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Digital Version of Prey Sold Out on Steam?

by - source: Tom's Hardware US

Steam sold the PC FPS game Prey for $2.25 and sold all the available keys before the sale ended.

Ohs nos! Kotaku pointed out that the 2006 hit PC game Prey, which went on sale over on Valve's Steam service as part of its Steam Holiday Sale, has somehow managed to sell out. No, we're not talking about the physical copy of the game--apparently there's plenty of those listed on Amazon for just over $9 USD.

No, it's the digital version that's somehow sold out. Although there's no box or DVD to deal with, the game still contains some type of CD key. Evidently the program that generates the sacred game keys ran dry--this is speculation of course--and is unable to start over from the beginning (that would barf up two identical keys which would be a big fat no-no).

With that scenario, it makes sense that Steam would sell out of digital copes. Then again, it may be a big tease and 2K Games could have said "whoa there Nelly, I think we sold enough copies of the game at $2.25." Website Stage Select paints a different picture, indicating that the game was only offered at that price on December 28 only. The "sold out" image displayed on Steam says differently. Whatever.

For post-holiday shoppers still wanting digital versions of great games, Steam is still offering Torchlight for $10. Jade Empire: Special Edition is a crazy $3.75, Silent Hill Homecoming is $10, and Ghostbusters: the Videogame is a meager $6.79. There's also S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky for $5, and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory selling for the same price.

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sublifer 12/30/2009 6:20 PM
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I bought Stalker ClearSky for $5 on that sale. They're also sellnig the original stalker for $2.49 I think but I already have it.

Parsian 12/30/2009 6:30 PM
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ROFLMAO i think they dont get the concept of digital distribution

sliem 12/30/2009 6:45 PM
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They ran out of keys THAT they want to sell for that price.
Simple as that.

dhowie 12/30/2009 7:06 PM
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sliem :
They ran out of keys THAT they want to sell for that price.Simple as that.



agreed.

lradunovic77 12/30/2009 7:28 PM
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-20+

Steam is the best thing which could happen to PC Gaming Industry. Consoles suck!

Transsive 12/30/2009 7:48 PM
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Bought Bioshock for 5 euro though...

Steam, fighting piracy with great deals, ha ha...

nawat 12/30/2009 7:59 PM
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sliem :
They ran out of keys THAT they want to sell for that price.Simple as that.


agreed... who would design a cd-key system that only generates several cd-keys that would sold out in a holiday sale.

steiner666 12/30/2009 8:23 PM
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lol, maybe this is all a hoax to make ppl think that Prey is a rare, valuable item that ppl should buy while they can...

i mean, it was ok...

eklipz330 12/30/2009 8:24 PM
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or it can be a simple psychological trick... you know pull it off for now, put it back up and see a massive increase in sales because now people wanna know what the hype is about


AND OMG MW:WAW IS ON SALE HOLY SHIT... fucking activision. sell it for $7.50 like it shud be.

Regulas 12/30/2009 8:33 PM
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sublifer :
I bought Stalker ClearSky for $5 on that sale. They're also sellnig the original stalker for $2.49 I think but I already have it.


Stalker was a pretty good game, creepy and erie in a way you had to play it to feel.
As far as needing a key for a game this old is stupid, just open it up and drop all the DRM.

Maxor127 12/30/2009 8:45 PM
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maestintaolius 12/30/2009 8:57 PM
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-5+

Steam is the devil. It's bankrupting me 3-5$ at a time.

neodude007 12/30/2009 9:03 PM
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I really like Steam, I personally think it is a great service. It is great being able to format a hard drive and be able to download/install all my games in the background while doing other stuff.
Plus the whole seeing what friends are playing what thing is great, it makes it cake to join in a game with friends and own some face.

rooket 12/30/2009 10:21 PM
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I missed the deal on burnout paradise because I did'nt realize it was one day only :/ would've been a good game to grab. and I did manage to get day of defeat source which is a game i've needed for a long time.

randomizer 12/31/2009 1:50 AM
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nawat :
agreed... who would design a cd-key system that only generates several cd-keys that would sold out in a holiday sale.


If it could only generate such a small number of keys then the keys must be very simple and short. There's no way they just "ran out."

JonathanDeane 12/31/2009 2:38 AM
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randomizer :
If it could only generate such a small number of keys then the keys must be very simple and short. There's no way they just "ran out."



Yeah I am too lazy to do the math but I am pretty sure that the key systems in these things have a block of working keys (if everything worked then you could just fill in the blank with any random crap and it would work) but even subtracting like 99% of the possibilities the remaining 1% would probably be enough for every man woman and child on the planet lol

arlandi 12/31/2009 6:11 AM
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digital distribution is great, but i still love my good old boxes.
i have to agree with "sliem" that they just ran out of serial keys they want to sell at that price. i guess they still need the money for the next version of this game.

anamaniac 12/31/2009 10:22 AM
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transsive :
Bought Bioshock for 5 euro though...Steam, fighting piracy with great deals, ha ha...


Yeah...
Aside from steam liking credit cards and paypal accounts linked to credit, it makes this debit only guy sad. That along with a prepaid credit card costs too much here, it's dissapointing.
I admit, I pirate like hell, but I still buy like hell too. Tempting to go and buy every steam game I can at once though. =D
With prices like these, it's just easier than pirating (update this file, block firewall, check 10 cracks until one works etc.).

isamuelson 12/31/2009 1:54 PM
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I purchased Silent Hill and the damn thing is SLOW loading. By the time I was able to select the start game menu item, it had been 20 minutes. I gave up 5 minutes later. So, even though I got a good price on it, it's a bad game that I can't run and my rig can run games like RE5 on full tilt, Dragon Age: Origins, etc. (AMD X2 4200+, 4 gigs RAM, ATI 3870 PCIe, Windows 7 x64)

Still, there are other great deals. I might just have to pick up Jade Empire. I did pick up the Atari pack which is a fun set of games (Arcade, 2600, etc). Ahh, the 2600 days. Those were fun times!

rodney_ws 01/01/2010 5:49 PM
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sliem :
They ran out of keys THAT they want to sell for that price.Simple as that.


That's not fair to say about a game that came out in 2006... they did what they could to adapt it for Steam... thus the CD keys are still required. Steam handles this scenario as gracefully as it can... it saves your CD key with your account and even simplifies copying it to the clipboard so even the greenest PC users will be able to paste it back into the game when prompted.

Razor512 01/02/2010 9:06 AM
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someone over at steam wanted space for more porn so they deleted some games from the server to make space, and thus, the cause of the game being sold out

isamuelson 01/04/2010 3:08 PM
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isamuelson :
I purchased Silent Hill and the damn thing is SLOW loading. By the time I was able to select the start game menu item, it had been 20 minutes. I gave up 5 minutes later. So, even though I got a good price on it, it's a bad game that I can't run and my rig can run games like RE5 on full tilt, Dragon Age: Origins, etc. (AMD X2 4200+, 4 gigs RAM, ATI 3870 PCIe, Windows 7 x64)Still, there are other great deals. I might just have to pick up Jade Empire. I did pick up the Atari pack which is a fun set of games (Arcade, 2600, etc). Ahh, the 2600 days. Those were fun times!



Well, I reinstalled Steam and Silent Hill now runs fine. Not sure why that fixed it.

I think over this sale, I spent so much money on games. I picked up so many deals during this sale. I'm sad to see it end, but my bank account (and my wife) are happy. It means no more money being spent! ;)

flyinfinni 01/04/2010 10:45 PM
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Its probably a good thing I was out of town and away from the internet during that sale or I would have spent way too much money. But man- the deals I missed!

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