[Ricky Martyr]

@ Razec. According to the FAQ and related thread, Alan Wake retail will hit the US on April 3rd

[Razec]

Yes, I have read, seen, and heard this before, but no website, has a pre-order option for it.

Nor Amazon, Gamestop, OnLive, Origin, nothing. I know half of those aren't retail sellers but still. For the fact that hardly any store even knows it was developed for the PC diminishes my faith.

Hell I only trust Amazon now because they give better deals and have everything. I went to Gamestop to buy the collector's edition of Dead Space 2 for my friend and the employees looked and me and said it didn't come out for the PC and that they didn't even think the regular game was out for PC, I showed them my copy and they just stood shut like the morons they were.

AHHH This sucks. I will keep waiting because I do have Mass Effect 3: N7 Collector's Edition on my hand.

I am hopeful like I said. If it comes out April 3rd I'll be the happiest champ alive. That will be more than enough time to get my stuff accomplished.

[M.A.]

Alert to Malaysian fans, Play-Asia.com has started selling Alan Wake boxed retail:

Special Edition - US$ 39.90 (~120.67 MYR)

Collector's Edition - US$ 59.90 (~181.15 MYR)

Unfortunately, they don't offer their staple free shipping in 24hr to Malaysia for these titles. Shipping (with tracking) ranges from US$ 9.90 (~29.94 MYR) to US$ 16.90 (~51.11 MYR).

[On2wheels]

I was surprised to see Origin claiming Alan Wake as "Only on Origin" when I logged into the client today. That's misleading, and to the uninformed public it's unethically guiding consumers.

[Mr.Hankey]

I can only say one thing: about effing time! Thank you.
Then again after anxiously waiting in sleep deprivation and drooling for teasers for a few decades kinda tends to put a serious stress to one's mental health. Nurse! I think we need to up my dosage again. Thank you.

[Razec]

Still no word of Alan Wake PC hitting retail stores here in the US.

I sincerely do not want to buy the digital version of this game at all. I can't understand why no one will bite and release here in the US. You will make a few bucks and get a bigger fan base here in the US.

As I've read the game was available for download like days before the official release.

I guess, I'll just have to settle for the EU copy. The German unboxing that someone posted looked badass. I'm actually one of the few that takes the time to watch and read all the little extras that get put in, into all these Limited/Collector's editions. Shoot I don't have a working PS3 in my room but I still have my MGS4 Collector's Edition and Collector's guide.

Remedy please do it for the few elitist and fans that you have here in the states. It will be highly appreciated by us few. If I do have to settle for the digital version I'll only buy it when it is on sale for super duper cheap.

[sidetwo]

@Razec - We have already announced that it's coming to the States, in fact it's releasing on April 3rd. Full press release here:
http://www.alanwake.com/alan-wake-to...y-interactive/

Also the release dates for the retail version for other locations can be found here:
http://forum.alanwake.com/showthread.php?t=8242

[Razec]

Thank you very much for the confirmation.

The only reason I kept this going was because I've been to about 5 different GameStop's and constantly check Amazon and neither can confirm this for me.

But I will indeed go to Gamestop this monday and pre-order the game.

Again thank you very much Remedy Ent. for this great game on PC.

I'm also hoping we are going to get that sexy collector's edition.

[waja]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sidetwo

@Razec - We have already announced that it's coming to the States, in fact it's releasing on April 3rd. Full press release here:
http://www.alanwake.com/alan-wake-to...y-interactive/

Also the release dates for the retail version for other locations can be found here:
http://forum.alanwake.com/showthread.php?t=8242

Is there a name for the store(s) that will be selling the boxed version in the States? I haven't been able to locate one.
Cheers,

[Layton]

Yeah, I'm not seeing anywhere as having it in stock. D:

[ViperSRT]

@ Layton Supposedly Legacy Interactive said that the game will ship on the 3rd and should be up for purchase by the 16th or sooner. Why they didn't post the 16th as the date then is beyond me, but that seems to be the story now.

[Razec]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ViperSRT

@ Layton Supposedly Legacy Interactive said that the game will ship on the 3rd and should be up for purchase by the 16th or sooner. Why they didn't post the 16th as the date then is beyond me, but that seems to be the story now.

The 3rd has come and gone, and now this that it should be up for purchase by the 16th.

I wonder what will come next. I waltzed into a few GameStops again asking if anyone new of anything for the PC version of Alan Wake, of course they look at me as if I'm the damn idiot. No one knows anything still.

And the likes of Amazon and other online gaming outlets none have Alan Wake PC for pre-order or anything.

Can we at least know what retailer is going to have this game.

[ViperSRT]

I'm assuming all the places that have the xbox version listed on this site will get the pc version too. The question is when. Lets hope the 16th we see some action.

[sidetwo]

Hey guys sorry for this. Current status on the US release is that Legacy are currently setting up initial orders and as such we are waiting on a confirmed ship date. We expect it to ship in a few weeks but once things have been set, we'll let you know.

[MarkusRMD]

Update from today is that we still expect availability in Walmart and Target in April and hopefully also Amazon.com and a few other places.

[ViperSRT]

Thanks for the update. Hopefully soon!

[Skip]

Great news, it will be a treat to finally see it on store shelves.

[Oppopji]

First I'd like to say thanks for finally bringing Alan Wake to the PC. I initially pre-ordered a retail CE and planned to just wait for that to be released, but then (due to a mix of impatience & the free CE upgrade offer) I ended up buying it day 1 on Steam anyway. After completing my first playthrough I decided to keep my retail CE pre-order too because I liked the game so much

I have a question though: Seeing that Alan Wake on PC is self-published digitally, is there any chance of it being released DRM-free on GOG.com now that they're selling newer games? Same question for Max Payne 1 & 2 while I think of it (I still have my original retail copies of both but would really like them to be released on GOG) but I'm guessing those two would require Take 2 to sign with GOG first?

[Morry]

1. The PC version has been developed specifically for use with Steam. Remedy would probably have to do another port, making the game install from an executable downloaded from gog.com
2. You would lose the achievements
3. You would lose any patch updates (or it would be difficult to implement)

The Max Payne games, on the other hand, would be good candidates. And yes, Take 2 would have to organise the rights and source code for GoG.

Personally, I don't agree with GoG supporting newer titles - there are enough competitors in the market for that. They have been doing a fantastic job of tracking down old titles and reinvigorating them. To now place focus on titles that have just been released is a bit of a distraction, I think. Besides, their distribution model has a long way to go if they want to take on the likes of Steam.

[Oppopji]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morry

1. The PC version has been developed specifically for use with Steam. Remedy would probably have to do another port, making the game install from an executable downloaded from gog.com
2. You would lose the achievements
3. You would lose any patch updates (or it would be difficult to implement)

1. I don't know where you get the idea that they'd need to port the game all over again just because it uses Steam, but it should actually be fairly trivial to make a DRM-free version (especially since it's a single player only game and as such uses Steam solely for DRM/achievements/stats monitoring). Not much more work than disabling the hooks into Steam then recompiling.
2. I don't care But if they're really considered to be that important then it shouldn't be that hard to implement them locally through ingame menus.
3. Would be no more difficult than patching any other non-Steam game. I do think that it would be best to wait for the patch releases to quieten down first though to reduce the need to create/test/distribute patches for two versions.

Quote:

Personally, I don't agree with GoG supporting newer titles - there are enough competitors in the market for that. They have been doing a fantastic job of tracking down old titles and reinvigorating them. To now place focus on titles that have just been released is a bit of a distraction, I think. Besides, their distribution model has a long way to go if they want to take on the likes of Steam.

I strongly disagree here; I feel that GOG releasing newer games DRM-free is a great thing and something the industry needs. The main selling point of GOG for me is the DRM-free nature of their releases and they have no competition in that regard. The past 6 years or so have seen companies become more and more paranoid/obsessed with piracy and try to solve it with all kinds of pointless DRM schemes that do little more than create a lot of extra hassle for their customers... so it's nice to finally have someone in the industry trying to do something about it. Plus GOG are still going to be releasing older games too.

In fact GOG has often had to acquire/create cracks for older releases where due to the age of a game the publisher/developer no longer has unprotected binaries nor the source code (or resources to pay a programmer to recompile the source code - which they are most likely unfamiliar with, even if they were one of the original programmers that worked on it - to create unprotected binaries). In at least one instance this has resulted in a release where the copy protection wasn't fully removed and caused playability issues. Releasing newer games greatly reduces the likelihood of this being a problem.

I have always despised DRM and have skipped a lot of games over the years due to DRM that I felt was too restrictive/intolerable for the asking price. I only created a Steam account a couple of years ago when Valve first gave away free copies of Portal - after that I decided I would tolerate it in certain cases but I still consider its requirement to be a devaluing feature.

Normally I buy retail copies of new releases - mostly due to price as retail is usually £5-10 cheaper but also because the DRM is typically not as bad as in digital releases, or it's equal in the case of Steamworks games - but if GOG suddenly started getting every new release then I don't think I'd buy them anywhere else again (unless I wanted e.g. a physical CE or so in which case I'd likely buy both as I did with The Witcher 2).

...

Hmm, well that was a lot more than I originally planned to write

[ViperSRT]

Yea the game companies don't think about the reality of situations. Every DRM they have used has been cracked within days or less. Obviously if games are selling millions of copies there aren't that many pirates. Making the game discs with anti copying tech is one thing and there is nothing wrong with that, but invasive DRM...you know that company that begins with an E and ends in an A only hurts the people who purchase your game legally and didn't do anything wrong.

Anyway tomorrow is supposedly the day we get to pick up Alan retail according to Legacy's facebook. Here's hoping!!!

[Morry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oppopji

I strongly disagree here; I feel that GOG releasing newer games DRM-free is a great thing and something the industry needs. The main selling point of GOG for me is the DRM-free nature of their releases and they have no competition in that regard. The past 6 years or so have seen companies become more and more paranoid/obsessed with piracy and try to solve it with all kinds of pointless DRM schemes that do little more than create a lot of extra hassle for their customers... so it's nice to finally have someone in the industry trying to do something about it. Plus GOG are still going to be releasing older games too.

I'm not concerned with the DRM aspects of either platform, I simply appreciate a platform that has good customer focus.
With Steam, you simply use the platform and anything to do with copy-protection is invisible to the standard user. If, one day, Valve goes bust, then there may be a problem with accessing your purchased library of games. The risk of something like that occurring is quite low when you consider the popularity of the platform.
With GoG, its a one-off purchase with no ownership controls. You can just give the installer file to your friends and they don't have to pay for it. Whilst this may seem like a harmless act, if every customer was to do that once, GoG has lost half of their potential sales.

Both platforms have immense advantages over the traditional retail markets and I think we can start counting down the days of physical copies of games available in retail stores.

[Oppopji]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morry

I'm not concerned with the DRM aspects of either platform, I simply appreciate a platform that has good customer focus.
With Steam, you simply use the platform and anything to do with copy-protection is invisible to the standard user.

I'm not denying that Steam is very convenient and easy to use - this is why Steam is so successful, even in places with traditionally ridiculously high levels of piracy such as Russia (which is now one of Steam's largest markets), despite being one of the weaker forms of DRM currently in use. That and the frequent massive discounts

Quote:

If, one day, Valve goes bust, then there may be a problem with accessing your purchased library of games. The risk of something like that occurring is quite low when you consider the popularity of the platform.

Quite low, yes, but by no means impossible. I'd still prefer to not leave it to chance and have legit DRM-free copies of my games rather than be forced to use cracks if something happens to Steam / other DRM servers / etc.

Quote:

With GoG, its a one-off purchase with no ownership controls.

Exactly what's good about GOG - they trust and respect their users and don't treat them all like criminals. A legal copy of a game bought from GOG is just as functional as the pirate copy; there's no DRM to cause problems for legitimate users (such as performance issues, stability issues / conflicts between the DRM and other software, inability to activate due to connection issues or server downtime, running out of activations and so on) that pirates will never face.

Quote:

You can just give the installer file to your friends and they don't have to pay for it. Whilst this may seem like a harmless act, if every customer was to do that once, GoG has lost half of their potential sales.

I could, but I don't. And the vast majority of GOG's customers don't do that either. The Witcher 2 for example was a big success, exceeding their expectations and GOG had the second largest number of digital sales (the first place of course going to Steam). Torrents for GOG games even get regularly downvoted & the uploaders berated by other users.

Besides, a game only needs to be cracked once (and any game that's even slightly popular *will* be cracked) for it to be cracked for everyone. "Ownership controls"/DRM means nothing when any idiot can use google (or their preferred torrent site, or a friend or whatever) to locate a full, cracked copy of just about any game within hours of release.

So DRM is basically a pointless waste of time and money: Sure, games released DRM-free on GOG can be pirated easily. But even if you encumber a game with Steam, SecuROM, StarForce, TAGES, SafeDisc, Origin, UPlay or whatever it'll usually still end up cracked and just as easy to pirate within hours of release as if it had no DRM at all in the first place.

[Morry]

You make some good points, and yes, quite a lot of DRM is pointless when it doesn't take much effort to break it.
The issue with relaxing all controls, is that there is no need to pay for a game, if it can simply be downloaded by anyone who knows how to do it. Given the high price of new-release games, a gamer given a choice of paying top dollar for a game or doing a bit of google searching and finding it for free, will likely choose to just download it. The only thing stopping them is their own guilt or loyalty towards a game series or developer. How many of those Witcher 2 purchases, for example, were through people who thoroughly enjoyed the first game and wanted to support the developer?

The marketing angle of GoG (when it started up, at least) was to cater to the nostalgia and loyalty of "old school" gamers, like myself. After all, who is going to pay money to buy old, ugly games by today's standards?
Even though there are countless "abandonware" sites out there, there is a certain feeling of pride I feel when I buy through GoG that I am somehow supporting an old defunct developer, or at the very least, an old defunct style of game.

The issue I have with the "new" GoG, is that the same marketing angle no longer applies. There is no nostalgia feeling with new games, no one has aged long enough to think that. If a new developer wants to release their first game on GoG, they have to be prepared for a lot of sales to be lost through the ease of distributing the installer file.

[ViperSRT]

Thats true there are those who will not pay, but there are also many, like me, who prefer a physical legal copy. All you really need to do is wait about a month or two and the price, on Amazon shamless plug for no reason other than its true, for most games drops down to 30 or less....just shows how overpriced they are to begin with.Unless its something I really want thats what I do. Something I really want likethe Uncharted games, Alan Wake, or Max Payne 3 I'll get it when it is released. Its legal and you are still supporting the developer its just reasonably priced. Then again thats just me.

Anyway, its the 16th where be Alan PC retail? lol

[Razec]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morry

I'm not concerned with the DRM aspects of either platform, I simply appreciate a platform that has good customer focus.
With Steam, you simply use the platform and anything to do with copy-protection is invisible to the standard user. If, one day, Valve goes bust, then there may be a problem with accessing your purchased library of games. The risk of something like that occurring is quite low when you consider the popularity of the platform.
With GoG, its a one-off purchase with no ownership controls. You can just give the installer file to your friends and they don't have to pay for it. Whilst this may seem like a harmless act, if every customer was to do that once, GoG has lost half of their potential sales.

Both platforms have immense advantages over the traditional retail markets and I think we can start counting down the days of physical copies of games available in retail stores.

I'm sorry my friend but don't be so ignorant.

It is true that a slew of GoG games are easily available for download in packs, but that doesn't stop the fact that so are a larger and better selection of Steamworks games.

Regardless of what DRM used it is a hassle, not to the reverse engineers that crack it, not to the pirates that download them but to the actual paying customer.

I am 23 years old, and have been on the PC gaming scene for years, and all I've seen from DRM is hassle and heart ache for the actual paying customer.

For instance when Secu-Rom released a certain iteration of their DRM some games were unplayable to some and in some cases uninstallable. DRM does nothing to stop anyone.

We are in the digital age believe it or not and as long as something is on a computer in a digital non physical form it will get cracked, ripped, nuked whatever you want to call it.

I was extremely mad with how Steam DRM works last summer. I was with my girlfriend upstate and we didn't get internet on her laptop and I went to install a Steam game for us to play and low and behold it didn't install. I had to be online. Things like this really are the downfall of digital media and DRM implementation.

While I like Steam, the only reason I do buy any game is when it is on their ridiculous sales, or obviously the physical copy uses Steamworks.

No other reason. You want to live in the cloud with nothing physical to your name hey you go ahead, but I've witnessed it and had it happen to me first hand, digital downloads/media is not the future.

Talk about not owning anything in reality. I have a really hard time paying for something that is virtual and I will never own physically.

[Oppopji]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morry

You make some good points, and yes, quite a lot of DRM is pointless when it doesn't take much effort to break it.

All DRM takes practically no effort to defeat once a crack is available, no matter how restrictive, complex and expensive it was. It just takes one person/group to crack it and then it's cracked for everyone.

Quote:

The issue with relaxing all controls, is that there is no need to pay for a game, if it can simply be downloaded by anyone who knows how to do it. Given the high price of new-release games, a gamer given a choice of paying top dollar for a game or doing a bit of google searching and finding it for free, will likely choose to just download it.

Things aren't any better the way things are right now though since the DRM is cracked within mere hours of release. In fact, it's actually worse than that because the pirate versions are then made superior by not being locked down with DRM. The only people who end up getting screwed by the limitations imposed by the DRM are the paying customers.

Not everyone will choose to pirate even when it would be really easy for them to do so - I certainly don't and I think the success of Steam and GOG shows that many others don't either (and GOG's business has even been built up on a lot of old games that have been pirated heavily for a long time already). Provide a good service and treat your customers with respect and people will be willing to pay.

I can think of only one recent "success" story regarding DRM, if you can really call it that: Ubisoft's infamous "always online" scheme. That stopped pirates for nearly a month before it was fully cracked. Didn't help sales at all though (in fact I hear it did quite the opposite, which is unsurprising given how much hassle it created for legitimate users).

Quote:

The only thing stopping them is their own guilt or loyalty towards a game series or developer. How many of those Witcher 2 purchases, for example, were through people who thoroughly enjoyed the first game and wanted to support the developer?

Well that's difficult to say, but another new release - Legend of Grimrock - appears to be doing quite well on GOG too.

Quote:

The marketing angle of GoG (when it started up, at least) was to cater to the nostalgia and loyalty of "old school" gamers, like myself. After all, who is going to pay money to buy old, ugly games by today's standards?
Even though there are countless "abandonware" sites out there, there is a certain feeling of pride I feel when I buy through GoG that I am somehow supporting an old defunct developer, or at the very least, an old defunct style of game.

The issue I have with the "new" GoG, is that the same marketing angle no longer applies. There is no nostalgia feeling with new games, no one has aged long enough to think that. If a new developer wants to release their first game on GoG, they have to be prepared for a lot of sales to be lost through the ease of distributing the installer file.

I understand that, but it's not like they're shifting focus completely away from older games (I wouldn't be so happy about it if they did as I buy & play plenty of old games too). There are still lots of older games they have yet to release & are still releasing every week, but eventually the supply will reduce to a trickle and perhaps run out completely, either for technical reasons, legal reasons, or just due to having no more old games to release from the currently signed publishers. So IMO they would have had to start releasing newer games eventually anyway.

[Layton]

I always find it funny when people talk about what would happen if Steam went down forever and everyone lost their games, since GoG literally did a PR stunt where they pretended they were going down and everyone would lose their games forever unless they downloaded them all on a specific date. That's when I decided to stop buying games from them.

[Razec]

Regardless of where you get your games digitally; Steam, GoG, D2D/Gamefly, GreenManGaming, whatever/where ever the service may be; digital downloads aren't safe to begin with.

But for the simple fact that with the likes of GoG I've downloaded Advent Rising, BloodRayne 1&2, and Beyond Good and Evil and burned them all to appropriate disks. Made a small INF file to autorun each respective installer and can play them with no problems.

I don't have to be online to install, activate, or play my games unlike Steam and other digital services.

Hell I bought Dead To Rights 2 years ago from D2D and I will never do that again.

I find it funny when people talk about Steam and how digital downloads are better and easier than buying a physical copy.

No it's not. This is one of the main forces driving America into obesity. I enjoy that 20 minute or 2 hour trip -- depending where I go obviously, to go get my new game.

I like having my physical copies of games and not having to worry about downloading it every time I restore or just want to play it again. Especially now-a-days with almost every game being an ~5-10 GB's.

Plus the price point doesn't justify what I am getting regardless of how "special" the online content is.

I'm not a fanatic of GoG because I don't see the point in playing Fallout 1 in the day of Skyrim and Battlefield 3. But I do love their business model.

You pay for something why not get your money's worth.

I bought Advent Rising (probably my top 5 games of all time, because at least for me I did not encounter 1 bug/glitch.) and what I got was the game in a nice little installer. Wallpapers, Icons, and a Making of, and some other stuff.

I bought Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 on disk at launch and got a coaster for my drinks literally. I have a glass desk top so I use both disks for my drinks. I bought Assassin's Creed 1,2, Brotherhood for about 20 for all 3 different times for sales. And I had to go through some extensive DRM and extra crap just to play the games.

Granted UbiSoft are retards and don't understand the worse your DRM the more people will either pirate it or not buy it at all.

But regardless of the notion here. Digital Sales aren't for everyone.

I personally don't like it, and I have a 100 DVD spindle full of Steam backups with no cd-cracks just in case I go on vacation or somewhere without internet and can play my games with no issue.

[Layton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razec

No it's not. This is one of the main forces driving America into obesity. I enjoy that 20 minute or 2 hour trip -- depending where I go obviously, to go get my new game.

I agree with most of your post, but this is just silly. It could be said that the games themselves are keeping people indoors and making them obese, but even long before digital distribution became mainstream tons of people just had their physical copies delivered to their doors through Amazon, etc. Not to mention the fact that unless you walk to the store it doesn't really matter how long your trip is, since you aren't getting much (if any) exercise from driving a car anyways.

[AWG]

Retail stores on March? Huh, it's funny.

[sidetwo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AWG

Retail stores on March? Huh, it's funny.

It did. Full details here:
http://forum.alanwake.com/showthread.php?t=8242

Having said that, lets keep all further PC release discussion in the above linked thread as well. No need to have 2 threads now.