Mount&Blade on Steam?

[N0ught]

Not sure if anyone has suggested this, so here it goes:

The makers of Mount&Blade should make a deal with the makers of Steam.

(For those of you unaware of what Steam is, see the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(content_delivery) - it is essentially a gaming client, which allows you to buy and store digital copies of certain games.)

Many independent games are signing up to let Steam distribute their games, and they are seeing much increased sales. Introversion has copies of all three of its games (Uplink, Darwinia, and Defcon) on Steam, and they finally boosted their sales enough for Defcon to wind up at my local Wal-Mart. If that isnt a good-marketing red flag I don't know what is.

M&B is not exactly "in your face" in the marketplace, due mainly of course to the recent online gaming boom. But I think a little proper advertisement will at least double sales for the creators. Steam would accomplish that easily.

I personally found M&B through The Home of the Underdogs, while looking for real-life simulation games. However, I also play Counterstrike, and had I seen M&B on Steam first I would have tried the demo, loved it just the same, and bought a copy. Since M&B is already being distributed in a digital-only format, the transition would be easy. The mods probably wouldn't work, but just getting the vanilla version out there is worth it - you will have the people who buy the steam version, then buy a normal version just so they can use mods. Thats twice the sale right there.

Also, perhaps most important, Steam is very, very fair to their game companies.

There would of course be the general problems you get when games become popular - CD key duplication, cracked game versions, lots of immature new players for the forum, etc. But lets face it, we are talking about an increase in sales, and all the good and evil that comes with it.

Bring it on, I say! Mount&Blade is just too good of a game to enjoy obscure gamer status! Calradia for the masses, I say! Huzzah!

P.S. Steam also has a messenger-style client built in, so we could finally chat while we play! This alone would be worth it, in my opinion.

 

[mrcrotch]

I see no reason why not to. It would be a good idea IMO.

 

[Lanky]

When the game finally gets to it's final version this would be a great idea. However since it is still in beta stages, you might be hard pressed to sell it to valve. I think it is a brilliant idea for when the game is in final stages of completion, but until then I think its fine with the number of sales it has now. It IS a beta after all and having the help of the community for development is great for the devs and once they get finished with the game (or close) then they will probably focus on marketing.

 

[Lost-Lamb]

**** Steam. **** Steam with a 10 foot pole.

 

[N0ught]

When the game finally gets to it's final version this would be a great idea. However since it is still in beta stages, you might be hard pressed to sell it to valve. I think it is a brilliant idea for when the game is in final stages of completion, but until then I think its fine with the number of sales it has now. It IS a beta after all and having the help of the community for development is great for the devs and once they get finished with the game (or close) then they will probably focus on marketing.

Ah, but more sales are always good, and a bigger community could help more with the development and ideas. Growth for the sake of growth is what we need, now AND later. The focus must ALWAYS be marketing - we can't have our game developers starving to death while they try to make our lives better with new M&B releases, now can we? Nobody ever got anywhere by not trying to actively sell their product - and in this case, the product would sell itself. Steam would simply be the "bulletin board" for the commercial. A bunch of new screenshots and a couple new play videos, and watch the money roll in.

And there are plenty of games on Steam still undergoing constant development - especially Defcon, which is getting a new patch every few months. And there are no real bugs or problems with M&B as it is, despite being in beta stages - which is something Defcon can't even claim. Even Counterstrike is buggy. I get constant performance out of M&B, and its graphics are better than both other games. It's a winner, hands down.

I guarantee a deal with Steam today would bring nothing but good things tomorrow.

**** Steam. **** Steam with a 10 foot pole.

Steam prefers the 12-foot pole with attachments.

Seriously though, Lost-Lamb, is there a particular reason you feel this way? That statement was less than productive. <--- (Shock.)

Please elaborate (on the reason, not the pole-****ing).

 

[Lost-Lamb]

Heh, just a pet peeve of mine

I just can't stand any program that just sits there eating resources and does me more harm than good (autoupdate -> No mods till they update etc.)

 

[Orion]

Steam doesn't hinder my performance any At least, not to any noticeable degree. Anyways, on to the topic.

It seems like every time I run Steam, it pops up with a "Steam Updates" window that just advertises a new game they support. If I had a credit card, which I don't, I'd probably end up buying a couple of them. If I don't already know what the game is, and it looks at least mildly interesting, I go to their website and check it out. It's also true that Steam will support games that aren't completed yet. Mount & Blade is almost entirely bug-free (in my casual playing I haven't noticed anything wrong with it), has a built-in editting system (in the game at least, I don't know if there's a built-in python thing or not), and has a bunch of active mods out for it. Now, as to what N0ught said earlier about people buying the game twice to get mods; not gonna happen. There'd be no reason to do so. Once you have the vanilla version, the mods would work with it regardless of where you bought it. As long as Steam runs the proper .exe and doesn't bypass the splash menu, it will be fine.

True, Steam is looked on less favorably by some people, and you won't be able to reach every person out there who games on their PC. The point is, you'll be able to reach more than you are now, and Steam has a helluva lot more, would most likely accept to support the game, and would work well to advertise it.

I can't really see a reason not to work together with Steam, to be honest.

Besides the fact that Lost-Lamb doesn't like them.

 

[Yoshiboy]

Please No. Steam is made of Devil.

 

[Tuckles]

**** Steam. **** Steam with a 10 foot pole.

Please No. Steam is made of Devil.

Also, it rapes men and steals their wallets. DO YOU WANT THAT?!

Seriously? Doesn't getting a game on Steam require selling your soul to the Devil Valve? And besides, I can't install Steam in my computer for some ****ed up reason. Oh, and I don't see what's wrong with MaB's current system now.

 

[Buxton]

Heh, just a pet peeve of mine

I just can't stand any program that just sits there eating resources and does me more harm than good (autoupdate -> No mods till they update etc.)

Aye, very long start-up times, and very difficult to close it without crashing.

 

[Voutare]

Then you need to split income with Steam. Have fun with that.

 

[allthesedamnnamesaretaken]

I used to hate steam too, but it's gotten better the last time I used it was very stable, and very customizable so that it didn't automatically eat up resources and bandwidth. That was more than a year ago though. The first year it was released, it was definately a nightmare to have just so you can continue playing your favorite games online

 

[N0ught]

Seriously? Doesn't getting a game on Steam require selling your soul to the Devil Valve?

Then you need to split income with Steam. Have fun with that.

From what I understand, Steam charges very reasonable fees for the games they distribute, and the developers of the games retain all rights. It's like leasing Steam as an advertisement/sales agent.

I can't install Steam in my computer for some ****ed up reason.

Aye, very long start-up times, and very difficult to close it without crashing.

The first year it was released, it was definately a nightmare to have just so you can continue playing your favorite games online

Well, I use Steam at least every other day, to play Counterstrike. It has its little bugs, but for the most part its stable - the autoupdating can be annoying. But if you have serious problems with Steam, it's probably something wrong with your filesystem.

Anyway, just do the math:

Mount&Blade+Steam=Advertising&Convenience=More Players=More Money=More Mount&Blade

 

[Instag0]

Then you need to split income with Steam. Have fun with that.

And what's the alternative? Wait for other players to somehow purchase the game through other means? You could potentially get quite a few thousand people to buy Mount&Blade if it was available on steam that wouldn't have bought it otherwise. I don't know about you, but I think some money is better than no money, as well as some exposure better than no exposure.

I think the potential gain of a steam release is greater than the potential loss.

I'm pro-steam because my computer has no problems with it (neither do my friends, neither do any computers at computer cafes around town) and it allows me to simply install it and download games whenever I want, wherever I want. It also has the added benefit of deterring pirates, as it has routine security updates and is just simply a rather secure system.

 

[Archonsod]

Not sure if anyone has suggested this, so here it goes:

Three times IIRC. Tried search?

Many independent games are signing up to let Steam distribute their games, and they are seeing much increased sales.

Yes, with significantly reduced profit margins alongside those games.

Introversion has copies of all three of its games (Uplink, Darwinia, and Defcon) on Steam, and they finally boosted their sales enough for Defcon to wind up at my local Wal-Mart.

That's just because you're a yank. Defcon was available boxed over here in the UK long before it was on Steam.

The mods probably wouldn't work

Big problem right there.

Also, perhaps most important, Steam is very, very fair to their game companies.

Depends on how you define 'fair'. They take less of a cut than the average brick & mortar retailer, but that doesn't mean they're charging a fair price. Especially not when you have the ability to distribute it on your own.

P.S. Steam also has a messenger-style client built in, so we could finally chat while we play! This alone would be worth it, in my opinion.

Um, XFire supports M&B for the same thing, and is far superior to Steam's offering.

 

[Instag0]

I don't know about the mods. I have a game called Making History: The Calm and the Storm, a grand strategy game that I bought on steam. It also has a retail boxed version, and as far as I know, the two versions work the same (regarding mods), except one launches from steam and has its folder inside the steam folder. Mods work fine on either version, and are easy to install, providing one doesn't mind digging through a few more folders than the boxed version.

 

[Archonsod]

Depends on the nature of the mod.

Steam's CP as far as I understand it is basically the executable polls Steam to ensure the game is validated in your account (which by the by is easy to bypass. Steam doesn't prevent piracy thanks to it's copy protection, but because you need to pay Valve to own the executable in the first place, under most circumstances. Going by Valve's own figures, there's as much chance of a Steam game being cracked as any other game ). Any mod which requires the executable be altered, the use of a seperate executable or otherwise interferes with this process won't work on a Steam version without the mod being coded for Steam support.

In M&B's case I can't see it interfering with the mod itself, I suspect the problem would be more to do with Oreans.

 

[N0ught]

And what's the alternative? Wait for other players to somehow purchase the game through other means? You could potentially get quite a few thousand people to buy Mount&Blade if it was available on steam that wouldn't have bought it otherwise. I don't know about you, but I think some money is better than no money, as well as some exposure better than no exposure.

Amen.

That's just because you're a yank. Defcon was available boxed over here in the UK long before it was on Steam.

Well, I pre-ordered my boxed version of Defcon directly from Introversion but that's beside the point. Steam = Impulse Buying = More Sales. Period.

Yes, with significantly reduced profit margins alongside those games.

Depends on how you define 'fair'. They take less of a cut than the average brick & mortar retailer, but that doesn't mean they're charging a fair price. Especially not when you have the ability to distribute it on your own.

A small percentage off the top of any product is completely insignificant once sales have doubled, and beyond that it's all gravy. Steam would more than double sales overnight, I guarantee it. There is nothing to lose, and much to gain.

 

[bryce777]

The problem is that steam itself sucks, and it would force everyone who has the game now to get steam.

I for one would be mightily pissed.

If he could have steam and nonsteam versions, great...but I am pretty sure it does not work that way.

 

[N0ught]

The problem is that steam itself sucks, and it would force everyone who has the game now to get steam.

I for one would be mightily pissed.

If he could have steam and nonsteam versions, great...but I am pretty sure it does not work that way.

No, there are always Steam and Non-Steam versions of Steam games.

None of us would HAVE to buy the Steam version, though I probably would, just to say "I told you so".