There's been a lot of nervousness about whether the upcoming release of Civilization V for MacOS X will be marked SteamPlay (i.e. free for those who already own Civ5/Win on Steam). Of course, while that's arguably the Right Thing to do, it means Aspyr will be giving out free copies, since they won't get paid for Civ5/Win releases. So, in an unusual move for a relatively large game distributor, they've gone to their community to see what they have to say about this issue, being open and honest about how important this lost revenue is for them. How awesome is that?
Unfortunately, I can't post to their website (something about a proxy; not so surprising when you consider the Singapore isn't on their list of supported countries for GameAgent.com, their online game store). So I'm leaving my comment here:
First off, let me just say that I really appreciate how open and honest you are being with us about this. It's too easy for us to forget the Civ5/Win and Civ5/Mac are practically two separate games, put out by two awesome companies, who have their own interests to look out for.
My primary gaming machine is a Mac, and I haven't have a Windows computer for myself in years. Therefore, SteamPlay doesn't mean much to me: while it's of course possible that I will own a Windows machine at some point in the future, and it'd be nice to have SteamPlay so I don't need to re-purchase the Windows versions of my favourite games, but it isn't at the moment a very big deal for me.
However, I do really hope that Civ5Mac will be released *on* Steam, and not just on GameAgent. As a Singaporean resident, I can't purchase games from GameAgent (at any rate, Singapore is not listed as a supported country in your FAQs). I *could* spend next weekend running around from Mac shop to Mac shop, hoping to find a box set of Civ5Mac, but it'd be an effort (and certainly isn't something I'd do for most other Aspyr games: that much effort is only really worth it for known-great games like Civ5 :). On the other hand, despite wanting to wait until a Steam sale, I really can't imagine *not* pre-ordering Civ5Mac if it becomes available on Steam before launch - it's easy, convenient, and I get to play the game on day one. Steam is also becoming a fantastic global marketplace for Mac games - I know I check if a game is available on it before looking for it anywhere else - so it can only be in your interest to get involved, so your fantastic games have access to the largest number of possible customers.
That's just my perspective. In any case, I'm really looking forward to November 23, and all the best for a fantastic launch!
By the by, I don't know how SteamPlay works, but this sounds like it's confirmed that Civ5 will be available for sale on Steam, and that Aspyr are just trying to work out whether to mark it as a SteamPlay version of Civ5/Win or as its own game. If so, I'm really going to be pleased, and will definitely consider (read: not sure how I'll resist) pre-ordering -- there's nothing quite like being able to support a good game developer.
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