Hinted at last week in a Steam News bulletin, UK publisher/developer Eidos Interactive is the latest company to join the growing ranks of Steam, Valve Software’s broadband game delivery system. The agreement will see many of Eidos’ games hit Steam including the entire Tomb Raider franchise, the entire Commandos franchise, many of the Hitman games, and more. In the future, games like Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Championship Manager 2007 will be available on Steam upon their release.
In the coming weeks, more games and their prices will be available on Steam.The first wave of games and their prices are as follows:
$17.95: Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, Commandos: Beyond The Call of Duty, Commandos 3: Destination Berlin, Hitman: Codename 47, and Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
$26.95: Commandos: Strike Force
$35.95: Battlestations: Midway, Hitman: Blood Money, and Just Cause
Gabe Newell, co-founder and President of Valve Software, praised Eidos for its work over the last 10 years. "For over 10 years, Eidos has been a leading publisher on every major gaming platform. Offering legendary action franchises in complete sets and working with Eidos to deliver new releases is a great step forward in our efforts to expand Steam’s offerings, and to do so in ways that provide highest value to customers."
Eidos is the latest of big-named publishers to support Steam; others include Activision and 2K Games. Now with broadband becoming available to more parts of the world, digital distribution will become more prevalent and may give older games a second life after disappearing from store shelves. One downfall with digital distribution is price control; fans have already expressed some disdain over prices for some of Eidos’ games, since they can be found cheaper elsewhere. Nevertheless, the ease of simply paying for a game and obtaining it immediately may be the price to pay for some quality gaming entertainment.
