Rumor: Slant Six was working on Medal of Honor Vita game
Simpsons, King of the Hill writer joins Angry Birds film
Class of Heroes 2 coming to PSN on June 4
Shelter gameplay trailer is delightful, horrifying
Alan Wake Humble Bundle launches
Battlefield 4 producer says single-player should feel 'autonomous'
Indie dev to Microsoft: Be more like Sony on self-publishing
Call of Duty: Ghosts video compares graphics to Modern Warfare 3
Backward compatability is 'backwards' strategy, says Microsoft
Mortal Kombat 'Komplete' coming to PC
Rage will use Steamworks
by Xav de Matos, Aug 12, 2011 5:15pm PDTBethesda has confirmed that the PC version of id Software's upcoming shooter, Rage, will use Steamworks as its platform. The announcement was made via Twitter earlier today.
"Since folks are asking," the Tweet said, "We can confirm that Rage will use Steamworks on PC."
Launched in early January 2008, Steamworks is a development and publishing platform for PC games that gives devs access to all components of the Steam client, including digital rights management, authenication tools for peer-to-peer and server multiplayer games, voice communication, achievements, and more. Being Steamworks specific also means the PC version of Rage can be purchased from any distributor and added to a Steam account.
As the platform has evolved, it has been made more robust with the addition of elements such as Steam Cloud support, which allows game saves to be stored in the cloud and accessed on any computer with proper account credentials.
In August 2010, a placeholder page for Rage appeared on the Steam store, leading some to believe that the game would use Valve's Steamworks platform. Bethesda quickly shot the rumor down, saying the game's appearance was in indicative of any decision regarding platform. Rumblings began going in the other direction when the official Rage website was updated to include the Games for Windows logo, pointing at the possibility of Games for Windows Live, a competitor to Steamworks, would be the platform of choice for id Software.
Comments on the announcement within the Shacknews community have been positive, but the decision to launch Rage as a Steamworks game brings to mind what could have happened if history was slightly different.
In July 2008, id Software announced it had entered into a publishing agreement with EA to release Rage via its EA Partners program. During the summer of 2009, id Software was purchased by ZeniMax Media, the holding company that controls Bethesda Softworks, taking Rage with it. With recent changes to how games are patched and how new content is made available on Steam, EA has since opted to focus on offering its upcoming titles on its own digital platform, Origin.
Had ZeniMax not purchased id Software, things may have been different today.
Comments
Bethesda has confirmed that the upcoming shooter Rage will use Steamworks as its PC platform. The announcement was made via Twitter.
Bethesda has confirmed that the upcoming shooter Rage will use Steamworks as its PC platform. The announcement was made via Twitter. : Shacknews
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 99 replies.
- People who have always been against Steam and refuse to buckle even when Steam becomes an incredible and indispensable service. They're just diametrically opposed to the idea of running a program to run their other games (which, back when it was just something required for Valve games, was an understandable if not valid complaint). Truth be told I sometimes fall into the "what happens if you want to play it in 20 years but ____ is gone?" category but even then I still like Steam.
- We're still in the phase where Steam is entering into new audiences and territories. Civ5 was the first Civ game to be Steamworks and the Civ community was up in arms about it. These are the same guys who didn't like the fact that Civ4 did a CD check because they didn't want to take their discs with them in their laptops, take the battery hit for them spinning up, etc. Many of them went out and re-bought the Civ4 Complete DVD because it removed the disc check (and then they were pissed when the BtS patch did it anyway). RAGE is the first id Software game to use Steamworks. It would be like if you were determined to collect all the Star Wars soundtracks on vinyl just to keep your old collection going but the Episode III soundtrack is CD-only. Steam literally didn't exist the last time a first-party id Software game shipped. It's going to blow some old-schooler's minds.
You must be logged in to post.