Rockstar Social Club and Achievements

[Dreakon13]

Is Rockstar Social Club a gaming distribution service (ala Steam)? Meaning, is it possible to download your game in full from their service? Automatically install patches? Or is it primarily just a community addon/friends list maintainer/servers to play multiplayer on?

I never see any digital stores selling RSC "keys". I've never purchased a physical copy of Max Payne 3 or LA Noire on the PC... but I'm assuming that you don't get a useless disc and a RSC key. You actually have to use the disc to install the game, and find patches online and install them manually... no?

I also don't see a Rockstar Social Club client on my PC, or a RSC store to buy games digitally... just kind of plugin files that work alongside the games I have installed.

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Basically I'm trying to rationalize in my head that GTAV on PC will have Steam achievements. Every Rockstar PC game in the PS3/360 era (keeping in mind that Bully, Manhunt and earlier GTA games were PS2 era/achievement-less originally) has had achievements in at least one distribution service outside of RSC... whether that is GTAIV with Games for Windows Live, or Max Payne 3/LA Noire with Steam. GTAIV didn't have achievements on Steam, yes... but it did have achievements.

Steam is the only digital service where GTAV is available (though, it can't be pre-ordered yet) other than Rockstar Social Club... you don't see it on Origin or uPlay or GOG, and GFWL isn't taking on new games at the moment. Unless this is the first game that is RSC exclusive (which clearly isn't the case as I type this on the Steam boards), considering if what I said above is true and RSC isn't really a "stand alone" distribution service... the reliance on Steam and Steam achievements... it's pretty much a lock, right? RIGHT?!

Humor me please, and go easy on me... I'm just a sweet boy that loves his Steam achievements. ;-]

[nut around the corner]

Social Club isn't a digital distribution service. It's Rockstar's cloud service where you can transfer your GTA Online chars to PC, PS4 and Xbox One. The game downloads completly in Steam and you will only need to log-in Social Club.

[Sponge Platinum]

After delaying the game for 1 year + 2 months I feel like we should get Steam achievements and trading cards. It's the least they can do. Also, no reliance on the actual Social Club would be nice.

[WhiteKnight]

RSC is mainly used for stats tracking, achievements, leaderboards and multiplayer.