Steam & PA // Questions, Answers, Discussion

Answered Questions regarding Steam and PA

1. Will PA become availible via Steam?

2. Will Steam be mandatory to Play PA?

3. Will backers be able to activate their Key on Steam, when PA becomes availible?

-----------------------Original Post-----------------------

Now here goes my second thread Again, I've used the search function but didn't find anything in regards to steam on the backers lounge.

My question is stated in the topic title. Is Uber planning on releasing PA via Steam? If so does it have to go trough the greenlight process?

I know this is a very controversial topic for a lot of players and making a game steam only is not a good idea imho. But especially since PA will be distributed primarily via digital means Steam might be the perfect platform to accompany the release. They've just recently expanded to Linux so there wouldn't be any hassle with that.

Personally I like Steam a lot. It helps multiplayer, keeps everything up to date and the drawbacks are minor (Mostly I like to hang on to the games I purchase and at least for the European Union the last word on reselling your games you bought on steam hasn't been spoken).

So. Is this going to be an option? And if would we be able to activate the key we get via preorder on there?

What do you guys think? Any Steam Pro/Cons?

EDIT: I've changed the topic title to better reflect the current state of the discussion within this thread. I think we've established that Uber is trying to get PA to be released on Steam. The Question that remains now is: Will we be able to activate preordered keys on Steam if it is released there?

EDIT 2: Added the questions regarding Steam and the current state of answers - let me know (in this thread/PM) if any Questions should be added regarding PA&Steam

EDIT 3: Changed the Topictitle yet again to reflect what the thread is about - General Steam Q&A Thread ^^

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

Last I remember they plan to try submitting it but it's not guaranteed to be approved.

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

Well since the possibility of Greenlight has been added it can be approved (although you have to pay a small fee to submit something to avoid abuse of the system) through community feedback.

That way we could actually contribute to making it availible there.

EDIT: I've just looked it up. The only way to get published on Steam now is the way through Greenlight. The Fee you have to pay for entering goes to the Charity Childs Play so they are not making a profit of it and you are doing a good deed with your submission anyway.

Since Games can be added there in any stage and if there is the idea of doing so I'd really recommend on submitting it rather early than late. This way we, the community, will have plenty of time to greenlight the game and create a community presence around PA.

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

If I were to venture a guess, Steam would love to have this game up and Greenlighting won't be neccesary, but you never know. But yes, they'll try to get it up.

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

Quoting from the FAQ of Greenlight

Since they have released MNC already you might be right and there may be no need to greenlight the game.

But I'd still like an official statement about that at some point :>

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

Uber's official stance is listed on the Planetary Annihilation website in their FAQ.

http://planetaryannihilation.com/

I also remember Uber saying (cant remember if it was on the forums or a live stream) that they don't think they would need to go through the Greenlight process as they have existing games already on Steam.

For future reference, this thread viewtopic.php?f=61&t=41493 is where they are trying to get questions like these placed so that all the questions are in the same place. That way threads like these dont clutter up the forum and everyone can go their first to see if their question has been asked before.

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

If you want to support the Uber, the best way is to get PA from their own store.

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

Agreed. Although given that we are discussing this on the backers forum everyone here has already done so through kickstarter or paypal.

If Uber are going to be using Steam it doesn't mean people couldn't buy it on their store, and download and play it on steam for the convenience that having a central game library provides (social integration and updates to name two). A PA account may well let you download from multiple services depending on how it is implemented.

As well this, even with the cut valve take through steam, it would certainly be a far bigger advertising platform for Planetary Annihilation than Uber Ent would be able to mount on their own. I'd say it would result in a net increase in profits to have it there.

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

My points exactly. The drawbacks of using a platform like Steam should be minimal compared to what can be achieved. It would be a good move and an even better one if early backers and/or Pre-Orders would be able to activate their key via steam.

I think that would be the better question for this topic. If Steam becomes part of the distribution, would we be able to activate our "retail" keys there?

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

UBER has very good relations with valve. Even though they won't officially announce it, I'd bet money that it's going to be on steam without the help of greenlight.

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

Well then I cross my fingers and hope that anyone who preordered or was part of the kickstarter campaign gets to activate their key on steam, too.

I'd much rather buy a second copy for a friend of mine to play with than buy a second one for myself just so I can activate it on Steam.

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

Something I honestly want to ask: What's with the "UBER"? Their name is Uber Entertainment, you only see caps in the logo. :S

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

I guess all caps is more extreme, and it's easier to go by one 4 letter word in discussion...

They've always tagged as UBER with all caps when playing smnc, which is how I've gotten used to calling them by

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

Tags are generally in all caps though.

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

Well eventhough it's very off topic: Maybe it's all caps for some since "UBER" is an English version of the German word "über" (English doesn't have umlauts) which means (not only but also) above, atop, over all. So it's somewhat epic and grand so writing it in all caps might be recognition of the original meaning by making it bigger than the rest of everything.

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

What else do you want me to say, sorry?

For almost two years now, I've capitalized it and have seen it capitalized by others. Between the forums, mumble, and in game chat, no one's ever commented about it. At this point, it's habit.

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

This.
If there was some assurance in the industry that if a digital distributor failed that someone would pick up the game distribution it provided then I'd be far more inclined to consider giving up the hard copy. But that's a subject best left for another topic.


As for the topic.. I think we'll see PA appear on Steam sometime during the beta testing. That would balance the pre-orders share for Ubernet against the higher profile nature of the platform.
After all, who wants a backers forum full of sheep?

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

Also considering that Steam is now on all three major OS's. It would be silly for PA to not available through steam. It's a win-win no matter how you look at it.

I think we will definitely see it on steam =D

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

I really want PA to be on steam sooooo much. That's why when it appears in the Greenlight, I will hit the Yes button so fast that it won't have time to load.

Re: Will PA be availible via Steam?

Uber Entertainment won't have to go through Greenlight since they already have Super MNC on Steam. Greenlight is only for those completely new to Steam.

The more important thing still remains if all backers can activate their keys on Steam ^^