Valve gives top-selling games a bigger slice of the sales revenue

[Jacques d'Orleans]

It's evidently still cheaper to DIY after considering those.

Ubishaft games are both available at Steam and on Uplay, it's not an either-or situation. If you want to play a Ubisoft game via Steam you still have to get a Uplay account.

 

[Iron Golem]

Ubishaft games are both available at Steam and on Uplay, it's not an either-or situation. If you want to play a Ubisoft game via Steam you still have to get a Uplay account.

Yeah I bought The Division when it first came out and had the pleasure of encountering the Ubistore. I don't buy Ubisoft anymore. 50% crap company. 50% crap store. It really made playing the game a chore, as I bought it through Steam not knowing about the app duality.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

Yeah I bought The Division when it first came out and had the pleasure of encountering the Ubistore. I don't buy Ubisoft anymore. 50% crap company. 50% crap store. It really made playing the game a chore, as I bought it through Steam not knowing about the app duality.

I always wonder what "chore" that is. Steam launches uplay, uplay launches game. Hardly a chore. The only thing discouraging this is perhaps that ubi game bought on steam won't show in uplay account and cannot be launched without steam (which is stupid, too).

Seriously, I think people overcomplaining about storefronts should be thrown back to the DOS era and be forced to configure sound in autoexec.bat and environment variables. Without a manual. THAT was a chore. Not clicking something in the UI ;-).

Sure, there are gripes with other storefronts, for example the annoying lack of 4k support in Origin, and if you set it to scale it shows a popup warning you that you set it in compatibility mode. I know darn it, because I was forced to, because your client doesn't work

Uplay is a bit hard to navigate, it's obvious they want to put the store in your face and actually hinder you to get to your games, yes. But apart from that, it is hardly a nuisance, after all it is just a tool to launch a game ...

 

[Chris Simon]

Yeah I bought The Division when it first came out and had the pleasure of encountering the Ubistore. I don't buy Ubisoft anymore. 50% crap company. 50% crap store. It really made playing the game a chore, as I bought it through Steam not knowing about the app duality.

Though to their defense, Out of the EA/Activision/Ubisoft trio, they are the least crap, imho.
I don't necessarily like it, but at least I am not outright refusing to buy their games if they're good (AC Odyssey). When comes to Activision, I'm done and EA, well, I'm going buy Anthem if it's at least decent but that's about it.
Ubi, I at least had a blast playing GR Wildlands and AC Odyssey, I wasn't forced into MTs and Ubi launcher isn't nearly as obnoxious as it used to be, so they got some points back

 

[VR StarLightPL]

Though to their defense, Out of the EA/Activision/Ubisoft trio, they are the least crap, imho.
I don't necessarily like it, but at least I am not outright refusing to buy their games if they're good (AC Odyssey). When comes to Activision, I'm done and EA, well, I'm going buy Anthem if it's at least decent but that's about it.
Ubi, I at least had a blast playing GR Wildlands and AC Odyssey, I wasn't forced into MTs and Ubi launcher isn't nearly as obnoxious as it used to be, so they got some points back

Plus UBI has this nice 20% cut for "100 uplay points", can make for a very very nice discount if paired with their discount.

Origin has (had?) a very nasty flaw of not offering English language in my country and locking games to Polish and Russian translations. Originally they pitched it as "games can be cheaper in Poland that way" but it was a lie. Or half truth, because I heard BFV and Anthem will have English versions, and the price HIKED to levels higher than average steam AAA release. Well EA, if you don't want my money, I will buy keys from other vendors at better prices, and if you start region locking language releases I will simply stop buying your games ;-)

As for Anthem I'm looking at it as well, although it looks like "EA's Destiny", too little too late. But if it is nice I will give it a go.

 

[EUS]

I don't see the problem here. It's market forces at work.
Almost every single industry works this way, the big sellers have more negotiation leverage than small ones.
If i ran an indie company, and had access to steam's client base of millions, yeah i'd give up 30% to gain the eyeballs.

 

[Jacques d'Orleans]

I always wonder what "chore" that is. Steam launches uplay, uplay launches game. Hardly a chore. The only thing discouraging this is perhaps that ubi game bought on steam won't show in uplay account and cannot be launched without steam (which is stupid, too).

I remember all the crap which happened when The Division released, yes, in theory it is the way like you said, in reality it was: Steam launches uplay, uplay tries to launch game, delta error after about 2-3 minutes loading screen.
I don't know if that was a exclusive The Division problem as it is the only game I have from Ubsioft, which needs to use Uplay, the last Ubi game I bought was way before Uplay was even introduced and that was Silent Hunter IV.
To be frank, I consider The Division one of the games I've should have avoided, but for different reasons. I'm already curious about how much of an shytestorm The Division 2 will create upon release.

 

[Jacques d'Orleans]

Plus UBI has this nice 20% cut for "100 uplay points", can make for a very very nice discount if paired with their discount.

Origin has (had?) a very nasty flaw of not offering English language in my country and locking games to Polish and Russian translations. Originally they pitched it as "games can be cheaper in Poland that way" but it was a lie. Or half truth, because I heard BFV and Anthem will have English versions, and the price HIKED to levels higher than average steam AAA release. Well EA, if you don't want my money, I will buy keys from other vendors at better prices, and if you start region locking language releases I will simply stop buying your games ;-)

I can understand that, I played The Witcher 3 in polish language with english subs ands Metro 2033 in russian with english subs, the only way to go IMHO.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

I don't know if that was a exclusive The Division problem as it is the only game I have from Ubsioft,
To be frank, I consider The Division one of the games I've should have avoided, but for different reasons. I'm already curious about how much of an shytestorm The Division 2 will create upon release.

(...)

I can understand that, I played The Witcher 3 in polish language with english subs ands Metro 2033 in russian with english subs, the only way to go IMHO.

Re: Uplay - the only game I have on Uplay which launches through steam is Star Trek Bridge Crew which was gifted to me by a friend Other than that I like to buy ubi games on uplay, it's just my thing to collect them in one place (think mainly assassin's creed series and tom clancy games). I am sorry to hear about your problems with ubi, I personally never experienced that. Plus, the division was a mess on launch too, afair. A lot was patched much much later.

As for the Witcher and Metro played in the creator's language yeah, the original artistic vision is there. And with English version, you sometimes have famous actors voicing them, like for example Charles Dance voicing Witcher 3 as Emhyr var Emreis, Emperor of Nilfgaard. I will play Witcher 3 in English sometime, just to experience it And when a publisher cuts that "because reasons", well... sucks to be them. I will not buy from them directly.

 

[Backer42]

But anyhow, it's not to argue whether 30% is good value or too high. Just a reminder that this idea that through Steam, Valve do nothing but leech a third of the profits of the software industry is well, either ill-informed or terribly reductive. Same goes for GoG and the rest of the crowd. Valve pioneered digital game distribution and over time kept adding features to their platform to remain competitive. What share these features and user base are worth is obviously going to fluctuate over time, with the tech underpinning the platform inevitably becoming commoditised and the user base being partly eroded due to competition. But the idea that somehow we're gaining anything from moving from generic digital storefronts to publisher-based platforms is, imho, ludicrous. The only people gaining anything from it are the publisher's investors, while us players directly lose out on the features digital storefronts had an incentive to produce. Indie devs lose out in the process too as suddenly their games no longer get recommended alongside the industry leader.

When I get my games on disc for console, I notice, that "pioneering digital storefronts" for a 30 % cut doesn't offer any advantage to me, nor does a publisher launcher. In fact sometimes I spend a little extra on a physical game box, just to avoid that online DRM subscription b.s. PC gaming has turned into.

I don't buy full price AAA games on Steam, Origin, Uplay or whatever. I never did.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

I don't buy full price AAA games on Steam, Origin, Uplay or whatever. I never did.

What was the last PC title you bought that didn't include code to Origin / Steam or Uplay? I know it's possible on consoles (along with the fact that it's way easier to sell the game after you are done with it), but on PC these days there is usually only code inside the box, along with a cd to install steam...

Not that I complain mind you. If steam closes there will be nerd uprising worldwide lol I don't buy physical copies, I have small flat Digital is convenient, and paradoxically it's easier to hunt for real bargains - there is a sale somewhere all the time. And like said I think we will be pushed into games as a service model eventually.

 

[Fishy]

Well, Epic are going all-in, they're launching a full store, not just their own stuff:

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/announcing-the-epic-games-store

12% cut only, although they seem to be pushing their "social media influencer" thingie where said influencers would also get a cut if people buy your games from their stream/blog/whatever. They do not cross-advertise between games either, which seems a bit weird marketing wise. Will be interesting to see how it goes.

 

[Iron Golem]

I always wonder what "chore" that is. Steam launches uplay, uplay launches game. Hardly a chore. The only thing discouraging this is perhaps that ubi game bought on steam won't show in uplay account and cannot be launched without steam (which is stupid, too).

Seriously, I think people overcomplaining about storefronts should be thrown back to the DOS era and be forced to configure sound in autoexec.bat and environment variables. Without a manual. THAT was a chore. Not clicking something in the UI ;-).

Sure, there are gripes with other storefronts, for example the annoying lack of 4k support in Origin, and if you set it to scale it shows a popup warning you that you set it in compatibility mode. I know darn it, because I was forced to, because your client doesn't work

Uplay is a bit hard to navigate, it's obvious they want to put the store in your face and actually hinder you to get to your games, yes. But apart from that, it is hardly a nuisance, after all it is just a tool to launch a game ...

Hmm, Id say I started considering it a chore the first time Division did some kind of update and signed me out of the Ubistore and when I started it from steam it would say user didn't exist. I had to open Ubistore and reinstall the game, and it still wouldn't work, then I reinstalled from steam and it magically worked. This did this for a few updates for me (I was never able to launch just the Ubistore and download it and use it without steam as whatever I used to sign up for it when I launched steam wouldn't work on its on without launching division through steam, I dont know if this cleared up after the expansions came out and I came back, but I never tried again after that), I had to walk away from the game it was so frustrating and ended up trying again after the first expansion came out and it seemed to rectify the problem somewhat. Having two different store apps is annoying, getting flashed update messages from two different store apps was annoying, getting spammed crap from two different stores was annoying. Remembering another set of credentials in a world where we already have to balance ridiculous amounts is annoying.

I've been on Steam 14-15 years now, when I first encountered it the only online store type thing I ever even knew about was Stardock, and I got GalCiv from them. After I found Steam it seemed like every single game I played was on there and it was a great day when I dumped years of old cd's, cases and boxes into the the trash and had my entire collection in one place. I didn't have to run out to mall's and shopping centers, and call around to a dozen places to try and try to track some games down and travel all over on a day off from work. I could buy them online, when I wanted and it helped free up time. It was a pretty amazing thing at the time. These days Steam brings me down some, I wasn't to thrilled when I noticed all the hentai-esq adult games starting to pile up and be peddled on the store, and it got even worse when I had a daughter and worried about someone coming over the house would sit down on the computer and accidentally click on the homepage of steam and thinking I was looking at 13 year old cartoon girls in bikinis. Luckily Steam did release controls and family view and I was able to block that shi....stuff out. I did go through a period where I was considering parting ways with Steam over that, but I was all in with the majority of my games collection on it. The way things are for me right now, If your not on Steam you have to be some kind of huge amazing special thing for me to consider buying you, because if I cant have my collection in one central place convenience goes out the window, I also feel a little more secure in having my payment credentials going through as few vendors as possible, my bank account got hacked years ago (Ordering car parts from random websites in the early 00's), so its still something I am always cautious of remembering the feeling when you check your balance and all your moneys gone used up on concert tickets and online casinos). Being able to keep all your games auto updated is nice and having forums for all the games where you can ask some questions and talk to other users is great. Integrated workshop for the titles that take advantage of them is also really cool and shouldn't be downplayed. Maybe 30% is high but I'm sure there's a lot of people who want a one stop shop solution and Steam is it and I think its worth it to release your game there.

 

[Backer42]

What was the last PC title you bought that didn't include code to Origin / Steam or Uplay?

I never bought a PC title with a code to Origin or Uplay, because that would mean I've bought something from EA or Ubisoft by accident. [haha]

For Steam there might be a few boxes from the last decade. Once this became a thing, I simply bought the keys directly, usually from bundles, sometimes from the developer itself. The Steam store itself is absolutely overpriced, thanks to region locking (I got assigned the most expensive region), so except for sales with 75-90 % discount (which aren't a thing anymore) I never gave Valve their 30 % cut.

The last physical PC game I bought was Broken Sword 25th Anniversary Edition, which contained two discs with DRM free offline game installers on them and bunch of physical bonus items. Unboxing it was pretty much a retro experience. I think the Witcher 3 was released in a similar fashion, but I never got the PC version.

but on PC these days there is usually only code inside the box, along with a cd to install steam...

It's worse. There is a code for some random publisher launcher in a box, but no DVD to install anything.

If steam closes there will be nerd uprising worldwide lol �� I don't buy physical copies, I have small flat �� Digital is convenient, and paradoxically it's easier to hunt for real bargains - there is a sale somewhere all the time. And like said I think we will be pushed into games as a service model eventually.

Unless I pretend I'm from East Europe, I won't get any real bargains digitally and once I get to pay, my credit card reveals me anyway.

With the whole business model changing into "online service", PC is on its way out for me. As if the whole ever-changing hardware requirements thing wasn't cumbersome enough (with prices hiking recently), additionally getting bothered by various crappy video game iTunes*) clients was too much. I think once Windows 10 (with its fully encrypted app store) becomes mandatory, I'm finally done with the platform.

*) It wasn't actually Valve or anybody else pioneering digital distribution, they all just copied Apple.

 

[moorison]

Well, Epic are going all-in, they're launching a full store, not just their own stuff:

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/announcing-the-epic-games-store

12% cut only, although they seem to be pushing their "social media influencer" thingie where said influencers would also get a cut if people buy your games from their stream/blog/whatever. They do not cross-advertise between games either, which seems a bit weird marketing wise. Will be interesting to see how it goes.

The timing seems not coincidental.
With Fortnite as a flagship-title and their own launcher already established, there is a good chance it will be here to stay.

 

[Fishy]

The timing seems not coincidental.
With Fortnite as a flagship-title and their own launcher already established, there is a good chance it will be here to stay.

Indeed. Their influencer-led-marketing is going to be interesting imho, as unless things change, it's Twitch and Youtube that they'll be mostly tapping. Twitch is Amazon and has its own store/launcher, and Youtube is Google, whose android store was abandoned by Epic so as not to hand over a cut.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Indeed. Their influencer-led-marketing is going to be interesting imho, as unless things change, it's Twitch and Youtube that they'll be mostly tapping. Twitch is Amazon and has its own store/launcher, and Youtube is Google, whose android store was abandoned by Epic so as not to hand over a cut.

I dunno, it looks to me more to promote their engine and use that to make a stand in the digital distribution. If the Unreal proposal to market on their platform and include the royalties with the 12% share convinces devs financially that's gonna be a far bigger impact than any influencer marketing campaign can ever do.

 

[Mengy]

Well, Epic are going all-in, they're launching a full store, not just their own stuff:

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/announcing-the-epic-games-store

12% cut only, although they seem to be pushing their "social media influencer" thingie where said influencers would also get a cut if people buy your games from their stream/blog/whatever. They do not cross-advertise between games either, which seems a bit weird marketing wise. Will be interesting to see how it goes.

That's big, really big, and those margins are extremely attractive. If Epic's store is well developed then this could really dent Steam's hold on the digital PC market.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

Of course Steam could use active competition, but I can already hear the complaints "yet another store front, oh noes", even if final pricing will be right. We'll see...

 

[Backer42]

Of course Steam could use active competition, but I can already hear the complaints "yet another store front, oh noes", even if final pricing will be right. We'll see...

The problem with all those iTunes clones is that they are not just store fronts, they are usually DRM clients as well. My PS4 doesn't care if I got my RDR2 Bluray from Amazon, Gamestop or the local electronics store. They have nothing to do with it anymore, after paying for it and taking it home. While paying for digital access on Steam, Origin, Uplay, Blizzard, Epic, whatever lets you end up with bunch of bloatware on your PC for installing and updating each game. That's the actual problem people have with it. It doesn't scale, it's cumbersome and wastes bandwidth and SSD space. I can fully understand people who think, that one DRM client is enough for them.