What if STEAM went under.....

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Soyo13

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Supposedly one day STEAM went out of business... What would happen to all our digital only games? Down the toilet it goes?

I'm thinking of going digital only now. My stockpile of CD/DVD/ and it's cover/booklet is becoming a hassle. I want to get rid of them all.

Buy everything digitally unless I can find retail for cheaper and enter the code then discard the media.
 
Old news valve has stated that should they be unable to continue support for game downloads they would keep the servers up for a limited time allowing users to download their games and then a local key of sort would be given or steam update would no longer require online activation.

I wanna say they mentioned it again when GOG pulled their douchie "going out of business site down" gag which let me tell you was fucking hilarious. So funny I forgot to buy any games from them since.


I'll tell you something though and this is pure fanboyism. If the store ever went down permanently I'd still use the client. Fucking thing works mang. I sure as hell don't miss xfire thats for sure. Or game comrade, FFFF that monstrosity.
 
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GOG gag was definitely in poor taste, still not sure what they were thinking when they did that.

But yes, as piscian18 said valve has stated they'll make sure that users continue to have access to their games.
 
The issue with any claims not in writing/contract is that bankruptcy laws will take precedence over any vague claims for sure, and generally these laws place an emphasis on protecting financial stakeholders and not the consumer.
 
This is why you should only pay rental prices for DRM'd software ^_^

In all reality though, I'm sure the pirates would offer their help if all your games were suddenly inaccessible. I doubt anything like this scenario will happen in the near future though.

Also, many games from steam can be run without the client. Most indie/small dev games seeem to be like that.
 
As you can currently play any game in "offline mode" i'm sure all theyd have to do would be patch the software to be in that state permanently. That way it doesn't need any internet connection after the initial installing the game (the first time I think).
 
DeathPrincess said:
As you can currently play any game in "offline mode" i'm sure all theyd have to do would be patch the software to be in that state permanently. That way it doesn't need any internet connection after the initial installing the game (the first time I think).
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Exactly... easy enough fix, theoretically speaking.

Valve has "promised" that they would release a patch to resolve the issue, should they no longer be around. However, whether or not they actually followed-through on said promise, we'll never known unless it happens, which is not likely to be any time in the foreseeable future.
 
It's likely they would have a site going that would offer the downloadable patch to all Steam accounts, that's my guess.

I doubt Valve will ever go out of business, it'd take a colossal fuck up to send Valve under.

Gabe Newell is no idiot, he got to where he is one hamburger at a time.
 
StreamsOfInferno said:
Exactly... easy enough fix, theoretically speaking.

Valve has "promised" that they would release a patch to resolve the issue, should they no longer be around. However, whether or not they actually followed-through on said promise, we'll never known unless it happens, which is not likely to be any time in the foreseeable future.
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And then the first time you format your hard drive after Valve goes under, there goes all your games! Good thing they unlocked them.
 
Dreaz said:
And then the first time you format your hard drive after Valve goes under, there goes all your games! Good thing they unlocked them.
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Good thing nobody here knows shit about backing up their computer, let alone their steamapps folder.

I have my steamapps folder on 4 hard drives.

Am I Fail? No, I am not, I am smart, I have created redundancy to the point to where if a hard drive fails, I do not need to download all my steam games again, I simply plug in another hard drive or hook up to the external or file server and I'm good to go once the files transfer.

Everyone should know the value of backing up their steam folder.
 
Soyo13 said:
Supposedly one day STEAM went out of business... What would happen to all our digital only games? Down the toilet it goes?

I'm thinking of going digital only now. My stockpile of CD/DVD/ and it's cover/booklet is becoming a hassle. I want to get rid of them all.

Buy everything digitally unless I can find retail for cheaper and enter the code then discard the media.
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If you go digital only, I recommend backing up your games to an external or a file server.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=blacX

I have one of those docking stations you see in the link there, and I use that with a Samsung 500 GB spinpoint hard drive to back up all my stuff on it.

This winter I'm gonna invest in a couple 2 TB hard drives and build a file server so I have more redundancy and I have enough space to store all the crap I have.

That docking station is excellent for more than one reason, namely if you ever need to go to someone's house and share your stuff with them, or if you want to get stuff from a friend you can just have them hook up to your docking station and transfer the stuff.

Works great for me, that's my backup process right there.
 
wra18th said:
Have them put that into the EULA and I'll be content with that.
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As would I, but that's why I said, we'll not know until/unless it happens as to whether or not they'll follow-through efficiently on their word.

No doubt they will do something, or they'd probably have a massive Class Action lawsuit on their hands, but whether or not it would be a "reliable something" that they do... well, we'll find out some day... just not any time soon.
 
The issues with actually doing this are beyond the technical, which is the easiest to resolve. There is a reason why no digital distributor as far as I know will guarantee this in contract or unrestricted limitless access to your games, because they can't.
 
Fail said:
It's likely they would have a site going that would offer the downloadable patch to all Steam accounts, that's my guess.

I doubt Valve will ever go out of business, it'd take a colossal fuck up to send Valve under.

Gabe Newell is no idiot, he got to where he is one hamburger at a time.
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Yea. Unless Gabe Newell invested all the company's profit in the next sub-prime failure Its seriously impossible that Valve will simply "die" out.
 
Steam makes way too much money as the middleman to go under, Steam is entirely self sustaining, it doesn't need money from Valve to go under, if Valve went under, I think Steam would still be in operation as I believe Gabe Newell owns it, and being self sustaining, I don't see how it could go under.

The only real threat to Steam would be every game company deciding to go with their own digital distribution method.

It would take ALL game companies deciding to do that to make that happen, and even then, gamers would have to be willing to embrace the concept of having 37 DD clients and 37 passwords and account names and 37 more places their CC info is stored to make that happen.

37 is just a made up number, but you guys get my point.
 
the drm actually has nothing to do with the digital download service, beyond authorising distribution of course. we could run a completely legit community bittorent tracker (obviously not legal, but still obeying the drm), that would work exactly the same as steam downloads. in theory this would probably be the most likely contingency, a community or valve sponsored tracker, should the service ever "dissapear" one day, since it's not really feasible for everyone to download their entire library all at once.

so if they weren't selling new games, and their social network didn't exist, and there were no more patches, then there would be no reason for the client to go online. this is how offline mode works, locally stored authentication. and also how crackers do it, for every game that gets released on steam (yes, all of them). it's just more secure (for both you and the drm) to log in every time, you don't have to do it.

otherwise you wouldn't really have to do anything, valve would just release a 3mb update (the current size of steam.dll) and you would never have to log in online again, even if you still have to run the client. this concept is probably the hardest for all those tinfoil hat wearers to understand, there's nothing inherently different from dvds and online storage, you actually have more control over your data this way than discs with copy protection.
 
Andrew_Carr said:
In all reality though, I'm sure the pirates would offer their help if all your games were suddenly inaccessible.
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I think that in 70-100 years, book/game/music/film/art pirates of today will be seen as something more like archivists to historians, and DRM will be viewed the same way we view the Spaniards who destroyed all the religious relics of the Incas, Aztecs, and Mayans.
 
Einhanderkiller said:
Valve said that they have the ability to release Steam games from the service.
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Valve will likely have no say in the matter if they go into receivership.

Practically speaking, it's not as if finding a cracked version of any Steam game is difficult (the hardest part is finding patches), it's just that it would likely be illegal.
 
this thread is redundant. Newell would have to kill Obama by eating him for valve to go under.....
 
mas I think the problems are probably more legal than technical, we simply don't know what sort of deal Valve has with publishers, if providing an offline mode is even allowed.

Not to mention the logistics issues of letting every single user download every single game before the steam service is shut down, the servers crawled to a halt during a week with lots of deals, they'd probably just keel over with that much load.

I'm under no delusions that if Valve were in trouble, that we'd not be recovering these games, the only real solace here is that paying for games over steam and using a legit service is really just a formality at this stage, it's extremely simple to get copies of these games online and practically risk free, the act of paying for them on steam is really just an optional extra. The only real issue is legit multiplayer, you can easily get your cd keys from steam though.
 
PrincessFrosty said:
mas I think the problems are probably more legal than technical, we simply don't know what sort of deal Valve has with publishers, if providing an offline mode is even allowed.

Not to mention the logistics issues of letting every single user download every single game before the steam service is shut down, the servers crawled to a halt during a week with lots of deals, they'd probably just keel over with that much load.

I'm under no delusions that if Valve were in trouble, that we'd not be recovering these games, the only real solace here is that paying for games over steam and using a legit service is really just a formality at this stage, it's extremely simple to get copies of these games online and practically risk free, the act of paying for them on steam is really just an optional extra. The only real issue is legit multiplayer, you can easily get your cd keys from steam though.
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This is why I say just download ALL your games, then keep backups of your steam folder on externals or file servers you own.

I follow that practice, so I am prepared in case something like this happens.
 
Pac-Man said:
Practically speaking, it's not as if finding a cracked version of any Steam game is difficult (the hardest part is finding patches), it's just that it would likely be illegal.
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Using a no-cd fix is technically illegal, even when you legally own a physical copy, yet you don't see people going to jail for using them when they don't want to put wear & tear on their disks or swap them.
 
no-cd fixes are not illegal. Do they break EULA? Yeah, but those are not legally binding... not even close.
 
castun said:
Using a no-cd fix is technically illegal, even when you legally own a physical copy, yet you don't see people going to jail for using them when they don't want to put wear & tear on their disks or swap them.
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or companies using them to patch and circumvent DRM bugs in their games.
 
castun said:
Using a no-cd fix is technically illegal, even when you legally own a physical copy, yet you don't see people going to jail for using them when they don't want to put wear & tear on their disks or swap them.
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I'd say no-cd cracks are legally questionable since creating/distributing them is illegal under the DMCA (circumventing DRM), but using them may not be. It hasn't been tested in court and the law only explicitly mentions the creation of such tools IIRC. I was referring more to the copyright infringement inherent in using something like BT to get your game.
 
castun said:
Using a no-cd fix is technically illegal, even when you legally own a physical copy, yet you don't see people going to jail for using them when they don't want to put wear & tear on their disks or swap them.
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If they are illegal then why did rockstar email me a no dvd crack for gtaiv? Your saying rockstar breaks the law and just gets away with it?
 
ZodaEX said:
If they are illegal then why did rockstar email me a no dvd crack for gtaiv? Your saying rockstar breaks the law and just gets away with it?
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The DMCA prevents production and distribution (in the US) of methods that circumvent copyright distribution. This was tested and upheld in the -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealNetworks,_Inc._v._DVD_Copy_Control_Association,_Inc.

So yes Rockstar (or whomever the rights holder) can technically file a lawsuit against Rockstar for sending that to you.
 
eh... I can think of a million what ifs thats more plausible than Steam going under.
 
It is in writing on their site, they will make the games available that you purchased but without the need for steam. So you'll get all your games you paid for.
 
LOL what if we get hit by an asteriod?

Same logic, enjoy your games, stop worrying.
 
What if.....






people stopped making ridiculous threads like this that have already been answered kajillions of times?
 
ZodaEX said:
If they are illegal then why did rockstar email me a no dvd crack for gtaiv? Your saying rockstar breaks the law and just gets away with it?
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limitedaccess said:
The DMCA prevents production and distribution (in the US) of methods that circumvent copyright distribution. This was tested and upheld in the -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealNetworks,_Inc._v._DVD_Copy_Control_Association,_Inc.

So yes Rockstar (or whomever the rights holder) can technically file a lawsuit against Rockstar for sending that to you.
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I'm not understanding why people keep on referring to those idiots over at rockstar, why would this apply to their own ip? they own the rights to that software, it doesn't matter whos crack they copied. that's why they did it, because they know they're legally in the clear to exploit the scene's work on their own software. all it does is make them look lazy and stupid, there's no legal implications here whatsoever.

in fact I'm sure they did it on purpose, as a big "fuck you" to the scene, it was so blatantly obvious.
 
Ok if steam went under it wont be anytime soon, in and 20 years, are you still going to play Half Life2, any gurantee it will work on Windows 2031 lol. What your missing is ARM CPu's will be dominant by 2020-2025 and most of our games wont work anyway :p
 
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