Last Remnant activation hiccup fixed

By Robert Purchese Published 23 March, 2009

Euro copies cleared on Steam.

Square Enix and Valve have fixed the Steam activation problem preventing The Last Remnant from being installed and played. Even our copy now works - hooray!

Purchasers of the Japanese role-playing game, released last Friday, had been told installation was not possible until the game launched on Steam. That day, however, doesn't arrive until 9th April.

The Last Remnant still cannot be purchased on Steam, but retailer-bought copies can be activated now without incident.

The PC version of The Last Remnant arrives four months after Xbox 360 launch and adds a choice of Japanese or English voice-overs, improved character animations and the option for multiple leaders to form unions, whatever that means.

Welcome changes, but probably too timid to impact the middle-of-the-road console reception. Head over to our review of The Last Remnant to find out why.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (8) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Darren #1 3 years ago

    There's as good a reason as any not to buy games through Steam. Another is the fact that you can buy it cheaper than their asking price of £29.99 online anyway, e.g. GAME have it for £24.99 and I'm sure it can be found cheaper elsewhere.

    Someone remind me again what the point of digital distribution services like Steam is? It's certainly not for buying games cheaper or earlier, that's for sure.

  • Darren #2 3 years ago

    The Last Remnant is £23.04 at Amazon by the way. ;)

  • trancers #3 3 years ago

    and on EU steam it cost 39.99€

  • thesombrerokid #4 3 years ago

    shopto.nets selling it for 22 pounds

  • Aretak #5 3 years ago

    QVC sneaking up with a Today's Special Value at £21.37.

  • UncleLou #6 3 years ago

    "Someone remind me again what the point of digital distribution services like Steam is? It's certainly not for buying games cheaper or earlier, that's for sure."

    No disc needed, multiple copies if you play on different PCs, no silly box cluttering your shelves.

    I am at a point where I prefer DD if it costs the same. Why Steam is often so much more expensive noone knows, though. Although the differences in Germany aren't that dramatic, as PC games don't get sold nearly as cheap as in the UK.

    And the whole story here was hardly a drama - a miscommunication between Square and Steam regarding the release day, which was fixed the very same day.
    Edited by 2 at 23/03/09 @ 13:36

  • sneetch #7 3 years ago

    @Darren
    There's as good a reason as any not to buy games through Steam. Another is the fact that you can buy it cheaper than their asking price of £29.99 online anyway, e.g. GAME have it for £24.99 and I'm sure it can be found cheaper elsewhere.

    Indeed, since the introduction of Euro/Sterling pricing it sure as hell isn't cheaper. You're crazy to buy new games from Steam. Unless you live a thousand miles from the nearest game store and you must play it instantly (or rather after downloading).

    Someone remind me again what the point of digital distribution services like Steam is? It's certainly not for buying games cheaper or earlier, that's for sure.

    Let's be fair here, this was an isolated incident. It was a failure on either Square's or Valves part (or both) but this is the only case I ever heard of anything like this happening with Steam.

    That said, Steam was never cheap: they always sold games at full RRP but they used the US RRP so, with favourable conversion rates, it was cheaper than over here in Europe. Right now it's between €10-20 more expensive than main street stores near me for relatively new titles and a hell of a lot more expensive for games a few months old.

    As for playing earlier I pre-ordered L4D from Steam and could play it when it launched in the US, mind you that was buying a Valve game in dollars back in, what, November(?) so I saved money and played it early then.

    Now regional pricing has been introduced, no you probably won't get games earlier or cheaper anymore. The only thing Steam has going for it is the convenience factor and for impulse buying games, mind you, their prices don't encourage impulse buying.

    Apart from Zeno Clash at 50% off (€8) I haven't bought a thing on their service since they introduced regional prices. I've bought several games locally that I would have previously bought on Steam (Empire Total War, DOW II and so on) as I don't really want the boxes cluttering up my apartment any more but I'm not paying more for less.

  • miiiguel #8 3 years ago

    This thing kinda proves that perception rules. Steam had the luck of geting good word of mouth for some reason, now they can do whatever they want.