Beamdog client vs. Steam?

needsmoarhamsters

Hi everyone, longtime lurker here. I'm stepping out of the shadows and moving un-silently to ask a question I haven't seen addressed elsewhere.

What is the difference between the Steam and Beamdog versions of the game in terms of economic impact to the developer? Do they receive less money if I buy through Steam and thus give Valve some portion of the sale? I'd rather support the BGEE team than Valve, but I also would love to have the Steam overlay available in game so I can chat with friends.

Will there be a Steam key made available to those who purchase through Beamdog, or vice versa? (AFAIK this never happened for BGEE because of issues with Atari.)

Last question, unrelated to clients: have we seen Hexxat's stat block anywhere?

Here's to a night of debauchery and destruction on Nov. 15th!

CutlassJack

If you buy through Steam, most of the money goes to Steam and Atari. Very little (if any) goes to the Devs. So buy directly from Beamdog if you want to support the developers.

Even if you don't care about supporting them so much, by getting the Beamdog version you'll get each patch immediately on release. The steam version has to go through Atari, and then through Steam, so there's always a delay. While I certainly would have gone Steam if I didn't know any better, I'm glad I went Beamdog.

As far as I know there wont be a Steam Key. And Hexxat they're being tight lipped about until after release. So no info on her other than being a Pure Thief (and female)

Eudaemonium

All they've stated is that they receive 'significantly' less money if you buy on Steam as opposed to Beamdog, exactly how much the difference is hasn't been clarified yet, and likely won't ever be.

Unknown about steam keys. Probably not?

As if now we have no idea what Hexxat's stats are, or any other abilities she might possess.

ChildofBhaal599

also keep in mind that the beamdog client gets updates before the steam client so if you want to get the updates as they come out then you should have beamdog. also beamdog has a stand alone launcher version like i use. I don't even know if the latest update reached steam yet.

Ygramul

I'd wager that Atari knowingly stabs Beamdog by putting BGEE frequently on sale on Steam for 75% off.

Though, it is tempting to grab BG2EE that way, too, I feel like we should support the developers as much as possible instead throw money to the festering undead juggernaut that is Atari. i.e. : buy through Beamdog not Steam -- this is despite my having a well-used and satisfactory Steam account.

$25 is not much money and I already bought BG/BG2 about 4 times each over the years. I can afford one more copy (*after* it is verified to be bug-free and SCS-compatible... ).


The best solution would be if Beamdog purchases received Steam keys: i.e. money goes to Beamdog, but I retain the Steam access as a distribution alternative. Not sure if this is legally possible.

Sceptenar

Buy it through Beamdog, Valve doesn't take a huge cut that way and you get the patches right away instead of waiting for them to go through the Steam bottleneck.

Arktosa

Buy from beamdog than just log on steam and click add a game ? I did that to support devs

darrenkuo

I will buy all the games and DLCs from beamdog directly and get steam version when it's in special sales ,

Silverstar

needsmoarhamsters said:

but I also would love to have the Steam overlay available in game so I can chat with friends.

Then just add the .exe to your steam client. Games -> Add a Non-Steam game to My Library... on top of the client. Works just fine.

Isaya

If you look at this message from someone from the team and the additional answer from another member (their post have a blue background), it is said that Valve gets 30% and Beamdog gets less than Valve when the game is sold on Steam. That means that more than 40% goes to licensees such as Atari and Wizards of the Coast.
In practise, assuming their contract as a shop is similar to Valve, buying from Beamdog would mean for them that they get more than two times what they get when you buy from Steam.

In this condition, unless Steam gives them lots of free Steam keys, buying keys from Steam in order to give them to the customers who bought the game from Beamdog and want a Steam key would mean reducing their income from their own sales by half. I believe Steam keys giveaway is never going to happen.

Flashburn

You don't even need the Beamdog client to play BG2EE. They'll have a stand-alone launcher for it when preloading starts. You can have Steam launch the launcher too by adding the .exe to your library.

Yo dawg...

needsmoarhamsters

Thanks for the responses, everyone!

I'll definitely get the game through Beamdog, then - I've been very happy with the Beamdog client for BGEE, and I want to support the devs as much as I can!

A few people have mentioned launching BGEE in Steam as a non-steam game - I've tried this but I can't get the overlay to work within the game. I think this is because it has to go through the launcher before actually starting the game. Has anyone found a workaround for this?

Too bad we haven't seen Hexxat yet - I'm excited for an evil playthrough with my NE Sorcerer, and unless Hexxat is awful she's going to be my thief. Me, Edwin, Korgan, Viconia, Hexxat, and Dorn/Sarevok...Drizzt and friends won't know what hit them.

Silverstar

needsmoarhamsters said:

A few people have mentioned launching BGEE in Steam as a non-steam game - I've tried this but I can't get the overlay to work within the game. I think this is because it has to go through the launcher before actually starting the game. Has anyone found a workaround for this?

It shouldn't make any difference. Try using just the game's .exe (baldur.exe) rather than the launcher. It's what I've done and it works just fine the times I want the steam overlay.

Kratok

Another thing worth noting is that at least if you happen to be European, the game is cheaper to purchase from Beamdog than it is from Steam. Steam doesn't take into account the difference in currency, at least not fully, so it costs about 25€ last I checked. From Beamdog it's something like 19€. Might also apply to other non-americans.

moody_mage

Beamdog all the way. Trent has stated that Steam make more profit per transaction than Beamdog do on purchases through the Steam channel. Which seems like all sorts of wrong to me.

Krieger

I got BG1 from Beamdog, and I just pre-purchased BG2 from Beamdog as well. This is part because I want patches as soon as possible (no waiting for Steam to approve them) and because I want to directly support a developer that's doing an awesome job on games I love.

That being said, I am extremely un-enthusiastic about the Beamdog client. Not with the client as such, but the fact that I'm sick of having one download client for every game publisher in existence (Steam, Origin, Uplay, GOG, and so on). I'll be going with the direct download for BG2, just as I did with BG1. As long as doing that is an option, I'll be happy to give Beamdog my money without any third parties.

triclops41

Krieger said:

I got BG1 from Beamdog, and I just pre-purchased BG2 from Beamdog as well. This is part because I want patches as soon as possible (no waiting for Steam to approve them) and because I want to directly support a developer that's doing an awesome job on games I love.

That being said, I am extremely un-enthusiastic about the Beamdog client. Not with the client as such, but the fact that I'm sick of having one download client for every game publisher in existence (Steam, Origin, Uplay, GOG, and so on). I'll be going with the direct download for BG2, just as I did with BG1. As long as doing that is an option, I'll be happy to give Beamdog my money without any third parties.

I totally agree with you. Though in this case, I am going to use their downloader for bg2 then immediately delete it.

Zarakinthish

When I got BGEE (back when it was thought it wouldn't be on Steam), I too was grumbling about having to use another game service client. However, like GOG, it isn't a big deal since the only time you even need to run the Beamdog client is if you need to update your game. Like GOG, you can simply run the executable file (Baldur.exe) to start the game, no launching of the Beamdog client needed.

Silverstar

Zarakinthish said:

since the only time you even need to run the Beamdog client is if you need to update your game. Like GOG, you can simply run the executable file (Baldur.exe) to start the game, no launching of the Beamdog client needed.

You don't need to use the Beamdog client at all ever. Ever. Yay for stand-alone installer and separate game launcher! \o/

omnilicious

Because of where the Steam version is installed on your computer, mods become slightly less-installable.

Get the Beamdog version.

Erg

omnilicious said:

Because of where the Steam version is installed on your computer, mods become slightly less-installable.

@omnilicious, that's not true.

There is no difference mod-wise between the Steam and Beamdog version, apart from the location of the main game folder. In both cases you just have to install mods where chitin.key is.

TJ_Hooker

Erg said:

omnilicious said:

Because of where the Steam version is installed on your computer, mods become slightly less-installable.

@omnilicious, that's not true.

There is no difference mod-wise between the Steam and Beamdog version, apart from the location of the main game folder. In both cases you just have to install mods where chitin.key is.

I think he might be referring to possible problems that can crop up with Windows User Account Control (UAC) when doing things in the Program Files directory (or so I've heard).

That being said, you can always just turn down your UAC settings. You can also create additional installation locations with Steam, and then just choose to install BG:EE in one that's not in Program Files.

Ygramul

I normally use Steam for most of my gaming for many many years without problems.

For BGEE/BG2EE I deliberately chose not to, because apparently ATARI controls the Steam distribution.

ATARI is bad. I'd rather deal with Asmodeus or Bhaal himself.

Buy it from Beamdog instead and support the devs!

Erg

TJ_Hooker said:

I think he might be referring to possible problems that can crop up with Windows User Account Control (UAC) when doing things in the Program Files directory (or so I've heard).

That being said, you can always just turn down your UAC settings. You can also create additional installation locations with Steam, and then just choose to install BG:EE in one that's not in Program Files.

@TJ_Hooker, the default path for the Beamdog version (at least if you use the standalone installer, I don't know about the Beamdog client) is also in Program Files, but it should be possible to select a different installation path (just like with the Steam version).

In my case, the path is C:\Program Files (x86)\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\Data\00766 (default). However, I have UAC disabled and weidu.exe and all the setup-namemod.exe set to run as administrator.

TJ_Hooker

@Erg yeah I know that the default directory for the Beamdog version is the same, but with that version you can change the directory at installation time. With Steam you have to first take the additional step of setting up an additional installation directory (prior to installing the game), so I just wanted to point that out in case people thought there wasn't any way to change where games are installed with Steam.