Pay2Play Coming to Steam?

[CSN NewsBot]

Don't freak out just yet, it's not what you may think it is. A Steampowered forum posting by Valve's Mike Dunkle makes mention of a new system being set up for Cyber Café owners.

We are weeks away from launch the website where cafes can manage payments online and choose the subscription plan that best fits their business. This will not only include monthly seat subscriptions but add the option to pay for time. A café will be able to buy blocks of time in 100($50), 500($225), 1000($350), 3000($900) hours that can be shared across any number of computers they have listed in their café. I expect cafes will mix and match subscriptions. I see them purchasing some minimum number of seat subscriptions with extra blocks of time for the busy weekends. Some cafes will decided to only purchase small blocks of time during the month. The key is that the cafes will have options available to them 24/7 online.

Nothing has been set in stone yet, but it seems as though the foundation is being layed for such a system to be used in Cyber Cafés. There is also a Steam protocol recently discovered that seems to echo Mike's comment. Currently, the protocol will bring up a non-functional dialog box to purchase a subscription to a Steam product or service.

[duhhhh]

Is this good news or bad news for Cyber Cafes?

[Zips]

duhhhh wrote..

Is this good news or bad news for Cyber Cafes?

Probably good news as it gives them far more options to choose from and may end up saving smaller cyber cafes some cash.

[Ryosuke T]

cyber cafe- 80% of having no success in business.

[Napalm Flame]

Sounds very bad IMO. Not good.

[Syx]

Building a cyber cafe is a lot like investing in an upcoming game company.

Sure, you drop a few hundred thousand and have fun for a while, until you realize you can't pay the bills and you start to reserve a spot underneath the bridge.

[sadisticflirt]

Priorities, priorities, priorities....don't care any about CS...nope just make $$$

Valve needs to focus on CS:Source...many bugs yet to fix and more updates with new maps and models need to come soon.

[Zips]

Yet again...



The Cyber Cafe department is seperate from the other "groups" working on projects at Valve. Also, the Cyber Cafe is a very profitable business venture for some owners.

[duhhhh]

Zips wrote..

Yet again...



The Cyber Cafe department is seperate from the other "groups" working on projects at Valve. Also, the Cyber Cafe is a very profitable business venture for some owners.

I have always wondered, what if some lamer installs a cheat to a cyber cafe. Does the cyber cafe get vac2 banned? How does that work?

[Zips]

duhhhh wrote..

I have always wondered, what if some lamer installs a cheat to a cyber cafe. Does the cyber cafe get vac2 banned? How does that work?

Generally, competent Cafe owners will set up strict user access limits on their machines that prevent such a thing from happening.

[Alpha_Tay]

valve can help cdkey/accounts stolen, cheating, etc problem to cyber cafe owner.

[pocketkid]

so can non steam users get to play cs and other games on steam without actually having to buy the game and just paying the cyber cafe hourly charge?

[Ryosuke T]

Zips wrote..

Yet again...



The Cyber Cafe department is seperate from the other "groups" working on projects at Valve. Also, the Cyber Cafe is a very profitable business venture for some owners.

hence the word "some" hahah sorry zip =P just had to do it you know

[ma_cherie]

Ryosuke T wrote..

hence the word "some" hahah sorry zip =P just had to do it you know

gonna step out of csn-otf to say this;



What are you hencing towards? It's pretty obvious that only some of them are going to make it. Look at any business, not all of them made it. "Photoshop Bush Onto A Monkey" didn't say in business as long as "Kinko's". I'm just saying, your comment makes no sense. He knew that not putting "some" would cause someone to quote him and get all sassy with "O YA WELL ONLY SOME OF THEM MAKE IT ZIPS EXPLAIN THAT", so he put it there.



That's like me putting; Hence the word 'word' in your comment, because 'some' is a word. Sorry, I had to do it.

[Diamond Dust]

sadisticflirt wrote..

Priorities, priorities, priorities....don't care any about CS...nope just make $$$

Valve needs to focus on CS:Source...many bugs yet to fix and more updates with new maps and models need to come soon.

I'm pretty sure the designers working on updating content and bug fixes aren't making the buisness desicions at valve....idiot