Steam Expands Beyond Games, to Offer Software Soon

[[XC] Oj101]

Oh there certainly are instances of Steam closing accounts. Anything which breaks the Steam TOS can result in your account being disabled - this is very different from a VAC ban as it means you can't even play single player. Reversed payments, fraud, sales of accounts, these are just a few things that can have your account disabled altogether.

Let's set up a hypothetical example. You have an employee who wants something to do during his lunch break, so he buys a low-spec game on Steam - something like Half Life 1 maybe. He pays for it using his wife's credit card, and when she sees an unexpected transaction to an unknown place she phones the bank and reports it as fraud - yes, she should've checked with him but didn't. The bank reverses the charge and your account gets flagged and disabled for fraud. Sorry, your WORK account.

Another point, Steam doesn't allow for account sharing at all so each employee would have to have his own Steam account with products registered to him which would remain his after he leaves the company? Each new employee would need to have software purchased for him? If you're caught sharing a Steam account it can be disabled...

Stick to games, Steam. It's what you're awesome at doing, but I'll buy my software elsewhere.

 

[digibucc]

Another point, Steam doesn't allow for account sharing at all so each employee would have to have his own Steam account with products registered to him which would remain his after he leaves the company? Each new employee would need to have software purchased for him? If you're caught sharing a Steam account it can be disabled...

because a per-machine license is impossible? not saying they'll do it or that any of this is even worth discussing - but your point is the least damning of any. corporations simply wouldn't pay for software to be licensed to their employees. period. so the system would not work like that,

 

[TheMailMan78]

They could simply just sell the games via steam but not need steam to be running to use the programs. Just the first install. That I could deal with.

 

[Mistral]

So, when will I be able to get CS6 on a 75% off STEAM sale?

 

[TheMailMan78]

So, when will I be able to get CS6 on a 75% off STEAM sale?

30 years from now......15% off.......and that will be "mid week madness!"

 

[jpierce55]

They could simply just sell the games via steam but not need steam to be running to use the programs. Just the first install. That I could deal with.

I would have to speculate that, it might use Steam to verify the install. I can't see the requirement for business software (if they do business software) to have Steam running as something that would go over well at all. It would require extra resources and many businesses have out of date hardware, especially companies that would buy software from a vendor like Steam.

So far Steam has not made any very bad decisions, I would not expect to see them make a bad decision on this.

FWIW, I agree with the idea that Steam has horrible customer service, or more precisely, none at all. Regardless, selling software does not mean they will do any of the customer support.

 

[Drmark]

I would never buy a steam application. Traveling, overseas, limited internet or none? Who wants to be limited by valve on when you are allowed to use the software you paid for. I have been in German hotels with no internet, same with planes. Gee thanx valve, I'm on a 13 hour flight and not allowed to work a minute during the flight. In a minor provence in China, nope... no internet, no work.
I stopped buying steam games that require an internet connection to play local.

 

[cadaveca]

None of my STEAM games require internet to play... You simply enable offline mode before leaving local access. Then only need internet on first time the app is run, so new apps when away, sure, but I've got a box at the lake with STEAM, where internet access just isn't possible, just checked it a few days ago, and everything was working fine.

It wasn't always that way..when I built the cottage rig I contacted Valve about the issue, and the couple of apps that did not work, they fixed with a patch...to the STEAM client.

Likewise, I do this every week for reviews, benching boards using STEAM, with no internet acccess. Need access to activate the copy of STEAM I image onto the drive, but that's it. Every week I do this...

 

[GSquadron]

Best candidate for them would be 3ds max program

 

[MilkyWay]

See that's the thing, depending on the software we might have to. There are a few games that have to be activated on Steam to play. Call of Duty is one of them. Then what happens when I lose internet connection and can't connect to Steam to get into Photoshop? No work that day?

It seems far fetched now but its entirely possiable.

Isn't that what Steams offline mode is for?

 

[D007]

I wonder what programs.

Oh yea, the new "SYL" DRM, you haven't heard of it?
Steal your life... Yea.
Idk, I'm a bit wary of steam getting too big and more importantly, too intrusive.
The software already gets more and more bloated every update.

More software, more problems.. That is the way of things.
We'll see I guess..