Even at this price, I'd still tell someone to wait until the legal kerfuffle with Atari is over to buy it from Beamdog. Having it on Steam isn't worth waiting 2-3 weeks for a patch to come out.
Even at this price, I'd still tell someone to wait until the legal kerfuffle with Atari is over to buy it from Beamdog. Having it on Steam isn't worth waiting 2-3 weeks for a patch to come out.
Really? It's $4.99 on steam right now, give your head a shake
At any rate, I don't know what's going on with the legality of the whole situation but it's kind of frightening how cheap it is. Glad I payed the $18 when I pre-ordered it, I hope most of it went to Beamdog
Shoot. I'd really kind of like to buy BG:EE again as a Steam game, especially at that price. But I'd feel like I was betraying the people who made it, and assisting an evil monster to prosper. Plus, after the end of the current legal fiasco, if Beamdog winds up in control of digital D&D distribution rights, as they should, the Steam version might not get the patch that would probably come out.
I'm so confused. Talk about a "grey" morality and ethics situation. This is like trying to decide whether to remain loyal to First Enchanter Irving, during the DA:O mage origin, or to help Jowan and Lily. There is no clear right or wrong. Either way, you hurt somebody or are disloyal to somebody.
Hello everyone Do you thing there will be any problems in the future (with patches and stuff) if i buy the game at this point from steam ? . I saw on the site that there weresome problems with the publisher and with 2 distrubution methods but nothing about buying it from steam
My strong recommendation is that you dont buy from steam but instead buy directly from the publisher beamdog to hellp support them. Unfortunately legal problems mean they temporarily cannot sell it to you. It is entirely your call however, but so far Atari seem to be relatively poor at updating the steam version
Hello everyone Do you thing there will be any problems in the future (with patches and stuff) if i buy the game at this point from steam ? . I saw on the site that there weresome problems with the publisher and with 2 distrubution methods but nothing about buying it from steam
When overhaul releases an update it will be up to atari for when that update is released over steam. So in the past this has meant it has taken longer for steam users to get updates. Possibly weeks longer. Hopefully that won't be the case, its just a risk. I think initially there were problems directly relating to the steam client/application and BGEE, but I think those have been ironed out at this point (I can't say as I own it through overhaul).
But honestly its 5 bucks and they've released fixes for from what I can see for some of the odd quest related problems that were still around. So I would say its worth it.
Hmm ... so the major "playing" problem might be a delay it future patches if bought it from steam but the "moral" problem is it to buy it from an "bad" publisher (atari has a long list of problems and of less the moral action) or buy it (when avaible again) from the producer to support it . Thanks guys for the quick responses . I will see what will i do ... seeing the promotion remind it me again of the beautifull games of my youth BG1 , BG2 & Co .... maybe i will install the older version and play it a bit until the problem solves.
Hmm ... so the major "playing" problem might be a delay it future patches if bought it from steam but the "moral" problem is it to buy it from an "bad" publisher (atari has a long list of problems and of less the moral action) or buy it (when avaible again) from the producer to support it.
Well I'm pretty sure that Atari gets a cut either way. I was under the impression that the difference is that buying it on Steam means Valve gets a piece as well, leaving a smaller portion of the profit for Beamdog.
Hmm ... so the major "playing" problem might be a delay it future patches if bought it from steam but the "moral" problem is it to buy it from an "bad" publisher (atari has a long list of problems and of less the moral action) or buy it (when avaible again) from the producer to support it . Thanks guys for the quick responses . I will see what will i do ... seeing the promotion remind it me again of the beautifull games of my youth BG1 , BG2 & Co .... maybe i will install the older version and play it a bit until the problem solves.
Personally I see no moral problem in buying it from steam.
I am like, 100% sure that steam takes the loss on any games they choose to put on sale
Interesting, got a reference? It's not that I don't believe you, I've just never heard this before. I'm familiar with the 30% hunk of flesh Steam takes from normal purchases, but it seems counter intuitive that they'd lose money, and even owe royalties, when they do their deep discounts like 75% off.
I am like, 100% sure that steam takes the loss on any games they choose to put on sale
Interesting, got a reference? It's not that I don't believe you, I've just never heard this before. I'm familiar with the 30% hunk of flesh Steam takes from normal purchases, but it seems counter intuitive that they'd lose money, and even owe royalties, when they do their deep discounts like 75% off.
But I will say that steam does massive sales every summer, where they discount like every single game by 50+% and they list entire developers catalouges as part of this.
Actually, according to Valve’s director of business management, Jason Holtman (from the link above), if they thought putting their own games on sale was killing their franchise, or hurting the value of games, or hurting the revenue they could generate as a company, they wouldn’t do it.
According to EA's Origin head, David DeMartini, it's an approach, and he's not going to say it's not working for Valve. It certainly works for Valve; he doesn't know if it works as well for the publishing partners who take on the majority of that haircut.
So, Steam's 50 or 75 percent off approach can be bad financially for publishing partners. These sales are good for Valve.
As I understand, putting BG:EE on sale is a move by Valve, rather than by Atari. The price on the Atari's site is an additional evidence.
And it's clear this move by Valve is partly due to the current stir because of legal problems regarding BG:EE.
I have been playing BG 1 Vanilla from GOG, and already bought BG 2 from GOG as well. I am a bit confused by this talk of patches and updates... As far as I know, BG games are primarily single-player. Even in multi-player mode, it is cooperative as opposed to competitive, so why would it require regular patches? In fact I find it quite annoying that with Steam, perfectly fine games are regularly patched, sometimes causing my old saves to no longer work properly.
On a related question... is BG 1:EE actually better than Vanilla? What is the difference? I noticed that Vanilla actually got much higher critical reviews than BG 1 EE. Is that just because that times have changed, and critics expect better graphics or something, or is Vanilla actually a superior experience? Also, can somebody confirm that BG 1:EE is actually compatible with BG 2 for the purposes of importing characters into BG 2 and ToB.
I have been playing BG 1 Vanilla from GOG, and already bought BG 2 from GOG as well. I am a bit confused by this talk of patches and updates... As far as I know, BG games are primarily single-player. Even in multi-player mode, it is cooperative as opposed to competitive, so why would it require regular patches? In fact I find it quite annoying that with Steam, perfectly fine games are regularly patched, sometimes causing my old saves to no longer work properly.
On a related question... is BG 1:EE actually better than Vanilla? What is the difference? I noticed that Vanilla actually got much higher critical reviews than BG 1 EE. Is that just because that times have changed, and critics expect better graphics or something, or is Vanilla actually a superior experience? Also, can somebody confirm that BG 1:EE is actually compatible with BG 2 for the purposes of importing characters into BG 2 and ToB.
Partly this, but also because a lot of the features promised were missing at launch (hence the later patches)
Although officially unsupported, it is possible to import character from bg:ee into bg2, so long as you haven picked one of the new kits.
1. Currently, the only main feature missing is the multiplayer support which is supposed to be coming in the next patch. Other than that, most bug fixes
On a related question... is BG 1:EE actually better than Vanilla? What is the difference? I noticed that Vanilla actually got much higher critical reviews than BG 1 EE. Is that just because that times have changed, and critics expect better graphics or something, or is Vanilla actually a superior experience? Also, can somebody confirm that BG 1:EE is actually compatible with BG 2 for the purposes of importing characters into BG 2 and ToB.
I think the biggest difference between BG1 Vanilla and BG1:EE is that BG1:EE actually runs using the BG2 game engine. So it has all of the BG2 engine enhancements (such as new kits, classes, tabbing to highlight items, etc).
BG1:EE also has some extra content - 4 new NPCs (who also have some fairly minor sidequests) and the Black Pits - a stand alone module.
Finally BG1:EE also includes the bugfixes which have been developed for BG1 over the years. Oh and saving/loading is practically instantaneous and there are a few minor interface improvements.
Now you can get most of these advantages for BG1 Vanilla by using BG Tutu and applying the relevant bug fixes/tweaks. The advantage of BG1:EE is that you don't need to go through the hassle of doing this.
I'm really glad Atari forced this on Steam, Beamdog wanted to keep it for themselves "because they get more money per copy this way", a wider exposure to the game is also important... a pity EE wasn't done by somebody who would put it in all the possible stores... For the record, I bought it both from Beamdog and Steam. (which btw was the first sign that Overhaul cannot read and understand contracts)
Atari forcing BG:EE onto steam was also a bad thing too. I don't disagree about the wider exposure, but I think Atari went about it in the wrong way.
1. The Steam version Is usually behind on patches. 2. You're basically forking your money to Valve and Atari. I doubt Beamdog even sees very much money from the steam version. 3. Atari controls the steam version patches, and when the Beamdog version gets updated it takes like two weeks for the steam version to get updated. 4. You could just simply buy from beamdog, and add the game onto the steam library, via the add non-steam game. 5. Its harder to add mods onto the steam version than the Beamdog version.
I could go on, but I doubt it would deter anyone at all. If anything it should have went to GoG since GoG is anti-DRM.
Then again, all I really use steam for is to play DoTA 2.
So, yeah, if this seems like rambling, I apologize. Also, I -know- there are good reasons for the steam version, but I guess I'm just playing devil's advocate here, and being the opposing side. Heh.
Atari forcing BG:EE onto steam was also a bad thing too. I don't disagree about the wider exposure, but I think Atari went about it in the wrong way.
1. The Steam version Is usually behind on patches. 2. You're basically forking your money to Valve and Atari. I doubt Beamdog even sees very much money from the steam version. 3. Atari controls the steam version patches, and when the Beamdog version gets updated it takes like two weeks for the steam version to get updated. 4. You could just simply buy from beamdog, and add the game onto the steam library, via the add non-steam game. 5. Its harder to add mods onto the steam version than the Beamdog version.
I could go on, but I doubt it would deter anyone at all. If anything it should have went to GoG since GoG is anti-DRM.
Then again, all I really use steam for is to play DoTA 2.
So, yeah, if this seems like rambling, I apologize. Also, I -know- there are good reasons for the steam version, but I guess I'm just playing devil's advocate here, and being the opposing side. Heh.
@2 - Well, Atari put it there because they could. Overhaul said steam would not happen, yet their contract with Atari allowed that clearly... I do realize these are developers and not lawyers, but there is a lesson in whole BG:EE story - consult lawyers when you sign.
@5 - I'm sorry, that's just not true. There is no difference between the versions when it comes to mods (if you think there is, what is it?)
6. Steam version runs on Linux under wine, beamdog's version does not due their silly launcher.
Like I said, there are good reasons as to why Steam is a good place to put BGEE, while at the same time its a horrid place to put it.
I put five in there because when the steam version first came out, people had no idea how to get mods to install on the steam version for a tiny bit.
Also, steam isn't my preferred platform for PC gaming, I only have KOTOR, and DoTA2 on steam. Only one of those games I bought, and a friend gave me a beta key to the other. Otherwise, I buy from GoG, or directly from the developer.
Like I said, there are good reasons as to why Steam is a good place to put BGEE, while at the same time its a horrid place to put it.
I put five in there because when the steam version first came out, people had no idea how to get mods to install on the steam version for a tiny bit.
Also, steam isn't my preferred platform for PC gaming, I only have KOTOR, and DoTA2 on steam. Only one of those games I bought, and a friend gave me a beta key to the other. Otherwise, I buy from GoG, or directly from the developer.
Yes, GoG would be even better, gamersgate, basically I think gamers deserve a choice. And probably lack thereof is not something that can be blamed on Atari
Like I said, there are good reasons as to why Steam is a good place to put BGEE, while at the same time its a horrid place to put it.
I put five in there because when the steam version first came out, people had no idea how to get mods to install on the steam version for a tiny bit.
Also, steam isn't my preferred platform for PC gaming, I only have KOTOR, and DoTA2 on steam. Only one of those games I bought, and a friend gave me a beta key to the other. Otherwise, I buy from GoG, or directly from the developer.
Yes, GoG would be even better, gamersgate, basically I think gamers deserve a choice. And probably lack thereof is not something that can be blamed on Atari
Although I certainly wouldn't use the word "blame", Atari does control all of the digital distribution for the game; so the choice to release (or not release, at least at first) on sites other than Beamdog.com was theirs, not ours.
ajwz
Member Posts: 4,122
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At any rate, I don't know what's going on with the legality of the whole situation but it's kind of frightening how cheap it is. Glad I payed the $18 when I pre-ordered it, I hope most of it went to Beamdog
I'm so confused. Talk about a "grey" morality and ethics situation. This is like trying to decide whether to remain loyal to First Enchanter Irving, during the DA:O mage origin, or to help Jowan and Lily. There is no clear right or wrong. Either way, you hurt somebody or are disloyal to somebody.
Do you thing there will be any problems in the future (with patches and stuff) if i buy the game at this point from steam ? . I saw on the site that there weresome problems with the publisher and with 2 distrubution methods but nothing about buying it from steam
It is entirely your call however, but so far Atari seem to be relatively poor at updating the steam version
But honestly its 5 bucks and they've released fixes for from what I can see for some of the odd quest related problems that were still around. So I would say its worth it.
Thanks guys for the quick responses
But I will say that steam does massive sales every summer, where they discount like every single game by 50+% and they list entire developers catalouges as part of this.
According to EA's Origin head, David DeMartini, it's an approach, and he's not going to say it's not working for Valve. It certainly works for Valve; he doesn't know if it works as well for the publishing partners who take on the majority of that haircut.
So, Steam's 50 or 75 percent off approach can be bad financially for publishing partners. These sales are good for Valve.
As I understand, putting BG:EE on sale is a move by Valve, rather than by Atari. The price on the Atari's site is an additional evidence.
And it's clear this move by Valve is partly due to the current stir because of legal problems regarding BG:EE.
On a related question... is BG 1:EE actually better than Vanilla? What is the difference? I noticed that Vanilla actually got much higher critical reviews than BG 1 EE. Is that just because that times have changed, and critics expect better graphics or something, or is Vanilla actually a superior experience? Also, can somebody confirm that BG 1:EE is actually compatible with BG 2 for the purposes of importing characters into BG 2 and ToB.
Although officially unsupported, it is possible to import character from bg:ee into bg2, so long as you haven picked one of the new kits.
2. It works absolutely fine. I've used it myself.
BG1:EE also has some extra content - 4 new NPCs (who also have some fairly minor sidequests) and the Black Pits - a stand alone module.
Finally BG1:EE also includes the bugfixes which have been developed for BG1 over the years. Oh and saving/loading is practically instantaneous and there are a few minor interface improvements.
Now you can get most of these advantages for BG1 Vanilla by using BG Tutu and applying the relevant bug fixes/tweaks. The advantage of BG1:EE is that you don't need to go through the hassle of doing this.
1. The Steam version Is usually behind on patches.
2. You're basically forking your money to Valve and Atari. I doubt Beamdog even sees very much money from the steam version.
3. Atari controls the steam version patches, and when the Beamdog version gets updated it takes like two weeks for the steam version to get updated.
4. You could just simply buy from beamdog, and add the game onto the steam library, via the add non-steam game.
5. Its harder to add mods onto the steam version than the Beamdog version.
I could go on, but I doubt it would deter anyone at all. If anything it should have went to GoG since GoG is anti-DRM.
Then again, all I really use steam for is to play DoTA 2.
So, yeah, if this seems like rambling, I apologize. Also, I -know- there are good reasons for the steam version, but I guess I'm just playing devil's advocate here, and being the opposing side. Heh.
@5 - I'm sorry, that's just not true. There is no difference between the versions when it comes to mods (if you think there is, what is it?)
6. Steam version runs on Linux under wine, beamdog's version does not due their silly launcher.
I put five in there because when the steam version first came out, people had no idea how to get mods to install on the steam version for a tiny bit.
Also, steam isn't my preferred platform for PC gaming, I only have KOTOR, and DoTA2 on steam. Only one of those games I bought, and a friend gave me a beta key to the other. Otherwise, I buy from GoG, or directly from the developer.