THQ E-Shop opens in Europe

By Robert Purchese Published 9 March, 2010

Buy Metro 2033, get RF: Guerrilla free.

THQ digital distribution has stretched to Europe today with the launch of the E-Shop.

To drag you away from Steam, THQ will offer anyone pre-ordering promising shooter Metro 2033 a free copy of Red Faction: Guerrilla. What's more, the first 6000 people to pre-order Dawn of War II expansion Chaos Rising get the Librarian Wargear Pack for nothing. Nadda.

THQ's E-Shop is available in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, according to the little flags at the bottom of the site.

Games can be downloaded up to six times (and more should customer support nod) and installed on up to three different PCs - or on the same PC as many times as you like.

Take a butcher's at the THQ E-Shop website to find out more. And do bookmark it, as there may be many Steam defying deals in the future.

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 (19) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • ZuluHero #1 2 years ago

    Wait.. £39.99 for Metro? I'd expect RF free for that price.

    Play has the same deal but for £24.99 (and you get a hard copy)

    [link url=http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/12145888/Metro-2 033/Product.html
    ]http://ww w.play.com/Games/PC/4-/12145888...[/link]

    With no limitations on number of installs :p
    Edited by 2 at 09/03/10 @ 14:47

  • bad09 #2 2 years ago

    I suppose it's really good news they are all starting to take DD seriously, but having all these different accounts with different publishers is just getting boring. While I use 'em (especially EA as all EA games you can blag a cheap retail and unlock it on the store) as they all offer different deals here and there I do kinda like just it all through Steam TBH.

  • jellyhead #3 2 years ago

    I'll stick with Steam thanks. I'll keep an eye on things but i can't see myself adopting yet another DD client.

    So will they be charging for the 'Librarian pack' then? 0_o yuch.

  • Yeevle #4 2 years ago

    STEAM.

  • StarchildHypocrethes #5 2 years ago

    Didn't Steam have exactly the same offer as this anyway?

  • ignatiusjreilly #6 2 years ago

    I love Steam but I'd be quite happy to use more than one DD service.

    But you have to give me a reason to - when your product is more expensive and more restricted than both Steam and retail, what possible reason is there for me to be interested?

  • Rirekon #7 2 years ago

    Uh EG.. the THQ shop opened in Europe 2 weeks ago...
    Also AFAIK games which are available via Steam can be unlocked in Steam using the code provided by the THQ shop
    Edited by 1 at 09/03/10 @ 15:59

  • jonfon #8 2 years ago

    E-Shop?

    Cue lots of confused ravers installing it looking to get sorted for their Saturday night.

    "'Ere mate, where are the speckled mitzis listed, innit?"
    Edited by 1 at 09/03/10 @ 16:04

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #9 2 years ago

    Uh EG.. the THQ shop opened in Europe 2 weeks ago...

    Fair enough. Press release trumpeting it's opening arrived today. May have been a soft launch back then.

    Also AFAIK games which are available via Steam can be unlocked in Steam using the code provided by the THQ shop

    Snazz. That makes sense, given THQ's support of Steam so far. I wonder if that will change.

    Thanks for pointing these bits out by the way. I don't ever learn them if you guys don't speak up.

  • Bloodhunter #10 2 years ago

    also, for 29.99 you get RFG free on steam anyway with metro 2033

    there is absoloutely nooooo advantage of buying from there

    except for DoW 2 which was £5 last weekend.
    Edited by 1 at 09/03/10 @ 16:23

  • Rirekon #11 2 years ago

    @Bertie;
    No worries, go figure they'd press-release after the event heh

  • FogHeart #12 2 years ago

    We're getting to the point where we could do with a website to find what the cheapest digital download deal is, like Google shopping does for household goods.

  • Freki #13 2 years ago

    Remind me again why I should buy direct from the publisher so cutting out a lot of distribution and retailer costs and yet still have to pay almost twice as much as buying a hard copy from Play for the Dawn of War 2 expansion? They haven't really got the hang of this it seems...

  • xenon_md #14 2 years ago

    Metro 2033 was available for pre-order on Steam for £29.99 with a free copy of RFG, its now ominously unavailable for purchase in my steam listing!
    Edited by 1 at 09/03/10 @ 17:21

  • jellyhead #15 2 years ago

    Same here. I can see it on Steam and it says it unlocks in a week but there's no order button as far as i can tell.

  • bad09 #16 2 years ago

    @ xenon_md

    Oh yeah, I hope it don't come back 40 notes, I was gonna nab that off Steam instead of buying AC2 :(

  • Bloodhunter #17 2 years ago

    Hmm, in other countries, I've only checked sweden, france and usa, its possible to pre order it and get rfg

    odd, publishers seem to be doing some funky stuff on steam in the UK atm.

  • jellyhead #18 2 years ago

    I find it amusing when you get a digital distribution with limited downloads. It's almost like they want you to download it and burn the setup files to dvd or store them on your own drive. Kind of defeats the point a little in my view :)

  • jonfon #19 2 years ago

    "I find it amusing when you get a digital distribution with limited downloads"

    Agreed. Had personal experience with it during the week from a Music website. Actually bought 2 albums but one kept freezing at the end of the download of the zip, so was corrupt every time. Tried it a few times along with sending them a message. Got an automated response to try it from my Account page where it was also listed. Imagine my surprise when that too froze and then their site announced I'd gone over my allowed number of d/ls (even though as far as I was concerned none completed) so I can't get it now. Still waiting for their Customer "Service" people to get back to me. Idiots.

    Last time I use that service. No mention of the limited #downloads unless you bury into their T&Cs as well. Bah!