• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Preloading on Steam is pointless, why do people even bother with this?

Drizzlehell

Banned
Even on an SSD it actually takes longer for Steam to "unpack" the game than it would take me to download the entire thing from scratch on my fibre connection. What is the point of this? I assume it's some sort of data encryption bullshit to protect from piracy and the app needs to decrypt the files before you can play the game. But if it's just another system-hogging DRM that's slowing things down, then why bother with pre-ordering in the first place?

I never pre-order games so this is something new for me, and the absurdity of it was too funny not to point it out, lol.

Anyone with a reasonably fast internet connection who ever made an argument that pre-ordering games is beneficial due to preloads is lying through their teeth. At least when it comes to Steam preorders, I dunno if it's the same on every other platform.
 
Last edited:

nikos

Member
Yeah, I never bother with that even with an NVMe SSD. Always faster to download if you have a good connection.
 

Brigandier

Member
It is a gaming message board not the solve poverty and disease message board.

Trigger GIF by MOODMAN


Did my comment hit a nerve? 🤣🤣🤣

Sorry but whining about and grossly exaggerating how long a game takes to unpack and install from a preload is seriously taking the piss.
 

AJUMP23

Gold Member
Trigger GIF by MOODMAN


Did my comment hit a nerve? 🤣🤣🤣

Sorry but whining about and grossly exaggerating how long a game takes to unpack and install from a preload is seriously taking the piss.
No but every complaint here is not a real problem. It was just an opportunity for a funny line from me.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
Maybe not 1Gbps but surely nobody's on anything less than 200Mbps these days. Unless you're on a nuclear submarine or something.
On the US? IDK, probably, I'm on 300 but shit is so bad recently that it doesn't go above 100 and I'm let with no options. I'm one of privileged ones that can pay for expensive internet in here
 

ahtlas7

Member
On my rather slow DSL connection. I’ll stick with preload. My fast drives will take it from there.
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
So OP has a gigabit connection paired with a Pentium II CPU?
It took about 10-20 minutes but I could've just downloaded the game in a regular manner in that time, possibly even faster. My point is that if that's how long it's gonna take then it renders preloading pointless.

I did some reading in the meantime and it would seem that at least on consoles the games are unlocked pretty much instantly, so at least there it makes sense.
 

Brigandier

Member
It took about 10-20 minutes but I could've just downloaded the game in a regular manner in that time, possibly even faster. My point is that if that's how long it's gonna take then it renders preloading pointless.

I did some reading in the meantime and it would seem that at least on consoles the games are unlocked pretty much instantly, so at least there it makes sense.

You must have smoke coming out of your modem lol what internet speed you got?.
 
Last edited:

The Fuzz damn you!

Gold Member
It took about 10-20 minutes but I could've just downloaded the game in a regular manner in that time, possibly even faster. My point is that if that's how long it's gonna take then it renders preloading pointless.

I did some reading in the meantime and it would seem that at least on consoles the games are unlocked pretty much instantly, so at least there it makes sense.
You made a thread to complain about having to wait 10 minutes to play a game instead of having to wait 10 minutes to play a game?

How the fuck do you cope with life?
 

Dr.D00p

Gold Member
I don't know; maybe there are people who think that it's going to sell out...

Well I wasn't taking any risks with not having enough RAM for a smooth experience so I just downloaded an extra 16GB from a reputable Russian site for a bargain price!
 
Getting big "Why fly economy when you can just take a private jet?" vibes from this thread.

Besides, preload would still be a thing even if everyone had gigabit connections. I'm sure Valve have decent servers, but I'm also sure they don't want hundreds of thousands of gigabit connections to hit them all at once at the stroke of midnight every time a major release unlocks.
 

Hudo

Member
Getting big "Why fly economy when you can just take a private jet?" vibes from this thread.

Besides, preload would still be a thing even if everyone had gigabit connections. I'm sure Valve have decent servers, but I'm also sure they don't want hundreds of thousands of gigabit connections to hit them all at once at the stroke of midnight every time a major release unlocks.
Flying is for servants. The trick is to have people come to you, not the other way around.
 

DavidGzz

Member
I have 1 gig fiber but games never download that fast for me, seems to be throttled by Steam or do people really get anything close to a full gig?
 

StueyDuck

Member
I remember pre-ordering mafia 3 and being extremely pissed off an entire day waiting for steam 🤣

Not so much an issue these days since I mostly pre-order from keyresellers, rarely is steam the cheapest option for me
 
Top Bottom