Steam is losing steam?

[Wraff]

A few years ago I would've found it very unlikely that any competitors to Steam would ever do very well. However with EA taking their toys to Origin, Microsoft doing their own thing, and now Activision jumping to Battlenet. Im sure its only a matter of time till Ubisoft tries the same.

What will Steam have to really offer outside of a few good indie games in a sea of Early Access throw aways? What're you thoughts?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

There are plenty of other big publishers other than the 3 you mentioned.

[?!]

I wouldn't underestimate the number of sales indies can bring in. I also don't think it will ultimately make sense for big publishers to move away from Steam entirely - way too many potential customers use it. If things really did go south for Steam, I'm sure Valve wouldn't find it too hard to recruit talent to make high quality games for the platform, either.

[ChairSupp0rt]

Steam is still light years ahead over any other for most older PC games, and even for many general Japanese games, however if you are looking at the Japanese games they don't want on Steam, there are other alternatives in Japan, with the actual full games, if you have no problem understanding and using Japanese.

[Falsus Te Deum]

In some point of time some one might get enough tracktion to threaten Steam, but no one is near that by a long shot at the moment.
Big studios are starting to migrate towards their own platform, Rockstar and Bethseda is example of that, but if they will like EA/Origin can be strong enought to stand without steam or still in the future sell on steam, only time will tell.

[zzrhardy]

Game publishers have a long history of cr@pping on customers. They simply can't be trusted to honour a game library.

The reason Steam has worked is because they are a 3rd party (with a few exceptions),

[BossGalaga]

Wraff eredeti hozzászólása:

A few years ago I would've found it very unlikely that any competitors to Steam would ever do very well. However with EA taking their toys to Origin, Microsoft doing their own thing, and now Activision jumping to Battlenet. Im sure its only a matter of time till Ubisoft tries the same.

What will Steam have to really offer outside of a few good indie games in a sea of Early Access throw aways? What're you thoughts?

What do EA and Blizzardvision have to offer by comparison?

EA: Battlefield of Duty, Fifa/Madden 3000

Blizzardvision: Hearthstone, Call of Dutyfield, Destiny 2 (now with more paint buckets!) and Overwatch

They're fine if you play those games but beyond that, they don't really have a lot to offer.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

To be honest Electronic Arts releasing their material on Steam now would bring a level of grief that Steam could do without. The way they price Fifa now which is a full price AAA game yet you STILL need to "buy" players for the multiplayer (literally pay to win) would cause a fireball of criticism here on the forums. What EA did with the Sims 4 (extortionate pricing for the DLC), Mass Effect Andromeda (abandoning it) and Titanfall (effectively superseding it barely two years after launch) would have also raised a helluva stink on the forums.

As for Microsoft I may be the only one who persistently refers to them as the "Spawns of Satan" for scrapping GFWL and making a ton of their gaming software virtually unusable as a result - including Viva Pinata, the Batman games, Zoo Tycoon etc but I'm by no means the only gamer who hold an indelible grudge against them for doing so.

And Activision ? They're the ones that think that Call of Duty games are still worth £50 (didn't check this - may be higher, may be lower but ballpark) off sale and £20 on sale a decade after launch ?

A couple of stats for you. In 2015 Steam's sales were worth $3.5 billion a year. We can work that out reasonably accurately that Steam got approximately $1 billion of that itself, or well over one million dollars per employee. The income will have gone up a long way since then.

The current estimate puts Steam's share of the PC games market as being between 50% and 70%. At the top end that would mean that Steam's share of the PC games market is more than twice everyone else put together.

This doesn't mean that Valve has no dangers on the horizon.

Depending on how matters eventually pan out over whether lootboxes count as unregulated gambling or not they face a significant loss of income in that area of their business. Not huge - but enough to be seen on the bottom line.

The sudden rush on censoring some of the manga games on Steam suggests that years after this subject was raised in one of the bitterest battles on the forums something has pricked them into action. Whatever that something is may have as yet unknown repercussions.

Valve is effectively subsidising its competitors by allowing retailers to sell codes for downloading games on Steam without charging for the service. If that means that the third party sites (and here we are talking legitimate competitors not the grey or black market) can undercut them consistently they could lose a lot of sales.

Competitors are a potential problem. Steam may have to buy Donald Trump and some or all of his staffers "lunch" (and don't expect this to be payable via Mastercard) to ensure that Tencent doesn't get access to USA markets until Valve gets reciprocal access to Chinese markets. Unusually President Trump might be the right man for this job - not a view I've expressed often. Perhaps E.A. will split the bill ? I'd also make some friends in the EU. Steam can't ignore the possibility of Amazon making a serious move on the market too. Although Disney has the economic power to come into the market I expect they'll stay clear - Steam's products can be far more controversial than the mouse likes to handle.

The conclusion - a sudden smattering of posts saying that "the end is nigh" and "the sky is falling in" are probably well wide of the mark. On the balance sheet Valve is stronger than ever.

But for the first time perhaps ever in its existence Valve is facing the possibility that next year (whether that be in fact 2020, 2025 or even later) won't be as good as this year and I think that has caused some serious jitters at headquarters. I got a three day ban recently for "posting in the wrong forum" - which I think is code for "you're not breaking the rules but this hit a soft spot".

My advice to Valve would be: -

1) Breathe deeply and relax. There's nothing coming in the near future likely to put you into the red or anywhere near it. There's no need to go running round like chickens with their heads cut off.

2) I'd shore up your key relationships. Highest first these are : -

2.1) Gamers
2.2) Developers/ publishers
2.3) Media
2.4) Politicians

Yet again I recommend my "100k club". Allowing developers or publishers who've sold more than 100,000 units on Steam to have their own section of the site to speak to gamers direct. This ties both key publishers and gamers even more tightly to the site.

Generally gamers are happy. This is why there are so many here. So don't change key elements of the site. Please DO NOT change to being a paid subscription service. The golden goose will go the way of the Norwegian Blue parrot. Keep the free games. Keep the sales format basically unchanged. FFS let Steam gamers have MEANINGFUL categories to vote on in the Steam Awards but otherwise - it works. Don't change it unless you have a better idea that links late Autumn to the Winter Sale. And if you have a "Most Wanted Game of the Year" category it will be THE most important award of the gaming world. Really put some effort into keeping cheaters out of multiplayer - go after those who are selling and making the cheats. Team Fortress 2 will still make money if you get rid of lootboxes and keys but have some items just for sale and other items that either come free or can be bought from Steam or on the market. It's the random nature of lootboxes that you have to pay to open that makes them gambling. Also - the site isn't that welcoming. There's nothing to say to me that you're happy to have me back on the site when I log on. Unless everyone else gets that and I don't.

Developers. I don't really know. Talk to them. Often. Mention the 100 k club...

Media. These are Mastercard lunches. Make sure your publicity department is on first name terms with the major people in the industry. I'd throw a mega "Winter" party and invite all of PC Gamer, IGN, etc to it. Show them the love... it should be reciprocated.

Politicians. Okay, you'll have to disinfect yourself afterwards. But cultivate some friendships with some movers and shakers who aren't too greedy or too nuts. I wouldn't like it any better than you do but unfortunately these snakes (I aploogise for the comparison - to any snakes who might feel insulted by being compared to a politician) have worth if you're a major international company.

Anything more ? You know how to get hold of me.

S.x.

[Gus the Crocodile]

That's a small handful of companies. For me, the question reads "What will Steam have other than the vast majority of games I'm interested in?"

[aiusepsi]

"Activision jumping to Battlenet" isn't that surprising; after all, Battle.net is operated by Blizzard, who are owned by Activision Blizzard. It was really only a matter of time until they at least tried to keep a bigger piece of the pie by trying the corporate synergy.

I don't think Valve has anything in particular to worry about. The nightmare scenario is if third-parties who aren't big enough by themselves to do their own thing start jumping ship too. Then there's something to worry about.

[Cucciolo Cantalupi]

With my less than 3 years of being legit Steam user, i can say for sure that Steam is better now that it was few years ago. Changes like new review system and the speed at which they they act when it comes to integration of EU policy in Steam.
Speaking of last one, i heard that it`s one of the reasons of hatred from other devs. From my side, i can say that it`s only their problem. If you are not a-hole and want to work globally, rather than as U.S. etc company, then respect customers from all around the world and make changes on your platform / service the moment you learned about new law. From my experience, many companies won`t do a ♥♥♥♥, unless they are forced. They will treat you like a pig and when their cover will be blown, only then they will apologize and maybe change something.
You probably heard of quite recent Facebook data scandal. So many damn years of work and then, after scandal we got some answer in style of
"Oops. Sorry. It worked well before and now something unexpected happened."

I was in same room as you in this Steam competitors matter. Big and popular company. Easy and comfortable for customer, rather than using 3 accounts on 3 different services. Old classic games. Only EA with their Origin was good alternative because of exclusives.
Today it`s not a funny complain from haters, but a possibility that Steam will fall from the top and become one of many available gaming services (not the best one) or it will become trash and soon will be dead.

EA Origin has / had decent exclusives and from my experience clean / moderated forums.

Blizzard Battle.net has decent strategy games, rpg and and ancient (still popular?) MMO. Now even more devs will probably choose it as main platform.

Microsoft Store already has few exclusives, not to mention possibility to buy game and play it on both PC and Xbox One. Also they are leader of PC OS market and so they can f-up everything for other companies.

Ubisoft Uplay? Useless waste of money. Good that Uplay works with Steam, but still not so comfortable to use.

What Steam has? Some developers are leaving. Some developers complain for one reason or another. Many users complain for one reason or another.
Now that official authorities started to look at greed and disgusting microtransactions policy in games, Steam ain`t on the light side of the force.
Support from Steam? It sucks deep.
Bots refund you your money spent on games.
Valve employees don`t interact with community via monthly report, random threads / comments related to their vision of Steam future etc.
Good games / exclusives? Dota and CS:GO? Hell no. Trash like novels, ugly 90`s games and unfinished games are everywhere.

Here is a link where you can check some interesting screenshots with comments from Steamspy founder. Also info that CoD: BO4 will be Battle.net exclusive.

https://www.weibo.com/1893075304/GhpvFA82g?ref=home&rid=12_0_8_2669536776826372241_6_0&type=comment#_rnd1526804800264

[Sorceress]

I also use GOG.com. It seems steam is loosing monopoly.

[Beautiful Ham Sandwich]

Steam is not dying, and none of it's competitors are even close to being that big of a threat. When's the last time you've actually heard anything positive about Origin or Uplay? People have actually avoided certain games that required those programs.

If Steam dies, it'll be through their own doing with their very crappy decisions and inability to implement better systems (seriously, why does library sorting still suck this much?)

[Tito Shivan]

Wraff eredeti hozzászólása:

Im sure its only a matter of time till Ubisoft tries the same.

Ubisoft already owns their own client and they're still selling their games through Steam.

Sorceress eredeti hozzászólása:

I also use GOG.com. It seems steam is loosing monopoly.

GOG is never going to get the big bucks and user pull from AAA publishers due to their stance on DRM. They either change their DRM stance to attract big names or keep their DRM policy and play on a totally different league.
Still a good succesor to Desura in my book.

The Red October eredeti hozzászólása:

Now that official authorities started to look at greed and disgusting microtransactions policy in games, Steam ain`t on the light side of the force.

Neither is Origin with EA or Blizzard with Battle net. All the big guys are under the spotlight on this regard.

The Red October eredeti hozzászólása:

Support from Steam? It sucks deep.

I know it's a meme nowadays. But steam support is heaps and bounds of what it was.
https://store.steampowered.com/stats/support
They have some neat response times nowadays.

The Red October eredeti hozzászólása:

Bots refund you your money spent on games.

And that's a bad thing?

The Red October eredeti hozzászólása:

Valve employees don`t interact with community via monthly report, random threads / comments related to their vision of Steam future etc.

Which has been their policy since the dawn of times.

The Red October eredeti hozzászólása:

Good games / exclusives? Dota and CS:GO? Hell no. Trash like novels, ugly 90`s games and unfinished games are everywhere.

Where you see 'Trash like novels, ugly 90`s games and unfinished games' others see their niche market being avaiable on Steam and opportunities of playing games before their release (As a niche game did long ago called Minecraft)
Some people like things you don't. And are happy to have them avaiable on Steam.

[Proxidist]

The fact there are competing launchers for PC annoys me.
Can't we just have 1 launcher for EVERY game? (STEAM BECAUSE OF ITS PROFILES COMMUNITY STUFF ETC). I hate having to install another launcher for like 1 game.

[BossGalaga]

Proxidist eredeti hozzászólása:

The fact there are competing launchers for PC annoys me.
Can't we just have 1 launcher for EVERY game? (STEAM BECAUSE OF ITS PROFILES COMMUNITY STUFF ETC). I hate having to install another launcher for like 1 game.

Sure, when you own every game developer and publisher in the world, you can unite them under one launcher.