Epic blows up digital distribution with Steam

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 17th 2008 at 7:30PM }

Valve's Steam digital distribution service keeps chugging along and picked up the rights to dish out Epic's Unreal franchise. The Unreal Deal Pack is $54 and will net gamers Unreal Gold, Unreal II: The Awakening, and the Unreal Tournament games, including the recently released Unreal Tournament III. The games are also available to purchase separately and are 10% off until March 24.

Steam continues to add more publishers looking for online outlets with Rockstar, Atari and Sega joining in recent months.

Tags: epic, steam, unreal-tournament-III, ut3, valve

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Fernando Rocker @ Mar 17th 2008 7:38PM

Epic blow?

Lijik @ Mar 17th 2008 8:40PM

Not until they add their superior Pre-Unreal stuff.

Fox318 @ Mar 17th 2008 7:42PM

Steam is Awesome right now. I think it was exactly what PC Gaming needed.

Also Fantastic Mod support.

Doom3killer @ Mar 17th 2008 7:42PM

steam = amazing

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Mar 17th 2008 7:54PM

That's a fuckin good deal.

VIVA STEAM!

Pyjamarama @ Mar 17th 2008 8:00PM

Valve + Id + Epic

Steam IS the PC Gaming Alliance

drsashamd @ Mar 18th 2008 12:36AM

Not including Blizzard...

waynski1457 @ Mar 18th 2008 12:50AM

that will probably change soon tho cuz activision has already put games on the platform.

syco @ Mar 17th 2008 8:02PM

Normally I would be all over this, as the UT games are pretty fun for a FPS, and the original Unreal has a large amount of nostalgia to me, however, two issues will keep me from a purchase in the near future

1) Too many good games, not enough time/money. I haven't really squeezed all the fun out of TF2, I haven't even beat HL2 yet, much less the episodic content, I haven't even bought Smash yet(I will on Weds.) I haven't finished RE4:Wii and a handful of other games. A series of fairly general FPS games are necessarily pretty low on my to-play list.

2) The BS that Epic pulled on SK. I was half a mind to boycott them on principle, however, I won't go that far unless the case is decided against them. That seems pretty likely...

kevinski @ Mar 18th 2008 9:38AM

I recently beat HL2. Honestly, whether it's because I generally just felt that some areas were tedious or because I just played it too much in a short period of time, I really don't see myself ever playing it again. The same goes for Episode One.

And the fact that bugbait quickly became obsolete (i.e. unusable entirely) later in HL2 didn't help. The bugbait sections were probably the most enjoyable for me.

Hala Madrid!!! SSBB Code:3866-7729-0830 @ Mar 17th 2008 8:11PM

Shit i'll buy this and then burn that copy of UT3 for the PS3 and piss on the ashes. What a waste of money that was

Demaar @ Mar 17th 2008 9:47PM

Really? What was wrong with it? Was it the slower pacing?

Dav @ Mar 17th 2008 8:16PM

UT3 for PS3 was a pretty big pissoff for PS3, you know, lacking Splitscreen and all..

STEAM FTW! Much improved from the unrealiable, boring service you once were!

Kevin @ Mar 17th 2008 8:16PM

/me is waiting for GTAIV on Steam.

Shawn @ Mar 17th 2008 11:07PM

Same here buddy.

I'll probably rent it for the 360 when it launches, then wait for a few months and buy it on STEAM for sure. Now that Rockstar is officially patterned with STEAM, I wouldn't be surprised if STEAM was the first to carry GTAIV on PC, better protection and a massive community on PC that buys games, it's a win win for R* and the PC. woot woot.

Oh, and no need to wait for 360 DLC, on PC there's a decent sized modding community that will surely make a ton of modules for it, not to mention Total Mod Conversions ftw.

Vidikron (FU) @ Mar 18th 2008 10:16AM

PC modding is great and all, but I still want the real episodes. So 360 version for me because there's no telling how long we'll have to wait for the PC version of said DLC to launch.. if ever.

Mills and Boom @ Mar 17th 2008 8:21PM

After I'm done reading about Mel's Hole I might have to get that pack.

Neebs @ Mar 17th 2008 8:26PM

...Who ISN'T on Steam now? EA? Seems to be about it.

Einhanderkiller @ Mar 17th 2008 8:32PM

Blizzard.
But with the Vivendi and Activision merger, they hopefully will be arriving soon.

caramelzappa @ Mar 17th 2008 8:33PM

Microsoft Games. See also: Halo 2 "vista" and Gears PC.

DangerMouse @ Mar 17th 2008 8:40PM

Vivendi? I don't see that happening considering the huge lawsuit between them and Valve regarding the rights to Half-Life.

Mike @ Mar 17th 2008 8:37PM

LET'S ALL GO SUCK OFF VALVE EMPLOYEES!!!!

ahem. Too far? Maybe just a thank you post on the Steam forums will do then...

Steam is the greatest. But Epic can go to hell at this point.

ApolloIV @ Mar 17th 2008 9:11PM

If you don't like steam, chances are you are a pirate

The Artist formally known as Jesus @ Mar 17th 2008 9:19PM

Though if you are on Steam, chances are that you're a ninja

Demaar @ Mar 17th 2008 9:47PM

Or work for Microsoft, heh.

mogamer @ Mar 17th 2008 9:22PM

If you don't like Steam it means you like to own what you purchase and not just get a license.

Nighthawk @ Mar 17th 2008 9:41PM

Any PC game you buy actually, you're just buying a license to use the software. Check the end-user license agreement in any manual for a PC game you have. It should be the one of the first things mentioned.

Mills and Boom @ Mar 17th 2008 10:01PM

Nah, you see I've spent a lot of money on PC games. And through my own and other peoples faults I've lost the discs. Now I can't prove I had the game and I doubt any devs are going to ship me games because "that would be nice".

But Steam. I have my game. I can download it as many times as I want, I can log in from any computer and play my games.

Bloody love that. I like having discs too but for convenience and storage sake Steam rocks my socks.

Eric Jackson @ Mar 17th 2008 10:09PM

steam = epic win.
I love not having to worry about losing my game disc / cd keys. just rember my steam account and I'm good to go.

Ahrel @ Mar 17th 2008 10:44PM

The only problem with steam is that it doesn't have games for linux (the games that are in Steam that have Linux versions....I don't expect the PC games to work).

Hopefully they'll work on a Linux client some day. And hopefully I won't have to repurchase games I can just boot into windows to play that I've already bought.

Even though I own all of the Unreal games except UT3, I'm all over this though. Screw finding discs to play a game.

jmf @ Mar 18th 2008 4:26AM

Linux: Install CS Source
http://www.cstrike-planet.com/tutorial/1/5

Steam, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source with Wine
http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=HOWTO+Steam

Steam under Linux
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Steam_under_Linux

Ahrel @ Mar 18th 2008 6:40AM

Yeah I'm aware of using Wine to run Steam, but that's just it -- when using Linux I don't WANT to be using anything from Windows. Why have linux if you're going to use Windows libraries within it and translate the code to something linux understands on the fly (which makes a small impact in performance)?

I'd rather that Valve just make a Steam Client for *nix, and any games that have *nix versions be offered for downlaod there. I don't want to play Audiosurf or Company of Heroes in Linux, but I would like to play Quake III, Gish and Unreal Tournament 2004 in it.

I can take the discs for those three games and install native Linux versions without a problem. I can't do that with my Steam versions yet...but I would like to be able to.

mundox @ Mar 17th 2008 10:46PM

So this pretty much does it... steam ownz all! the only thing missing is gta4 :P

Mills and Boom @ Mar 17th 2008 11:29PM

Mark my words (it's also my name LOL) - the PC version will be announced a few months after the console versions have had their run. Retail and Steam. It shall be a glorious day.

Just a prediction but I thought I'd try and sound like all the other people who make them...

Vidikron (FU) @ Mar 17th 2008 10:57PM

Dammit! I bought UT3 just a couple of months ago.

Mills and Boom @ Mar 18th 2008 12:06AM

Why would you even do that?!

Vidikron (FU) @ Mar 18th 2008 1:25AM

Well... I like the UT series.

Virduk @ Mar 18th 2008 12:51AM

And let me guess...Australian Steam users fucked over again?

Pro-Truth League @ Mar 18th 2008 1:23AM

The problem with Steam is they strictly and evily will not let you resale anything you buy on there to anyone, or sell your account. It'll get your account removed. All DD services do this.. and no one at all seems to find this evil or absurd. But I do, and it ticks me off.