Why buy from ED instead of Steam?

I'm a steam user and I prefer steam over SA, but not all is true.

1) Steam gives you a bigger discount. The ED Store wants more money and you can't pay, in euros.

Not the whole truth. You receive bonus points you could spent on other modules. So, at the end of the day, you should be cheaper in the SA store.

2) Steam gives you a key and the option to link your purchase, to the standalone version. Buying from ED; you are limited to the standalone version... everything is Steam incompatible.

For that feature, you can say thank you to ED. ED invented that, and if they do so, they give up on their cut that steam receives when buying it there.

Definitely not a feature from Steam.

3) Steam gives you a refund; you can test the module and if you come to the conclusion that it doesn't deserves the *60 euros, you can refund it. From the ED Store, all sales are final.

No idea how it works at the SA shop, but I still can't fully believe this according to steam.

Modules are DLC's and normaly, Steam does not refund DLC's. I'll be happy if they do in the meanwhile.

4) Steam delivers your the product and updates faster; not the «slow torrent crap» method and no massive SSD space, needed for the installation. If you choose the ED store, you should buy a bigger SSD 1st.

Again not the full truth.

Updates need to take slightly longer on steam to appear, but we are talking about hours.

And yes, to have the "fast" steam download and also the whole steam (installation) system is my main reason for staying at steam

Meanwhile:

The A-10C module still uses the Starforce malware.

The Black Shark module still uses the Starforce malware.

The Flaming Cliffs module still uses the Starforce malware.

I'm not sure if Starforce, or some kind of forced-being-online copy protection is more pain in the ass.

However, this discussion has nothing to do with SA<->Steam.

A maybe big advantage may be steam, being able to play forever when staying offline and not changeing any hardware.

I think that the Steam version deserves its presence, as most (or many) players find DCS for the first time there and gets their first fix via steam.

So it is true, Steam may take a 30% cut, but also delivers an awesome infrastructure and marketing platform. Also you get a real good working client for more then just DCS.

So you see, there is no good or bad, both have advantages and disadvantages.

A funny is that I got back into the game through Steam. I had been out of it for 10 years (though I played LOMAC and Flaming Cliffs in the early 2000s I could never fly over populated areas without fps breakdown). 2 years ago I saw the free version on Steam and was immediately hooked.

In general I think the free Steam version is a great way to attract new players. I often recommend DCS to younger gamers that I meet online in various games on Steam. They are often very interested in military hardware of this type.

The great obstacle is that Steam players are too young and therefore too poor to afford a joystick, so if there was a way to provide a free one it could get them into sims. But attracting people to flight sims is a long process and by the time they reach 25 or 35 some may have switched this to a full time hobby and spend 100s if not 1000s for it.

Modules are DLC's and normaly, Steam does not refund DLC's. I'll be happy if they do in the meanwhile.

It's not that I want to promote Steam or anything, but I recently bought the Huey Argo campain from Steam (in sale for like €5) and even there was a note about the refund option. Not that I'm going to use it, just saying it is possible for even the smallest DCS dlc's

I buy standalone because when I first got into dcs, I had issues with ram usage, so it was just better to have the standalone to cut down on the amount of programs running at the same time. I don't really have this issue anymore, but I still believe it to be something people should consider when choosing between sa and steam.

On my computer, Steam uses 0,2% processor load and 100mb ram usage.

Never noticed Steam running in the background, even google drive or Windows defender uses more RAM...

No idea how it works at the SA shop, but I still can't fully believe this according to steam.

Modules are DLC's and normaly, Steam does not refund DLC's. I'll be happy if they do in the meanwhile.

Steam does allow refunds for DLC. I have done it several times before, including with DCS modules ( F/A-18 ), just to test the DLC out before committing to the purchase

Hi, I'm new to DCS, know about it from Steam, and I guess that's a good thing, as other people said, you can reach a bigger players database.

I ran the stand alone and the steam version and never noticed any downgrade, actually when it comes to download updates steam version is much faster, I mean, maybe 30 minutes on steam and 4-5 hours in the stand alone ...

On the other hand, local currency is a game changer, in the time I've been playing, if I had to buy from the ED store, maybe I could afford 2/3 modules, via steam I bought 6 and the NTTR map . So, maybe the reveneu for the devs is smaller, but smaller is better than nothing, right?

So, maybe the reveneu for the devs is smaller, but smaller is better than nothing, right?

Yeah, but then no devs is no game at all. And in the end it's the revenu for them that makes the game. Just for that reason, stuff like STEAM will "never" be installed on my system.

I don't see any benefit in having something like Steam in the first place.

If you would ever use steam, you would see what awesome "universe" it is.

Of course, they are not saints, but steam just works awesome. Its a fact. Tive it a try.

They take a bug cut, but without them, many devs and games would not exist or ever become known. Also it is awesome to play together with your friends.

So it is for sure not only bad...

Thanks to Steam I could pre order the F16 Viper for only 35 euros instead of 55 euros (which is already a pre order discount, the full price will be 68-70ish when it is out) by using tokens that I did not even know I had on my account (until someone told me on reddit) due to having purchased previous games since a specific a period of time.

So for me that was really nice to have the option to get it on steam. It is also how i learned that DCS even existed, I was browsing simulations on their store and discovered DCS... then asked on some forums how it was and ended up purchasing it.

For some reasons DCS runs better for me on the ED install so since then I have transfered a few steam modules from Steam on the ED install and bought the rest of my modules from ED directly to support them.

So yeah, I owe steam quite a bit and like Viper2097 said, it is a pretty good platform with a very secure payment method that does not add additional charges of currency conversion (good for expats like me). It is also the one platform that almost saved the PC gaming industry in the mid 2000 in my opinion. All my games are from Steam except DCS and IL-2 since 10+ years.

Of course; on the Eagle Dynamics's forum, the general consensus is:

 

Buy from here if you want to support the developers!

 

What does that mean... If I spend my money to buy the modules from Steam, am I not supporting the «ED» company too?

 

4) Steam delivers your the product and updates faster; not the «slow torrent crap» method and no massive SSD space, needed for the installation. If you choose the ED store, you should buy a bigger SSD 1st.

 

 

Xanix

Why does Steam need less storage? Is stuff streamed during playing?

The game should use the same amount of space when installed, but Steam may handle updates differently and not download the whole patch to temporary directory at once. Some patches with map updates can use a lot of GBs.

I don't have issues with slow downloads on standalone, but that may depend on the region you're in.

I mean, I've never seen a patch being more than 15GB and that's once in a very long while, for huge patches. Most of the time, it's on the order of 1-2GB or less. And if you don't have enough space for temporary storage of 15GB, you should offload your SSD or get a bigger one; don't run SSDs at full capacity, most don't handle it well and their speed drops.

Also, to echo some other users, I prefer buying from ED directly and support them as much as I can, since this is a niche market. I also prefer managing my own installs without the need for launchers, so there's also that.

No need for Steam here. I use the ED Beta and the ED Store

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