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Valve games come to Impulse

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jan 31st 2012 8:30PM

Valve, proprietor of Steam -- which is basically the Walmart of PC digital distribution -- now has its games available on Impulse. Your confusion is as great as ours, but here we are.

The Impulse store, owned by GameStop, announced last week that Valve titles would become available on the service. Apparently, the shock of this caused almost everyone in the media not to report this fact for an awkward length of time.

The Valve games available through Impulse right now are Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, The Orange Box, and Half-Life Complete. Best part: the games still require Steam to play.

Via: LambdaGeneration, RPS
Source: ImpulseDriven

Tags: Gamestop, half-life-2, Impulse, left-4-dead, left-4-dead-2, Orange-Box, pc, portal-2, Steam, Valve

Reader Comments (36)

And Impulse is....

Uhhh. What?
Hmm. Something's wrong. My brain doesn't know how to react to this piece of news.

@FZero

Valve games purchased from Impulse still require Steam. I guess this is just another channel for Valve to advertise its own games through, and Gamestop gets a percentage of the sales through Impulse. Not sure why anyone who already knows where to go for these games would pay the middleman, but I'm sure Valve & Gamestop both see some value in this move.

@FZero
Valve games have been available on Origin since it launched.

...Except EA only owns the physical retail publishing rights to Valve's games, so buying, say, Left 4 Dead 2 on Origin results in EA shipping you a physical boxed copy of Left 4 Dead 2 that installs through Steam and cannot be played on Origin in any way.

"Steam -- which is basically the Walmart of PC digital distribution"

ugh....

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

@Meekermoloko
˙˙˙˙ɥbn

"uoıʇnqıɹʇsıp ןɐʇıbıp ɔd ɟo ʇɹɐɯןɐʍ ǝɥʇ ʎןןɐɔısɐq sı ɥɔıɥʍ -- ɯɐǝʇs"

┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

ARRGG

@Meekermoloko

Dunno what you mean by that comment but..

Walmart - Everything you need at discounted prices
Steam - Every game you need at discounted prices

So ugh........?

They are trying to stick it to Origin, methinks.

@jlatimer11
http://store.origin.com/DRHM/store?Action=DisplayProductDetailsPage&SiteID=ea&Locale=en_US&ThemeID=718200&productID=181157700

Hmm...

@BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam
Not really Origin. It's for the physical copy version and since they're the publisher for valve's retail copies it only makes sense.

So, hmm... right back at ya!

@Mmmmz
It may be for the retail version, but it's still a Valve game sold through EA's Origin store, and it still requires for Steam to be installed.

@BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam -Those being in the Origin store have nothing to do with Origin the platform. EA publishes the retail versions of Valve's games so naturally they do now and always have sold them in their online store.

So...this is like Gamestop selling DLC codes.

So they let you use another digital download service to download their games, and require you to have their digital download service to play them. Pretty much pointless.

HOW DARE THESE COMPANIES FORCE US TO INSTALL THEIR DRM PROGR....what? is that right? valve? steam? ok It's allowed cause it's valve/steam and they can do no wrong.

@(Unverified) You know, because they haven't done wrong. Ever.

@(Unverified)
Their Steamworks DRM is actually among the best if you have to settle on DRM at all. So, yes, Valve rarely does anything wrong.

Some things Valve does wrong:
They still do have DRM
They Still Use DRM
They don't hand out puppies or kittens with every purchase
They jerk us around with Half Life.
They Still Use DRM
They jerk us around with Half Life.

@Mmmmz One disadvantage of Steam's DRM is region restrictions and locks. I believe Origin doesn't have this problem.

@Siphillis Exactly. They've built good faith among their customers with every move they've made, whereas EA has consistently diddled their customers and tried to get away with borderline illegal fine print shenanigans at every turn, until checked by class action lawsuits or PR s**tstorms.

About the worst you can say about Valve is what the gentleman/lady above me has posted: that they still use DRM (even if it's completely benign) and that they havent finished the half life story.

@nerdydesi1

Origin charges me tax in the US
Steam doesn't

Steam wins

A catch 22 comes to mind... but I can't figure out why?

Stop thinking about it before you destroy the fabric of the space-time continuum!

So they're doing what GFWL/Orgin is doing.

@BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam

I think that's the retail version.

Can't say I saw this comming.

This is bizarre, but you gotta hand it to Valve for doing this. They're probably trying to make a point with EA since EA is basically only selling their games through Origin now. It seems like it would make sense to try and sell your game on as many platforms as possible, but I'm no expert.

How does Impulse make profit then?

I...I...

...

...

...................

Yo dog ! I herd you like digital distribution ...

@inkedshogun We need to go deeper. If you buy the Steam copy of Mass Effect 2 on Impulse... Could you then activate it on Origin?

Walmart... Nah... They're more like Consumers Distributing... With "dog poop" crazy pricing!

So customers buy them on Impuluse, Steam comes with it, they realize how much better Steam is, and all future sales are now on Steam.

Let me know when EA does the smart thing and makes its games available on Steam again......

@freelancer91 When children with zero willpower stop buying games they want on Steam on Origin because they aren't available on both at launch?

Clever move on Valve's part. I wonder if this is them pulling a fast one over on Gamestop or if it was a mutually beneficial agreement.

Wait.. wait.. did I just read that "Steam is the Wal*Mart of PC digital distribution?"

That analogy is so broken I don't even want to count the ways that it is. I should, but I don't want to.

Breaking News

Portal 2

Valve games come to Impulse

Reader Comments (36)

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:33PM simplicity14 said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:34PM FZero said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:38PM letterstothemetro said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 12:26AM TRONdll said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:35PM Meekermoloko said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 10:18PM pluupy said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 12:28PM Traptz said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:36PM jlatimer11 said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:45PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 9:04PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 9:20PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 12:43AM Mcmax3000 said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:36PM Chuck Bosworth said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:40PM spartalaughs said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:45PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 9:03PM Siphillis said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 9:18PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 9:40PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 10:41AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 12:30PM Traptz said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:50PM ClimberTy said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:54PM Vector Scalar said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:54PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 8:58PM Gibbeynator said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 9:31PM koolaroo said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 9:32PM Warlock234 said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 9:37PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 9:42PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 9:48PM inkedshogun said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 10:11PM Xpheyel said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 10:01PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 10:26PM Ospov said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 11:31PM freelancer91 said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 10:34AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 10:45AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 2:33PM The Albatross said

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