Just a random question but being hyper-vigilant I end up with a lot of these bouncing around my head. What is DTG's back up plan if, for example, a lawsuit sunk Steam/Value and it shut down? I assume all of the big games vendors on Steam/Epic/Consoles have a work-around if such a nuclear event happened.
Come on mate ! Don't we already have enough apocalyptic scenarios nowadays to overthink about and you just gave me another one to loose my sleep over On a serious note; maybe someone else will fill up the vacuum thus created if one of the big platforms were to disappear and studios would have to rethink their monetization strategies. We might see big publishers like EA, Focus, Take2 etc. launch their own gaming platforms similar to OTT; OR some non profit software foundation will release an open-source, free for all platform that doesn't favor or promote any specific title and players will have to do their own digging to find the game they want. Time will tell... who knows...
It wouldn't just be TSW... I assume there is some sort of hidden nuclear kill switch that would remove the protection, the issue would be if you needed to download or reinstall again.
It is a fair question. After all when you consider the lack of respect that DTG have shown to Kettles in TSW (and in their own offices I believe) then it is very possible that, one day, they might run out of Steam
Interesting thought. Why should DTG have a backup plan for something like that? The way I see it, if something like this happens, i.e. a lawsuit closing Valve/Steam completely, it's their problem first and foremost. Either the lawsuit is legit and justified, then they must have done something illegal/immoral/indecent and probably deserve being shut down for it. Or the lawsuit is unjustified, then Valve themselves should have the necessary tools and plans in store to handle it. They probably have to deal with stuff like this on a regular basis anyways, in our amazing modern world where suing others has become the favourite pastime of so many
Brilliant and detailed rebuttal, I'm going away to have a think about some of the points you've made and will get back to you.
I totally agree that it would be Valve/Steams issue and one would hope they have liability insurance in place to cover such an event. The issue with the legal route is that you can't seek a financial remedy if they cease trading, you can move to have a liquidated company reinstated for the purposes of litigation or bring their Directors into legal proceedings but by then the whole lawsuit is getting messy, then there's the issue of litigants being domiciled in hundreds of countries around the world. Anyway, maybe this is why I work in commercial litigation insurance. I see what happens when companies suddenly fail to exist and as I said in my OP I have hyper-vigilance so I'm constantly scanning the horizon for threats and preparing for worst case scenarios. But it's people like me who predicted the global financial collapse in 2008 and are currently foreseeing the legal complexities of the AI revolution. So we're not quite the crazies some might assume.
Anyone with half a brain that worked in the corporate debt markets at the time saw this coming…most chose to ignore it in pursuit of a quick profit. Unfortunately for me I was a victim….losing my job as a consequence!
I don't see it happening. Although I see the UK Online Safety Act and the equivalent EU legislation as a threat to many games, I think the ones in the danger zone are those which give offense to the easily offended due to sexiness or violence or politics. But I can't see TSW hitting any tripwires of that sort. Unless, just perhaps, Steam decides to exit the UK and EU markets completely rather than play by their rules. But I can't see that happening: money trumps principles.
I'm sorry to hear that. The direction of travel was also pretty obvious in the insurance sector. Property surveyors claims were the first to go through the roof as debt-ridden property owners looked for an excuse to make their money back. Unfortunately most around me didn't see what was ahead, I rang the alarm bell with Underwriters begging them to pull out of providing millions of pounds worth of insurance to surveyors but they didn't listen.
I remember when Railworks was announced and it was announced going to have to be activated on steam, something I and many other UKTS members hadn't used. This question came up then, so around 2009, it didn't seem an odd question then. Since then steam has grown expotentially and I would have thought it would take something quite cataclysmic for steam to cease to exist, therefore it isn't something I have given any thought to over the last decade and I can't see it happening, although I suppose nothing is impossible.
If Steam shuts down, that's it. You lose everything. There is a rumour/urban legend that they'll provide installers for everything but AFAIK they haven't actually said that.
If I were DTG, I'd have a few options that I can think of: 1) It's Valve's problem. You only paid for a licence to run the game with Steam, if Steam no longer exists, neither does your game, as per the agreement that we have most likely put in place. We're only a small company after all, we don't have the resources to quickly find a solution. Train Sim World is, for the time being, exclusive to Epic Games and consoles. 2) We've set up a new website where you can download all your content again. Please show us your receipts to receive the appropriate entitlements to your content. The website is called notSteam dot com (don't try and visit that website, I don't know if it exists). Other studios are welcome to publish their games on our new site. We will take a small cut from sales when they do, but they get access to a playerbase that will soon grow to match Steam once Steam goes down. We have also changed our company name from Dovetail Games to notValve. 3) The more lawyers you throw at a case, the more likely you are to win, so we will help Valve survive by lending our legal expertise to help them fight and win their case. Due the the added cost of doing so, all products will now cost 30% more than they used to, unless you have a passport from Belgium. If Steam really were to die, I think number one is what DTG would do. Epic Games, Xbox and PlayStation do provide some revenue, and while their sales will take a hit, as long as those platforms continue to operate, they'll be fine. Of course, if Steam does fall victim to a catastrophic lawsuit, that'll probably leave everyone in the industry at a risk (except Nintendo, of course. They're masters at litigation), and we may return to the early 1980s (when the videogame industry was dying).
