Death Dealer
Member
It is to me.
Notch speaks again about Minecraft not being on Steam
- Thread starter Omikaru
- Start date
It is to me.
Confidence Man
Member
I wouldn't either.
What do you mean "supposed to be", I can't recall a time when Steam was ever meant to serve that purpose solely.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Its too bad since Id like a more non-pain in the ass way to gift the game to friends. "His bar, his rules" so cant really do much bout him not wanting to put it up on there.
pants
Member
Thats kinda crazy (in a good way). I guess they get their moneys worth so to speak from a potential growth to the steam userbase.
Xbox is a closed system. PC isn't. No one can release anything on a console without getting a license. PC you don't need to get a license to release anything. Steam and an Xbox aren't comparable in this aspect.
CosmicQueso
Member
Jeez, seems pretty clear that's exactly what he's saying:
"As much as I love Steam, I do somewhat worry about the PC as a gaming platform becoming owned by a single entity that takes 30% of all PC games sold."
Metalmurphy
Member
Supposed? Why?
DragonSworne
Banned
And I won't play or buy minecraft unless it is on steam.
He just lost 100% sale instead of making 70%, sucks for him.
I'm sure there are plenty of others like me as well.
He just lost 100% sale instead of making 70%, sucks for him.
I'm sure there are plenty of others like me as well.
uh oh it's not supposed to be according to MThanded!! Shut it down, guys! Just shut it all down!
For many on this site it is the be all and end all of PC gaming, scary so for some people
Valve is very good at what they do, take the summer sale (which I purchased a few games) it pretty much boiled down to 30 or so games be cycled thorough, daily, flash and community choices with identical rebates each time that specific game was for sale. It generated 3 OT threads here from the amount of posts...genious
Minecraft has it's own niche, they can resist Steam for a while
Diprosalic
Banned
Not enough to give up 30%. You guys are a very very small minority.
While slipping in some insane tea party-like quote about Steam taking over everything.
DragonSworne
Banned
I honestly believe that it would also get more downloads too on steam that the 30% hit would be overcome by selling it on steam.
balladofwindfishes
Member
but what's wrong about saying something like that, is that publishers can use Steam's other features while practically ignoring the store. If they want to price the Steam version at 60 dollars, but then sell their own Steam keys on their own store for 30 dollars, they're allowed to, and make 100% of that money from the Steam keys, while still getting all of Steam's features.
It's for this reason that Steam cannot become a monopoly as a store, because that very aspect of Steam is one of the main selling points of Steam. The ability to buy a game from any store, but still make use of the features of Steam
What? How is this a problem?
Says who?
This kind of sentiment is crazy to me. People passing up a game because its not on steam makes no sense. None. If I'm interested in a game and its not on steam I still purchase it.
BF3 isn't on Steam. That sold well digitally right?
Steam take a 30% cut in anything sold on that platform?!
So when games go on sale for silly prices, say £2.99, Steam get 30% of that price?
Yes, of course.
Diprosalic
Banned
Can anyone explain this reasoning to me? I'm not saying it's wrong i just don't really understand. Can't you launch minecraft through steam anyway? The game is like 300kb so you can just download it in 2 seconds and put it anywhere, no need to log in twice. I actually prefer it that way. People still see you playing and can message you right?
Those people do not understand how markets work and how a monopoly comes into existence.
You run the risk of making yourself look rather selfish vs. someone who would like to expose as many people to your game in as easy a way as possible, though. I don't fault the guy, but it's starting to come off as a bit too self-important. It's easy to have this attitude when you're arguably (or unarguably) *the* most successful indie story out there. As someone said a few posts above, the Steam holdouts might be the minority, but so is Minecraft in the story of runaway indie success.
CosmicQueso
Member
Right, so if 10 people buy direct for $27 = $270 in Rev (10 x $27 = $270)
If they go Steam, say then 6 people buy direct for $27, and then the other 4 plus 3 of their friends buy on Steam for $19, ((6 x $27) + (7 x $19) = $295)
He must be assuming then that more than 40% of his future audience would choose to buy on Steam rather than direct, and he must not be assuming a huge growth in audience from those who would only buy from Steam and will not buy direct. Interesting.
The other way to look at it is that he's getting $27 per sale now, and a move to a combined Steam/Direct model would take that down to like $22 or $23 per sale. Maybe he doesn't like that.
He probably also doesn't like the idea of Steam buyers waiting for the next Steam Sale to buy the game and being all pissed off when it doesn't get discounted.
There are positives and negatives to go on Steam and you can't blame the guy for wanting to retain control of his product.
balladofwindfishes
Member
Steam has this nasty bug where if it crashes or shuts down wrong, it erases all your non-Steam shortcuts. It's a pretty terrible bug I wish they'd fix, but it makes it a lot harder to just stick games to run through Steam.
Anyway, while I'll buy the occasional non-Steam game (mostly GoG), being Steam registerable helps me organize and remember all the games I own. Having the ability to register a game and install and patch it directly from Steam is a huge convenience, enough of a convenience to ignore many other releases that don't have that convenience.
argrgrgr how many times do people have to say that you can have hundreds of games on Steam and never give a dime to Valve. THEY CANNOT HAVE A MONOPOLY ON PC GAMES. IT CANNOT HAPPEN WITHOUT HUGE CHANGES TO HOW STEAM WORKS.
I don't think the guys at Valve mind that much. They gave him an exclusive hat in TF2 when he complained about no one believing he actually was Notch:
And about the Steam cut in sales, I believe there has been a precedent where Valve have pushed sale prices lower than usual because they reduced from their 30%. Is there a comparable percentage for PSN or XBLA, by the way, or do they take predetermined fees with an option for that fee to be taken as a percentage until it's paid instead?
And about the Steam cut in sales, I believe there has been a precedent where Valve have pushed sale prices lower than usual because they reduced from their 30%. Is there a comparable percentage for PSN or XBLA, by the way, or do they take predetermined fees with an option for that fee to be taken as a percentage until it's paid instead?
I like all my games on steam because I want to keep them all together and it's easier for me to keep track when I switch computers etc. It's too fucking bad they are doing everything right and companies sat back and watch them dominate.
Assuming that most people buy it full price and no one skips buying the version on his website to wait for Steam sales. Also ignoring that the game is 20 euros on PC, and that Americans and Canadians currently pay him $27 for Minecraft.
Honestly, I think that the "wait for the Steam sale" mentality would cost him more than he would gain in this instance. The game still sells 7-15k copies a day full price depending on the day.
Steam taking a third of profit sounds like a huge amount until you realize that is not only the standard amount for online stores to take but also much less than is taken in retail and on top of it they run servers and such.
I can perfectly understand why Notch isn't putting it on Steam, he doesn't need the advertising as his game is selling so well. For him it'd be wiser to self-publish until sales dry up, then try for a second wind on Steam.
I can perfectly understand why Notch isn't putting it on Steam, he doesn't need the advertising as his game is selling so well. For him it'd be wiser to self-publish until sales dry up, then try for a second wind on Steam.
Diprosalic
Banned
I understand it for most games. No need to worry about hundreds of pw for downloading the game and getting patches and updates but minecraft is such a small programm and has no install and gets all the updates at the start. You have it ready in 3 seconds on any pc.
balladofwindfishes
Member
And then they can even sell games on their own store that use all of Steam's features.
I have Fallout New Vegas on Steam. Valve saw none of that money. I bought the game from Gamestop. But it's still on Steam and I still get to enjoy Steam's features, like achievements and sales on DLC.
No big loss. I don't agree with him on his self-publishing ideal. As a gamer, you kind of like seeing a service to provide you with the in-between steps like matchmaking, friend lists, invites, groups, chat, etc. Of course there are alternatives, but if you ask anyone "PSN, XBL, what's the third one?" 100% of people will say Steam.
This "wait for a sale" mentality isn't having the adverse effect you and many, many others seem to believe it is.
Edit: I can only speak for myself, but when I say "I'll wait for a sale", it doesn't mean "I'm interested in this game, but refuse to pay more than $X". I still (pre-)purchase anticipated titles at full price regularly, while I wait for discounts -- and not necessarily deep ones at that -- on games that I am either vaguely or indeed not at all interested in.
CharmingCharlie
Member
I personally have to disagree with Notch here. It seems no matter what happens Notch always finds excuses as to why Minecraft isn't on steam. At this point he is coming across as just a tad bit greedy (hey it's his game and his right, but I am saying to me he is looking greedy).
Firstly the "Concerns about a possible Valve monopoly" this is as opposed to the monopoly that Mojang has with their game since it is the ONLY place you can buy the PC version of Minecraft. You cannot buy Minecraft anywhere else which is probably part of the reason why the price is still artificially high. Now again it is his game and if he doesn't want to sell it anywhere else that is up to him. However don't criticise others for a "monopoly" when he is literally running one.
I fail to see how putting Minecraft on Steam would in any way impede Notch's drive to remain "independent". The only thing we are left with from Notch's blurb is the fact he doesn't want Steam to have a slice of the cake. So he wants to keep 100% of the games revenue and continue to make his customers struggle with a retarded updating system and shitty authorisation servers. Having the game on steam would improve the game for his customers, but I guess we know where his priorities lie.
Why exactly? If nobody wants to buy games from other platforms anymore, developers will be forced to sell their titles on Steam.
Bomber Bob
Banned
You still buy minecraft with paypal right?
What percentage is paypal taking?
What percentage is paypal taking?
Yes, that is what someone from Valves says, of course....
What's greedy about it? I think it's refreshing someone in the industry with authority and loads of goodwill from gamers has the courage to criticize Steam. He seems to be the only one which is a damn shame if you ask me. It's refreshing and it certainly has nothing to do with greed. Why is it a problem for you? Because of 'convenience' of having all your games in one place or something? If that is the problem than I pity you.
balladofwindfishes
Member
you can buy games that use Steam from any store. I bought New Vegas from Game Stop, and registered it on Steam. Valve got no money, I bought the game from Game Stop.
They can't have a monopoly on PC sales while still allowing for Steamworks CD keys to exist. And the Steamworks registration system is a HUGE selling point for both gamers and publishers, there's no chance they get rid of that system.
Xbox's and iOS devices are not open platforms.
It stands to reason that if what he said were in direct opposition to what developers themselves are actually experiencing, we'd have a rebuttal article by now.