Download from Steam

[Matteo123]

Anyone able to find the number for Steam to call and request a refund? All I get is an email address.

[Graphic]

Pre-purchased on Steam and...meh, I don't care. My download is almost 2 MB/s. I'll get it soon enough.

[Styles]

Well most customers are upset because Steam promised a 48h preload time and most have probably bought it on steam because of the preload. Many Steam users will now be playing the game later then box buyers.

[Lemur]

Actually, it wasn't Steam but rather Creative Assembly who had the 48-hour preload thing on their web site. Which means that CA had some reason to believe it was so; there's no profit for them in announcing something that's untrue.

Here's a semi-official satement:

Hello all,

Here is the official word regarding Empire: Total War and pre-loading:

"There is no pre-load for Empire: Total War. Due to the staggered release times worldwide, preloading is not possible and as such, Empire will begin loading at the time of release. The current release schedules for the game are:

Tuesday, March 3rd - 1800 CET / 1700 GMT / 0900 PST
* North American & Canadian Ship Date
* Steam Authentication Servers activated for North American & Canadian Retail customers.
* Steam Authentication Servers activated for all European and other Worldwide retail and digital download customers.
* Game available for sale and download for European and other Worldwide digital download customers.

Wednesday, March 4th - 1000 CET / 0900 CET / 0100 PST
* Worldwide street date.
* Game available for sale and download for North American & Canadian digital download customers.

In brief, the game will authenticate for customers at 1800 / 1700 / 0900 Tuesday and allow for European players to start playing then. North American and Canadian customers will be able to start playing at 0100 Wednesday.

That is the official word. No pre-loading.

[Styles]

For myself I dont care for the preload I decided to buy a box and it will arrive tomorow. But I care for those players that bought it on steam.

Even if it was anounced by CA and not steam it doesnt make it any better. They should have clarified it sooner but I bet it was far more tempting to get 10 bucks more for the game in hope that most buyers are "I dont care" customers.

[Dogfish]

Ouch, that sucks. I'm an older jaded gamer, and have never done a digital download because I like being able to physically hold the box and disc... evidence like this makes me contemplate whether I will do a digital purchase in the foreseeable future.

I really don't see any advantage to doing a digital purchase like through steam? It's the same price... but you don't get box, discs, manual, etc. Maybe not having to drive to the store to pick it up is an advantage, but hardly worth the aforementioned disadvantages, unless it's a more obscure game that isn't available at the local store... or maybe if they charged $20 less to reflect their lower overhead, otherwise it seems a bit of a rip off.

[Matteo123]

Dogfish, you are 100% right, the only reason any of us went with Steam was the pre-load so they now take that away from us and rip us off by charging the same for less.

[Lemur]

Let's have a little calm, please. We're still going to get the game, and we're still going to play it on Wednesday. I'm certain CA had no intent to deceive, and equally certain that this is the sort of intra-corporate fumble familiar to anyone who's ever worked in a large business.

Nobody has betrayed us, nobody has lied to us, and we're all going to get what we paid for. It's all good. Seriously, it's all good.

[Graphic]

Let's have a little calm, please. We're still going to get the game, and we're still going to play it on Wednesday. I'm certain CA had no intent to deceive, and equally certain that this is the sort of intra-corporate fumble familiar to anyone who's ever worked in a large business.

Nobody has betrayed us, nobody has lied to us, and we're all going to get what we paid for. It's all good. Seriously, it's all good.

I agree with this sentiment

[Styles]

Good idea Monk I will visit then our museum with the largest roman toilet north of the alps until I can play my boxed version of Empire!

[Matteo123]

The problem is that today we are promised X, are given less than X, and those that point out they are given less are told to just accept it. If I promised to paint your house for $100 by Thursday so you could have a party and I paint only 3 sides, wouldn't you be mad even if I came back a few days after the party to finish? Doesn't part of the $100 include payment to get it painted by Thursday? It's the same thing here. We paid $50 to start DLing now and now we are told we will get it later, part of our $50 includes the right to DL it now. We should get some kind of refund just as the homeowner would demand part of his $100 back.

[Relic]

I quite like Steam.
I've used it since September (almost everyday) and had it since Decemember '07. Honestly, I think its a brilliant thing. Is waiting an extra day or two honestly going to kill you?!

[Graphic]

There are two situations when I buy on Steam:

1) When it's a game I want on day one. I can't trust my local retailers to meet street dates for PC games. They all seem to have the attitude "well, no one's going to buy this anyway, so whatever."

2) When the game's been out for a while and isn't carried by retail chains anymore.

In both situations I prefer Steam over buying a boxed copy off the internet because it's cheaper with no S&H fee involved.

[Vlad Tzepes]

I don't like it either, the idea of downloading a digital copy, but down here, in the EU's Far East (Romania), there's no other way to legally get ETW sooner than through Steam.

So I pre-ordered and everything... I'll wait till tomorrow now... I'll use the .Org as my game manual (much better, anyway)... And I'll most probably get a disc in about 6 months, when they go to sales :)

[Monk]

Ouch, that sucks. I'm an older jaded gamer, and have never done a digital download because I like being able to physically hold the box and disc... evidence like this makes me contemplate whether I will do a digital purchase in the foreseeable future.

I really don't see any advantage to doing a digital purchase like through steam? It's the same price... but you don't get box, discs, manual, etc. Maybe not having to drive to the store to pick it up is an advantage, but hardly worth the aforementioned disadvantages, unless it's a more obscure game that isn't available at the local store... or maybe if they charged $20 less to reflect their lower overhead, otherwise it seems a bit of a rip off.

It was my understanding that there was going to be a pre-load for the game, so you could be ready to go the moment the game was unlocked on steam which was a big reason why I bought with steam. Now that feature seems to not be present it does make me feel a bit disappointed, but I was still going to spend $50+ on this game anyway so I don't really feel "ripped off". If I had bought the SF edition on Steam I certainly would! But I opted for normal.

I don't feel I missed out on anything by not getting the manual, having the disc is probably the only thing I feel I got aced out of. Having bought with steam before, though, that doesn't bother me to a great degree. Fallout 3 and left 4 dead are just as enjoyable without a disc as they are with, and I'm sure ETW will be too.

All that said, it's really about preference which way you go. The boxed copy still has that tangible pro to it which is certainly nice.