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Alienware PCs to come with Steam pre-installed

Published on 25th November 2009 by Joe Martin

Alienware's Area-51 and Aurora PCs will now come with a Valve's Steam system already installed on them.

Alienware has today announced that it will be shipping gaming laptops with Valve's digital distribution platform, Steam, already installed on them - and a copy of Portal thrown in for free too.

Steam will now be installed on all of Alienware's Area-51 and Aurora desktops and all M17x and M15x laptops, a spokesperson from Dell said today.

While the move is good for Valve and Alienware, it's likely that Stardock's Brad Wardell will be more than a little miffed at the inclusion of a competitor's software on Dell's range of gaming PCs. Earlier this week Wardell released a report saying that Valve had cornered 70 percent of the digital market and that it was increasingly hard for rivals to fight against Steam because of the number of developers using Valve's Steamworks framework.

"Once a game requires Steamworks, it is effectively cut off from us, which limits our content," Wardell explained. "The problem is that it is not practical for us to install a game that in turn requires the installation of a competitor's store and platform in order to play it."

"With its automatic game updates, easy friend finding and the ability to play your Steam purchased games on any PC, Valve has helped simplify PC Gaming to make it more enjoyable," said Dell's Frank Azor, obviously quite chuffed with the partnership.

Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

23 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

mi1ez 25th November 2009, 11:33

I don't see this as being that big a thing really. Can see why Brad will be getting annoyed though!

M7ck 25th November 2009, 11:36

Its a logical step, Alienware are gaming PC's and I dont know any gamers that dont use steam.

DeathAwaitsU 25th November 2009, 11:37

How would this work tho?
To include portal i assume they'd either have to premake each pc an acc (no thanks), or include steam preinstalled and a promo code on a card for the game, and how many of those do you think will go missing?
Id like to know how this works out, not steams increase in sales etc.. just how many poeple don't get their free copy

smc8788 25th November 2009, 11:38

Sadly, I fear the epicness of Portal would be lost on the likes of people who buy Alienware PCs :(

mi1ez 25th November 2009, 11:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by smc8788
Sadly, I fear the epicness of Portal would be lost on the likes of people who buy Alienware PCs :(

lol

SlowMotionSuicide 25th November 2009, 11:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeathAwaitsU
How would this work tho?
To include portal i assume they'd either have to premake each pc an acc (no thanks), or include steam preinstalled and a promo code on a card for the game, and how many of those do you think will go missing?
Id like to know how this works out, not steams increase in sales etc.. just how many poeple don't get their free copy

I really don't see a problem here, they've been handing out steam coupons with graphics cards for some time now i think.

plagio 25th November 2009, 11:56

Quote:

With its automatic game updates, easy friend finding and the ability to play your Steam purchased games on any PC, Valve has helped simplify PC Gaming to make it more enjoyable

Damn right, and starforce and securom are no longer required, nor keeping the CD in the tray.

lacuna 25th November 2009, 12:01

Yeah, I got a HL2 free with my 9600XT back in 2004 I think? It was just an activation code so you still had to download steam and the game.

Having Steam pre-installed isn't really a selling point so I am going to be cynical and suggest the Valve are providing some sort of incentive to Dell for doing it.

Matticus 25th November 2009, 12:14

Its just more bloatware preinstalled on machines, but amazingly its actually useful.

I think that most "alienware gamers" may be unaware of things like steam, and have completely overlooked an amazing game like Portal. They are the "Crysis iz da bestest gamez evAR bcz its got da bester grafix dan nefind els" generation of gamers, so getting them into some games with a great story line not just lots of gloss is a good thing.

Nictron 25th November 2009, 12:48

Steam must be careful, anticompetitive behavior can cost you allot these days.

There are many anti-competitive commissions just looking for their next target, don't get me wrong I like Steam but they must be careful of their implementations.

chrisdj 25th November 2009, 12:51

Uhmm... didnt demigod require impulse to be installed???

Horizon 25th November 2009, 15:00

Add SOSE to that list

fargo 25th November 2009, 16:10

I think steam is great and use it but as a selling point for alienware I think its pretty weak and
steamworks is free to use so wardell is full of hot air aka steam lol

HourBeforeDawn 25th November 2009, 18:16

okay Im all for steam but that does feel a little anti-competive, feels like an Intel move via Valve lol they better rethink before they get sued by impulse lol.

RichCreedy 25th November 2009, 18:47

is it any worse that having googledesktop preinstalled? I think not. at least steam is useful

Initialised 25th November 2009, 21:36

No more anti competitive than bundling Steam keys for Black Box/Orange Box/Dirt2/StreetFighter IV with new graphics cards. ATi have been doing this for years. It's part of the reason they have 70% of the digital distribution market. That and Valve's great games. Besides, a key code is cheaper and lighter than a CD.

gurboura 25th November 2009, 23:03

Steam needs to go away. I'm one of the few that hates Steam with a passion. I spent 50 dollars on a game, and I HAD to install Steam to even use the game. Steam is such a joke.

SMIFFYDUDE 25th November 2009, 23:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by gurboura
Steam needs to go away. I'm one of the few that hates Steam with a passion. I spent 50 dollars on a game, and I HAD to install Steam to even use the game. Steam is such a joke.

I don't think this was ever a secret. But that said I didn't like STEAM when I first came across it when HL2 was released. I was still using dial up and having to download content after buying a disc was a bit of a tw@.

Star*Dagger 26th November 2009, 00:02

Steam should come pre-installed on every hard drive sold in the world, this would increase PC Gamer numbers and help the Ascendancy of the Valve Age!

PureSilver 26th November 2009, 01:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by gurboura
Steam needs to go away. I'm one of the few that hates Steam with a passion. I spent 50 dollars on a game, and I HAD to install Steam to even use the game. Steam is such a joke.

Man, you and GFWL would get on like a house on fire!

(Screams, flames, people running for cover...)

How long've you been holding this grudge?

crazyceo 26th November 2009, 08:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by gurboura
Steam needs to go away. I'm one of the few that hates Steam with a passion. I spent 50 dollars on a game, and I HAD to install Steam to even use the game. Steam is such a joke.

You probably don't game very often since some of the best games of the last 5 years have been distributed through Steam. So since you don't game very often whats the point of whining about Steam, when you clearly don't use it?

skpstr 26th November 2009, 13:32

Do they still allow you to gift your game licences to people on Steam if you have more than one? When I bought the Orange box I already had HL2 and I thought that was it for that one, but steam let me gift the licence to my mate.

Initialised 26th November 2009, 21:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by fargo
I think steam is great and use it but as a selling point for alienware I think its pretty weak and
steamworks is free to use so wardell is full of hot air aka steam lol

Is this really worth a press release? I'm sure any gaming PC manufacturer would pre install Steam for you if you asked them too. How many will go through the hassle of getting an nVidia card running for PhysX in a Crossfire system? I asked Scan, they said it wasn't possible so I went with Cyberpower because of this thread in their forums.