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So You Want to Compete with Steam

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Re: So You Want to Compete with Steam

#61

Post by larsiusprime »

xahrepap wrote: post #45
methodover wrote: post #41

Discord could do it. Discord SHOULD do it. There needs to be a serious competitor to Steam, something with significant enough market share that Steam gets scared. Steam could be so much better than it is -- I'm not saying that it's a bad product, just that it could be better. Discord seems perfectly positioned to take on Steam. They already have incredible adoption in the gaming community. And they have quite a bit o…

I think HumbleBundle could do it. They already have a store, they just have built it on Steam's platform and/or standalone apps. I don't think it'd be THAT difficult for them to pivot, would it?

Humble has already pivoted, towards a subscription service. They're doing pretty well for themselves, but they're moving away from trying to compete head-on with Steam. IMHO, this is an excellent move for them. That said, they are extremely reliant on Steam keys for their business so anything they do that might directly antagonize Valve would put their business in mortal jeopardy.

Re: So You Want to Compete with Steam

#62

Post by pitaj »

mrhektor wrote: post #32
phreack wrote: post #9

There are plenty of businesses where you can just roll up, make a better yet not more innovative version of the leading app, and just take all of the customers. Game distribution is NOT one of them, at all, by any stretch of the imagination, at this point in time. I've saved this article to share every time I hear that pitch.

Could you give us a few examples of such businesses? Do customers really switch for marginal improvements?

I can give a few more examples where marginal improvements are not enough, which really boils down to "anything with network effects".

- Messaging (WhatsApp, SMS)

- Social Media (Facebook)

Re: So You Want to Compete with Steam

#63

Post by larsiusprime »

kuschku wrote: post #53
methodover wrote: post #41

Discord could do it. Discord SHOULD do it. There needs to be a serious competitor to Steam, something with significant enough market share that Steam gets scared. Steam could be so much better than it is -- I'm not saying that it's a bad product, just that it could be better. Discord seems perfectly positioned to take on Steam. They already have incredible adoption in the gaming community. And they have quite a bit o…

Isn't GOG already starting to compete with Steam? (Of course, from the DRM-free angle). They're an ever growing market, backed by a publisher with a strong lineup, just like Steam was in its early days.

(Author here)

GOG is a great service; their main limitations is that many AAA publishers absolutely refuse to release without DRM, though this is sloooooowly eroding, somewhat. GOG can't go back on their DRM-free promise without a revolt from their audience, but it also limits what big-ticket games they can sign.

I like GOG a lot, they've carved out a nice niche for themselves, but from every developer I've talked to, they're still a fraction of Steam's market share. I don't expect them to take over anytime soon, but I'll always support them and hope they continue to grow.

Re: So You Want to Compete with Steam

#64

Post by muzani »

Also a huge point to consider is that games also have to be as cheap as Steam. I used to buy pirated DVDs once upon a time because the real thing would cost about a month salary. Now Steam games in third world countries are so cheap I just buy a bunch I don't intend to play.

Even the discount sites and Humble Bundle aren't able to match up against Steam in third world countries.

Re: So You Want to Compete with Steam

#65

Post by hellbanner »

We sell our game on itch http://QuantumPilot.me Developer chooses what cut to pay to itch, which is nice. DRM free, easy to setup -- 5 minutes compare to 5 hours with Steam.

Itch supports indie game dev by letting community manage "Game Jams": http://itch.io/jams

Their site + client is open source: https://github.com/itchio

Re: So You Want to Compete with Steam

#66

Post by eugenekolo2 »

krapp wrote: post #16

Really, Steam seems to be the closest thing Windows has to an application/package manager[0]. It's almost kind of a shame that it's more or less entirely for games and game development software - something like it with sourceforge/github integration or an API for general purpose Windows installers would be nice. [0]notwithstanding whatever Windows 10 might have, because I still refuse to touch that, but it's probably…

Never thought about it like that, but you're right about it being a pretty decent package manager.

Re: So You Want to Compete with Steam

#67

Post by sergiotapia »

Steam has lost that "discovery" aspect to it. It's now mainly weaboo garbage, early access and PUBG clogging up the trending and leaderboards.

I feel like I can no longer discover cool titles or great things people are buying on the site.

Re: So You Want to Compete with Steam

#68

Post by [deleted] »

phreack wrote: post #9

There are plenty of businesses where you can just roll up, make a better yet not more innovative version of the leading app, and just take all of the customers. Game distribution is NOT one of them, at all, by any stretch of the imagination, at this point in time. I've saved this article to share every time I hear that pitch.

[deleted]

Re: So You Want to Compete with Steam

#69

Post by [deleted] »

Chathamization wrote: post #56
larsiusprime wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Article's author here. GOG.com got started in 2008 , which was critical to their success. Steam had much lower market share back then. If GOG started today I would give them much, much, lower odds of succeeding. And consider also that Desura, Direct2Drive, Impulse, etc, which also were around in that rough time period, are all dead and gone.

GOG only started selling newer games in 2012, and even then it started only selling a few. Before that, it was a place to buy old games (hence the original name, Good Old Games). I think GOG's success was because for its first few years, it was selling games that simply weren't available on Steam or anywhere else at the time. When it did finally go up against Steam, it already had a decently large customer base, and…

[deleted]

Re: So You Want to Compete with Steam

#70

Post by rhizome »

dvt wrote: post #57
earenndil wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If an indie game that gets crazily popular is on both your own store and steam, everyone will buy it on steam because they have no incentive to buy it from your store.

Have you read (3)? Contracts would stipulate to only distribute through your platform.

As far as #3 goes: congratulations, you've invented Nintendo.
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