Ah, digital distribution.
We had such high hopes for you. You were the prophesied platform heralded by the ill-fated Phantom system. The saviour-like service which would spell the end of long lead times on game releases in Australia and Europe, incredible price increases which were allegedly due to shipping costs to our respective countries and the window through which we could access a wider spectrum of games.
Steam, you were the first major platform that supported our countries, not to mention the fact that you were exclusively for PC gamers.
You were released in time for Half Life 2 – something else that we had been waiting a long time for. Unfortunately, even after the release we were forced to wait a long time to play the game. This wasn’t entirely your fault: the fact that broadband connections weren’t reasonably priced at the time was not something you could do anything about, but the stability problems which plagued you at your inception were.
You burned us, as steam is wont to do. The healing process is slow. It has taken a long time for you to return to your place, inscribed in our good-books.
Once again, the time has come for you to be torn from its pages.
Please indulge me in some role-playing:
(Note: This has nothing to do with my previous post on the subject…)
Steampowered – New Additions RSS feed: *Ding* Apr 22, 2008 2:12 AM Assassin’s Creed has been released on the Steam service!
Me: Woo! *Clicky*
Steampowered – New Additions RSS feed: *NOPE* This item is currently unavailable in your region.
Me: Noooooo!
fin
Once again, Australia finds itself at the mercy of cold-hearted games distributors. What possible reason could there be for them to not want the game digitally distributed in our country? Isn’t our money good enough? It is certainly worth a lot. Take the situation with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for instance.
On the day of release on Steam, it was labelled at the normal American price for a New Release AAA title: $49.99USD.
The very next day the prices was increased to $89.99USD in Australia and Europe.
Make sense of that? Steam group Rest of World certainly cannot.
If you want my advice, it is time for us to show them that we will not stand for this sort of crap.
Australia (and Europe) – Vote with your wallets.
Finally on a positive note, the excellent Beyond Good and Evil was just released for little ol’ us.