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Eidos building up Steam

British publisher will digitally distribute Tomb Raider, Hitman, Commandos, Just Cause, Battlestations: Midway, and Championship Manager via Valve's online service.

Today, Eidos Interactive announced it has inked a deal with Valve Software to distribute games via the Steam digital delivery service. The subsidiary of SCi Entertainment is the latest publisher to hook up with the Half-Life 2 developer, following in the footsteps of Activision, Majesco, and 2K Games.

As has been the case previously, the release announcing the Eidos/Valve deal went out at the same time the first games from the publisher went up on Steam. The service currently offers Battlestations: Midway, Hitman: Blood Money, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Codename 47, Just Cause, and four Commandos titles: Strike Force, Men of Courage, Destination Berlin, and Behind Enemy Lines. All games are 10 percent off their retail prices until March 26.

Besides its current offerings, Eidos also plans to release its popular soccer-coach sim Championship Manager 2007 and several Tomb Raider games on Steam later this year. The latter group will include the forthcoming Tomb Raider: Anniversary collection.

69 Comments

  • Kolt-Python

    Posted Mar 28, 2007 8:47 pm PT

    No Thief? That's a criminal offence. And why did they leave out Hitman: Contracts?

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  • judge__judy

    Posted Mar 18, 2007 11:59 pm PT

    I think steams really good and the securety is good, so cheap as torrent downloaders won't be able to play steam.

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  • PutU2REM

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 10:15 pm PT

    My problem isn't with online distribution but with the copy protection schemes that go along with it. Even though I have very little music purchased off iTunes, I still find its copy protection odious. Steam's protection scheme, from what I've experienced, is even more intrusive and annoying.

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  • muppet1010

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 12:26 pm PT

    reading through i sem to be seing echoes of "no way will i download music, im sticking with cd's forever..." and then a year later almost everyone downloads music.

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  • muppet1010

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 12:21 pm PT

    I used to hate steam but stuck with it cause I need them to play css. But well they have listened and their service is greatly improved over what it was. They now accept paypal and have an ever growing library of downloadable games and pretty good prices and a lot of good offers.

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  • xheart_corex

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 11:52 am PT

    Fair enough steam was abysmal at launch. Anyone who hasnt tried it in ages, definitely should. Its a lot more stable now. Plus since they added PayPal for us poor credit cardless people, theres barely anything to complain about (unless you have 56k). If you want to talk about a broken piece of crap digital distribution, just look EA's way. But steam? Yeah steam rules. Nice one eidos. Its a definitely a good thing for all us gamers.

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  • couggod

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 11:43 am PT

    So if valve can make money by publishing games on steam, then they will take their sweet time in developing Episode 2.

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  • steven141

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 4:42 am PT

    steam is a great way to get games, unfortunately i cant launch steam for some reason now :/

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  • bodylotion

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 4:21 pm PT

    Steam is quite a good service but the fact that it's a lot easier makes u buy a game a lot faster even though you're not sure you like it, like i bought Jagged Alliance 2 for instance, it's a nice game but not for 20 bucks.

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  • jh94131

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 2:04 pm PT

    I prefer digital delivery, but I hate the Steam engine. I have had nothing but problems with it. After my HL2 problems, I decided never to buy another Steam game.

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  • thephoenix365

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 1:54 pm PT

    Digital distribution is great. i mean ok i can get games cheaper if i buy it off amazon and wait a few days, but im sure we have all wanted a game here and now and i really dislike the idea of being overcharged at some high-street retailer. Personally none of the titles available in this deal appeal but i'm sure more and more will become available.

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  • rokkuman09

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 12:53 pm PT

    Sweet. I love Steam I have downloaded a few games from there. I used to think that I wouldn't like buying digital distributed games but I was wrong. It makes things a lot easier.

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  • cjcr_alexandru

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 11:13 am PT

    Some good games there...

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  • bodylotion

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 10:20 am PT

    somehow it still feels as if you've bought something when you can hold it in your hands

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  • zamardii12

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 9:27 am PT

    HAHA EA Link sucks ass... hahaha

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  • grimdeath

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 9:27 am PT

    its a good decision to have SOME form of digital distribution, otherwise there will be those select few that will result to pirating every time...even though the current distribution does have its flaws(lack of a hard copy, direct2drive cannot accept regular patches, etc) its still better then nothing...at least there is a legal option. retailed box versions are great but we might look back in a few years and wonder why we always had to leave our house to get a new game

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  • Samon

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 9:24 am PT

    I really like Steam. This is good news.

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  • bodylotion

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 9:16 am PT

    i rather have a dvd case too however i must say that i dont know where to keep all my cd's / dvd's at the moment so it's a good sollution and steam is pretty fast downloadable. I hope Tomb raider 1 will be available for a nice price, but if i think of Jagged Alliance 2 which they sell for like 20 dollars it's worth like 10 dollars maybe...

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  • krypto74

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 9:03 am PT

    Great news for valve! I know they have trouble with several things regarding MS systems, and hope it doesn't spill over to the other publishers.

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  • chrisdojo

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 6:12 am PT

    lots of old meh games....

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  • Kirbysuperstar

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 5:55 am PT

    Citan76- Won't happen, because you never actually pay for those. When you buy software, you buy the license to use it. It's stupid, but that's how it goes.

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  • uberjannie

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 5:54 am PT

    10% is nothing. 20% and i would actually buy some of those games..

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  • stejmatty

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 5:09 am PT

    i think they let down half life 2 with steam, so im against it, for the moment

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  • CapoX

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 4:36 am PT

    10 percent off their retail prices?? never would buy...
    40% off then i might try steam.. i rather hold the actual game dvds in hands.

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  • diablobasher

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 3:33 am PT

    Comando's rocks, good job too because someone just stole my old commandos discs ;_;

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  • __MJ__

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 3:12 am PT

    dont like eidos games

    no sir...

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  • Cerberussian

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 1:56 am PT

    Its good news, some people will find it useful I'm sure.
    But buying game physicly in shop for the same price but with more content, in my opinion, way better, and allways will be.

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  • TheSlanger

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 1:25 am PT

    I think Steam is a great way to distribute games, I've bought many games through them and everything works really smooth for me. The pricing is usually not that steep either.
    I vote for more games on Steam.

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  • SnuffDaddyNZ

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 12:26 am PT

    Yup TeamR.

    Myself, I used to be a CSS guy, then I stopped playing regularly when I switched to WOW.

    When I bought SiN via Steam they didn't have many other games, but when I logged on recently I noticed they have added many more. I'm pretty impressed to see Civ 4 and Pirates! available for download via Steam, and they have a few other quality titles on there too.

    Hopefully Governments will updated outdated laws to allow digital distribution to truly florish. The problem, is to do with censorship laws, at least thats how I interpreted the reply I got from direct2drive staff on the issues pertaining to games that say they are only available for sale to US customers, or US and UK customers and so on.

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  • TeamR

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 12:13 am PT

    I hated steam at first, but valve has really worked on it. There's a decent library of games other than half-life available, and the service has become very reliable. I like steam, and I think it's safe to say that plenty of other people like it too. If you haven't tried it since hl2 launch, I'd suggest doing so. You won't be dissapointed

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  • Sacif

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 12:03 am PT

    steam.......el oh el, nothng like pissing off people who play mediocre games

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  • Citan76

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 11:49 pm PT

    Games released on Steam should ALWAYS have a discount off the retail price, the the discount they are getting from not making the game box, dics, manual, and paying the shipping cost needs to be given to the consumer as well.

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  • osxgp

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 11:23 pm PT

    Steam is a good idea for Valve, but it sucks if your a customer.

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  • zeecorner

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 11:00 pm PT

    ya steam is cool...too bad ive never bought anything off of there except half-life and its ilk.

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  • murrayftw

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 10:12 pm PT

    STEAM WILL RULE THE WORLD!

    Won't be long until Microsoft ends up picking Steam as their preferred platform for selling games digitally...

    BTW

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  • YukoAsho

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 10:00 pm PT

    onlineterrorism - Even though I like Steam for its ability to give me games I've never seen before (X2 and X3, mainly), I do have to agree. The online piracy, and the move to overly restrictive digital distribution schemes will kill PC gaming, simply because most people don't have the bandwidth to download a modern game in a reasonable amount of time.

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  • onlineterrorism

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 9:23 pm PT

    Companies are making deals with Steam because it is more difficult to pirate their games, if games need steam activation to play them. Sure you could crack them to play offline, but the method is very difficult and worthless. If it weren't for pieces of sh*t like pirates, we wouldn't have to deal with Steam or the decline of PC gaming.

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  • DarkDamo

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 9:06 pm PT

    Usually it depends on the currency conversion as to how much cheaper it is. For me here in Aust it is cheaper and faster to get a game off steam, download it and play it the day its released instead of buying the game on release [Aust release] then installing it etc.

    Also it manages your games by binding them to your steam account. So if you log into your steam account ANYWHERE around the world you can play any of the games that are registered in your steam account. *hugs steam*

    Also you would think they would have run out of "xxxx is building steam" jokes by now -.-

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  • theKSMM

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 8:34 pm PT

    Is there a cost savings (to me, the consumer) with Steam? If not then I fail to see what I gain besides not having to make a drive to the computer store.

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  • biowulf

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 8:10 pm PT

    It's really just an improvement, if you don't want to download the game, don't.

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  • robfield

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 7:56 pm PT

    10% off is all? Those games aren't worth THAT much anymore. Shave a little more off there Eidos. Seems Valve will have a lot of money for future games though...Half Life 3 maybe?

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  • KnightsofRound

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 7:52 pm PT

    Commandoes on steam? Valve must be rolling in the dough with all these companies supporting steam, but I'd like them to maybe focus on finishing Half-Life 2: Episode Two before they add any new games.

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  • peeweeshift

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 7:48 pm PT

    i would rather have my boxed case for tomb raider.

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  • HybridRogue

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 7:33 pm PT

    I don't like this too...

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  • daniel8501

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 7:31 pm PT

    Even though I use both steam and gametap, my goal is to use online distrobution as little as possible for my games. I've never liked the idea that you're entire game Library can be taken out by the touch of a button in some place like Texas or something.

    If I want any of the above games, I'll buy boxed copies even if they are more expensive thank you.

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  • dwarfzilla15

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 7:30 pm PT

    I live about 30 min away from any store, so i think this is a great idea. However, i really enjoy just holding the oversized DVD case on the ride home and reading the instruction manual from cover to cover. i dunno. Just doesn't feel right.

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  • GoldenSurfer

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 7:26 pm PT

    "I don't like this, that more and more games are being sold as downloads. I want a box, a physical item, but I guess it's good for all the people who doesn't care about that kind of thing."

    I must agree. I to want a physical boxed copies of my games.

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  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 7:12 pm PT

    Still not going to use it.

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  • Jac5232

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 6:56 pm PT

    "What I think is interesting was when Valve was saying the were developing Steam to avoid all the publishing cost and were painting the picture of the terrible oppressive publishing company. Now with Steam, Valve is a publishing company. Anyway, I always purchase the retail box version of the game. I have the retail for HL2, HL2 Episode 1 and Sin Episode 1. I like having the box on the shelf. I don't like a company owning the digital rights to a particular game. Who's to say Valve will be around forever, what happens to my games then?"

    If that should happen, I remember reading that Valve would remove verification, making it so we wouldn't need Steam.

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