sweeping platform changes that are antithetical to game preservation is bad actually. one of the pros of Steam for me for so long was that you *could* download older versions of games, even if it was roundabout. an objectively pro-consumer thing (modders?!? hello?!) so why did they get rid of it..? - ThreadSky

invoxiplaygames.uk • 29 days ago

sweeping platform changes that are antithetical to game preservation is bad actually. one of the pros of Steam for me for so long was that you *could* download older versions of games, even if it was roundabout. an objectively pro-consumer thing (modders?!? hello?!)

so why did they get rid of it..?

Reposted from Emma (IPG)

YOU CAN NO LONGER DOWNLOAD MACOS COUNTER-STRIKE 2
I REPEAT
YOU CAN NO LONGER DOWNLOAD MACOS COUNTER-STRIKE 2

Comments

lunascape.bsky.social•29 days ago

Stupidest bug ever

dps2004.bsky.social•29 days ago

Woah wait what?????? Was this announced anywhere?

coolerfliqpy.bsky.social•29 days ago

vaaaaalve that kills people

approxamatrix.me•29 days ago

wtf !?

saladplainzone.bsky.social•29 days ago

wtf ???

galliumreal.bsky.social•29 days ago

could anyone explain why steam did this and why it has to do with the apple epic thing

invoxiplaygames.uk•29 days ago

it doesn't have to do with the apple epic thing at all people just hate blaming valve for valve doing bad things

galliumreal.bsky.social•29 days ago

i for one love any reason to shit on apple, but yeah i see what you mean. do you know why steam made this choice? it feels so against their philosophy lmao

invoxiplaygames.uk•29 days ago

it's well within their philosophy, valve are big fans of taking things away from people who paid for them just because they felt like it, they're a corporation just like any other and will exercise that control over any small amount of their users they think they can get away with it with

galliumreal.bsky.social•29 days ago

i generally meant the philosophy they started with, im not sure of most of their recent changes because i use an old version of steam so i can use creamapi. any games my friends dont own in our library i just pirate

mash0star.bsky.social•29 days ago

Probably on accident. Stuff like this makes me wish that steaminput was open source or something like it that was open source existed :(

vanillasylv.bsky.social•29 days ago

have they actually fully killed downloading old depots??
this will fuck up fo4 and fo3 downgraders so much

vanillasylv.bsky.social•29 days ago

i actually hope this is a fuck up from the maintainence as oh my god this is just really destructive for old games

monarchlyra.bsky.social•29 days ago

Huh, wonder if this is some kind of mistake or server side issue rather than a permanent one? Hopefully it is...

blizzrdball.bsky.social•29 days ago

I don't know that this is an intentional thing? I've been looking around for any sort of confirmation that this was intended and the only thing I've found is Steam forum posts from 3 years ago saying that it didn't work in a beta followed by mass community panic, only for it to work just fine later

invoxiplaygames.uk•29 days ago

Can you explain how they can "accidentally" add logic to check if a version is available as the latest version of a branch and deny a download if it isn't

blizzrdball.bsky.social•29 days ago

Can you confirm that there was intentional logic added to prevent it? Yeah a 403 is a denial, but it can be caused by a lot more than an intentional switch flip. We don't have any information confirming anything.

invoxiplaygames.uk•29 days ago

do you expect Valve Corporation to go out and publicly say "Yes, we disabled this functionality a lot of people relied on intentionally". is that really something you *need* to know whether it was intentional or not. could you not fathom a corporation doing something malicious without telling you

blizzrdball.bsky.social•29 days ago

Y-yes? Generally Steam tends to be pretty transparent with wide sweeping changes like that and you'll see community discussion pop up fairly quick.

I haven't seen anything anywhere, aside from some really reactionary posts here (not just from you) without any supporting evidence it's intentional.

blizzrdball.bsky.social•29 days ago

Like don't get me wrong, if it is intentional then I totally believe you're justified. I'm even in the same camp as you then.

But it's been for such a short duration of time with such little discussion, we just don't know yet. I don't think it's right to have such a strong reaction just yet.

invoxiplaygames.uk•29 days ago

Yeah sure a corporation is gonna publicly admit they did something evil

glitchypsi.xyz•29 days ago

the fuck??

legiayayana.bsky.zoner.work•29 days ago

just checked, a manifest from 11 years ago I downloaded *yesterday* is 403ing today.

ofplayers.net•29 days ago

wait they got rid of it?

invoxiplaygames.uk•29 days ago

and it isn't Just Valve's games/apps

tried on a friend's game (who had no choice) and that didn't work

tried on Beat Saber, a game where downgrading versions is *key* to getting mods working if you update, didn't work

tried on GTA 4, a game where downgrading is almost required for most mods, nada

rectus.bsky.social•29 days ago

beat saber still has some old versions as beta branches at least

(it still sucks, valve please fix)

ntauthority.me•29 days ago

this lines up with the effort to hide private branches from public configuration, and the thing where public branches would also make content from *before app release* public this way

there were some Fun issues with Steam content delivery, but it's indeed.. yea, damn, the lost content now jkrsfbf

invoxiplaygames.uk•29 days ago

i mean. that's actually how we were able to get a fully-functional mac build of cs2 because it was compatible during the private beta but dropped day-of release lmao. but because it affects *All* older versions and not just older versions made when it was private it's just shit

ntauthority.me•29 days ago

yeap especially as one might assume this functionality was Intended and not.. a courtesy that'd be taken away sometime

sonicknockoff.bsky.social•29 days ago

oh god this is gonna completely break Fallout 4 modding which is HEAVILY reliant on a downgrader tool that utilises the Steam depots hosting an older build.

Hell, Fallout London alone requires the downgrader to even work. This is going to unfathomably mess shit up.

ofplayers.net•29 days ago

I hope it's just a bug

autumn.town•29 days ago

i feel like a moron not having install FOLON sooner now, i'm trying to find a way to get it up and running now but my only option is to either buy the game on GOG, or pirate an older version.

sonicknockoff.bsky.social•29 days ago

I think we'll have to wait and see if they come out with a better solution. I'm willing to wager people aren't willing to buy Fallout 4 twice just to play Fallout London

invoxiplaygames.uk•29 days ago

it's hard to really grasp the sheer amount of destruction Valve has done to game preservation and game modding with a single change to their platform

i keep hearing more and more people talk about things that are breaking because of this, mods, preservation efforts, so many different communities...

invoxiplaygames.uk•29 days ago

speedrunning is a huge impacted category here! you can't legally get older, faster versions of so many games now

and for what, Valve? what is the reason? because a big publisher got pissy at you and you ruined it for everyone? or because people were datamining for a VR headset you'll never release?

invoxiplaygames.uk•29 days ago

invoxiplaygames.uk•29 days ago

Valve employees have *claimed* on Reddit that this was a bug and a fix is rolling out - good! - however personally I do not believe that story because this *has* happened before and the backend logic behind the error is always the same. it feels like a semi-regular scream test rather than a bug