Early Start on Steam?

[WolfzheaD]

I'm curious. The Store tells me that the launch date for Rift is March 1st and as such the game is locked until then. However, the early start will of course run from Feb 24th. Will steam users be able to download and access in time for the early start? Or is it actually locked to March 1st?

I'm curious as this will decide wether I buy from here, or elsewhere.

Thanks :-]

[WolfzheaD]

I've just noticed the other post on this subject. But it only covers whether we are entitled to enter the early start. Not whether we can download it from steam as of the 24th or not. So would still appreciate some info on this.

[corwiniii]

You'll be able to download it either way from either Steam or Trion. I bought it from D2D, but the beta downloads are on my Trion account. I would think it will be the same for the Head Start release game.

[WolfzheaD]

alright cool. Will give it a whirl. Cheers :-]

[immelbatoast]

You can already download the game client through steam today if you wanted, and use the code to create your Trion account. You just can't patch it because you need to login to download patches, and Trion isn't offering the patches until headstart.

I'm not sure why Steam calls it "locked", since you can already download everything steam has to offer (client & key), LOL

And if you wanted to participate in the final beta before headstart, beware that there are 2 separate clients, the game client (through steam), and a beta client (through the trion website). :)

[_dp]

Steam does only offer the downloader for the actual files, so you download the "updater/installer" via steam and then the RIFT updater download its files from trion.
Either way you aren't connected/limited only to steam if you buy it this way. Was the same with aion.
However, your code/account is registered as a preorder-code so you'll have access to head start either way.

So this won't be a problem after all.

[Askjosh]

It should be noted that patches will most likely be available starting the day after the last beta ends. so you will have about 24 to 36 hours before the head start begins to download the final release client.

[WolfzheaD]

kk sounds good to me. about the 2 clients.. yeah already got the beta client from last weekends beta run, just waiting for the updated patches for open beta to go up.

cheers for the info guys :-]