You know... it helps when you post your reply in the right thread:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/valve_announces_new_revenue_split_rules_to_attract_bigbudget_productions_too_little_too_late/post12 Otherwise somebody might get justifiably upset you are putting somebody else's words in their... quotation.
TheGrand547: Huh, and here I thought that GOG's acquisition of new titles was a real and tangible competition to Steam already.
chosenvault: gogs irrelevant these days, fail to see the reason for them on your argument.
Is there any specific objection to GOG's existence in your mind, or are you just generally dismissing GOG "because?" They certainly are an alternative choice for both publishers/developers and purchasers.
fortune_p_dawg: I think you are missing the point here, in that having a bunch of smaller monopolies (at least as far as distribution rights to their own exclusive titles are concerned) is not exactly that beneficial to gamers, either.
chosenvault: Competitions always good for customers. Even having several behemoths fighting each others thats superior to having just a single fat complacent behemoth like now
You do realize that publishers going exclusive through their own distro service is exactly the opposite of "competition?"
"Competition" is having a bunch of stores all offering a reasonably similar catalogue of games. That's competition.
fortune_p_dawg: Well, excuse me for acknowledging realities of the market.
chosenvault: That reality might have been true a few years ago. that aint true these days. These "realities" arent set on stone.
I notice how diligently you provided some kind of proof that Steam is no longer controlling market share large enough to dwarf every other distro service combined.
Heh.
fortune_p_dawg: And a not-insignificant amount goes to small indie studios that allow people with a passion for gaming to make a profession out of it. Even if a lot of them fail, for various reasons.
chosenvault: The indie darlings dont count. And yes, those getting that notsoinsignificant amount are the indie darlings. they dont represent indies as whole. theres many tiers of indies. For every indie darling hit, every johathan blow, or camposanto, theres hundreds of bedroom devs that will have to keep their dayjobs.
So.. those indie studios who, somehow, manage to succeed "do not count?" We should only shed crocodile tears over those that, for whatever reason, do fail? Although, as an aside, I know of several cases where it was truly and genuinely saddening, considering personal appeal of their game and dedication toward its development.
You certainly have a very selective approach to these matters.
fortune_p_dawg: Based on all the comments I heard from actual game developers? Absolutely.
chosenvault: Being or steam or having zero revenue aint an optimal or meaningful option. And thats the outcome for indies, either on steam, or wait tables. Being "better than nothing" shouldnt be the bar. Steam these days aint much diferent to the appstore or playstore when it comes to revenue for 99% devs.
I guess you never talked with somebody who self-published, or used itch.io, or GOG itself.
Just because Steam is a market necessity, it does not mean they are the only place you can viably use to publish. You know. "Competition."
fortune_p_dawg: Visibility is a known and acknowledged issue, but even if you get a 0.001% of Steam customers, that's still a significant amount. And whether you like it or not, the overwhelming majority of PC gamers are on Steam.
There are over 1.5
million of users playing various games through Steam right now (and that's just based on top-100 list). For an indie, even a sliver of that market is absolutely worth listing on Steam.
chosenvault: Funny you add visibitlity, as steam used to have thse "visibility rounds" available to every dev, by which they could use them after their game was released, and well out of the main page, to get new attention to it. It used to be that every round put back their game to the mainstore for several days, getting new trafic and potential customers. Every round got huge trafic spikes to the game's store page.Two years ago, they changed the rounds to be visible only to customers that had the game on their wishlist, crippling their use, as they were now only useful to games with huge wishlists. Visibility for games outside their banner "NEW GAME NOW" these days negligeble.
Well, duh? From what I heard, Steam makes more money on advertisement expenditures by publishers/developers than actual sales.
The point of getting even a tiny sliver of Steam's overall market reach is still valid, though, and very much the reason indies do publish on Steam.
fortune_p_dawg: I'm sure you conducted a detailed statistical study to back up these comments.
chosenvault: yes i did. For the past two years after PUBG came out, more than 50% of steams playerbase are asian PUBG players who only play PUBG are only on steam due to PUBG being steam only. used to be even higher % until fortnite took a huge chunk of that playersbase.
Right. You know that by contacting a statistically significant portion of the 50% steam player base.
Never mind that PUGB player count is nowhere near 50% of Steams' player count in the first place as you claim.
fortune_p_dawg: Because I'm looking at current breakdown of players, and the "play the other games on top 100 list" is a pretty damn high percentage. Yes, the three most played titles are Dota, CS, and PUBG, but that does not mean people mainly playing that are not potential customers, either.
chosenvault: Most of those players will only play those games and thats it. Do agree with that you mentioned about the top most played games.
Can I borrow that crystal ball or whatever it is that gives you such immediate and decisive insight into spending habits of hundreds of thousands of gamers? I know a bunch of people who'd pay big bucks for similar information.
chosenvault: They havent changed in years. The 99% are playing the exact games and have been for close to five years now. And those games are more like a lifestyle to those players, much like fortnite, whuch i bet most of their players stick to fortnite only. Steam's fates to become a graveyard of Valve games, indie games without marketing budgets, asset flips, youtuber bait, simulator games, and shoddy shovelware from russian devs.
Yes, because it's not like Steam releases some of the most anticipated titles along. Or the odd "indie darling" title hitting it big.
chosenvault: They are trying to design new methods to play games diferently, unlike the boring "cram a video card on a plastic case" strategy which the competitors have been doing. And should i add, the competitors have copied them more than a few times.
Enjoy your mobile gaming. I'd rather stick with the more challenging, and complex, PC games.
