Will EU4 be preloadable

[Gemberkoekje]

Considering EU4 will be Steam-exclusive, will it also have the steam-exclusive advantage of being able to be pre-downloaded, so we can play the second you press the big red RELEASE button?

 

[Johan]

Considering EU4 will be Steam-exclusive, will it also have the steam-exclusive advantage of being able to be pre-downloaded, so we can play the second you press the big red RELEASE button?

that only works if you turn on some heavy drm

 

[duhsveti]

that only works if you turn on some heavy drm

Oh so you can't "hide" the game files untill the release if people preload?

 

[Gemberkoekje]

Mmm.. How about you do the heavy DRM for the preload, then do a post-launch patch which disables that DRM?

 

[BobbyDylan]

Given that It's likely to be <1.5GB download, I'm fine with waiting till release. I'd rather have a demo than a preload, personally.

 

[Zarine]

Oh so you can't "hide" the game files untill the release if people preload?

No... and I know that even some company with heavy drm got the pirated version out before the official release because of this pre-load option.
I think Skyrim was one of those.

 

[Tirenedon]

The bigger question is at what time it will be out? Will we have to wait the whole day until the time the Steam Store updates?

 

[Zarine]

The bigger question is at what time it will be out? Will we have to wait the whole day until the time the Steam Store updates?

Just print in your head that the game will be out the 14th and at 00:01 you should be able to get it (might not be true for everyone).

 

[Aleksei]

Probably.

 

[Gemberkoekje]

The bigger question is at what time it will be out? Will we have to wait the whole day until the time the Steam Store updates?

Normally it's 19:00 (West European Summer Time)
Just pray that it doesn't go the same as the Republic DLC: Steam only released it a day after the actual release, causing a lot of here grumbling.

 

[Gemberkoekje]

Can't you, instead of the DRM, just 'release' most of the assets, and only release the script, exe and DLL files on the release day? So we have less to download at once?

 

[Will Lucky]

that only works if you turn on some heavy drm

Is it not possible to theoretically release all the files except for the .exe?

 

[gianlucad]

that only works if you turn on some heavy drm

Pre-load everything except the .exe?

 

[Grubnessul]

Oh so you can't "hide" the game files untill the release if people preload?

That sounds like a lot of time waisted for just a few min of game time...

 

[Gemberkoekje]

That sounds like a lot of time waisted for just a few min of game time...

I'm worried that, on release time, everyone will pound the Steam servers so badly it'll slow down to a crawl, so it takes extra hours where it could take minutes.

 

[Serio]

Normally it's 19:00 (West European Summer Time)
Just pray that it doesn't go the same as the Republic DLC: Steam only released it a day after the actual release, causing a lot of here grumbling.

True, but Europa Universalis IV is a Steam exclusive, so I very much doubt there'll be any delays.

 

[vicotnik]

Steam servers should handle EU4 just fine. I could download games during the summer sale which was comparatively much worse for the servers. I also don't think that adding temporary DRM or doing a partial release makes sense in this case. It just increases the risk of introducing errors for almost no benefit at all. Just relax, you will be able to play the game soon!

 

[BobbyDylan]

I'm worried that, on release time, everyone will pound the Steam servers so badly it'll slow down to a crawl, so it takes extra hours where it could take minutes.

I dont mean to be insulting to PDOX, but given how steam barely hicups when the Latest Cowadoodie is launched, EU4 should be just fine.

 

[Brownbeard]

I hope not and no physical copies delivered before release date. No matter what drm or encryption is used, if the product is delivered anywhere before release it will be pirated before release.

Steam will not crash due to EU4. Its not like this is Sims 5 or Farmville 3.

 

[Gemberkoekje]

I dont mean to be insulting to PDOX, but given how steam barely hicups when the Latest Cowadoodie is launched, EU4 should be just fine.

Ok, maybe I'm overestimating the popularity of EU4. I've seen it die for Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War 2 though.