After literally days of speculation and wondering Codemasters Race Driver GRID has landed on Steam for $39.99 for UK and US customers while those in the rest of Europe will be paying $59.99. The game is also available world wide.

I must say that it is a shame that, despite being a world wide release, Codies have decided to vary the price so much between the UK/US and the rest of Europe. Makes me feel somewhat sad for any European readers. Another slightly disappointing matter is that the Steam release of GRID doesn’t include any Steamworks features. Apart from that this is great to see, I really hope that Codemasters will try to further expand their presence on Steam, they do have some pretty good games.

I feel that I need to follow up and update yesterdays post regarding Codemasters, GRID and Steam.

First off GRID is not going to be the first Codemasters title to appear on Steam. Currently Overlord and Clive Barker’s Jericho are present and available on Steam. It did take some searching to find them, but at least it is good to see that Codies already have a Steam presence.

In an update directly concerning GRID becoming available on Steam, another Community Manager has come forth with information. This time jigglybean reveals that Codies are currently “chasing the details regarding Steam and will make a post once we know more information.”

So bear with both Steam and Codemasters, I am sure that soon enough we will see GRID on Steam.

While there has been no official confirmation yet (email sent to PR, no response as of yet) it is seeming ever more likely that Codemasters is coming to Steam. Both the FAQ for Race Driver GRID and a post by Rich Tysoe the GRID Community Manager mention that GRID will be coming onto Steam.

The latter post says that GRID will be available on Steam today, the same day that GRID is released in the US. It also states that it will be a worldwide Steam release. So no region locking from Codemasters then it seems. Expect clarification on this later today.

Wow…I have just read two fantastic pieces on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, the first is a live-blogging of a mini-conference at Valve and the second is the more detailed roundup of the first piece. Boy is it clear that Valve love the PC as a platform and are willing to stand up and fight their corner.

Steamcloud, free weekends, game availability and much more are covered by John over on RPS so read on for the info!

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So yesterday Trials 2 gets patched and now I find out that it has come to Steam for $9.99 or a limited time only $8.99 which accompanies a price reduction for the game when bought direct from the developers.

When I was talking to one of the developers when I first heard about Trials 2 I enquired about a Steam release, at the time he said he couldn’t reveal anything. Looks like this is why!

The list of changes between the normal and the new Steam version follow.

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Everyone praises Steam and its ilk nowadays, digital distribution is the big hot topic amongst developers, publishers and anyone else associated with gaming. Almost everyone is praising digital distribution as if it were the second coming. The voices of discontent are minimal, but there are issues to be considered. Digital distribution, is it really all that great?

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video by Jorwell

The Steam Group Rest of World which is fighting against unfair game prices and availability for different countries around the world has now reached 5000 members.

The group is now going to act on its promise and will be attempting to get in touch with and developer or publisher which they feel are excluding the Rest of the World from being able to purchase games, purchase games at a fair price and to purchase games as they are meant to have been releaed.

More information on this latest information can be found here and Jorwell’s original video can be seen here in higher quality.

So while I may fully applaud Valve and Steam at times I will be one of the first to admit that there are some serious issues with Steam. An article on cnet.au that has come to my attention (thanks Digi) has sparked me to write about the situation with Steam, various Publishers and games being charged different prices across the world, some not being available and other games not being localized properly.

First off lets take that cnet.au article and see what they say.

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So while TrackMania Nations/United Forever have just been released they have now both been made available on Steam!

As to be expected Nations is free while United clocks in at $39.95 and both include the free ‘Forever’ expansion. If you already own a copy of TrackMania United on Steam then the game will automatically update for you with ‘United Forever’ for free!

TrackMania Nations Forever offers a new version of the Stadium environment, a complete solo mode, and 65 new tracks. TrackMania Nations Forever promises to unite an even larger number of players than its very successful predecessor thanks to engaging new multiplayer modes, online functions, and — for the first time - allowing players of the free versions to play online with players from the retail version of TrackMania United.

More information on Steam news.

It is official, Ubisoft as an entire company hates Europe!

The French mega-publisher/developer has just joined the Steam Collective bringing with it such games as Far Cry, IL-2 Sturmovik and the Tom Clancy games, Assassins Creed will follow soon.

However following in the footsteps of Atari these games are only available to people from the United States and Canada. So if you don’t like in North America then you are going to be losing out from a massive range of titles on Steam.

According to Rock, Paper, Shotgun this has nothing to do with Valve. Gabe Newell said this;

“It’s their call. We offer worldwide coverage, and we’re happy to offer the products to as many customers as the publisher/developer desires.”

My opinion of Ubisoft is very up and down, this just makes me even more disappointed with them. I am not angry, just disappointed.