Hm, I always imagined Apple being more Alpha Complex and less Renraku really
Amazon has a digital distribution section these days, and its sales tends to be better (often considerably so) than the ones found on Steam. Both Gamer's Gate & Greenman also consistently give better deals for steam games than Steam, and we also have that Brazilian site which name currently escapes me that sells internationally and that quite often serves up some really good deals. (Gamer's Gate due to its Blue Coins (basically you get 5% back from every purchase that you can then spend on other things on that site) & Green man for its promo codes and for us who live outside of the US, prices in USD)

...for now Apple has been content to fiddle with technology, but just you wait - at somepoint they realize that it will be easier to change people fit their tech than the other way around.

If it was Shadowrun Returns you can preorder the game from here http://harebrained-schemes.com/shadowrun/shadowrun-returns-pre-order/

Oh nice, i didnt know it was still possible - is there any idea what platform the digital download means, if any? Because if there is no info on it yet, ill wait until it comes to gog/steam. I am quite content with two game libraries :)

They must be wanting to give themselves bonuses. :-)
I was surprised to see that, having been gifted DOTA 2, I ended up with 23 (!!) free keys to give away.

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and call troll at this point.

Me or him?

The guy I already berated a few posts ago.

How is that a stupid remark? It happens and is just as much speculation as Valve being a big mean company and wanting more money, or firing them for the hell of it. Things like that happen at companies. I'm not the only one who thinks this. I'm not saying it's true I just wanted throw out another idea no one has said yet. Don't get your panties in a twist.

Valve refuses to tell anyone why layoffs have happened. My theory is that Gaben walked in the cafeteria and someone told a joke about his weight - everyone laughed and laughed, not noticing their boss. Gaben took the shoe off and threw it as hard as he could in the main joker, knocking the cup of coffee out of his hand and shouted "THAT'S IT MOTHERF**KERS! YOU ARE ALL FIRED!!", took out Ben & Jerry's from the fridge, and slowly walked out of the cafeteria in a total silence.

True story.

No no you ARE the only one thinking it. Most people are looking at where they have been laid off from (hardware division aka the people who designed the general steambox outline) and are thinking that Valve has realised it's cheaper to let you know actual hardware companies come up with specs for them to ok and save themselves 25 wages.

didn't gabe tell previously that he never fires anyone and when it happens he considers it a "personal failure" for him?

I think that it is important to keep a few things in mind. If you have ever actually looked at what Steam does, there is a VERY LARGE margin for profit. They sell Video Games. They sell Digital Copies of Video Games. There is no shipping/receiving department, there is no packaging, there is no physical product. In fact, getting to the nuts and bolts, we are only buying a COPY of 1s and 0s. Obviously, there are maintenance and salary and other fees involved, but my point is that when a company such as Amazon sells Steam Codes, where do you think they got them from? And do you really think they could have bought 20,000 Steam Codes, at whatever discount, and Steam would not be making at least a small profit? No, both Amazon and Steam are making a Profit on every sale they make. Every. Single. One.

Now, I love Steam, I think that they are the greatest gaming company out there, only second to our own GOG. However they are a business. They hire people, and when those people either A) Serve their purpose, B) Disagree with the direction that the company is going in, or C) they step too far out of line, they have to fire people. That is not evil, that is not wrong, it is just business.

The bottom line is that no matter what the reason is, Steam let 25 people go, and the other 300+ employees are still working on whatever secret projects they have yet to announce. Gaben already told us that the direction, and overall plan for the company, is unchanged. That means that whatever this was, is minor.

Also, if they left on good terms, then they will be able to find another job pretty easily. Think about it: Two interviews, one guy says: "I owned my own company for 3 years." The second says: "I served on the Design Team for TF2, HL2:E1 and E2." My decision would have been made up right then, so long as his reference is secure.


TL;DR: Steam fired people. They will be just fine, both Steam and the people they fired. Move along, Move along.

Nope. The Developer or Publisher gets as many steam keys as he wants for free with no charge.
http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/retailsupport.php
Keep all of your users together no matter where or how they get your game. Steamworks has a host of features and services that support your retail product and any digital copies, wherever they are sold. It’s free. There is no per-copy activation charge or bandwidth fee.

http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight/faq/
Once your game is accepted for distribution on Steam, we will give you as many keys for your game as you want at no cost.

http://www.geekwire.com/2011/valves-newell-predicts-shakeup-for-closed-game-consoles/
Or Big Gabe himself:
Yeah, people can use it or not use it. We give away the tools for free. They can be included in people’s products. … We’ll provide server capacity, matchmaking services, product services, and all that’s free for content developers. If a product gets sold through our system, then we take a tax. If it’s sold through retail, or if it’s sold through a developer’s website or it’s sold through Origin or Direct2Drive, then we don’t take anything.
We’re only generating money when we’re directly contributing to a sale. Our tools and services are free to use, regardless of distribution channel.


That is the whole business model behind the most Indie Bundles or the Indie Gala Store. Selling free Steam Keys and using Valves infrastructure for the distribution. Nice for Valve to get more users but it seems to be a ridiculous long term business model when every competitor sells the games for less and you offering free services for the customers without earning a single cent...