Steam Sale

Fnz · 30-11-2009 8:00pm

grizzly wrote: »

Meh, I should have picked up BF2 yesterday.

€10.50 here: http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/9223325/-/Product.html?P36=HNQGXD

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 beta should be coming within the next month so is it even worth your while?

thebman · 30-11-2009 8:34pm

I bought it just to have it as its only a tenner

leninbenjamin · 01-12-2009 11:13pm

well, the steam sales over.

Just wondering though, anyone else think Steam are deliberately throttling the downloads of the games bought on the cheap? GRID took me two days to download where Left 4 dead 2 and Shattered Horizon didn't even take one on this connection, and I've been downloading Mirror's edge for over 8 hours now and it's only at 13%. Maybe it's just me, but i'm finding Steam's sales practices to be ever more cynical.

LiGhTz OuT · 01-12-2009 11:16pm

whats your connection speed? O_o

leninbenjamin · 01-12-2009 11:21pm

LiGhTz OuT wrote: »

whats your connection speed? O_o

7MB. Usually get download speeds of 700kb/s with Steam here. That's about 30mins per 1GB if my math's right? At the moment I'm getting dial-up speeds. 30kb/s or less. connection is fine though.

Liathroidi Dana · 01-12-2009 11:22pm

leninbenjamin wrote: »

well, the steam sales over.

Just wondering though, anyone else think Steam are deliberately throttling the downloads of the games bought on the cheap? GRID took me two days to download where Left 4 dead 2 and Shattered Horizon didn't even take one on this connection, and I've been downloading Mirror's edge for over 8 hours now and it's only at 13%. Maybe it's just me, but i'm finding Steam's sales practices to be ever more cynical.

But why would valve do that? What can they get out of it?

leninbenjamin · 01-12-2009 11:28pm

Liathroidi Dana wrote: »

But why would valve do that? What can they get out of it?

I dunno. Preserve bandwidth for on-line play? Promote Valve games over 3rd party rivals? Keep costs down (the games were cheap)? A hatred of EA? Overloaded download servers because of the sale? Tons of potential reasons man. I'm just asking if people experiencing anything similar... it's only Steam that's been acting odd, and i just find it's more than a coincidence that it should happen round the time of the sale, particularly when you think that at the launch of L4D2 things weren't half as bad as this (from my end i mean)...

Liathroidi Dana · 01-12-2009 11:31pm

leninbenjamin wrote: »

I dunno. Preserve bandwidth for on-line play? Promote Valve games over 3rd party rivals? Keep costs down (the games were cheap)? A hatred of EA? Overloaded download servers because of the sale? Tons of potential reasons man. I'm just asking if people experiencing anything similar... it's only Steam that's been acting odd, and i just find it's more than a coincidence that it should happen round the time of the sale, particularly when you think that at the launch of L4D2 things weren't half as bad as this (from my end i mean)...

Never thought of that... yet I still don't think they would be so shady.

Anything I dwonloaded during the deal period was downloading at 200kbps (my usual).

I say its just th large amount of people DLing the game.

LiGhTz OuT · 02-12-2009 12:21am

oh thats weird? i think that happens when you pause your downloads, it slows or something, try restarting steam, restarting made it faster for me

Sierra Oscar · 02-12-2009 12:37am

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Just wondering though, anyone else think Steam are deliberately throttling the downloads of the games bought on the cheap? GRID took me two days to download where Left 4 dead 2 and Shattered Horizon didn't even take one on this connection, and I've been downloading Mirror's edge for over 8 hours now and it's only at 13%. Maybe it's just me, but i'm finding Steam's sales practices to be ever more cynical.

Download speeds are definitely not throttled. Have you the correct download location selected in "Steam>File>Settings>Downloads"?

EDIT: Yeah make sure you check it . . . for some reason mine has switched to Japan recently . . . :rolleyes:

thebman · 02-12-2009 1:07am

More likely to be your ISP than Steam store who want you to buy more an more. Valve get money for third party sales through Steam and want people to buy more games of any type since then third parties will put more of their games on Steam.

Overheal · 02-12-2009 2:46am

leninbenjamin wrote: »

well, the steam sales over.

Just wondering though, anyone else think Steam are deliberately throttling the downloads of the games bought on the cheap? GRID took me two days to download where Left 4 dead 2 and Shattered Horizon didn't even take one on this connection, and I've been downloading Mirror's edge for over 8 hours now and it's only at 13%. Maybe it's just me, but i'm finding Steam's sales practices to be ever more cynical.

Lets see: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, barrel bottom pricing, huge volume of sales. I can see the connection.

leninbenjamin wrote: »

particularly when you think that at the launch of L4D2 things weren't half as bad as this (from my end i mean)...

Ohhh friend, they have ****ed up so, so many patches and launches (Scout Pack release? Anyone?) its good that they finally learned something with L4D2, which was pretty much launched with a rolling start - it would be the digital equivalent of Walmart's Black Friday plan this year: Leave the stores open instead of closing at 9 then opening at 12 again to avoid a front door crowd buildup and having anyone getting trampled to death...again.

L4D2 started with pre-order demos, then public demos, then pre-loads, then release. Not the same thing as everyone buying an assload of games on Cyber monday and trying to download the full titles all at the same time. L4D2s decryption program I believe was more or less pre-loaded, but simply waiting on an authorization/piece of sourcecode from Steamworks before running: which probably only cost less than 1MB per preloaded client.

Just to answer why L4D2 went so much smoother.

Menengroth™ · 02-12-2009 10:28am

some good stuff in that sale, i purchased:

L4D1: €7.49
KOTOR: €2.24
Mirror's Edge: €3.74
Total: €13.47

awesome.

also, was getting 56kb/s down on KOTOR when i purchased it, the rest were my normal 320kbp/s

winnow · 02-12-2009 10:47am

Thanks

winnow · 02-12-2009 10:48am

Bargain!

leninbenjamin · 02-12-2009 11:24am

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

Download speeds are definitely not throttled. Have you the correct download location selected in "Steam>File>Settings>Downloads"?

numerous times. even switched it to the likes of the Benelux, UK to see if there would be a difference, nothing.

thebman wrote: »

More likely to be your ISP than Steam store who want you to buy more an more. Valve get money for third party sales through Steam and want people to buy more games of any type since then third parties will put more of their games on Steam.

It's not my ISP, all other traffic came down as normal (including the dirt2 demo) and all other Steam activities (including the L4D2 update which got full speeds) carried out as normal. I've never had any traffic throttled by them previously so I fail to see why they'd start by picking on a legitimate vendor like steam...

Overheal wrote: »

Lets see: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, barrel bottom pricing, huge volume of sales. I can see the connection.

L4D2 was organised much better than previously alright, but I've still never had speeds this low before, TF2 updates, Episode releases, nada (with the excetion of unlocking HL2 and being on dialup :rolleyes:). Tis back to normal again this morning, so i can't help thinking steam artificially throttled them on those cheap titles during peak. Not that I mind too much really... it's just I wish steam were a lot more transparent with their customers at times.

Mataguri · 02-12-2009 1:01pm

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Just wondering though, anyone else think Steam are deliberately throttling the downloads of the games bought on the cheap? GRID took me two days to download where Left 4 dead 2 and Shattered Horizon didn't even take one on this connection, and I've been downloading Mirror's edge for over 8 hours now and it's only at 13%. Maybe it's just me, but i'm finding Steam's sales practices to be ever more cynical.

Mirrors Edge also downloaded really slow for me, but I did get full speeds for Battlefield 2, GRID, Res Evil 5 and Dead Space.

Sierra Oscar · 02-12-2009 1:43pm

Mataguri wrote: »

Mirrors Edge also downloaded really slow for me, but I did get full speeds for Battlefield 2, GRID, Res Evil 5 and Dead Space.

That could be because Mirrors Edge is not stored on the content server you usually download from with satisfactory speeds. If you ever get that sort of occurrence, you should report it to Steam support - I have had to do it with the Irish content server on numerous occasions.

leninbenjamin, not sure what is up with your connection - but it really does not look like Valve are throttling any connections. I haven't seen many people complain of speed issues on the Steam Forums since the sale began either. If I were you, I would get in touch support to see what exactly is up.

leninbenjamin · 02-12-2009 1:58pm

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

That could be because Mirrors Edge is not stored on the content server you usually download from with satisfactory speeds. If you ever get that sort of occurrence, you should report it to Steam support - I have had to do it with the Irish content server on numerous occasions.

I'd be very surprised if this was the case. As I said I tried downloading off the others and it's the same story. Unless, have Steam started forcing to the nearest content server? i.e. even though i pick Benelux it downloads off the Irish ones?

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

leninbenjamin, not sure what is up with your connection - but it really does not look like Valve are throttling any connections. I haven't seen many people complain of speed issues on the Steam Forums since the sale began either. If I were you, I would get in touch support to see what exactly is up.

I'm certain it's not my connection and i think that can be ruled out based on mataguri reporting a similar experience. Anyway, thanks for the help it's fully downloaded now. Might rattle off a mail to support anyway to be sure to be sure.

Sierra Oscar · 02-12-2009 3:21pm

leninbenjamin wrote: »

I'd be very surprised if this was the case. As I said I tried downloading off the others and it's the same story. Unless, have Steam started forcing to the nearest content server? i.e. even though i pick Benelux it downloads off the Irish ones?

I'm certain it's not my connection and i think that can be ruled out based on mataguri reporting a similar experience. Anyway, thanks for the help it's fully downloaded now. Might rattle off a mail to support anyway to be sure to be sure.

Your situation is certainly different from what Mataguri, as all of your games are downloading slowly? If an individual game was downloading slow, it might indicate you are not downloading off your preferred server due to the content not being found on that server.

You could always try downloading TCP Viewer and manually monitor what servers Steam is downloading from . . . your probably better off raising a ticket with support in the long run.

leninbenjamin · 02-12-2009 3:37pm

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

Your situation is certainly different from what Mataguri, as all of your games are downloading slowly?

nah man, you read me wrong, only Mirror's Edge and GRID downloaded slow (although GRID wasn't half as bad as Mirror's edge).

As I said previously, I recently downloaded L4D2, Shattered Horizon and got full speeds. Last night i was concurrently downloading the L4D2 update and Mirror's Edge at the same time. L4D2 maxed out my connection for the short duration it took to download. Mirror's edge on the other hand rarely went above dialup speeds, it peaked temporarily at 150KB/s for a 10-15 minute period but overall averaged a steady 30KB/s. At the moment I'm downloading HL2 again and it's fine. I'll try a few more of my old games at different times this week to see if there's any kind of pattern to it or indications it's an ISP or routing issue but so far there's nothing to indicate it is.

Coriolanus · 03-12-2009 3:25pm

leninbenjamin wrote: »

I dunno. Preserve bandwidth for on-line play? Promote Valve games over 3rd party rivals? Keep costs down (the games were cheap)? A hatred of EA? Overloaded download servers because of the sale? Tons of potential reasons man. I'm just asking if people experiencing anything similar... it's only Steam that's been acting odd, and i just find it's more than a coincidence that it should happen round the time of the sale, particularly when you think that at the launch of L4D2 things weren't half as bad as this (from my end i mean)...

Bolded would be your reason I'd imagine. Perhaps not best practise, but not shady at all. I'd say they cap each game at an estimated level server side so when the stuff went on sale, more people were downloading out of a given amount.
L4D, other large, new, games are obviously going to have a higher cap because they'd anticipate/hope more people would be dl'ing simultaneously. They just didn't/forgot to, move the cap on the sales game upwards to account for the amount of dl's it'd get.

Mantel · 23-12-2009 9:33am

Uh, they're doing another sale. A big bigger this time but they still have a few games on a day long 34 hour timer (is that how long a valve day is?) Stalker for 2 euro and GTA 4 for 7.50

50% of Eidos, 25-50% off THQ games etc.

mayordenis · 23-12-2009 9:42am

Arkham Asylum, Mini Ninjas, Deus Ex 1 + 2, Thief Deadly Shadows, 3 Hitman Games, 2 Tomb Raider Games, 2 Battlestations games, Just Cause and a bunch of other ****e makes up the Eidos Colelctor's Pack which is 46 Euro, I would of been happy enough to pay 46 euro for the first 2 tbh. Great deal.

wayne040576 · 23-12-2009 9:42am

Yeah this is their big holiday sale. Some good bargains there. But my advise to anyone before buying anything would be to check all the other download sites first:
Gamersgate, Impulse, Direct2drive, GOG. They are all having sales and are trying to undercut each other on various games. So certain items may be cheaper on other sites.

thebman · 23-12-2009 10:08am

wayne040576 wrote: »

Yeah this is their big holiday sale. Some good bargains there. But my advise to anyone before buying anything would be to check all the other download sites first:
Gamersgate, Impulse, Direct2drive, GOG. They are all having sales and are trying to undercut each other on various games. So certain items may be cheaper on other sites.

Yeah but on Steam it'll work the next day and you'll have it before new year if you start downloading now :P

Just going on my experience of D2D when Spore came out. Could have gone to the shops and back about 30 times. It took 2 days to download. On Steam, games the same size take an hour and a half or so.

Menengroth™ · 23-12-2009 10:12am

Just picked up GTA IV, Stalker, Rome: Total War Gold & Deus Ex GOTY for €19.71, i love these sales.

Kinetic^ · 23-12-2009 10:24am

Is that THQ pack up again? Think I may get it this time around.

tman · 23-12-2009 10:37am

Got Ghostbusters and Torchlight (based on the recommendations in the Diablo 3 thread)
STALKER is ridiculously cheap... £1.39:eek:

wayne040576 · 23-12-2009 11:25am

thebman wrote: »

Yeah but on Steam it'll work the next day and you'll have it before new year if you start downloading now :P

Just going on my experience of D2D when Spore came out. Could have gone to the shops and back about 30 times. It took 2 days to download. On Steam, games the same size take an hour and a half or so.

Yeah D2D are probably the worse out of the lot but they've improved a bit. The speeds are quite good now. Impulse is almost on a par with steam in terms of functionality but their catalogue isn't as big yet. gamersgate are good for certain publishers. They should be one to watch this week as they've already been undercutting impulse and steam over the last few days.

At least we have some competition in the download area now.

Steam Sale

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