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[Steam, Humble Bundle & GOG] Alan Wake Franchise - Last Chance to Ever Buy It - $3.99 USD [Steam] or $3.89 AUD [GOG] (90% off)

1990

Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/15407/

Humble Bundle (Steam + DRM free): https://www.humblebundle.com/store/alan-wake-franchise

GOG (DRM Free only): https://www.gog.com/game/alan_wake

Music Licensing issues strike again

You keep it once it's bought.

48 Hour "Sunset Sale" Starts 13th of May Pacific Standard Time (3am 14/5/17 Aussie Eastern Standard)

A good deal and a good game to pick up before it's gone

Source: https://www.facebook.com/RemedyGames/photos/a.10150672953741…

ALSO Make sure you grab your FREE Bonus materials once bought/activated: http://store.steampowered.com/app/268560/Alan_Wake_Bonus_Mat…

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closed Comments

    • +12

      it hasn't started yet

    • GOG is now at $AU3.89

      • This is actually cheaper than steam, thanks

  • +16

    brilliant game. Cannot recommend enough. Xfiles meets twin peaks meets max payne

    GET IT

    • +3

      I second this. Good description.

      Great game and pretty different.

      Second half trails off a smidge…

    • Ever played the game 'Deadly Premonition'?

  • +2

    Amazing that they can't just remove/replace the music in question and keep on truckin' , great game though, worth it at the price!

    • Remedy has said they are working on a reissue for the licenses, but that doesn't make for a good headline.

  • Know nothing about Alan Wake games but at 90% off I think I'll check this out - thanks for the heads up.

    Says released Feb 2012 - has it aged OK?

    • +5

      Yes. You're getting it for the great story.

    • +1

      Superbly. There's nothing quite like it so it feels like a breath of fresh air.

    • +2

      It's a story / atmospheric game you are playing. Visuals still look okay.

      Try playing in dim lighting.

      • +4

        I started this game then went for a walk in the park at night.

        Would not recommend doing the same.

      • +1

        'Try playing in dim lighting.'

        Maybe I should have tried that. I found after the 2nd or 3rd 'shoot-out' sequence, they were all just about the same. And it was pretty monotonous/hurt my eyes after a while always having to fight in the dark. Do I have the right game (it's been a few years!)? Is this the one where you can only fight in the dark, and light functions as a 'shield'/energy replenisher? That concept was OK fun the first couple of times, but after that it was annoying. Good story line etc. though, and I did play the game through to the end… but that 'always/only dark' aspect of the combat got annoying after the 2nd shoot-out.

        • Yeah, that is the game. The light feature does get a bit 'tiresome' as the game progresses, but it wasn't by the 3rd shoot out sequence for me.

  • it is just alan wake being removed? is Alan wake American nightmare going too?

    • Just Alan Wake, not American Nightmare.

    • The whole thing is on sale but American nightmare will still be available for purchase

    • +3

      Either way, the original is the only one worth playing. I loved the first but American nightmare was an abysmal follow up. Not worth your time.

  • +16

    Someone remind me how intellectual property laws are inspiring creators to make new things.

    • +6

      Inspiring us to make new stuff to drown our sorrows of not being able to get the old classics without threat of legal prosecution.

    • +4

      I don't have a problem with this. They paid for a license for the music for 7 years and they got 7 years. If they wanted a license for 10 or 15 years, they should have negotiated and paid for that. Artists should be able to make a living off their work and I don't think this is unreasonable, especially considering the developers are still obviously claiming their own copyright on the game itself.

      • 7 years worth of sales probably made sense at the time because they didn't know how successful the game was going to be so they didn't want to spend the extra bucks. 7 years later it turns out it was a good game but still the current sales volume doesn't justify relicensing the tracks at the price they now want, and without it the game would suck. In the end the consumers/public interest/culture loses out because of bad business deals which are outside our control.

      • +2

        I'd like to get paid again for work I did 7 years ago.

        • Feel free to become a musician then. Although I think you'll find that for most or, more likely, all of your career, you'll struggle to earn enough to pay the bills.

          I understand the argument with medicine or something essential, but if you create art, why shouldn't you be able to decide the conditions under which you'll sell it? It's your property and you're not forcing anyone to buy it. I'd support reducing copyright back to 25 years, but 7 years seems way too short to me. It certainly would stop many people producing movies and games if that was the case. Or is it just musicians who should lose the ownership of their work?

        • +17

          @dazweeja:
          Current intellectual property laws are a complete rort. The protection period was retrospectively increased to the artists life plus 70 years in 1998 in the US, and thanks to free trade we are getting similar terms. How that inspired dead artists to up their creativity is a mystery.

          I don't begrudge a period of exclusivity or licensing for intellectual property, but the deal must be, the government will enforce your copyright to your benefit, if you release your work from copyright after a set period so that the community can also benefit from public domain works (otherwise, why would the community take on the burden of having copyrights).
          Current laws completely lose sight of this. Your 25 years is long, but much more reasonable.

          The artists I know all earn their incomes from their art in the relatively immediate timeframe (admittedly no superstars, alas). They write a book, it sells 75% of its sales in the first year or so. They release an album, it sells 75% of its sales in the first year. They make a movie, it makes any money soonish.
          The artists who are professionals, in that they earn the bulk of their income from art, do so by playing live, not from recording sales.

          So I don't see life plus 70 years of copyright motivating these people much. Most of them produce art because they like it, and the monetary reward is a bonus - so no, I don't buy the idea that a fairer IP regime would result in any reasonable loss of art.
          I'll concede at the margins it might mean Disney only spend $40m on the next Pirates of the Caribbean instead of $140m, but again, those properties also make the bulk of their earnings early in their life, so it isn't a given.

          So why are we continuing a system that extends copyright for a ridiculous period, delivering negligible benefit 90%+ of copyright holders, but imposing both direct financial costs on the community, plus indirect costs like this situation where failure to reach a commercial extension effectively sees a work destroyed!

        • +2

          @mskeggs: funny you mention Disney - I think they are the main reason why copyright was extended in the first place. They still make plenty of money from sales of a certain mouse's likeness…

        • +2

          @mskeggs: Imagine if libraries never existed and someone wanted to set one up in this current climate. Would never happen. Obviously some artists have greater benefits than others.

    • They should have gotten more expensive licenses that let them sell the game in perpetuity. Maybe they didn't think the game would stay popular.

  • +3

    You can get it on Xbox 360 here.

    https://gamedealdaily.com/product/alan-wake-full-game-downlo…

    Some people have had problems with the code but if you contact support they'll replace it. I think it's backwards compatible with xbox one.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/comments/6arb0r/alan_wake_b…

    • Ordered an hour ago, still waiting for email with key. :/

      • Me too, let me know if you get yours, I got a receipt but no code

        • My code arrived overnight. Already redeemed it successfully.

        • @CamM: Yes redeemed mine along with everything else on the store that had Alan wake in it

    • Cheers! Picked one up.

    • Waiting patiently for 3hrs now. It is now 10pm sat night in the states.

    • +1

      Took almost 8 hours to arrive, but redeemed successfully. Thanks for the heads up Dalnor!

      • I got mine it works. Thanks for the info.

  • +2

    Note that your existing Steam keys will be able to activate in the future including any retail copies you may find.

  • +4

    If anyone's interested here's the story…

    https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/05/psa-buy-alan-wake-che…

  • +13

    Don't forget to get the free Bonus materials DLCs. Although free, you have to manually add it to your account. http://store.steampowered.com/app/268560/Alan_Wake_Bonus_Mat…

    Older games disappearing from digital distribution is getting annoying. And older GTA games had some of their music removed. A true american nightmare, thanks to the greediness of capitalists.

    • +1

      Good point - Xbox owners should do the same in the Xbox/Microsoft store. Grab them both - will be free if you already own the core title.

      I got Alan Wake free with Quantum Break - still haven't played it but hopefully will some day if I take a year off work to get through my gaming backlog!

  • This just reminded me that I bought a code for x360 from cdkeys for this back in June, and although I jumped on and got 2 dlcs I never redeemed the game at the time. For some reasons now when I go on I get an error "Your purchase is not yet available for download, please come back shortly". Anyone know what the story would be there?

    • Just got a response from cdkeys support, basically told that they oversold the keys and so will refund me, unfortunate because it was around 2.50 back then

  • I think it's a bad idea to license music that will expire. If it means your entire game has to be pulled instead of just the music.

    • Not if the music adds a layer of quality to the title.

      These days games are more commonly developed where it's easier for the dev to 'switch off' the licenced soundtrack components.

      The way it was done for this title made it a bigger job and not simple to do. Hence, it's being pulled until this is resolved - assuming there is desire and a cost-effective agreement can be reached.

      • They gave this game away for free on Xbox a while ago and bundled it with Quantum Break, inclosing the DLC. I doubt it's coming back

    • +1

      Games like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas just pulled the music, but in the case of Alan Wake I can see why they're pulling the whole thing. The game would not be as great as it is without the licensed tracks used in the game, it adds so much to the experience (to me at least)

  • +1

    Why not just keep paying the artists a percentage of royalties and keep selling the game?

    This seems to be a concerning sign of the times if the whole game can get discontinued due to music licensing, particularly in a digital age. How will people get access to games in the future when physical mediums aren't available to purschase second hand?

    As someone said above, I'd love to get paid for something I did at work 7 years ago. Seems like they want their cake and to eat it too.

    • I think that's fair if the medium is leverage the music is not something that just plays the entire song to you as but it requires an agreement at the end of the day, the issue is the agreement hasn't actually been reached beyond 7 years. I don't know what the music actually is in this case, but if it was something that wasn't going to be used anywhere else (eg. Made specifically for this game) then I could see the owner licensing it buy if it's eg. a Metallica song forget it those guys are greedy f' rs

    • DVDs gets realised with Alternate soundtracks cause of crap like this. They ruined Animal House :(

  • So can someone tell me if I purchase a key and don't download it, will I still be able to download it later or will it be pulled? I am mainly concerned with x360 but I would be interested in n how this would be on steam also

    • Someone above mentioned steam keys will expire so may be the same for Xbox

      • Fair enough but if you use the key and it's in your online library/purchase history, but you haven't downloaded it, will they stop allowing you to download it?

        • +1

          No, they won't it will be yours forever.

      • Steam keys don't expire

  • +8

    If you buy it from the Humble Store you get the Steam key AND a DRM-free version! (Same price too)

      • just purchased, my humble bundle steam codes didnt work.. wtf?

        edit: and now its in my library

      • Alan Wake
        Alan Wake's American Nightmare
        Alan Wake Collector's Edition Extras

        Thanks. I've got 2 Steam keys only. Are there 2 or 3 keys?

        • Same for me through Humble. Am I missing something? Only AW and AWAN show up in my steam. No AWCEE? Even though I bought the 'Franchise' on Humble?

          Cheers

        • @lozza6:

          Actually, THey all show up on the Steam website as 'in my library' but on the steam app, only AW and AWAN appear in my games Library. Same goes for the Bonus Materials.

          Is AWCEE and the Bonus Materials part of AW and AWAN?

        • @lozza6: Should listed under Alan Wake's DLC.

    • might be stupid question, but how do I access the DRM-free version after purchasing? thanks!

      • +1

        When you click on your account in the top left corner, click the Purchases link. Then click on your Alan Wake Franchise purchase and the download links for Alan Wake and American Nightmare will appear just under your Steam key.

    • Buy it there, you never know ow when steam will patch out content

    • What does it mean to have a DRM-free version? If i get the steam copy, do I not get to keep it when the licensing expires anyway?

      • +1

        Basically you'll always have access, no matter what. Even if Steam/Valve were to go under, you'll still have it.

  • -1

    (profanity) digital purchases and the "all digital future". This is ridiculous.

    • +5

      Learn to swim. I have nearly 600 games in my steam account now, that is far more than I've ever owned before in my life, and I've been playing games since commodore 64 days. Yes, the landscape now is different from what it used to be, but it has its benefits. Plus, where would I store 600 DVD boxes? (profanity) that.

    • Digital purchases were also not really a thing on consoles (or fairly new) when Alan Wake came out. It took a year and a half for it to make its way to PC too.

    • Time moves on, so should you

  • +4

    I have one copy of Alan Wake Franchise that's been sitting in my steam inventory for years waiting for a new home. First to reply gets it :) post your steam ID so I can send to you.

    Fantastic game btw. Nothing else like it.

    • I'd love it if your sure your happy to give it away? Steam ID is: Kendrite if you do.

      Thanks heaps.

      • No worries. Added you to steam to confirm it's you before I send.

    • VERY KIND. LONG LIVE A.WAKE

  • AW and it's two DLC episodes are something special. Ignoring American Nightmare, i'd love Remedy to create a true follow up to the original.

    I guess it's wishful thinking, hoping that with this burst in sales a publisher might take notice and work something out with Remedy for a sequel. Show this title some love!

  • +1

    If you already purchased the Humble Bundle Monthly, you can get 10% the Humble Bundle version of Alan Wake.

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/306301

    • Thanks for that.

  • +2

    This is already free so it's not a deal, but it's not included in the Franchise bundle. It's just a bunch of bonus material stuff which I'm guessing will be removed from the store when the game is. OP you might want to just chuck this in the description too maybe:

    http://store.steampowered.com/app/268560/Alan_Wake_Bonus_Mat…

    • Aaand someone else has already posted it. I love being redundant :D

    • I keep getting "there was a problem adding this to your Steam account" when checking out.

      I've had the base Alan Wake game for years but would like to take advantage of the extras.

      • What are you trying to buy?

        • It worked fine shortly after posting. Must have been a glitch with my Steam client.

          Cheers anyway.

  • And this is the reason why its still good to own a physical copy.

    • Yep. Tempted to buy an Xbox 360 copy now.

      • I've got it digitally but did cave and grabbed an X360 copy on the weekend - not entirely sure why but did feel like the right thing to do at the time if for no other reason than for nostalgia!

    • +5

      I get what you're trying to say, but in this particular case it's just being removed from sale, but not being removed from those who have already purchased it

  • So $0.10 cheaper than Steam/Humble with GOG but you can't get the Bonus Materials?

    • Well more than 10c due to currency difference in value

  • So say I purchase thisE before 3am tomorrow morning and add the free DLC before 3am as well does that mean I will be safe and have everything included? Or do I have to mke sure everthing is downloaded before 3am as well?

  • +3

    Thank goodness our archivist / librarian friends in the torrenting community will help keep this piece of culture and art available in the future.

    Downvotes incoming?

    • Some very old games is hard to find using the torrent. Even when you do, there are no seed. That where GOG or Steam (or any other digital platform) shines.

      • Thanks goodness for a variety of sources.

        It's a shame when old art disappears due to licensing/ IP law. Old BBC Radio shows disappeared in a stock fire… My grandpa wishes torrenting were legal for this very reason.

  • Not sure what the issue is in this case, old games went out of print and you had to hunt around for the discs, dodgy scratched disks in ratty packaging. This came out on discs, hunt around for the discs if that is your thing. Honestly if you haven't bought it by now its your fault if you miss out on the convenient digital version,

    This came out 7 years ago…

    On the flipside I can now buy stacks of those hard to find physical copy only games from the 80s and 90s digitally.

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