Hello,

I need to ask after almost a year of release, if bethesda is considering a non steam version of the game. I mean an offline version. I generally dont buy games that force me to have internet connection, as internet connection is not free in my country (wifi or whatever), and its not a warranted feature for me, to invest my money in games. Many countries internet access is very expensive or they still charge by gb of use.. (well my connection is unlimited, but its very expensive from other EU countries..)

Ive made the same question when the game released, and bethesda replied, that if I dont want steam version of the game, I can purchase an xbox or ps3 version of the game.

My answer is, if there is a console out there that can give me flawless 60fps and full maxxed quality graphics with 2k textures and modding capabilities, They may tell me which console and version is that, and I will go to buy it. Or else is a waste of money.. I dont invest in consoles.. I will in wii U, but not in games that support modding, I love modding.

Many game companies, after some time of a game release, they give a non steam version of the game for those who dont buy steam or origin (networks like that) version of the games.

So the question is much simple, is bethesda considering a non steam version in the near feature? If not, thats ok.. I will save my money, but I want to buy it, so thats why I am interested and asking!.. I believe is not a bad question...

Why don't you ask Bethesda.

And, I doubt it.

Unfortunately, the game industry as a whole (and a decent proportion of the players) seem to be heading straight for an "all online, all the time" business model. Whether to control the playerbase, or claim to prevent piracy, or (more likely) to prevent used game sales and trading. They seem content to write off the part of the playerbase who either doesn't have or doesn't care to have high-end broadband access, dismissing it as a minority.

(The "digital download/streaming is The Way! Physical media is for dinosaurs!" fans frequently seem to forget/ignore that not everyone in the world has access to their great broadband access. Even in first-world countries. The entire movement is a good 5-10 years early, in my opinion. We just don't have the infrastructure yet, at least not widely spread enough.)

Even the consoles are going to a "lots of online access" model.


tl;dr - odds are "no". Sorry.

Greetings
Nope, sorry.

I really have to laugh at some peoples percption of time. It's only just been 6 months and this is at least the second time I've seen something like this. The last one claimed that you could've reached 1,000 hours just from doing 1 hour a day since release.

If you don't mind me asking, why?

Why would you invest in a Console if it's not going to be even as powerful as the current Gen of XBox 360/PS3? The "innovative" touch screen controller is not receiving good reviews at all. The controller is only a couple of inches in dimensions smaller than current tablet computer models, and weighs in at nearly six pounds. That's just the controller.

The developers that the Wii U's Dev kits have been going to are complaining that it is very restrictive, being only marginally more powerful than the current Wii. Even public hype isn't anywhere near as amp'ed about the Wii U as it was for the Wii. It's the (housing brick) controller, the (lack of) power and graphics capability, and user interface that are turning many people off to the Wii U.

Nintendo's official response to the criticism is simply this; "It's more about the play than the graphics" ... the Public (going by "intention to buy" polls, sees this response as Nintendo blowing off their concerns.

On the flip side, the Xbox 720/Project Durango is rumored to be packing a 16 Core processor with an NVidia GeForce 7000 graphics card for when it drops in 1 1/2 - 2 years.

So my question again is; If you want to invest in a Console, and you seem to want a console that does all that your PC can do (modding, which will never be allowed, btw...), but allow you to play Skyrim offline, why are you choosing to invest in the Wii U?

My thoughts are these:

You don't have to be "all online all the time" with the Steam version. You only have to be online once. I've played this game for four months without an internet connection after I bought it, when I moved to D.C. You don't need constant access. I don't know why so many people get the impression that you do.

Secondly, they don't plan to release a non-steam version. There's no advantage to them doing it. There are a few people out there that hold out against steam, but apparently not enough to constitute an entire market.

this i never play on line and i onlly turn steam online for updates patches that i need, DLC's are a ll new ballpark tho you need steam to DL them unless you are whiling to wait for the GOTY or ultimate editions :/

This.

Besides, (it sounds cliche'ish, but it's true) the world is marching resolutely onward towards a "digital only" future. I don't doubt that within five years there will be hardly any games at all that don't have some major for of online requirement/access. It's just the way that the world is moving.

1. The days of games being DRM free are pretty much over. You may as well get used to it. Some DRM's are more (or less) intrusive then others. If you want to see more recent examples of really intrusive DRM's, look at Ubisoft who did force you to have a constant internet connection. The upcoming release of Diablo 3 appears to be the same way. I will not purchase it for that reason, because there are less intrusive DRMs out there - like steam, which leads me to point 2.

2. Steam DOES NOT REQUIRE a constant internet connection. The only time you Have to be connected to the internet is when you first install the game. After that, going into OFFLINE MODE, is as simple as opening your steam client and go to the top menu bar.

STEAM -> GO OFFLINE -> RESTART IN OFFLINE MODE

I have several games on steam. 90% of the time, i'm in offline mode. No internet connection required.


DRM's, get used to it, their here to stay.

EDIT: If anything, i would encourage people to support steam, for two reasons:

1.) Other companys like EA are trying to jump on the steam bandwagon with Origin, which is an intrusive POS, and if everyone stuck with steam, we'd have less of these things installed on our computers. I like having a one stop shop DRM. I don't want multiple steam wannabes on my task bar.

2.) Steam is the least intrusive, user friendly DRM of its type, with a very low footprint. It acts more like a service, and less like being rapped over the head for something you didn't do (piracy).

Oh lets not make it a console topic... I could give you lots of facts about wii U, that states it about 4 times better than the current generation. Wii U will also have better cpu than 720 and orbis.. (the reason is the virtual controllers, as they need lots of cpu power) 4 cores 16 threads.. And the latest leaks are, nintendo changed the gpu chipset with a 6xxx series.

anyway, I had xbox and abandoned it after 2 years of use, after I send it 5 times in.. red ring of deaths and 1 personality flip . (it couldnt recognize that its xbox).

I never bought consoles for many years, as I am a pc gamer and I will not sucrifice even a 10% of the overall gaming experience I get from it, for a console. The only console in the new upcoming generation, that will use ONLINE system as a part of DRM.. Is XBOX. I dont think sony will do that, as they are financially messed up, and this kind of steps are a bit risky.

Wii U will play offline and online as well, users choice. So I believe that xbox will fail in this generation of consoles and for many reasons. The only country who will buy it is US and maybe some in the UK (and never forget, US is a dying economy) bubbles pop you know.. Africa, Mid east, eastern and northern Europe and Asia, will not support xbox because of this restrictions, I am sure. I live in eastern Eu.

As for the piracy thing, I dont want to hear things like that! This methods increase piracy instead and they know it, they just hunger for power and control of the market, now they complaining that they cant sell video games.. well... logical!

anyway, the question was simple, and I took the answer.. I will save my money for something else.. cheers.

Have you even bothered to look at the stats for the Wii U? They're less than impressive...

Nope and it's a shame because DRM doesn't work and it's just a huge power grab by the publisher. Pirates always get the superior version in this instance.

can you please repeat them for me? because we may read or know different things.

The facts

Ibm announced a watson cpu POWER 7 with 300% more embedded dram cache, with extremely less latency inside. that translates as a quad core 16 thread 4mb cache cpu. http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/photo/34681.wss
We also know about the amd gpu and 4xxx series from the last E3, but a very reliable source (forum) leaked months ago that Nintendo changed gpu due to heat and power consumption to something more modern, smaller and better performance.

facts also, that nintendo changed specs several times to be able run unreal engine 4. And the latest leaks speaks about 6xxx series gpu card. The only minor thing I find is the hdd support.. we have to purchase separately, but it does include 8gb of hdd by default. Now if I compare the orbis APU (A8-3850) with the wii U cpu, wii U outperforms this cpu by 200%. The only plus thing with the orbis APU is the included gpu... all 3 machines going to be similar in gaming experience, (next gen), The only reason wii U got faster cpu and better is the controllers, because they act not as a split screen, but as a virtual console.. You can move around and see a different content from within the game, and many stuff like that.. That needs lots of cpu power.

Latest leak about wii U is the spus of the card. It rumored about 640 spu's its amazing to see a console with this number of spus inside. If it was less than 400, then its modern but not powerful... more than 500 is true power.

Uh its Nintendo, its doesnt matter what hardware is has the game will still be the same crap from 20 years ago;

Zelda
Mario
Metroid


With gimmicky controls and features.

As for Steam, while I personally dont like it I cant argue with its widespread usage and uptake. Because it has such benign DRM in place gamers are happy to overlook it for its positive features. When a system is as minimally intrusive as possible while still giving the consumer a "heads up" that its there its doing something right.

I have steam also, but by accident.. lol I bought a game years ago and it was steam, The retail box didnt said that INTERNET connection is required, so didnt turned it back either, but I didnt bought other steam games since (I also had a huge argument with the game company.. No it was not bethesda. lol) Its not about steam.. its what they force you to do.

As stated, you only have to connect steam online to activate the game... after that you can play offline.


As far as consoles games going online only, not likley... the console market is vastly different than PC. Digital Downloads are no where as popular as physical media on consoles, and reports suggest a large portion of console owners do not have there console connected to the internet. Not sure why people are thinking this.

Steam's purpose isn't really DRM (since everyone knows that no matter how draconic, DRM will be broken by criminals). Steam's primary use (other than being a storefront) is to irrevocably tie every copy of a game to an account. No more trading, no more loaning, no used game sales.

A number of tech sites have recently stated that insiders in both MS and Sony are claiming that next gen consoles will feature system locked games. In other words, games are locked to the console and can not be resold or "untied" from the system it was first played on and subsequently cannot be used on any other system. They also said that along with this games would also require "always on" internet connections to access them for play.

However at this point with no word either way from MS and Sony on the articles, they are little more than chinese whispers and should be taken with a huge does of salt.

These are nothing but rumors... why put faith in rumors that make zero sense. Most gaming anolyst has pretty much agreed these rumors will not happen and that doing so may very well hurt MS & Sony business if they did.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/04/10/pachter-on-rumors-of-next-gen-consoles-locking-out-used-games-quot-not-happening-quot.aspx

There's no current plans for a non-Steam version of Skyrim. Sorry.

If sony do that, will remove the console from the market a year after. Both companies, sony and microsoft have really bad past with the current generation of consoles. The only companies who earned from this mess, was the fast carriers with the re serviced machines and the poor ps3 support the first couple of years.

This things (at least outside US), will follow them with the next gen systems! Its not like nintendo that we are used to a perfect built quality! I am scared to buy next xbox (I give you an example), either ways, to have a machine in my house, that force me to pay bills! NO WAY.. if microsoft send me monthly checks to pay my bills, I may think about it.

So I believe sony will avoid the online thing, because its a huge risk. Only if they are so blind, they will do that. Also sony announced that they will not have drm (for the used market), so how is it possible to force you be online all the time, without drm.. Only microsoft will do that and is going to be the biggest failure in the console history (remember my words). I mean I dont care what xbox 720 got inside it, as specs. Even if it gives us quad sli 680 for 100 dollars, and force you to be online, I will not buy it.

I want to be online, when I want to and if I want to.



Thanks for the reply

As I said above, don't put much faith in rumors... the chance of this happening is slim to none. MS isn't a dumb company, they know this would likley fail in today's market.

Mmmm, not a big deal, but the US isn't a dying economy.
Compare:

The European Union
Rank: 1
Size: $15.39 trillion
Real Growth: 1.6%

The United States
Rank: 2
Size $15.06 trillion
Real Growth: 1.5%

China
Rank: 3
Size: $11.29 trillion
Real Growth: 9.2%

The #2 PPP with real growth above 1% is not a "dying economy." Just my little nitpick.

The console market doesn't line up very well with the majority Broadband internet demographic. PC games line up with that demographic almost perfectly, because if you have a badass PC you are likely to have a badass internet connection. That's not true of consoles at all. They are historically stand-alone, and many people buy them precisely for that reason.

I think both Sony and Microsoft know that. They both experienced growing pains when they released $600 consoles and nobody wanted them. Reality check is that people who buy consoles are like me, people who love games but are either kids that depend on their parents for money, or college students who generally just don't have any money anyway.

As a law student, I think there's a 20% chance of dead console locks being anti-competitive, or a violation of First Sale. I'm not a lawyer and I'm not offering legal advice here, but that sounds pretty grey to me. There were some cases in the 80s involving console lockouts with Nintendo and Atari I think, but I don't feel like looking them up. I do remember, though, that there was something about locking games out of a console that violated First Sale.

Again, I don't feel like looking up the cases though, so don't quote me on this.

PCs have a little more fuzzy space with DRM because they claim to sell you a License (a service) and not a Game (a good, or product). Goods and Services have different rules.
Consoles, however, are stuck. They sell you a Game and there's little denying that it's a product, much like a Book, DVD, or CD. They will have a lot harder time with DRM than the PC platform.

In Fact: One of the requirements of selling a "License" instead of a "Product" is that you have to maintain a certain amount of oversight and control. In the old days, PC games were unsupervised and not controlled at all. Thus, there couldn't be a lot of enforcement for their claim to be selling a license.
However, what can they do differently today? You guessed it, sell it with Steam. Steam is a monitoring and control agent, and grants a huge amount of validity to the claim that PC developers only sell licenses.

That's the real reason Steam is never going away. It makes End User License Agreements 100% more valid than they used to be.
It has nothing to do with DRM. It has everything to do with policing software use to ensure compliance with licensing terms and conditions.

Lets dont speak about economy's and money... it is well known that every wage, every investment is Chinese money.. lol Everything just like that, is just bubbles. And bubbles pop. In general economy is really bad, and methods like this, worsened it and it will collapse.

A small example, not far in the past, just 10 years ago, game company's sold the 1/4 of the total sales they do today, but they just become SOOO greedy. and they call that a damage, or they accuse others than them selfs. They will fail, because our money is what they want, but if there is no honey, there is no money as well.. They have to roll back, in methodology, if they dont? their problems and concerns..

I think the matter is closed, lets dont speak about this things.