Changes to OpenTTD Distribution on Steam • Hacker News Board

Re: Changes to OpenTTD Distribution on Steam

#11

Post by Nition » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 10:47 PM UTC

tonypapousek wrote: post #10

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #3

This seems quite positive to me: Clearly the rightsholders are not being total jerks since they're happy to allow an OpenTTD bundle, and the original game is available with modern fixes as well.

> If you already own OpenTTD on Steam, nothing changes. You’ll continue to receive game updates as usual. If you ever need to re-download the game, the game will remain in your Steam library. This part of the announcement was nice, too. It would suck if existing users had it deleted from their libraries.

Steam is really good about that kind of thing. Not quite the same, but I have a couple of games on my account that haven't been sold on the store for years, and I can still download them any time. I don't think there's any way for publishers to really remove a game that's already been purchased.

Re: Changes to OpenTTD Distribution on Steam

#12

Post by II2II » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 10:53 PM UTC

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #5

It would be nice if someone could provide some explanation as to why this situation is necessary. Did Atari's lawyers go full tilt?

Who knows, though I always thought that it was rather odd that OpenTTD was on Steam. I'm not sure whether that's because it is an open source remake or because you had to own the original for the graphics/sound assets back in the day. (Apparently that changed over 15 years ago!)

Even if Atari's lawyers were involved, it may have been a friendly exchange. The post claims that OpenTTD was available on Steam for 5 years. That is more than enough time for them to apply legal pressure. It's also worth noting that the open source version is still available from the project website, as are the open assets.

Re: Changes to OpenTTD Distribution on Steam

#13

Post by koolala » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 10:56 PM UTC

Atari got a game I like called Awesomenauts and revived it from being shutdown F2P to $20. They paid an old dev to get it playable on a temporary contract. Though it has a few rough qualities I'm glad it's playable again.

Re: Changes to OpenTTD Distribution on Steam

#14

Post by TylerE » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 10:56 PM UTC

jjmarr wrote: post #4

I like Simutrans more because the cargo and passengers have destinations in mind. TTD and OpenTTD do not which incentivizes mechanisms to dump everyone at the edge of the map. Aside from that they're both transport games with bad UIs.

Why the simutrans folks decided on a weird hardcoded frame rate (40fps) that looks janky as hell on every single display ever I will never understand. Unplayable. instant motion sickness.

Re: Changes to OpenTTD Distribution on Steam

#15

Post by ocdtrekkie » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 10:58 PM UTC

rasz wrote: post #7

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #3

This seems quite positive to me: Clearly the rightsholders are not being total jerks since they're happy to allow an OpenTTD bundle, and the original game is available with modern fixes as well.

More likely they were jerks and blackmailed openttd into bundle on the threat of forcing them off steam altogether.

They legally own the assets. Taking them off Steam if the title is no longer abandoned by the publisher is a 100% reasonable decision, so you need to understand this is above and beyond what the publisher needs to do.

An outcome like this more than likely means the folks working on the rerelease are fans of OpenTTD and worked internally to protect it.

Re: Changes to OpenTTD Distribution on Steam

#16

Post by denotational » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 10:59 PM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #3

This seems quite positive to me: Clearly the rightsholders are not being total jerks since they're happy to allow an OpenTTD bundle, and the original game is available with modern fixes as well.

Given the “rightsholders” have no rights over OpenTTD (only the assets are copyrightable, and OpenTTD has had its own set of open-source assets for the past 15 years), I can’t agree with this.

I’m not sure how to interpret this other than Atari not wanting to compete with OpenTTD on Steam.

Re: Changes to OpenTTD Distribution on Steam

#17

Post by integralid » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 11:03 PM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #15

rasz wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More likely they were jerks and blackmailed openttd into bundle on the threat of forcing them off steam altogether.

They legally own the assets. Taking them off Steam if the title is no longer abandoned by the publisher is a 100% reasonable decision, so you need to understand this is above and beyond what the publisher needs to do. An outcome like this more than likely means the folks working on the rerelease are fans of OpenTTD and worked internally to protect it.

Are you sure the stream version has proprietary assets? I was under impression that they had some open assets, but I may be wrong.

Re: Changes to OpenTTD Distribution on Steam

#18

Post by Krutonium » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 11:03 PM UTC

II2II wrote: post #12

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #5

It would be nice if someone could provide some explanation as to why this situation is necessary. Did Atari's lawyers go full tilt?

Who knows, though I always thought that it was rather odd that OpenTTD was on Steam. I'm not sure whether that's because it is an open source remake or because you had to own the original for the graphics/sound assets back in the day. (Apparently that changed over 15 years ago!) Even if Atari's lawyers were involved, it may have been a friendly exchange. The post claims that OpenTTD was available on Steam for 5 years…

As someone who has been involved in OpenRCT2, which is another Chris Sawyer/Atari game, from what I can tell, Atari has a very hands off approach to these things.

We know they know about us - We saw their Head of PR giving away keys for RCT2 on Twitch while playing OpenRCT2, prior to the release of RCT World (What a terrible game sadly).

As far as we can tell, it's basically a "don't cause us problems and we won't bother you" situation.

Re: Changes to OpenTTD Distribution on Steam

#19

Post by monster_truck » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 11:04 PM UTC

TylerE wrote: post #14

jjmarr wrote: post #4

I like Simutrans more because the cargo and passengers have destinations in mind. TTD and OpenTTD do not which incentivizes mechanisms to dump everyone at the edge of the map. Aside from that they're both transport games with bad UIs.

Why the simutrans folks decided on a weird hardcoded frame rate (40fps) that looks janky as hell on every single display ever I will never understand. Unplayable. instant motion sickness.

Came here to say this, was an instant bounce for me.

Re: Changes to OpenTTD Distribution on Steam

#20

Post by TuxMark5 » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 11:05 PM UTC

This doesn't feel right for me. OpenTTD is so much superior in every way compared to the original TTD, that noone in their right mind would ever play the original. So Atari now, while spending zero effort compared to the years of work that OpenTTD devs put in, will basically sell OpenTTD as if was their own creation. People who buy the new TTD will simply play OpenTTD anyway, since it's so much better.

I might be wrong, but it feels like Atari are like parasites in this situation feeding off the hard work of OpenTTD devs.