because that’s what the lawsuit is about. valve has no problem with people selling games on their own store fronts, as long as what they’re selling isn’t just a steam key. ubisoft wants to sell games on their own store for online games which use steam as a backend without giving steam a cut. you can buy all the anno games for cheaper on uplay than on steam, and that’s not a problem. but rainbow six siege uses steamplay.
sure, but rainbow six siege uses all of those things because it’s an online game. otherwise there’d be a need to have separated server infra for steam and non-steam users.
The steam version probably just uses steam features through some library/interface/whatever that simply implements calls to the relevant code depending on the game’s build (steamworks for steam, Xbox live or whatever they changed it to again, PSN, epic online services, etc…) for platform-related stuff like rich presence, joining servers etc.
I don’t know the specifics of R6 but I’ve worked on multiplayer, multiplatform games, and I really doubt they have a specific network stack for Uplay, another one for PC, and then another one for each console. Especially if it has crossplay.
More likely it’s all going to ubi’s servers (through their own crossplay solutions and servers, or through a third party like EOS) and just implementing the aforementioned platform specific stuff to make the experience smooth for the end user.
I’m not a law guy but I don’t think the other platforms pricing thing was ever about a “steam version” of the game, as that rule would be easily circumvented by releasing another “version” where the black background on the title screen is a slightly different shade of black than the steam version or whatever.
well no, the integrations are what i’m talking about. not saying that valve is hosting their own r6s servers, just that by using steam features and having the same game (eg able the connect to the same server) on two stores it falls under their “parity” policy.
I’m saying that the non Steam version, which is the one the article mentions, has no Steam features, and proof of it is that anyone with Uplay can play online.
It’s more complicated than that. Technically, you’re right, if the game entirely relies on steamworks for networking you can only play with people on steam. A lot of indies/AA actually just did that for a while because they just connected players P2P (so, no dedicated servers, which would necessarily be “outside” of steam’s ecosystem) and crossplay was too complicated, so there are a lot of multiplayer games out there that you literally can’t play crossplatform, at least in a user friendly way (shadow warrior 2 comes to mind, where you can actually connect the GOG version to the Steam version by entering a console command and knowing the other guy’s IP).
Big publishers like Ubisoft definitely had the developers and the money to roll out their own crossplay architecture and code very early though, and they absolutely did. Basically, if the game has dedicated servers it most likely has crossplatform.
Nowadays a lot of UE games just rely on Epic Online Services for crossplay. I think you can actually use it with non-UE games too but there might be licensing shenanigans involved.
I’m not sure where your questions are leading to. The Steam version either uses the Steam network SDK or UPlay, I don’t know which one. The standalone version uses UPlay alone.
This is nothing new. Crossplay is a thing. Baldur’s Gate 3 allows for crossplay between XBox, PlayStation, and PC, yet it sells on Steam too. But I’m 100% sure the PlayStation version does not use the Steam network.
But it says nothing in your link about selling games that work without steam key on another platform?
I do not see where steam keys are mentioned in the article? Why do you care so much about steam keys if that’s completely irrelevant in this case?
because that’s what the lawsuit is about. valve has no problem with people selling games on their own store fronts, as long as what they’re selling isn’t just a steam key. ubisoft wants to sell games on their own store for online games which use steam as a backend without giving steam a cut. you can buy all the anno games for cheaper on uplay than on steam, and that’s not a problem. but rainbow six siege uses steamplay.
Not true. Games bought outside of Steam have no access to most Steam features outside of local based ones, e.g. Steam Input, Remote Play.
sure, but rainbow six siege uses all of those things because it’s an online game. otherwise there’d be a need to have separated server infra for steam and non-steam users.
That’s exactly how it works. There are companies whose focus is precisely that, e.g. EdgeGap, but UbiSoft have their own infrastructure.
Why did you think you need an Uplay account to play UbiSoft titles?
so you’re saying that the steam version is not using sheam features?
The steam version probably just uses steam features through some library/interface/whatever that simply implements calls to the relevant code depending on the game’s build (steamworks for steam, Xbox live or whatever they changed it to again, PSN, epic online services, etc…) for platform-related stuff like rich presence, joining servers etc. I don’t know the specifics of R6 but I’ve worked on multiplayer, multiplatform games, and I really doubt they have a specific network stack for Uplay, another one for PC, and then another one for each console. Especially if it has crossplay.
More likely it’s all going to ubi’s servers (through their own crossplay solutions and servers, or through a third party like EOS) and just implementing the aforementioned platform specific stuff to make the experience smooth for the end user.
I’m not a law guy but I don’t think the other platforms pricing thing was ever about a “steam version” of the game, as that rule would be easily circumvented by releasing another “version” where the black background on the title screen is a slightly different shade of black than the steam version or whatever.
well no, the integrations are what i’m talking about. not saying that valve is hosting their own r6s servers, just that by using steam features and having the same game (eg able the connect to the same server) on two stores it falls under their “parity” policy.
I’m saying that the non Steam version, which is the one the article mentions, has no Steam features, and proof of it is that anyone with Uplay can play online.
so they can’t play against people on steam?
It’s more complicated than that. Technically, you’re right, if the game entirely relies on steamworks for networking you can only play with people on steam. A lot of indies/AA actually just did that for a while because they just connected players P2P (so, no dedicated servers, which would necessarily be “outside” of steam’s ecosystem) and crossplay was too complicated, so there are a lot of multiplayer games out there that you literally can’t play crossplatform, at least in a user friendly way (shadow warrior 2 comes to mind, where you can actually connect the GOG version to the Steam version by entering a console command and knowing the other guy’s IP).
Big publishers like Ubisoft definitely had the developers and the money to roll out their own crossplay architecture and code very early though, and they absolutely did. Basically, if the game has dedicated servers it most likely has crossplatform.
Nowadays a lot of UE games just rely on Epic Online Services for crossplay. I think you can actually use it with non-UE games too but there might be licensing shenanigans involved.
They can.
I’m not sure where your questions are leading to. The Steam version either uses the Steam network SDK or UPlay, I don’t know which one. The standalone version uses UPlay alone.
This is nothing new. Crossplay is a thing. Baldur’s Gate 3 allows for crossplay between XBox, PlayStation, and PC, yet it sells on Steam too. But I’m 100% sure the PlayStation version does not use the Steam network.