Overon wrote on Jul 18, 2011, 18:38:
vrok wrote on Jul 18, 2011, 17:53:
EA doesn't force me to use Steam or any other extra clients so far and I can play the game directly after I've bought it in a store, not when Steam arbitrarily decides to unlock it.
You got a major error in that. Steam does not arbitrarily unlock games. They unlock games based on their agreements with publishers. If you think that is arbitrary, then you need to check what that word means.
Stick the word "generally" in there and it would be accurate. In this case, I only need to find one exception to disprove your statement.
Valve games.
Valve arbitrarily unlocks their own games quite often.
vrok wrote on Jul 18, 2011, 18:43:
That doesn't matter at all. To me, as a consumer, it's arbitrary. With non-steamworks games I can play it as soon as I get home. It may not be Steam's fault, but it's something I don't have to deal with if I avoid Steam. Same with region locking.
Not true. GfWL has similar protection available, and I think securom has an option like that too that prevents games from being played before an arbitrarily chosen unlock time.