5 ms·

One annoying as hell thing on Steam is that you purchase the game and still have to create account on Rockstar/xbox/epic/blizzard site in order to play it, wtf

One annoying as hell thing on Steam is that you purchase the game and still have to create account on Rockstar/xbox/epic/blizzard site in order to play it, wtf. I would pay 1$ if steam created those accounts on some their random ass emails and just let us play

BiteCode_dev 4y ago
That should be illegal IMO. You are forced to subscribe after you paid.
- cube2222 4y ago
  No, you're not. You're forced to create another account, but that account is free.
  - jsiepkes 4y ago
    It doesn't matter if it's free because you have to agree to a EULA when creating that account.
    - shultays 4y ago
      in most AAA games, you need to accept an eula to play it as well even if it does not want an account
  - sanitycheck 4y ago
    True, but your personal information and consent to use it has value. That said, the Steam store page does tell you in advance this will be necessary if you know where to look. I don't buy those games, if I want them I'll eventually grab console versions used.
- dagw 4y ago
  Steam is surprisingly good at offering refunds. So if you find a subscription wall you don't agree to after you bought a game, Steam will almost certainly refund your money.
  - nocsi 4y ago
    Nobody compares to steam in terms of refund policy. As long as you keep within their boundaries, you will get the refund 100%. Its must have when buying from a digital only marketplace. I’ve even made it a personal policy to only buy digital only games through steam.
    - pugz 4y ago
      I wonder if Steam's good refund policy comes as a result of being sued by the Australian consumer regulator back in 2014. They probably figured that if they _had_ to offer refunds in one country, they might as well build goodwill by offering refunds everywhere. (Of course this is the least charitable explanation, maybe they just had a change of heart) https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/australia-fines-valve-over-steam-refunds https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/australia-fines-valve-over-...
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    If you have under 2 hours gameplay and its under 2 weeks since you bought it, they will refund for literally any reason. And they explicitly list that refunding because you didn't find it fun or because it went on sale and you want to rebuy is acceptable use. After that period I have had one request accepted and one denied so it depends on the situation.
    - BiteCode_dev 4y ago
      Yes but it puts the burden on you to fix a problem that is caused by the editors.
  - hericium 4y ago
    > Steam is surprisingly good at offering refunds. Had the opposite experience after a game stopped working 3 days after purchase due to its update (forced, if memory serves). Valve refused the refund because I played the game for more than 2 hours before it stopped working. Haven't purchased anything from Valve since.
- LelouBil 4y ago
  Steam shows on the store page if you have to create an external account or accept an external EULA.
yurishimo 4y ago
This is the result of those other entities trying to start their own version of Steam. Ubisoft has given up at this point I think (don't quote me on that), but nearly every other AAA publisher is slowly trying to build their own storefront and seeding their userbase with their most loyal fans. Epic has arguably been the most successful, but the article is clear about that. They have millions (billions?) of dollars to burn to break into the market by giving away free games and paying for exclusivity deals. Microsoft is an interesting case because they also have Xbox which leads to a bleedover into PC game sales with the same users. Now here's an idea I've been toying with. Steam has made all the information available for other companies to create handhelds that run SteamOS. I wonder if other AAA publishers, hell, even Epic Games, will use that IP to create their own consoles that are linked to their platforms? It's worked for MS with the Xbox, and the Steamdeck is selling like crazy. It seems that hardware is the key that unlocks consistent growth for gaming platforms, and even now, Steam basically "owns" the PC hardware market. Regardless, it's gonna be a great decade for gamers I think because competition has never been higher!
- cinntaile 4y ago
  > It seems that hardware is the key that unlocks consistent growth Steam or Epic never needed that. What both of them had was immensely successful games but each utilized their own advantages. Steam used its Counterstrike network effects to grow their platform, CS was also their guinea pig to test their Steam idea in the first place. Epic on the other hand has a Fortnite windfall and it is spending its way to relevancy.
  - ReptileMan 4y ago
    It was half life 2 on steam that created steam.
    - cinntaile 4y ago
      No it wasn't. HL2 was the first game released on Steam but it was used before that for CS updates and asset downloads. Both during the beta and after that.
anothernewdude 4y ago
Just refund them
shultays 4y ago
This is because someone out there has a metric of "how many users registered" and they believe it is the most important thing. I don't mind custom launchers that much (although there are a few because how bad they are) because sometimes they have uses or at least just another click but once it requires an account, my blood boils a bit as well
ReptileMan 4y ago
I solve that issue with zero guilt piracy. I bought the game - it's single player (or only single player interests me) I can play it however I want not however the seller wants.
ThatPlayer 4y ago
For plenty of them, the new issue is crossplay because Steamwork hasn't been staying competitive and doesn't support it as a feature. So you need another networking solution to support crossplay. If I'm releasing a game on PS5, Steam does not offer an API to access friends, send invites, etc. Now you need an account system to support a crossplatform friends list. Steam does have these API privately, as seen with their Playstation 3 Portal 2 release. But that was more than 10 years ago, and probably not even updated as the recent Nintendo Switch release of Portal 2 cannot do crossplay. "Crossplatform" even applies to other games on PC, because you cannot use Steamworks on games sold outside of Steam. So unless you are releasing Steam only, it is not a good idea to rely on Steamworks for networking. Off the top of my head, Deep Rock Galactic is one such game. It was on Steam for about 2 years before being put on the Windows Microsoft Store as part of Xbox Game Pass PC which cannot play with Steam versions of the game.
- mjevans 4y ago
  Counter example: Sea of Thieves. Xbox / Windows native game, built around Xbox Live only. As a Linux user, at least the last time I tried to play that game, it could not integrate at all with audio input devices, and trying to get accounts to link up with friends via the Microsoft website was either impossible or really clunky. IIRC I had to have someone with the Windows Xbox app invite me to the crew. They don't even try to do 'cross play' outside of the Xbox / Windows PC ecosystem, and at least my perception based on experience was that other ecosystem isn't baked into the game but as an implicit external dependency (friends list, audio input).
  - jabroni_salad 4y ago
    At least you were able to get into a crew. I recently tried to play Golf with Friends only to find that those of us using the gamepass version couldn't play with those of us using the Steam version.
  - ThatPlayer 4y ago
    I'm not sure what point you're disagreeing with me on? With that counter example? My point is that Steamworks doesn't support being one of those external dependency on games not released on Steam. Xbox does, as seen with Sea of Thieves being released on Steam. Plenty do bake it into the game, because that Xbox login will not work otherwise on Playstation or Switch. Or even Android or iOS. See Minecraft. But I can't bake Steamworks into games not on Steam, PC or otherwise. Not like Valve is the only one with this issue though. It also applies to GoG's Steamworks competitor as far as I know.
Shorel 4y ago
That's only because Rockstar/xbox/epic ask for that. Blizzard games are not sold in Steam. Not the fault of Steam at all.

BiteCode_dev 4y ago

That should be illegal IMO. You are forced to subscribe after you paid.

cube2222 4y ago
No, you're not. You're forced to create another account, but that account is free.
- jsiepkes 4y ago
  It doesn't matter if it's free because you have to agree to a EULA when creating that account.
  - shultays 4y ago
    in most AAA games, you need to accept an eula to play it as well even if it does not want an account
- sanitycheck 4y ago
  True, but your personal information and consent to use it has value. That said, the Steam store page does tell you in advance this will be necessary if you know where to look. I don't buy those games, if I want them I'll eventually grab console versions used.
dagw 4y ago
Steam is surprisingly good at offering refunds. So if you find a subscription wall you don't agree to after you bought a game, Steam will almost certainly refund your money.
- nocsi 4y ago
  Nobody compares to steam in terms of refund policy. As long as you keep within their boundaries, you will get the refund 100%. Its must have when buying from a digital only marketplace. I’ve even made it a personal policy to only buy digital only games through steam.
  - pugz 4y ago
    I wonder if Steam's good refund policy comes as a result of being sued by the Australian consumer regulator back in 2014. They probably figured that if they _had_ to offer refunds in one country, they might as well build goodwill by offering refunds everywhere. (Of course this is the least charitable explanation, maybe they just had a change of heart) https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/australia-fines-valve-over-steam-refunds https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/australia-fines-valve-over-...
- Gigachad 4y ago
  If you have under 2 hours gameplay and its under 2 weeks since you bought it, they will refund for literally any reason. And they explicitly list that refunding because you didn't find it fun or because it went on sale and you want to rebuy is acceptable use. After that period I have had one request accepted and one denied so it depends on the situation.
  - BiteCode_dev 4y ago
    Yes but it puts the burden on you to fix a problem that is caused by the editors.
- hericium 4y ago
  > Steam is surprisingly good at offering refunds. Had the opposite experience after a game stopped working 3 days after purchase due to its update (forced, if memory serves). Valve refused the refund because I played the game for more than 2 hours before it stopped working. Haven't purchased anything from Valve since.
LelouBil 4y ago
Steam shows on the store page if you have to create an external account or accept an external EULA.

yurishimo 4y ago

This is the result of those other entities trying to start their own version of Steam. Ubisoft has given up at this point I think (don't quote me on that), but nearly every other AAA publisher is slowly trying to build their own storefront and seeding their userbase with their most loyal fans. Epic has arguably been the most successful, but the article is clear about that. They have millions (billions?) of dollars to burn to break into the market by giving away free games and paying for exclusivity deals. Microsoft is an interesting case because they also have Xbox which leads to a bleedover into PC game sales with the same users. Now here's an idea I've been toying with. Steam has made all the information available for other companies to create handhelds that run SteamOS. I wonder if other AAA publishers, hell, even Epic Games, will use that IP to create their own consoles that are linked to their platforms? It's worked for MS with the Xbox, and the Steamdeck is selling like crazy. It seems that hardware is the key that unlocks consistent growth for gaming platforms, and even now, Steam basically "owns" the PC hardware market. Regardless, it's gonna be a great decade for gamers I think because competition has never been higher!

cinntaile 4y ago
> It seems that hardware is the key that unlocks consistent growth Steam or Epic never needed that. What both of them had was immensely successful games but each utilized their own advantages. Steam used its Counterstrike network effects to grow their platform, CS was also their guinea pig to test their Steam idea in the first place. Epic on the other hand has a Fortnite windfall and it is spending its way to relevancy.
- ReptileMan 4y ago
  It was half life 2 on steam that created steam.
  - cinntaile 4y ago
    No it wasn't. HL2 was the first game released on Steam but it was used before that for CS updates and asset downloads. Both during the beta and after that.

anothernewdude 4y ago

Just refund them

shultays 4y ago

This is because someone out there has a metric of "how many users registered" and they believe it is the most important thing. I don't mind custom launchers that much (although there are a few because how bad they are) because sometimes they have uses or at least just another click but once it requires an account, my blood boils a bit as well

ReptileMan 4y ago

I solve that issue with zero guilt piracy. I bought the game - it's single player (or only single player interests me) I can play it however I want not however the seller wants.

ThatPlayer 4y ago

For plenty of them, the new issue is crossplay because Steamwork hasn't been staying competitive and doesn't support it as a feature. So you need another networking solution to support crossplay. If I'm releasing a game on PS5, Steam does not offer an API to access friends, send invites, etc. Now you need an account system to support a crossplatform friends list. Steam does have these API privately, as seen with their Playstation 3 Portal 2 release. But that was more than 10 years ago, and probably not even updated as the recent Nintendo Switch release of Portal 2 cannot do crossplay. "Crossplatform" even applies to other games on PC, because you cannot use Steamworks on games sold outside of Steam. So unless you are releasing Steam only, it is not a good idea to rely on Steamworks for networking. Off the top of my head, Deep Rock Galactic is one such game. It was on Steam for about 2 years before being put on the Windows Microsoft Store as part of Xbox Game Pass PC which cannot play with Steam versions of the game.

mjevans 4y ago
Counter example: Sea of Thieves. Xbox / Windows native game, built around Xbox Live only. As a Linux user, at least the last time I tried to play that game, it could not integrate at all with audio input devices, and trying to get accounts to link up with friends via the Microsoft website was either impossible or really clunky. IIRC I had to have someone with the Windows Xbox app invite me to the crew. They don't even try to do 'cross play' outside of the Xbox / Windows PC ecosystem, and at least my perception based on experience was that other ecosystem isn't baked into the game but as an implicit external dependency (friends list, audio input).
- jabroni_salad 4y ago
  At least you were able to get into a crew. I recently tried to play Golf with Friends only to find that those of us using the gamepass version couldn't play with those of us using the Steam version.
- ThatPlayer 4y ago
  I'm not sure what point you're disagreeing with me on? With that counter example? My point is that Steamworks doesn't support being one of those external dependency on games not released on Steam. Xbox does, as seen with Sea of Thieves being released on Steam. Plenty do bake it into the game, because that Xbox login will not work otherwise on Playstation or Switch. Or even Android or iOS. See Minecraft. But I can't bake Steamworks into games not on Steam, PC or otherwise. Not like Valve is the only one with this issue though. It also applies to GoG's Steamworks competitor as far as I know.

Shorel 4y ago

That's only because Rockstar/xbox/epic ask for that. Blizzard games are not sold in Steam. Not the fault of Steam at all.