Monday, April 8th 2019
"Steam Was Killing PC Gaming", Former Valve Dev Says
The EPIC confrontation with Valve has become a hot topic in recent months, as a veritable Exodus of titles have migrated to the greener, 12%-limited cut that the EPIC Games Store takes from publishers who put their games on the EPIC Games Store digital storefront. Mostly, user reception of EPIC's practice of securing mostly one-year timed exclusivity deals for games that would otherwise also be available through Steam has left a sour taste oin gamers' mouths, as it is seen as a forced way for EPIC to fracture the PC gaming space.
However, a former Valve developer has come forth to say that in his view, Valve's 30% cut was already way behind the times, and was actually "killing PC gaming". The train of thought is that Steam itself changed Valve from a software company to what mostly amounts to a service provider, with Steam serving as a veritable digital money printing machine, that stole focus from games to games publishing, due to higher margins and much lower development costs. It's interesting - and logical - to assume that the reason an Half Life 3 never saw the light of day was because Valve had its revenue stream well secured in Steam. Why invest for a game that could be a flop, when you can just take a 30% cut from other developers' efforts?
Of course, the argument does make some sense. At the same time, it's true that Valve's Steam platform did advance gaming for publishers more than is being let on - a 40% royalty on digitally published games beat the usually 50% take that brick-and-mortar stores usually took in order to reserve shelf space for a new game release. However, as times changed and digital publishing became more commonplace (and game development costs rise and rise), it's understandable that a 30% cut was hitting a new sustainability ceiling for developers. And that's where Richard Geldreich's argument makes more sense: a 12% cut will allow for developers to invest more heavily into their games due to the much reduced revenue cut they have to take into account on projected sales.
That, or they'll invest the same amount of money and take a deeper cut for investors. It could go both ways.
Source:
@Richard Geldreich's Twitter
However, a former Valve developer has come forth to say that in his view, Valve's 30% cut was already way behind the times, and was actually "killing PC gaming". The train of thought is that Steam itself changed Valve from a software company to what mostly amounts to a service provider, with Steam serving as a veritable digital money printing machine, that stole focus from games to games publishing, due to higher margins and much lower development costs. It's interesting - and logical - to assume that the reason an Half Life 3 never saw the light of day was because Valve had its revenue stream well secured in Steam. Why invest for a game that could be a flop, when you can just take a 30% cut from other developers' efforts?
98 Comments on "Steam Was Killing PC Gaming", Former Valve Dev Says
And the price cut itself shown the claim was not legit (without any "Bonus under the table").
If they are doing the same prices as it would be on steam, there is no benefit for consumers, just an attempt for their own monopoly.
What a sad story.
But this isn't really about you or me, its about making the point of usability and exposure (which is the topic subject and argument it puts forward here). Can you see those problems, or do you disagree on that?
Don't really care about having different stores, that's a good thing. I have different stores to buy groceries from and they too have products exclusive to them.
Steam vs EPIC? GoG.
I only have spare time to rant on TPU on smoke breaks and play 1 game at a time for a couple of hours in the evening. I also have a habit of getting the most out of my games (e.g. completing it several times, unlocking most achievements, finding all secrets until I get totally bored and ready to move on).
Some games were launch-date purchases (Agony, Quake Champions before F2P, DOOM), some were nostalgic/compulsive purchases (Shadow of War, Crysis, Outlast 2 etc), some were on sale, some cost me upwards of $30, some were bundles. In the long run it does not matter - I am spending money on games, devs make profit, Steam gets their share, just the way it's meant to work.
Its pretty amazing how its so hard for people to step out of their personal frame of reference... man. Also, it may not matter to you. But in the long run it certainly does matter when and how a game gets sold. Developers make the lions' share of profit on a game in the early days and weeks post-release. Its why we have things like pre-orders to begin with.
That's why I never bought a game from an online store, even if I have several accounts (play free Quake Champions, Apex Legends for a while, then got bored).
Pretty much only auto-workers and government employees are unionized anymore in the USA. Workers that aren't unionized are happier.
Then gamers go into a fit over DRM but when you mention Steam being the biggest DRM service the PC gaming world has ever seen they say, that's different because..........
Epic has said when they launched their store that they intended to one day rival Steam. If they do succeed and they maintain their store properly and take care of security then how can that be bad for us? Worst case they end up as being just another Origin. I have 5 games on Origin because I have to but I never have any hassle running them when I want to so it doesn't bother me.
There is a list of Steam games on a Wiki that don't require you to be connected to the net to start them.
I mean how retarded it is to launch the store app first in order to play the game of your choosing??!?
Is like in order for you to wear your Adidas, Nike or Puma snickers you have to go to their stores first!! Mind blown.
they are also stupider and don't realise they are getting shafted.
I guess what I really wanted to say by small was in terms of big name games (AAA or AA titles). Looking at my wishlist, none of the games are available on GOG (no Assassin's Creed, Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter World, Nier Automata, Final Fantasy, the newer Wolfensteins). My bad for not explaining properly.
The Japanese games are probably never going to make it there since they love their drm. :\
As to GOG, if you didn’t know, CDPR is the parent company, and they are trimming expenses as they try to get Cyberpunk 2077 ready for release, since their last major release was 4 years ago. Other CDPR releases since have been lackluster, all combined to make money just a little tight.
GOG has never been a big moneymaker for CDPR. It’s purpose is to provide as many games as they can negotiate for DRM-free.