Developers don’t, though. If you don’t release your game on Steam, you might as well not release it. They could have ended up with a lot worse than Steam though, so at least there’s that.
What is their fault is using their monopoly status to charge 30% of sales for an online storefront. For many games, Steam’s cut is the single largest expense.
If you’re a developer of a game being sold on Steam, Gabe Newell’s personal cut on the game that wasn’t produced, published, or marketed by him or any company he owns is more than yours because he charges an unconscionable toll for the storefront.
If Steam charged 5% instead of 30% they’d still be making a killing, but since they have an an effective monopoly it doesn’t matter.
I’m not assigning blame on them, and it doesn’t make sense that they would voluntarily do something to compromise their own business model, unless they fear regulatory oversight or serious competition (which, let’s be honest, aren’t happening) and decide to self-regulate instead.
Regardless, any change would come from outside factors.
They don’t have to push Steam DRM on devs. They could just leave stuff open like on GOG… They could use a scaling model of fees based on the popularity one’s games receive, since people have said the current levels are prohibitive for micro indie devs…
You did not answer the question. Developers that self publish are repying purely on word of mouth marketing. Its rarely successful. Minecraft is very rare exception.
I learn about vintage story from a very obscure video on youtube a few years ago. I never see any media talking about it. Lemmy is the only place i see people occasionally talking about it.
Yeah, sure.
Developers don’t, though. If you don’t release your game on Steam, you might as well not release it. They could have ended up with a lot worse than Steam though, so at least there’s that.
Plenty of indie developers on itch.io
But how exactly is that steams fault? What should they do to remedy that?
What is their fault is using their monopoly status to charge 30% of sales for an online storefront. For many games, Steam’s cut is the single largest expense.
If you’re a developer of a game being sold on Steam, Gabe Newell’s personal cut on the game that wasn’t produced, published, or marketed by him or any company he owns is more than yours because he charges an unconscionable toll for the storefront.
If Steam charged 5% instead of 30% they’d still be making a killing, but since they have an an effective monopoly it doesn’t matter.
That 30% is industry standard, steam didn’t even set it. You people are morons
I’m not assigning blame on them, and it doesn’t make sense that they would voluntarily do something to compromise their own business model, unless they fear regulatory oversight or serious competition (which, let’s be honest, aren’t happening) and decide to self-regulate instead.
Regardless, any change would come from outside factors.
They don’t have to push Steam DRM on devs. They could just leave stuff open like on GOG… They could use a scaling model of fees based on the popularity one’s games receive, since people have said the current levels are prohibitive for micro indie devs…
they don’t push steam DRM…devs choose whether they want it or not
I know devs can choose; I didn’t say “force,” after all. But the fact that so very few games are DRM-free bugs me…
That not steams fault so why bring it up?
Not true at all starsector is one of my favs and so is vintage story and before that Minecraft in its early days. Your just straight up wrong.
Yeah, but how did you learn about those games?
not through steam, whats your point relating to this question?
You did not answer the question. Developers that self publish are repying purely on word of mouth marketing. Its rarely successful. Minecraft is very rare exception.
No they’re not, they’re good games and didn’t need steam to get recog ised by the comunity, Im failing to see your point.
I learn about vintage story from a very obscure video on youtube a few years ago. I never see any media talking about it. Lemmy is the only place i see people occasionally talking about it.
Idk what to tell you I found videos about it on YouTube and Iv found plenty.
Was that before or after you filled the algo with VS videos?
Neither of those games have released and at least one of them is planning a Steam release
Of course counterexamples exist (Fortnite probably being the biggest one), but it’s true for the vast majority of releases