Why would CA do this?

[Ariksha]

Ariksha your cry in the wilderness while worthy.
Will I am afraid be met by silence by CA.
Lots of posts from steam user,s who love it and have a decent broadband service.
The usual selfish computer snobs who have good equipment and a decent broadband who will tell you to buy a decent broadband service even when its made plain you cannot obtain one for love or money.
Another group who think its great that CA use steam for more profit? and thats seems their greatest concern they must be SEGA shareholders?
Other Steam users will dismiss your cry as whineing and as they can enjoy the campaigns tough luck on lesser people who cannot.

Now it could be possible for CA even useing steam to allow a quick on-line registration of the customers disk purchase so they can play.
The download patches could be made smaller ie broken up into reasonable sizes and downloaded at the customer,s leasure when he or she chooses to download them.
Or even give the steam cutomer 2 options the fast large download patches and the slower multi patches to cater for both groups.
This will not require CA to make extra packaging ect, Simply the Steam sevice would tailor their product to CA,s purpose.
Its highly possible that CA may even get greater sales of their products useing this method and Steam will get more user,s.

Given the PC market is shrinking then it makes sense to gather as many user,s as possible from this type of teq war

Thanks Magpie, I completely agree with you. I don't care if they keep using steam but atleast do what you said or find away to make it on people like me who just wanna play the game.

[Lord Baal]

Get used to it kids. t'is the way of the future. Disks, packaging, distribution costs a load of money.

Yeah! Thanks God they discount that price from the game so we ca... wait, what?? That the games cost the same or even more then physical disks....

[Sir Furlong]

Yeah! Thanks God they discount that price from the game so we ca... wait, what?? That the games cost the same or even more then physical disks....

I guess you missed the steam sales last week. Games at launch will cost the same though because the majority of the price wasn't in transportation or manufacturing costs, but in the intellectual property, that is paying for the developers and designers, etc. The games may be the same at launch but wait a few months and you can usually get some pretty decent discounts, compared to console games today or PC gaming before steam or any other game platform.

Given the PC market is shrinking then it makes sense to gather as many user,s as possible from this type of teq ware.

Do you have a source on this? Most of what I have seen points at PC gaming getting more popular.

[Lord Baal]

Yes, I saw it. Sales of products that where over a year or so mostly... so? The prices of transporting where not that negligible you know.

[Ariksha]

Even with better sales using steam I can't really picture the PC gaming industry to get bigger from that. I feel that way because idk if there is anyone like me but i'd rather own the disc and not having to worry about server matinence forgetting passwords or accounts being hacked ya know? But at the same time I can see it boosting sales because I know a good majority of people do use steam but like I said this seems like it could have more negatives then positives. But thats my personal opinion.

[Wetblowdryer]

Do you have a source on this? Most of what I have seen points at PC gaming getting more popular.

Computers are getting cheaper, and the performance on games are getting better, and the graphics are way passed Xbox's and PS3's.

[Symphony]

I think what really makes me surprised though is that people can have a computer capable of playing CPU/GPU intensive games like this, but be unable to afford internet.

This is what I was getting at earlier. We're not talking about what subset of the general population doesn't have access to a decent Internet connection, we're talking about what subset of the PC gaming population, people that have already invested in a machine capable of playing a modern-engine game, doesn't have access to a decent internet connection.

That second number is a very, very small number.

[Sir Furlong]

Yes, I saw it. Sales of products that where over a year or so mostly... so? The prices of transporting where not that negligible you know.

There were very few games which were released in the past year that did not go down to 50% off, you never see that in retail unless the game completely flopped.

Computers are getting cheaper, and the performance on games are getting better, and the graphics are way passed Xbox's and PS3's.

Exactly, the current consoles are what, 6-7 years old now? Its the same hardware too, which is laughable. The console market is still a lot larger, but the PC market has been growing steadily.

[Okuto]

I didn't have internet but I still managed to install empire...cause I walked over to the local coffee shop and grabbed some wi-fi...

Same for shogun.....I still didn't have internet but didn't let that stop me....just hopped over to the coffee shop for some wi-fi and just left it on offline mode...

Now when you have to be online in order to play ala diablo III then thats just wrong......

[Voodo chile]

What, and you downloaded 'just a few Gigs' at a speed of what?
And purchased about 20 coffees to not get kicked out

[Okuto]

I had the disks so it installed directly off disk.....so it didn't take long.....

Also only ordered a danish and coffee......

I've never seen anyone get kicked out of a coffee shop for being there too long.......believe me I've stayed from 6 am to 5 pm and I never got kicked out.....

Frankly if you really want to play you will find a way....

So all this anger just baffles me....only thing I don't agree with is needing to be online to just play...that's just stupid....

But needing it to install....no big deal imo....if you want it you'll find a way...if not well you must not want to play.....

I drove to store parking lot at midnight just to get wifi so I could update empire TW and email my essay so I find this argument rather silly.....

Lucky for me I now have internet.....lol

[Blood Raven]

Get used to it kids. t'is the way of the future. Disks, packaging, distribution costs a load of money. And whats the point, when no one actually stocks computer games on shelves. If you have a computer,then you have teh intrawebs. Which means, they can distribute through downloads for next to nothing.

It also saves space in the home, the problem i have it that game cases take up space in my house, so steam definitely has it's uses in saving space.

[Bomimo]

You can go into game properties WHILE installing from disk, from steam, and untick "download game updated automatically" and voila. The second retarded part of this bitchfest has been dealt with.

really. I'm no steam fanboy, but most of these complaints aren't even about steam, it's just Securom and easy updating in one package and you guys weren't about having to put the Rome: TW cd-rom in every time you wanted to play. There really isn't a "problem" here that hasn't been there since 1997. Internet patches are normal and now that i've coached you simpletons on how to cancel that, there really shouldn't be a problem. Steam online activations isn't even as far as it goes. Why is THAT your primary concern when EA limits to five installs pr bought game and Ubisofts wants you to constantly stream data to them and kicks you out of game if you lose connection? WHY? This is the LEAST of your problems. It's not even a problem. it's the least intrusive DRM right now.

To the guy complaining about always having to log on steam after booting up, two things can be wrong. both mean that you're literally too dumb to play something as tactically demanding as a Total War game.

1. You didn't tick the "log me in automatically" box

2. Your computer is bathed in start-up items and malware from all of your child porn and taiwanese imported whores.

Sorry for being so profane, but goddamn guys. It's like watching a grandmother trying to use a computer. Except i can't have any patience for people who are smart enough to play a heavily tactical game, but can't even tick a few boxes. Holy damn. You guys must have done too many drugs.

[Bomimo]

Yeah! Thanks God they discount that price from the game so we ca... wait, what?? That the games cost the same or even more then physical disks....

Always buy physical if you want to keep a game. More for the money too, so.

[windsupernova]

Because Steam is a popular service. I don´t like it but thats how things are now.

[Humble Warrior]

I telepathically sensed a Steam thread and was drawn to it!

I loathe CA`s unreasoning attitude and refusal to make Steam optional. I truly hate their attitude. It`s the one main rift between what could be a good relationship with them and decent customers. More so sinceI have protested for years and they still don`t give a .

Great for you guys who love it, but why argue when it could be OPTIONAL and every paying customer happy?

To me it shows they really don`t care about all their potential customers. It has been PROVEN that it does not need to be this way. Until they change, they will remain unethical to use Steam in such a draconian manner.

[Symphony]

unethical

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

You're right, they could have made Steam optional. You feel that not doing so means they're alienating potential customers, which you feel to be a poor business decision.

That's all fine. I don't agree with the severity of the poor decision or the severity of the impact, but I can certainly respect your stance. Making it optional would indeed have solved a lot of angst.

They chose not to; for whatever reason, they made a business decision to do it this way instead.

That doesn't make it "unethical".....that makes it (in your opinion) a poor business decision. TW games are not a staple or a commodity. They're a straight-up consumer product. You're not required to buy them, and you're not required to do business with CA....you could look at their mandatory Steam stance, decide you don't care for it, and make a buying decision NOT to do business with their company because of it.

They do something you don't like, so you take your business elsewhere. That's not an ethical problem, that's the consumer market at work.