OK, it didn't happen to Steam, but I'm sure it will at some point in the future.

Looks like Triton, the platform that sold Prey went out of business so that now everyone who's downloaded Prey can't play the game. If I understood it correctly the offline-version, you buy at the stores, still works. And they are working on a patch but first they have to know what the legal situation is.

I only have a German source, but I guess you can find everything on the 3d Realms forums.

I don't really have that much complainments over Steam, but I still have my fears over something like that happening there. And something probably will in some time.

That's why I think Steam is great for downloading games, but the idea that it is central to be able to play the game in the first place (*cough* HL2) is bull****.

The one thing that Steam does have going for it is that there has been a constant flow of different games that have been released since HL2 came out. I think it will eventually come down to buying the game on disc that will be supported by an online service like Steam.

And Gabe (Valve) has said that if a similar situation does happen like what happened here, they have the code ready to go to release all their content as playable without requiring Steam.

Here's the difference between Steam and other similar services.

A) Steam has money
B) Steam has contingency plans
C) Steam has lots of money

Triton's only game was Prey and they're already working on patching out Triton's code so honestly I don't see the big deal.

I love download services. It's great that instead of having to wait days for shipping I can instead download Defcon in 10 minutes and have a game up and running.

Is triton a one download only thing?

If it isn't, it sucks for anyone who bought it and didn't get a chance to download it. Or goes to download it again and play...

I think Nightmare and fish summarized everything nicely.