Big news! BioShock coming to Steam

http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php.

Steam is fast becoming the market leader for online distribution.
Steam has grown immensely over the last year.

Originally Posted by Asbjoern
http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php.

Steam is fast becoming the market leader for online distribution. Steam has grown immensely over the last year.

Unfortunately there is no discount for pre-order through Steam. That is lousy … or perhaps I've gotten spoiled with that 'incentive'

I love Steam!

The price is kind of high though considering the extra batch of taxes applied to Steam purchases. If only it will be possible to register the cd-key to avoid purchasing it at Steam but still have it registered to Steam.

Does the normal PC version require Steam?

No, it doesn't. You don't have to worry.

Are you sure?

It will probably work like Dark Messiah where you can turn your regularly installed version into the Steam version by registering the key in Steam but I would strongly assume that Steam will not be required. Why Gorath? You have a Steam allergy?

OK, scratch that. No Dark Messiah type of conversion will be possible. From a 2K dude who posted this here…

Hi guys,

To answer some questions raised here:

1) You will not be able to use Bioshock retail keys with Steam. The two versions use two separate authentication systems, and are not compatible. You can probably move save files between the two, although I haven't tried it.

2) Pre-loading is pre-loading, and that's all it is. You won't be able to access any of those files until the unlock (which is noon pacific time on the 21st).

3) We did not have any ulterior motive in announcing today. We can't make these kinds of announcements until the deals are finalized and the announcement is agreed upon by all parties involved, and that meant we couldn't announce until this morning. There are a lot of people involved in a deal like this, and these things take time.

4) I know a lot of people dislike Steam (personally, I think it's the greatest thing ever). Fortunately we are not forcing you to use it. The game will be available at retail, over Direct2Drive and Steam on launch day. The retail version doesn't use Steam at all, so if you don't want to use Steam, don't buy it over steam. You have plenty of other options.

Hope that clears some things up!

Originally Posted by Moriendor
It will probably work like Dark Messiah where you can turn your regularly installed version into the Steam version by registering the key in Steam but I would strongly assume that Steam will not be required. Why Gorath? You have a Steam allergy?

No, Andy has.

The recommended system requirements are by far the highest I've seen for any pc game to date.

BioShock Download Recommended System Requirements
- Windows XP (SP 2) or Windows Vista
- 3.0 GHz dual core processor
- 2.0 GB RAM
- Pixel Shader 3.0 compliant video card with 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT or better)
- 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
- 7.0 GB free hard disk space
- DirectX 9.0c or DirectX 10

This game better be worth it.

Originally Posted by Moriendor
OK, scratch that. No Dark Messiah type of conversion will be possible. From a 2K dude who posted this here…

That is a mixed blessing - good for those who don't want to have to validate through Steam (keep their system Steam-free) and bad for those who want the retail now and convenience of Steam re-installs later.

Fortunately we are not forcing you to use it.

I absolutely love this sentence ! It depicts in glorious glory the endless holy mercy of the 2K dude department.

By the way, personally, I would've used a different headline on that (read: thread-title) :

"Big Shock ! Big News ! Big Steam !"

(Alternative: "Big News ! Big Shock ! Big Steam !")

Originally Posted by JDR13
The recommended system requirements are by far the highest I've seen for any pc game to date.

BioShock Download Recommended System Requirements
- Windows XP (SP 2) or Windows Vista
- 3.0 GHz dual core processor
- 2.0 GB RAM
- Pixel Shader 3.0 compliant video card with 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT or better)
- 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
- 7.0 GB free hard disk space
- DirectX 9.0c or DirectX 10

This game better be worth it.

Thank God for the 360.