can be a little obsessive about having things orderly, having BG:EE be the only game that you don't have through Steam would annoying in itself. And if that sounds ridiculous, remember that like half the people on this forum, including myself, ritualistically clear all the fog of war on all the maps in BG; being a little obsessive is something I think most people here can understand.
And for the record, I only have one game on Steam, and am completely indifferent to whether we get Steam keys.
are you joking, right ?
As Trent has said (and I said several pages back). Beamdog is in no way associated with the release on Steam. The only parties involved are Atari and Steam. If you have bought BGEE via Beamdog and want a 'free' Steam key then you will need to contact the parties involved - Atari or Steam.
I'm sure Steam will be happy to give you free stuff as you are such a valued customer...
-------------------
My concern is with BG2:EE. I foresee a large drop off in direct sales through Beamdog as many people will be waiting for the inevitable Steam release. This of course will severely impact profits for Beamdog and therefore threaten a potential BG3 or further EE releases.
first: Overhaul is actively working with Atari for the Steam release. do you really think that Atari just pirated baldur.exe, cracked out the launcher and pushed it to Steam ?
second: the whole Overhaul and the translation teams are already working on BG2:EE, it will be done and published, Trent said it more than once.
Steam will only help in gaining more audience that will be added to Beamdog user base, not subtracted.
The rest just looked like some pre-law student or teenager's attempt to appear knowledgeable about the legalities of the situation, by using a bunch of phrases/words that might sound authoritative to the layperson.
I know I can't speak for everyone, but I don't expect anything to actually happen. Sure, I would like a Steam key, but in no way should you misinterpret my opinion as a bloated sense of entitlement.
If you don't like the way Valve/Steam may reduce the profits made by sales, I can see the logical point of that argument. But if your beef is about friends on your friends list messaging you mid-game, than you are painfully ignorant about how the Steam client works (fyi, you can turn that off). There is absolutely no forced interaction between steam users or groups. A lot of the criticisms about Steam seem too irrelevant to the topic at hand, so we're left with a lot of trolling (from what I can see).
You missed the point.
Atari has distribution rights and are solely dealing with the Steam release. As owners of the Baldur's Gate IP they have the right to do this.
This means that all patches/fixes/anything that Overhaul creates will first have to go to Atari and then to Steam to be updated. This is because there is no relationship between Overhaul and Steam other than Atari linking them. Of course Overhaul are working with Atari - however Overhaul are not working with Steam.
Overhaul is no way is responsible for the Steam release. This sits squarely with Atari.
I know BG2 is going to go ahead regardless, again you missed the point.
When BG2:EE is released then I expect that Overhaul profit margins will suffer because many people won't buy directly from them and instead will wait to buy it on Steam. This means Overhaul will receive less profit per unit sold.
BG3 and potential other EE projects (Icewind Dale1&2/Torment) are directly tied to the success of BG1:EE and BG2:EE. If the profits aren't there for the rights holders and developers then the chances are future games won't be made.
The fact that BGEE in Steam and Beamdog is the same game does not entitle anyone to either get a free key from Steam because he bought from Beamdog or have the game registered at Beamdog because he bought it from Steam.
Personally I have no beef with Steam or their users. I have a couple of games on Steam but not lots. I can see the benefits of a Steam release a couple of months after intial release.
My personal issue is with some Steam users who come stamping in to the forums demanding Overhaul provide them with Steam keys for their BGEE purchase as if they are somehow entitled to it. I realise that this is probably a small vocal minority and not indicative of the larger community, however it's all to easy to tar all Steam users with the same brush.
Reading most of the "GIMME MAH STEAM KEY NOAW CUZ I SED SO!" comments just made my stomach knot. n_n
The Dothraki may eventually decide to honour you with a gift in their own time, but you cannot insistently demand one.
Edit: Added spoiler tag.