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[ArtHands]

Game devs praise Steam as a 'democratic platform' that 'continues to be transformative' for PC gaming today

"It's just a great constant in our industry that is [otherwise] really in f***ing panic mode."

www.pcgamer.com

CCP Games VP of publishing Eyrún Jónsdóttir

said that Steam remains "a crucial part of our pipeline" for EVE Online, which also has its own launcher but has enjoyed success on Steam since it went free-to-play on the store nearly a decade ago.

Michael Douse, Larian's publishing director, called Steam "a democratic platform."

"There's like two of those, I think," he said. "Steam, and the Switch, too, is quite a democratic platform. If your game is really, really good, you have a very good chance that people on Steam will see it. You have to make an effort, it has to be good, it's not that simple, but it's so much better than, for example, having to campaign for your game with somebody else for like 12 months to get their store team to care about it."

"As stewards of PC gaming, I mean—I know it's a money-printing machine, and a company can only be so benevolent, but it's just a great constant in our industry that is [otherwise] really in fucking panic mode. It is a bastion in that sense."

Slay the Spire co-creator Casey Yano credited Steam with making it possible for tiny indie teams like his to be able to make a living off of their games.

"I made a Flash game way back when and I think I made $20," he said. "[The store] was like 'that's not enough money, we're not even gonna send you a check.' But Steam came along and it was like, whoa, maybe some people can actually make a livable wage from this. I wouldn't even have a job … I wish more people could make it in the industry, but that's a problem with our society more than Valve. Valve is giving more people chances."

Warframe creative director Rebecca Ford credits Steam as "the thing that still allows me to have a job."

"We launched on Steam in open beta in March 2013… and it was transformative for us and continues to be," she said. Ford also credited Steam as a key piece of the PC gaming ecosystem which, in general, she argued offers players an opportunity to build friendships and relationships that just aren't possible on platforms that cost money to buy in and are wholly owned by other companies.

"I'm a very optimistic futurist for PC as the primary platform," Ford said. "I think it's the most important for people in our age cohort, and has the greatest potential for border-crossing community building. I've connected with more people than I ever thought possible in my entire life, all because I sat in front of a PC, installed Steam, and installed Discord and played games with them. These two things together as forces are so supremely positive, even in isolation. It's a shame you can have very difficult times online, they're not sanitary by any means—but I cannot imagine a better opportunity to be a good online citizen with people connected through something like what we do.

"There's just nothing like it, and I doubt there will ever be anything like it again."

When we asked if the number of games released on Steam is a concern, Douse pointed out that before the rise of Steam "you made a game for a retail chain, you didn't make it for a player." Limited shelf space was a much harsher bottleneck for developers being able to make and sell games period. "I'm not concerned about visibility in the store—I understand not everyone can have a spot and empathize when people don't, but the function of it is to give everyone a chance, at least. I think that's a beautiful thing. Everyone has a chance."

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Okay, what happened? They must be running defense for something. There's no reason for this article to exist on its own merits.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Okay, what happened? They must be running defense for something. There's no reason for this article to exist on its own merits.

They just did an interview with different devs and specifically asked them what they thought of steam.

 

[Griffon]

 

[Puscifer]

Steams entire business model is just existing as a payment platform and watching everyone trip over themselves only to come back to welcoming arms like your kid who decided to get into heroin.

 

[CLW]

Ok well where is the Republican platform?

 

[Guilty_AI]

Steams entire business model is just existing as a payment platform and watching everyone trip over themselves only to come back to welcoming arms like your kid who decided to get into heroin.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Okay, what happened? They must be running defense for something. There's no reason for this article to exist on its own merits.

Probably some European thing. My guess is a new law that Steam must allow consumers to plug in alternative game stores right into the Steam interface.
Epic won't have to bother creating a new UI.

 

[yurinka]

Okay, what happened? They must be running defense for something. There's no reason for this article to exist on its own merits.

They just did an interview with different devs and specifically asked them what they thought of steam.

Pretty likely it's a paid ad article. There are thousands of devs complaining about getting less and less visibility and sales on Steam every year, they should ask one of them.

 

[Soodanim]

Probably some European thing. My guess is a new law that Steam must allow consumers to plug in alternative game stores right into the Steam interface.
Epic won't have to bother creating a new UI.

An odd jab at EU, but nothing like that will ever happen. Steam doesn't force exclusivity or anything else, you're free to enjoy a life of peace on Steam or go and fuck it up elsewhere with your own launcher. What practices would EU need to regulate?

 

[Denton]

I get that this is supposed to be funny, but still am gonna point out that Valve actually does lot more to improve Steam every single year than any other company does with their platform, by orders of magnitude.

 

[Gallard]

I'm grateful that Gabe privately owns Valve.

If it was public, they'd be bought out by Blackrock and Vanguard and forced to bend the knee. Your game doesn't meet DEI standards? Get deplatformed. The games scene could really look so much worse

 

[Mortisfacio]

I get that this is supposed to be funny, but still am gonna point out that Valve actually does lot more to improve Steam every single year than any other company does with their platform, by orders of magnitude.

Agreed. That's why as a PC player I'm not a fan of EGS. EGS has been trying to buy exclusivity on some titles to get people to move to EGS, but I hate that. Build a better service. The Steam platform is so feature rich in comparison to any other platform and they keep making it better. These other platforms suck. BNet is the only other PC platform that I'm actually OK with. It's not great, but it's no longer terrible and it's such a niche thing anyways.

 

[Fabieter]

I get that this is supposed to be funny, but still am gonna point out that Valve actually does lot more to improve Steam every single year than any other company does with their platform, by orders of magnitude.

It's also the only platform and publisher that almost doesn't directly support games. Their sales nowadays are basically not cheaper than console sales anymore, so it's a bit like looking through rose-tinted glasses with Steam. Thank god for key stores tho.

 

[BadBurger]

Valve continuously works to improve Steam so that it effectively informs users of games they may like be they twenty years or twenty days old. I haven't owned a Xbox since about 2018 so I don't know what's going on there, but the PlayStation Store still feels very much stuck in the aughts design wise - 100% curated, unintelligent, with its web-based version being different than that of the console. The web version is so bare bones that the vast majority of games don't even have screenshots let alone gameplay videos. Hell maybe none have either at this point.

 

[Davevil]

One day these praises for what is in fact a store full of shit will end

 

[Klosshufvud]

Publically traded corporations are borderline evil and will fuck you over every way they can to short term fatten the wallets of their shareholders. Valve (and also Larian) have the benefit of being long term players. They don't need to perform with never ending "growth" (a term synonomous with unchecked greed) and profits. They can just rely on a reliable and consistent business model instead.

 

[Larxia]

Their sales nowadays are basically not cheaper than console sales anymore, so it's a bit like looking through rose-tinted glasses with Steam. Thank god for key stores tho.

That's because of the refund system sadly.
The great deals on steam were only during sales event with dailies and flash sales. Back then, when you had a sale event on steam, it wasn't just a fixed thing for 2 weeks like now, it changed everyday, with new offers each day and also shorter flash sales that lasted for 8 hours, with much, much better deals.

I imagine that publishers were fine with offering a huge deal on short time periods like this, but not for 2 whole weeks.

This all changed when they introduced the refund system. People would be able to simply refund a game if it was cheaper the next day, so this sale system was abandonned. I really miss it, it was fun because the whole sale event felt like an actual event or a game / bet in itself. You would check in daily and see what changed, while right now, you just check your wishlist once when the sales start, and that's it... 10 seconds and it's over.

 

[LazyParrot]

One day these praises for what is in fact a store full of shit will end

As long as "less random shit on the store" remains the only aspect in which their competitors have a leg up on them that day will never come.

 

[Hudo]

Well... Steam is the least worst platform, I guess.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I get that this is supposed to be funny, but still am gonna point out that Valve actually does lot more to improve Steam every single year than any other company does with their platform, by orders of magnitude.

While that is true (with Steam being developed constantly and people forgetting Valve worked on VR headset and Steam Deck), the strategy of “make less mistakes than the competition” is perfectly valid.

 

[Braag]

There are thousands of devs complaining about getting less and less visibility and sales on Steam every year, they should ask one of them.

Which is funny, because Steam gives the best tools to find games that you would like in their store. The whole custom tag thing which is listed next to every game is one of the best ways to find similar games you might like or maybe even something new.
A spot in the dozen or so games which is scrollable on the front page of Steam can't be bought, those appear there randomly based on what you have played previously.
A lot of devs just don't want to admit that they made a mid game which will drown in the competition.

It's like youtubers who complain why their videos don't get noticed more, when they are creating content which directly competes with someone else who is making way higher quality videos and have an established fan base.

 

[Denton]

While that is true (with Steam being developed constantly and people forgetting Valve worked on VR headset and Steam Deck), the strategy of “make less mistakes than the competition” is perfectly valid.

Sure. Valve does both though, make less mistakes (if any) and improve their platform on consistent basis.
I never expected EA or Ubisoft to do anything worthwhile with their launchers other then making them worse and worse - which they have done, both EA App and new UbiConnect are terrible and worse than old versions - but I am disappointed that CD Projekt has released Galaxy 2.0 with great hype, only to basically abandon it.

It's also the only platform and publisher that almost doesn't directly support games. Their sales nowadays are basically not cheaper than console sales anymore, so it's a bit like looking through rose-tinted glasses with Steam. Thank god for key stores tho.

Somewhat bizzare post. Steam directly supports games by consistently improving the platform and implementing features developers and players alike find valuable. Sales not being cheaper than on consoles - so what? Why should they be cheaper?
And key stores only exist because Valve lets developers generate steam keys and sell keys outside of Steam, while paying for the infrastructure. You are praising key stores when they can only exist thanks to Valve's willingness to provide keys free of charge to developers.

 

[winjer]

Steam is still the best digital PC Platform, by a huge difference.
So it's no wonder that devs and gamers praise it.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

I'm grateful that Gabe privately owns Valve.

If it was public, they'd be bought out by Blackrock and Vanguard and forced to bend the knee. Your game doesn't meet DEI standards? Get deplatformed. The games scene could really look so much worse

This. Hope it never goes public, it's absolute cancer for companies.

 

[Puscifer]

I get that this is supposed to be funny, but still am gonna point out that Valve actually does lot more to improve Steam every single year than any other company does with their platform, by orders of magnitude.

Truth, but the overall experience hasn't changed which I think is the most important part. It's like Apple in the sense that every iOS is the same just refined bit by but.

 

[Filben]

As long as "less random shit on the store" remains the only aspect in which their competitors have a leg up on them that day will never come.

I recently checked the Nintendo eShop and what bullshit software I had to sift through... there aren't even that many filters. No tags, no feature search, etc. It doesn't even matter if you sort by popularity or some other settings. It doesn't consider my library or what I like to play. It feels so broken and random and is slow as fuck. PS and MS Store is slightly better but still lacks the functionality of Steam.

But I guess it's on purpose. You shall not find exactly what you're looking for; they want you to browse through all of this, like in the supermarket where you have to pass certain aisles and shelves labyrinths to get where you wanted to.

 

[Fahdis]

Only reason to have a PC. Steam. Fuck everything else.

 

[Gen.Grievous]

Steam fanboys actually exist. It's a game launcher ffs.

 

[Sentenza]

Ok well where is the Republican platform?

If you’d ask to the purple forum, they’d tell you that you are looking at it.

For some of them Steam is “a dystopian libertarian nightmare” because Valve doesn’t choose to arbitrarily censor what they don’t like (i.e. games, groups/communities, etc).

They still can’t cope with the whole “Just because I don’t like something, it doesn’t mean it should be illegal”.

 

[thekillergreece]

Ok well where is the Republican platform?

There's already one, it's called Epic Games Launcher.

 

[kikkis]

No matter how you put it 30% is a lot from games revenue. But total revenue is still better than on egs so whatever

 

[Fabieter]

Sure. Valve does both though, make less mistakes (if any) and improve their platform on consistent basis.
I never expected EA or Ubisoft to do anything worthwhile with their launchers other then making them worse and worse - which they have done, both EA App and new UbiConnect are terrible and worse than old versions - but I am disappointed that CD Projekt has released Galaxy 2.0 with great hype, only to basically abandon it.



Somewhat bizzare post. Steam directly supports games by consistently improving the platform and implementing features developers and players alike find valuable. Sales not being cheaper than on consoles - so what? Why should they be cheaper?
And key stores only exist because Valve lets developers generate steam keys and sell keys outside of Steam, while paying for the infrastructure. You are praising key stores when they can only exist thanks to Valve's willingness to provide keys free of charge to developers.

Thats exactly what iam talking about. Only praise the defense force is out of this world. Iam using steam for like 15 years but only because it has the games I want to play. The same with all the console. Carring for a brand like this is stupid.

 

[GHound]

If you’d ask to the purple forum, they’d tell you that you are looking at it.

For some of them Steam is “a dystopian libertarian nightmare” because Valve doesn’t choose to arbitrarily censor what they don’t like (i.e. games, groups/communities, etc).

They still can’t cope with the whole “Just because I don’t like something, it doesn’t mean it should be illegal”.

They actually do this already and several of the titles that have been rejected from Steam found a new home at GOG instead.
Valve just doesn't arbitrarily censor what the purple board tells them to.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Pretty likely it's a paid ad article. There are thousands of devs complaining about getting less and less visibility and sales on Steam every year, they should ask one of them.

Valve doesn't need to pay random magazines for publicity. Keep in mind these are devs that became successful thanks to steam so they'll be obviously biased. Larian in particular had terrible experiences with retail and traditional publishers, and only began gaining popularity once they started self publishing on Steam.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

They actually do this already and several of the titles that have been rejected from Steam found a new home at GOG instead.
Valve just doesn't arbitrarily censor what the purple board tells them to.

afaik, Steam so far have only been reacting to compliance and other sorts of legal demands from national entities, right? That's a big difference.

 

[FunkMiller]

I'm grateful that Gabe privately owns Valve.

Beginning and end of why it's better than any other gaming platform these days.

 

[Guilty_AI]

afaik, Steam so far have only been reacting to compliance and other sorts of legal demands from national entities, right? That's a big difference.

They do have some weird terms when it comes to porn games. Some are ok, others are not, and no one really understands their reasoning. There seems to be a bias against hentai (anime) ones.

The general consensus seems to be selling the steam version completely censored - can't even have the erotic content hidden in the game files, it has to be removed altogether - and then offer +18 patchs off-site. However, even that sometimes doesn't seem to stop the ban hammer.

 

[Denton]

Thats exactly what iam talking about. Only praise the defense force is out of this world. Iam using steam for like 15 years but only because it has the games I want to play. The same with all the console. Carring for a brand like this is stupid.

It is not about "caring for brand". It is about recognizing who in this industry actually does a good job and who doesn't. You not appreciating it changes nothing about reality.

 

[StereoVsn]

It's also the only platform and publisher that almost doesn't directly support games. Their sales nowadays are basically not cheaper than console sales anymore, so it's a bit like looking through rose-tinted glasses with Steam. Thank god for key stores tho.

You know that sale prices are dev and publisher controlled, right? Gaben doesn’t dictate that Sekiro shall never drop lower than $30, it’s Activision.

Also, Valve built the key store infrastructure by allowing devs free key generation.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

so.. competition?

 

[ahtlas7]

And this is why I’ll wait til Stellar Blade hits Steam to jump in.

 

[yurinka]

Which is funny, because Steam gives the best tools to find games that you would like in their store. The whole custom tag thing which is listed next to every game is one of the best ways to find similar games you might like or maybe even something new.
A spot in the dozen or so games which is scrollable on the front page of Steam can't be bought, those appear there randomly based on what you have played previously.
A lot of devs just don't want to admit that they made a mid game which will drown in the competition.

It's like youtubers who complain why their videos don't get noticed more, when they are creating content which directly competes with someone else who is making way higher quality videos and have an established fan base.

Valve doesn't need to pay random magazines for publicity. Keep in mind these are devs that became successful thanks to steam so they'll be obviously biased. Larian in particular had terrible experiences with retail and traditional publishers, and only began gaining popularity once they started self publishing on Steam.

These devs became successful (not only in Steam) because had good products, which includes having good marketing campaigns.

Steam, like the other storefronts, features the games they consider benefiting them with sales. These folks got benefited from it in Steam, so got happy and biased. Thousands of others don't, and see their new games getting less sales every year because every year there's more way games -specially shovelware- being released and the store featurings get focused on a smaller quantity of games.

Regarding tags, they are great, but should be reviewed because many get spammed with games that shouldn't be under that tag but are there because these tags are popular. Particularly happens with the genre/subgenre ones. I think tags should have definitions and Steam (or people) should be able to remove games from certain tags.

Example: beat'em up, the genre of games like Final Fight or Streets of Rage. In Steam you also have them hack & slash games like Devil May Cry, versus fighting games like Street Fighter or random action platformer games. These games should share tags like "action", "violence", maybe "fighting" or even "arcade". But each one should be on their own subgenre.

 

[squidilix]

It's funny how no one cares about the problem in this fking Casino politics with CSGO / DOTA / TF2 / Market and seems to be not a problem or people not questionnig this when this shit litteraly carry Steam.

 

[Flyingpanther]

Sweeny must be crying now

 

[Topher]

You know that sale prices are dev and publisher controlled, right? Gaben doesn’t dictate that Sekiro shall never drop lower than $30, it’s Activision.

Also, Valve built the key store infrastructure by allowing devs free key generation.

The key store infrastructure is probably the most underpraised aspects of Steam itself. Sites like Fanatical and Green Man Gaming exist because of this.

Steam fanboys actually exist. It's a game launcher ffs.

The uninformed also exist. Steam is much more than just a "game launcher".

 

[lordrand11]

Pretty likely it's a paid ad article. There are thousands of devs complaining about getting less and less visibility and sales on Steam every year, they should ask one of them.

Your profile must have gotten Vac banned.

Quite a few of these devs want a pay to win scaling solution too so there's that. From what I've seen the devs that have active engagement with their fans tend to get much more screen time on the FP.

 

[Topher]

Thats exactly what iam talking about. Only praise the defense force is out of this world. Iam using steam for like 15 years but only because it has the games I want to play. The same with all the console. Carring for a brand like this is stupid.

You are not addressing any points being made. Constantly hating on a brand just for the sake of hating it is just as stupid.

 

[JCK75]

It's funny how no one cares about the problem in this fking Casino politics with CSGO / DOTA / TF2 / Market and seems to be not a problem or people not questionnig this when this shit litteraly carry Steam.

Epic Games is entirely carried by charging kids $20 for a skin..

 

[Guilty_AI]

These devs became successful (not only in Steam) because had good products, which includes having good marketing campaigns.

Steam, like the other storefronts, features the games they consider benefiting them with sales. These folks got benefited from it in Steam, so got happy and biased. Thousands of others don't, and see their new games getting less sales every year because every year there's more way games -specially shovelware- being released and the store featurings get focused on a smaller quantity of games.

Regarding tags, they are great, but should be reviewed because many get spammed with games that shouldn't be under that tag but are there because these tags are popular. Particularly happens with the genre/subgenre ones. I think tags should have definitions and Steam (or people) should be able to remove games from certain tags.

Example: beat'em up, the genre of games like Final Fight or Streets of Rage. In Steam you also have them hack & slash games like Devil May Cry, versus fighting games like Street Fighter or random action platformer games. These games should share tags like "action", "violence", maybe "fighting" or even "arcade". But each one should be on their own subgenre.

Most of these devs didn't have any significant marketing campaign. And the front page feature on steam is also algorithmic based, there've been many instances of solo devs being featured there simply for having popular games (Manor Lords recently is a great example). The reason thousands of other get filtered is simply due to the nature of any entertainment market i general, it has little to do with excess shovelware and more to do with their own games being mid and not worth much in most people's eyes. I'm pretty sure no one is missing playing "GUN GODZ" or "BOX ROOM".

Steam already allows you to report improper tags, and is hard to do any micromanaging there when even users and devs alike are unsure of what some of these tags actually represent. The example you gave is exactly that, Hack'n'slass and Beat'em up are so similar in definition i wouldn't blame anyone for mixing the two. Seen plenty online confused about what they actually mean too (like some guy saying Hack'n'Slash is only for Diablo-like RPGs and DMC is actually a Beat'em up). I'm not even sure myself.