Installing Magicka without Steam

[AdkEric]

Is it possible to install Magicka without Steam?

I've been eying this game for awhile as I think it looks intriguing and something that might be fun to play with friends. I was about to purchase it as part of Paradox's Halloween sale today but then saw as part of the information on the game:

Additional Information
Requires Steam account for game installation and activation.

The above being a deal breaker for me as I personally boycott Steam and under absolutely no circumstance will I make use of it. I'm not looking to start an argument (as often happens) about the goodness/badness of Steam I'm just wishing to know if there's a version that is not Steam dependent, so I can purchase that one. If so, awesome and I'll go and buy that. If not, alas I have to pass on the game.

Whatever the answer, thanks in advance for the info.

 

[safferli]

Unfortunately, you cannot install Magicka without Steam, as it uses features provided by Steam as far I understand it.

 

[zenstar]

Steam only.

 

[unmerged(17083)]

I was also anti-steam but bought Arctic War: Naval Circle, a steam game. I found out that there are various levels of Steam service that game companies can subscribe to. Magica uses steam for install and auto-updates. There is no DRM or anything like that. No root-level drivers or other malware. If you are anti-steam because you are concerned about these things then you might want to reconsider. You still need to check out each game on an individual bases to decide what steam services they use.

 

[Psyflash]

Also: steam has evolved a lot. It's not the clunky application it used to be anymore. It doesn't get in your way, and you don't have to start it whenever you start your computer. You can close it again after you finished playing your game. Just think of it as a browser. In stead of visiting websites, you download and launch games that you have purchased. And just like a browser you can kill it whenever you want it out of the way.

 

[zenstar]

Technically Steam itself is DRM since you need to be authorized to run your games (they have a cached auth so you can go offline, but you still need to be authed at some point).
And I agree with Psyflash: Steam has come a long way and you only need it to be open when you want to play Steam games, but as the OP said: they have their reasons and this isn't a Steam vs Non-Steam thread.

 

[whitebear]

Yes, and now even the offline state works correctly on all games as long as you have ran them at least once before in online state.

 

[Keksus]

As far as I know Magicka uses Steamworks, so even if you wanted to, you couldn't play the game online without resorting to Steam. I have not had any bad experiences with the platform though, and Magicka is a smooth experience on Steam.