1/27/2024 0 Comments Simairport upload to steamI care way, way, way more about sales than I care about 'personalization.' I am just about never going to buy something at full retail apart from daily essentials. I think most personalization features on marketplaces are kind of overrated. But that's the only one I can really think of. The other day, the only good recommendation I've seen in a long time came up: Battle Brothers has a new DLC, even long after the devs said they were not going to make any. My guess is that because those games are so inexpensive, they probably sell a ton of units irrespective of price and category, and if the system is optimized to show stuff that is moving a lot of units in a short period of time, it will bubble to the top. A couple years later, I realized that blacklisting anime actually blacklisted all Japanese games entirely - even those without an anime art style, which is too bad. But then I just get lots of trash tier roguelikes. Despite never having purchased an anime visual novel, played one, or even looked at a store page for one, Steam advertised them to me nonstop on the front page. Steam's discovery and categorization are pretty awful. This is the advantage that the consoles still have, and the success rates there are much higher because of the higher upfront costs and efforts keeping out low-effort content. If I could pay $500 or $5000 to launch on a much less cluttered and supportive Steam store, I would gladly pay that. Otherwise if the status quo continues, legitimate developers will face far higher advertising and PR costs (and time). To me the greater shame is the professional game launched to few sales, leading to the permanent exit of that creator from the industry, and perhaps their financial ruination, rather than a higher fee meaning a few less school kids and hobbyists uploading their weekend project.Īll of this is poison to discuss online though, because many of the people filling the comments section on Steamworks and Reddit are the people who would be filtered out if the Steam Direct fee was increased. The $500 could still be recouped to the creator at a certain sales level. I really think Valve should increase the Steam Direct fee to $500 - test it out, and see if that makes a meaningful impact by decreasing the total number of launches but increasing average quality. If we want to encourage professional-quality games (even from one person), this fee does not represent that level of quality. Its clear instead that the $100 Steam Direct fee is too low. Currently, there are 205 launching each week (and growing), so there would need to be a reduction to 34% of the current level.Ĭuration is just not going to work with that volume. I'd propose that the platform can digest about 70 new games each week, which is the number of slots on the 'new and trending' page. The question is: what is the correct number of new games, and how can that number be reached most efficiently? The platform cannot handle the volume of games being added. The problem is that Steam is getting so filled with games (often of poor quality) that there simply isn't enough 'visibility' to go around. Otherwise you basically get the Youtube model of lowest common denominator drivel. My take is that if we want both indie games to be a thing and have good indie games, then maybe Valve should pay attention to this sort of feedback and make sure the hard-working, full-time indie devs are getting enough attention to be sustainable. Grey Alien points out considering other avenues of revenue, but how they mostly just don't show the same level of sales. I think indie devs mostly understand this, but I think its totally reasonable to call out what the current situation is. But just as is the case with any marketplace, they do not serve the interests of indie developers first, they serve the interests of the marketplace owner first (in this case Valve). The audience is there, understands the platform, and uses it extensively. Steam is a bit of a linchpin for indie game success for better or worse. He's been doing this for a long time and so I think he's a really great resource for this type of discussion. For context, Grey Alien is responsible for one of this year's best GDC talks about how to survive in the indie world for 10 years without a hit.
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