You may now Pre-Load your CIV 5 Steam Install!

[Proteus_MST]

I wonder if we will get the DVDs from Amazon before the official release date as well

[Aro]

Well, Steam is a program/service run by the game company Valve. They work with publishers to digitally distribute games. 2K is the publisher for Civ5, which means they have control over the release date. Firaxis (the developer) MAY have some say in the matter, but it's generally the publisher that makes the call.

Hum... All I know is that one of them is the responsible to delay the unlock day to Brazil...

And I just cannot understand why.

[Aro]

Don't get me wrong. I like Steam and/or Valve. I have all Civ IV, including colonization at Steam.

I just don't understand the marketing reason to unlock the game at september, 21 in USA and september 23 in other places.

[wodan11]

It's a complex dance between all the different distributors, Aro. (I used to be production manager at a game design company, so I'm unfortunately intimately familiar with all the gory details.) Steam can't release early because the brick&mortar (physical) stores would have a cow. Overseas is generally delayed because it takes longer to ship over there. Plus, their warehouse can only ship so many pallets in a day, and the distributors need time to transship to individual stores.

Often,the actual stores may even get their copies in advance of release day. They're "supposed" to hold them in their back room until the actual day, and if 2K found out they released early (which is easy to do since people crow on the 'net that they got it early) the store would get in big trouble, maybe even blacklisted.

Steam would be no different... they would get the actual software in advance of release day. Especially since they need to program in their front end and test everything to ensure downloads and installs work without error, and that takes time.

Maybe one day when there are NO physical copies, only online downloads, all this may change.

[Robert]

When you pre-load the game, does that store the xml files on your hard disk already?

Can anybody answer my quoted question?

[Asher]

It usually is encrypted until launch day.

[Melboz99]

You guys didn't actually think they pressed the DVD's the day OF release, did you?

The game has likely been "complete" for nearly 1 month, during the live gameplay the first part was explicitly stated as being a "press build" as in, the final release, sent to the presses.

This has been the standard method of game development since the first games were developed. The game starts with an idea, a framework is laid, content is added, bugs are worked out, the game is completed and sent to the publisher who presses the discs and packages them in shiny boxes, which then take days if not weeks to ship to every brick and mortar retail store in the country. Some of these will likely get the game days if not weeks in advance, they simply hold the game until release day, where they sell it to you the customer.

The main difference now is that a shortcut is available.

The only two markets that utilize this shortcut fully that I'm aware of are Open Source gaming and Download-Only gaming, such as Portal, Torchlight, etc. There are no shiny boxes to slow down delivery to you the customer, when it's ready they put it up on their servers and you purchase (or in the case of open source don't purchase) and download.

Dan O.

[Aro]

It's a complex dance between all the different distributors, Aro. (I used to be production manager at a game design company, so I'm unfortunately intimately familiar with all the gory details.) Steam can't release early because the brick&mortar (physical) stores would have a cow. Overseas is generally delayed because it takes longer to ship over there. Plus, their warehouse can only ship so many pallets in a day, and the distributors need time to transship to individual stores.

Often,the actual stores may even get their copies in advance of release day. They're "supposed" to hold them in their back room until the actual day, and if 2K found out they released early (which is easy to do since people crow on the 'net that they got it early) the store would get in big trouble, maybe even blacklisted.

Steam would be no different... they would get the actual software in advance of release day. Especially since they need to program in their front end and test everything to ensure downloads and installs work without error, and that takes time.

Maybe one day when there are NO physical copies, only online downloads, all this may change.

Ok, now I understand. I may be a little stupid sometimes, but Asher makes all clear... Thanks, Asher...

But I'm an old grumpy man. So I grump!

[Sabre2th]

Can anybody answer my quoted question?

I see all the filenames I would expect to see in the game folder, but they are gibberish when I try to open them.

I wonder if we will get the DVDs from Amazon before the official release date as well

When I was shopping around to finally make my purchase this week (too many preorder options!), I saw that Amazon has release-day delivery as an option. If you already ordered from them, you may be able to change it. I'm not sure.

A little side note because I saw the question somewhere earlier and I don't remember where...
Direct2Drive is now giving out the Steam codes to preload Civ5. If you ordered from D2D and want to preload, check your account page.

[Sabre2th]

Ok, now I understand. I may be a little stupid sometimes, but Asher makes all clear... Thanks, Asher...

But I'm an old grumpy man. So I grump!

Did you forget your meds today? That was wodan11 that answered your question

[Asher]

Wow. Direct2Drive is just selling Steam codes now?

[Sabre2th]

Wow. Direct2Drive is just selling Steam codes now?

For Steamworks games, they don't seem to have much of a choice. The game is linked to Steam regardless of what they do. If they want to serve more than a code, they can, but then they're just using up their bandwidth for no reason.

They tried to refuse to sell Modern Warfare 2 and hurt themselves badly with that crowd. I don't see much else they could do. Steam really is a great service, nearly impossible to compete with on this stuff. I only bought from D2D because it's Civ and they had a good preorder deal. First time I've ever bothered to look at their site.

[Aro]

Did you forget your meds today? That was wodan11 that answered your question

Yes, I did!

Sorry, wodan! And thanks, wodan!

[MxM]

By the way, D2D released the codes so that you can register your game with steam and pre-download it. Just visit My Games tab on D2D site...

[Robert]

Thanks Asher and Sabre2th!

Regarding the DVD, yes, they are pressed already, and when they are released on Sept21th and you connect to Steam, you'll most certainly first get a day-one patch applied to that as well