Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

[Shawn Zipay]

Valve has just announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops will be coming to Steam with the full suite of Steamworks integration.

Those who pre-purchase Call of Duty: Black Ops on Steam will be able to start playing immediately upon release on November 9, 2010, when Activision expects the title will be available worldwide. Developed by Treyarch, Call of Duty: Black Ops utilizes the Steamworks suite of tools. The title is rated "M" (Mature - Blood, Drug, Reference, Intense Violence and Language) by the ESRB.

In addition to leveraging Steamworks' Auto-Updating, Achievements, and more, Call of Duty: Black Ops will support Steamworks Cloud technology. The PC version of the product will be powered with Steamworks for both the digital and tangible versions of the game and, as with all Steamworks titles, offline play will also be supported.

"We are delighted to be delivering the year's most anticipated title with Black Ops to PC gamers around the world," said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. "We've collaborated with the development team to leverage the Steamworks suite of services to deliver the highest level of service to Call of Duty: Black Ops PC customers."

"Steam has been a great partner throughout development of Black Ops," said Mark Lamia, president of Treyarch. "We're working closely together to take full advantage of Steamworks to ensure we deliver the most polished and secure PC experience that our community deserves."

Call of Duty: Black Ops is slated for worldwide release the week of November 9 at retailers and via Steam. For additional Call of Duty updates, visit www.callofduty.com/blackops and also via Twitter @JD_2020

You can pre-order Black Ops now through Steam for $59.99 (USD).

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

SHOW ME THE PRE ORDER UNLOCKS!

Getting to play it on release doesnt count

Crunch

[[Expletive Deleted]]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

SHOW ME THE PRE ORDER UNLOCKS!

Getting to play it sometime on release day doesnt count

Crunch

Fixed it for you.

[RangerXML]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

Meh, its showing as unlocking at 11am on Nov 9 for me, Already preordered it for the midnight release at GameStop. Great that it is finally available on Steam. Amazon has it for $55 no tax and release day delivery with prime.

Gonna party like its 1999 Monday night, several friends are going down to pick it up and play the Zombie mode that night.

[Dangerdog]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

Kmart will be sporting a $20 gift card with purchase, even on the PC version. I can't believe Kmart of all places is stepping up to be a place to get good deals on games, picked up Starcraft 2 from them for $40 last month.

[Unclean009]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

Meh, its showing as unlocking at 11am on Nov 9 for me, Already preordered it for the midnight release at GameStop. Great that it is finally available on Steam. Amazon has it for $55 no tax and release day delivery with prime.

Gonna party like its 1999 Monday night, several friends are going down to pick it up and play the Zombie mode that night.

Remember that that unlock clock is just a set timer. It really doesn't mean anything.

In the press release it states

Those who pre-purchase Call of Duty: Black Ops on Steam will be able to start playing immediately upon release on November 9, 2010

[iQue]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

Hopefully Treyarch knows what they're doing and don't half-ass the steamworks integration. If it's a steam only game it better take advantage of its features (unlike MW2) :x

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

Hopefully Treyarch knows what they're doing and don't half-ass the steamworks integration. If it's a steam only game it better take advantage of its features (unlike MW2) :x

What features did steam not do with MW2? The only thing I could think of is achievements, but there are tons of those in the game itself.

Crunch

[iQue]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

What features did steam not do with MW2? The only thing I could think of is achievements, but there are tons of those in the game itself.

Crunch

Any half-decent cheat coder can work their way around VAC due to IW's shoddy implementation of it. Anyone can install hacks or modded files without problems. I think you can't join games through the steam friendslist (can't check as I don't have the game). No steam achievements as you mentioned. Small stuff like that.

[Dangerdog]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

Why would you need steam achievements when there are so many already in game?

I do wonder if they're going to use the Steamworks server browser.

[RangerXML]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

Remember that that unlock clock is just a set timer. It really doesn't mean anything.

In the press release it states

I'll get my game a reliable 10-11 hours before Steam's usual unlock time, well worth the tax (sorta like express shipping). I pre-order games from Steam a lot, normal unlock time is 10-11am (PST, local), but with major releases I've been around for a few that were delayed until around 5pm.

[[Expletive Deleted]]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

Why would you need steam achievements when there are so many already in game?

I do wonder if they're going to use the Steamworks server browser.

Any half-decent cheat coder can work their way around VAC due to IW's shoddy implementation of it. Anyone can install hacks or modded files without problems. I think you can't join games through the steam friendslist (can't check as I don't have the game). No steam achievements as you mentioned. Small stuff like that.

VAC =/= Steam integration
It's a separate anti-cheat service that companies can choose to buy into.

You can join people through your Steam friends list, that's how you get into parties with your friends.

And where are you guys getting that MW2 didn't have Steam Acheivements? Not that they're a big deal, but they're there all the same.
MW2 didn't have multiplayer acheivements on Steam, but it didn't have those on any other platform either. It only had them for the campaign and Spec Ops portions of the game. Look at your Community pages.

As lame as MW2 can be, at least hate it for stuff that's actually true. You don't have to invent reasons why it's a frustrating, poor multiplayer game on IWnet.

I'll get my game a reliable 10-11 hours before Steam's usual unlock time, well worth the tax (sorta like express shipping). I pre-order games from Steam a lot, normal unlock time is 10-11am (PST, local), but with major releases I've been around for a few that were delayed until around 5pm.

Yeah, most new releases are at 10-11AM PST, which is 13-1400 EST. Losing half a day because they seem to refuse to automate the unlocking of games sucks. Starting a new MP game only to find that many people already have ranked up and unlocked a bunch of stuff is lame.

[Anarchy1]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

The Steam release and retail release will be the same for this game. Even if you buy the retail version, you still have to wait until Steam unlocks the game to be able to play.

[The_Eliminator]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

Is what Anarchy just said right? If i buy the normal retail PC version i will have to wait for Steam to unlock anyway? If thats the case its a real kick in the teeth. Living in Australia means that if i have to wait for steam i probably wont be playing this game till the 11th :/

[RangerXML]

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Coming to Steam with Full Steamworks Integration

What they were referring to as the same time was to the MW2 being released on 2 different dates, retail came out on a Tuesday and Steam on a Thursday, this time both will be on a Tuesday, but I'm willing to bet that Steam will still be at 10-11am PST.