Reason behind letting Haulin on Steam but not PttM?

[Zakxaev68]

So these past days I found my PttM CD in quite a bad condition, worn out quite seriously (13+ years old CD disc, AAAH!). The CD drive wouldn't read it past the setup content files. And I immediately thought, what was about SCS letting Haulin to be sold on Steam but older titles aren't provided - HT, PttM?

While I have Hard Truck still working, I miss the latter.

Were licensing issues involved in the process?

[xXCARL1992Xx]

because SCS doest own the rights to the game, the publisher who gave them the task to make them has, thats why not all games are on steam

[Reinhard]

The distribution rights seems to be have been shared between SCS and the publisher. SCS always sold download-copies of the games, while the publisher offered a CD, in a box.

It seems that the publisher's rights, which originally was owned by ValuSoft, was bought by a different publisher called "Retroism". ValueSoft itself is long gone. If the right to publish on Steam was part of the contract between SCS and ValuSoft nobody of us could know. In those days, these niche-market games weren't accepted on Steam.

I doubt anybody who really knows something about it, will tell us. Maybe there was a technical problem, and Retroism wasn't able to make it properly run? Could be any reason.

[Zakxaev68]

Explains it, thanks. After ValuSoft is dead, they couldn't go without approval. Damn you, ValuSoft, for dragging down the games to the grave too.

[Reinhard]

Negative. You misunderstood my point. All these old "18 Wheels of Steel" titles were published by ValuSoft, once. Rights were transferred several times. Closing a company doesn't mean a property is lost. Why PTTM is not on Steam, I have no clue.

[Bandit & The Snowman]

I recently noticed that PTTM is on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3374 ... the_Metal/
Apparently since June 5th, 2020. Looks like SCS got the rights back and re-published the game on the q.t.?

[Reinhard]

I don't think so. That page says: "Publisher: Cosmi Valusoft". As for the other old games.

Seems that Cosmi, which acquired the original Valuesoft company many years ago, brought the titles back into the house.

[Bandit & The Snowman]

I wasn’t sure about this detail, thanks for filling me in. As long as the game is back, that’s the main thing

[Phantom19]

Finally i can sell my PTTM disc and buy the steam version now,time for HT 18WOS to come back to the steam store.

[plykkegaard]

You should be able to use your product key and enable the game on Steam?