Pre-ordering on Steam

[Shieldmaiden]

I've pre-ordered Dragon Age on Steam and I've just realised it's not going to unlock until 11pm on Friday. As it's going to be in stores on Friday morning, I figure this sucks.

Is this a pretty common thing with Steam? Last game I pre-ordered on it was Half Life 2, so I've not had much experience with it. Are they likely to bring the release forward to match the retail release, or shall I just cancel the pre-order?

[Voodoo]

Originally Posted by BigJonno

I've pre-ordered Dragon Age on Steam and I've just realised it's not going to unlock until 11pm on Friday. As it's going to be in stores on Friday morning, I figure this sucks.

Is this a pretty common thing with Steam? Last game I pre-ordered on it was Half Life 2, so I've not had much experience with it. Are they likely to bring the release forward to match the retail release, or shall I just cancel the pre-order?

I've seen them many times unlock the games as soon as news of it releasing retail channels comes to light. I have also seen them unlock games the night prior to it showing up in retail channels. I think, in the end, it will be Bioware's Publisher's call as to when it gets unlocked on the digital distribution sites...

[Libuke]

Dragon Age was released earlier then the original estimated time, for the North American Release, so it may very well happen with the Europe one. I am not sure exactly how much earlier the North American one was though.

[BLeeP]

Originally Posted by Libuke

Dragon Age was released earlier then the original estimated time, for the North American Release, so it may very well happen with the Europe one. I am not sure exactly how much earlier the North American one was though.

I believe it unlocked around 3 hours early. I think I had estimated that it would unlock around 5 PM EST and it unlocked slightly before I went to work that day which was some time between 1:40 PM EST and 2 PM EST.

[Doogie2K]

The usually try to unlock games around noon because then they're in the office in case something goes ka-blooie. You sure it was 11 PM and not 11 AM?

[Stmfuller]

does it autorelease?
I'm trying to decide about leaving steam on the day L4D2 comes out, you know, just to have it ready to go when I get home from work.

[BLeeP]

Originally Posted by Stmfuller

does it autorelease?
I'm trying to decide about leaving steam on the day L4D2 comes out, you know, just to have it ready to go when I get home from work.

There's nothing automated about it, from what I recall. The files will have to decrypt and you can't do that until it's out, and you have to launch the game to initiate decryption.