There's much more to Steam than a digital distribution platform. Some developers chose to engage with Steam on a deeper level by incorporating Valve's Steamworks development platform, which allows for Steam to fully integrate with the game.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be the latest game to take advantage of Steamworks, Bethesda Game Studios revealed today over Twitter. And lo, there was much rejoicing amongst PC gamers.

There are several advantages to leveraging Steamworks, whether it's integrated voice communication and Steam Cloud support to accessing anti-cheating mechanisms and player authentication tools. That might sound like a bunch of gobbledygook if you've never played a game with Steamworks, but in short, it makes the user experience a hell of a lot better.

Now, if only I had a PC capable of running Skyrim. I should add that to my wedding registry...

There's much more to Steam than a digital distribution platform. Some developers chose to engage with Steam on a deeper level by incorporating Valve's Steamworks development platform, which allows for Steam to fully integrate with the game.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be the latest game to take advantage of Steamworks, Bethesda Game Studios revealed today over Twitter. And lo, there was much rejoicing amongst PC gamers.

There are several advantages to leveraging Steamworks, whether it's integrated voice communication and Steam Cloud support to accessing anti-cheating mechanisms and player authentication tools. That might sound like a bunch of gobbledygook if you've never played a game with Steamworks, but in short, it makes the user experience a hell of a lot better.

Now, if only I had a PC capable of running Skyrim. I should add that to my wedding registry...

Fantastic.

wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Deep as fuck! Thanks Valve!

Yey :D *rejoices*

This is being reported all over the place but I really can't help feeling that it's kind of non-news. No guys, it really isn't that big of a deal.

Hurray! Everything is better with a little more Steam init.

Awesome

Totally not surprised after New Vegas had full Steamworks integration.

Will they incorporate Steamworks with the PS3 version, too (ala Portal 2)?

*Happy Fucking Dance*

Thank goodness.

good

Not surprised after Bethesda moved from GfWL as their DLC retail partner to Steam during the Fallout series, but it is good to hear official confirmation after the Steam page for the game doesn't list any SteamPowered integration features yet.

I hope that means Steam achievments.

Also, games more important that weddings. And cheaper.

yay

What happened to Steamworks on PS3?

Well it is Elder Scrolls so I don't see how you can really "cheat". I mean you are able to mod the game, so...yeah. But other than that this is great news. Only helps this game that it is using all of the Steamworks features possible. 

I hope that means Steam achievments.

Also, games more important that weddings. And cheaper.

You think the people at Games for Windows Live just don't understand why people don't have this reaction to their product?

THAAAAAANK YOUUUU BETHESDA AND STEAM!!!

Great News!

Queue whining retailers in 3...2...1...

Now first off, I'd like to say I like Steam. A lot. I almost only buy PC games through Steam.
 
However, some people have some legitimate issues with Steam.
They don't enjoy having to always run the steam client to play their games, which is fair because it's not like it has no effect on your computer performance. It's not a hog, but certainly does leave a dent. If you don't have a great system, this is a pretty big concern.
 
Playing anything off line is kind of a pain as well. Valve doesn't make it easy to play your steam games offline, which makes sense in a way, but how is this any different than the always online DRM that people are bitching about?
 
There is a few more issues I've heard, some I agree with, others are people just grasping at things to complain about. The two I put down are my two personal biggest problems with it.

So while, yes, I enjoy Steam a considerable amount, I'm finding my issues with it are mounting and nothing is being done about it. I don't blame people who stay away from steam, which is why news like this actually kind of annoys me.

@hagridore said:

What happened to Steamworks on PS3?

That's what I wanna know. Also that's where I thought this article was going.

Beats games for windows live any day. DLC trough steam is the best.

Has Rage been confirmed to use steamworks on PC?

@yevinorion said:

@hagridore said:

What happened to Steamworks on PS3?

That's what I wanna know. Also that's where I thought this article was going.

It isn't a Valve game...Bethesda gains nothing from giving a free PC version with purchase of the PS3 version. And as for cloud saves, PS3 has them it's call Playstation Plus. Sure it would've been cool to get free cloud saves but I don't really see the point beyond that since its not a co-op game(or so I think?).

Patrick always says about not having a good enough PC for gaming. I'm sick of it hearing it, so stop buying old arcade machines and save up for a decent PC, man.

@omgJOHN said:

Now first off, I'd like to say I like Steam. A lot. I almost only buy PC games through Steam. However, some people have some legitimate issues with Steam. They don't enjoy having to always run the steam client to play their games, which is fair because it's not like it has no effect on your computer performance. It's not a hog, but certainly does leave a dent. If you don't have a great system, this is a pretty big concern. Playing anything off line is kind of a pain as well. Valve doesn't make it easy to play your steam games offline, which makes sense in a way, but how is this any different than the always online DRM that people are bitching about? There is a few more issues I've heard, some I agree with, others are people just grasping at things to complain about. The two I put down are my two personal biggest problems with it.So while, yes, I enjoy Steam a considerable amount, I'm finding my issues with it are mounting and nothing is being done about it. I don't blame people who stay away from steam, which is why news like this actually kind of annoys me.

The difference in performance while running Steam is so minimal that it is irrelevant. I also don't understand how it's hard to run games in Offline Mode. Besides that, even if it was difficult, the difference is that there is a choice. Steam is also extremely convenient and loaded with features that make using it a pleasure.

I think more of the complaining about Ubisofts DRM is that if you own the game through Steam you would need to run Steam and their launcher.

Regardless, I, and many other people, would use Steam, and DO use Steam, even if it isn't a Steam game, or if Steam only offered a great community feature and didn't sell games. The argument is more that we already have Steam, we don't need another.

Take my money.

Take it all. Just give me the game.

Soooooo Happy!!!!!

I havnt opend my eyes yet...

Does Steamworks work with retail copies too? I was eyeing that collectors edition but if it doesn't integrate with Steam, I'll almost certainly go with the download

@The_Nubster said:

@mosdl said:

I hope that means Steam achievments.

Also, games more important that weddings. And cheaper.

The only commitment Patrick needs is that of his videogames. And thanks to Steamworks integration, it'll never cheat!

There is probably some joke about game sharing here and another one about hats.

I find this easy to masturbate to.

Don't really care, but that's nice, I guess.

Nice! Finally people and also the staff (hear latest bombcast) fully realize how superior Steam really is compared to PSN/XBL (let alone Origin).

@Zecks23 said:

Does Steamworks work with retail copies too? I was eyeing that collectors edition but if it doesn't integrate with Steam, I'll almost certainly go with the download

I believe it will. The boxed version of New Vegas required that you install steam and all that, so this will probably be the same deal.

I would have gotten it on steam too, but I couldn't pass up that potentially cool bumpy box art. Bioshock did it too me too.

@Zecks23: Yes, it'll give you the step-by-step when you install usually involving something like putting the serial in the steam client.

@Jazzycola said:

Has Rage been confirmed to use steamworks on PC?

@yevinorion said:

@hagridore said:

What happened to Steamworks on PS3?

That's what I wanna know. Also that's where I thought this article was going.

It isn't a Valve game...Bethesda gains nothing from giving a free PC version with purchase of the PS3 version. And as for cloud saves, PS3 has them it's call Playstation Plus. Sure it would've been cool to get free cloud saves but I don't really see the point beyond that since its not a co-op game(or so I think?).

I'm not worried about it for any of those reasons, moreso for patches and updates.

@Mumrik Yep, you decide this for everybody on the Internet. All websites should pull their stories, and the people commenting that this is great news (myself included) should immediately retract our statements and cease caring immediately.

Now just put full mod support into Steam.

I figured it would since New Vegas had steamworks too.  Either way I preordered my copy on Steam a couple weeks ago.

I'll be really glad to have integrated voice communication and anti-cheating tools in my single player RPG.

Good stuff.

@Jazzycola said:

Has Rage been confirmed to use steamworks on PC?

@yevinorion said:

@hagridore said:

What happened to Steamworks on PS3?

That's what I wanna know. Also that's where I thought this article was going.

It isn't a Valve game...Bethesda gains nothing from giving a free PC version with purchase of the PS3 version. And as for cloud saves, PS3 has them it's call Playstation Plus. Sure it would've been cool to get free cloud saves but I don't really see the point beyond that since its not a co-op game(or so I think?).

I was just wondering generally. Looked it up and Wolpaw said Valve was investigating opening the idea up to other developers. Guess they decided against it.

But I still like the idea of double achievements.

Oh man, I need Skyrim to come out now it feels like and eternity waiting for it. Also, hell yes to the steamworks, I was hoping they would have cloud saves for Skyrim.