Ancient Shadows Bought at Gamersgate Not Compatible with Steam?

[Ceildric]

Hi there,

A couple months ago I bought the AI War Alien Bundle at Gamersgate along with what was at that time a pre-order for the Ancient Shadows expansion.  I've been rather busy and I have a bit of a game backlog so only now getting around to installing and trying the game out, though it looks great so far.

The issue is that all of the serial numbers from the Alien Bundle activate on Steam, but the serial number I got with the Ancient Shadows expansion does not.  Steam says it is invalid.  I also do not see a way in-game to manually add the expansion.  I could of course download the games directly from Gamersgate and install them outside of Steam, but I like to have my games organized in one place as much as possible and of course earn achievements which is usually not doable without some kind of platform like Steam.

Anyway, my question is, is this a bug or is this how it was meant to work (i.e. the Gamersgate version of Ancient Shadows never was meant to be Steam compatible for some reason)?  And if it is a bug, is there any way to resolve it please?

Thank you very much.

[Mánagarmr]

Ancient Shadows hasn't been processed by Valve yet to accept third party keys. It should, hopefully, in the future, be able to register on Steam. Right now though it isn't possible. It took quite some time before AVWW was redeemable on Steam, so it might be a bit.

[Ceildric]

Thanks much for your reply Moonshine Fox.

Since I have all of the earlier content to play through anyway, I am happy to wait for it to get acknowledged by Valve.  Just wanted to know where I stood, and you provided that info.

[keith.lamothe]

I believe if you install the expansion into your steam AIW directory (one place you can download that installer: http://www.arcengames.com/w/index.php/aiwar-downloads ) and enter your expansion key in to the game itself after you start it from steam, you'll be able to get the achievements and so on

[TheRustyLittleNipper]

Ancient Shadows hasn't been processed by Valve yet to accept third party keys. It should, hopefully, in the future, be able to register on Steam. Right now though it isn't possible. It took quite some time before AVWW was redeemable on Steam, so it might be a bit.

Hey,

Is this still the case? or is my AS key just not working? I can play fine by installing straight to the ai wars directory just its not recognized by steam. I get the message "Invalid Product Code"

dunno if i shoulda made a new post but its a similar (same?!?)  issue

[2Ben]

Hi all, any update on this question ? I'd love to play Ancient Shadows on steam...

Thanks !

[keith.lamothe]

We haven't heard anything else from Valve yet, sorry.

But if you have AIW on steam, and use our installer to install Ancient Shadows into your steam version, I don't think you lose any of the benefits of having AS through steam when actually running the game

[chmod007]

We haven't heard anything else from Valve yet, sorry.

It's unfortunate that Valve doesn't resolve these issues in a timely fashion. I certainly appreciate your effort and I have just purchased Ancient Shadows from your store. Thank you all for the great work!

[Diazo]

Just chiming in to confirm that once you have the base game installed on Steam, the source of the expansion packs does not matter.

I running at least 2, if not all 4 expansion packs not registered on Steam, but I get all the Steam features because the base game is Steam registered.

To manually install the expansions, just point the installer at your steam directory. Probably c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\ai war fleet command

D.

[keith.lamothe]

We haven't heard anything else from Valve yet, sorry.

It's unfortunate that Valve doesn't resolve these issues in a timely fashion. I certainly appreciate your effort and I have just purchased Ancient Shadows from your store. Thank you all for the great work!

Thank you for the support

FWIW, don't hold it against Valve; the fact that they take external keys at all is more than a bit of a favor (though obviously they think it's in their best interest or they wouldn't do it), and in general they're great to work with.  This is just one part of their process that hasn't been streamlined, and it tends to show

[Hearteater]

This is just one part of their process that hasn't been streamlined, and it tends to show

I think you mean...steamlined.

[keith.lamothe]

Give that man a rimshot.  Or a headshot.

[chmod007]

FWIW, don't hold it against Valve; the fact that they take external keys at all is more than a bit of a favor (though obviously they think it's in their best interest or they wouldn't do it), and in general they're great to work with.  This is just one part of their process that hasn't been streamlined, and it tends to show

Absolutely. I've been really impressed by Valve many times over, and I think that is cause for high expectations. I certainly appreciate their allowance of external keys and Arcen's pursual to offer that option.

[mrhanman]

Are Ancient Shadows beta keys not recognized either?  I assume so, since mine still isn't accepted.

[tofmin]

Any news? :-) Bought AI War + 3 DLC + AS on GG and key for AS still does not work on Steam.