Steam

I don't know if Steam is good. I never used it. But surely many people bought games distributed through Steam and never had any problems.
The main issue might be that you have to be online to start a game of SEV.

You can buy the game directly from SFI aswell. They offer a boxed copy and a download only version. I would choose the boxed version, unless you do not live in the USA.

Not that the versions sold on Steam and directly through SFI are english only.

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You need to get the Steam client first then log with it on your account. That account must have been configured when you first bought the game. Then go to the game tab, from there you can look at all the games you procured from them and start to download those on your computer or computers (it can be installed on several systems). Once the download is done it will be installed and patched automaticaly. You can start the game from that dialog box or have a shortcut placed on your desktop.

Enjoy your games!

I have another question about steam, regarding PBW games. If steam automatically updates SEV for you, what happens when you are already playing a game with an older version. As in a 1.44 game when the next patch comes out?

You may encounter some issues with that, but you can disable automatic updates for space empires if you have a game you wish to continue. You can't revert to older versions, however.

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I guess I'm lucky then, as I have a store bought copy, I was just curious as I've recently gotten into PBW games and was wondering how steam copies, if there are any in the games I'm playing, would affect me.

Thanks for the replies though, never did get the whole steam thing myself, seems kind of annoying.

Steam is annoying! I know two of my friends & myself all got SEV via steam and we have all bought a second copy of SEV because of the way it patches and the problems that steam causes in PBW games.

I would avoid steam at all costs.

Forget steam shell out the couple extra clams and buy from the store.
my $.02
Groovy Baby Yeah!

If you don't have SE IV already, get SE V from GameStop.
I got SE V from GameStop, and the SE V package they sell includes SE IV Deluxe with some SE IV mods. Two games and then some for the price of one!

Edit:
Almost forgot, they sold it for only $15! (despite having to have a copy shipped from another GameStop because they had none in stock at the time)
I love that place, they care about gamers/games, and aren't just in it for the money.