A Steam Bookstore.

[gnf]

I'd like to see a bookstore added to steam - where you can purchase comics, books (both fiction and non-fiction), Audiobooks, Sheet Music, etc.
Theres a lot of potential value-add for people to own books on Steam such as a discussion forum, status updates (see when you're friends are reading and perhaps discuss live) - even achievements "Read Chapter 1, Read Chapter 4, Finished all books in trilogy" - things that would get people reading more.
Anyone agree or is steam already too full / the marketplace too competitive?

[HEART]

There are other places for that. Steam is not a "one stop" for ANYTHING electronic media related. Personally, having been on Steam for 12+ years, I would hate to see it become that.

[Radene]

Originally posted by Silversun ✴ Moon 0430:

There are other places for that. Steam is not a "one stop" for ANYTHING electronic media related. Personally, having been on Steam for 12+ years, I would hate to see it become that.

In the end, if Valve thinks it'd be good for business, it'll happen. If not, then not.

[cinedine]

Meh, I can do without having lots of bad sex stories on the store with thousands of achievements and card as an incentive of buying them. You know, that that is where it will lead to, don't you?

[Start_Running]

Honestly wouldn't mind, but there's already a bit of market oversaturation with that.

[Snapjak]

I wouldn't mind/care at all if this came, but aren't publishers notoriously hard to work with on such things?

[HEART]

Originally posted by Snapjak:

I wouldn't mind/care at all if this came, but aren't publishers notoriously hard to work with on such things?

This was my concern as well. I think the licensing for books is much different than that for games. Albeit, given Steam's market prowess I'm sure it would not be insurmountable but would surely pose a challenge.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Snapjak:

I wouldn't mind/care at all if this came, but aren't publishers notoriously hard to work with on such things?

Book publishers are still trying to adjust to the prospect of their current business model being out moded. Much like film camera manufacturers and VCR retailers.

As is. The ne surge of eBVooks has given Writers more power and choice than they ever had before. You don't need a big publisher to print your book. You don't even need to print a physical book anymore. So more and more they're trying to figure ways to stay relevant to writers and to readers.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Silversun ✴ Moon 0430:

Originally posted by Snapjak:

I wouldn't mind/care at all if this came, but aren't publishers notoriously hard to work with on such things?

This was my concern as well. I think the licensing for books is much different than that for games. Albeit, given Steam's market prowess I'm sure it would not be insurmountable but would surely pose a challenge.

It's not that much different actually. See you have to remember Steam doesn't license the books. Just as with games and movies the writer/publisher decidesb to put it up on the platform. The can also in some cases remove it from the platform and all the accounts if they so choose.

[HEART]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Originally posted by Silversun ✴ Moon 0430:

This was my concern as well. I think the licensing for books is much different than that for games. Albeit, given Steam's market prowess I'm sure it would not be insurmountable but would surely pose a challenge.

It's not that much different actually. See you have to remember Steam doesn't license the books. Just as with games and movies the writer/publisher decidesb to put it up on the platform. The can also in some cases remove it from the platform and all the accounts if they so choose.

Makes sense. I wonder if any publishers have ever approached Steam/Valve about it...

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Silversun ✴ Moon 0430:

Originally posted by Start_Running:

It's not that much different actually. See you have to remember Steam doesn't license the books. Just as with games and movies the writer/publisher decidesb to put it up on the platform. The can also in some cases remove it from the platform and all the accounts if they so choose.

Makes sense. I wonder if any publishers have ever approached Steam/Valve about it...

Not likely. As said. They have been facing a bit of a crisis thanks to ebook publishing. The whole. 'writers don't need us anymore' thing has not been sitting well adn I doubt they'd want to really open another digital rival..

[HLCinSC]

Based on how they implemented movies on Steam, I wouldn't get too excited about such a feature as a Bookstore. With the exception of a good price, I see pretty much no reason to ever purchase a movie on Steam. Being locked to the Steam Client (and in many cases streaming only) puts it at a major disadvantage compared to other major movie stores like Google Play, iTunes, Amazon, and so on where you can watch your content on a variety of devices and in different ways.

[Snapjak]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Originally posted by Snapjak:

I wouldn't mind/care at all if this came, but aren't publishers notoriously hard to work with on such things?

Book publishers are still trying to adjust to the prospect of their current business model being out moded. Much like film camera manufacturers and VCR retailers.

As is. The ne surge of eBVooks has given Writers more power and choice than they ever had before. You don't need a big publisher to print your book. You don't even need to print a physical book anymore. So more and more they're trying to figure ways to stay relevant to writers and to readers.

Yup. That's why I think they're hard to deal with, since it's sort of the same thing that happened with the music and movie industries when digital first started to become popular. Not to mention how it panned out in the beginning with amazon and google doing ebook things.

I'd be worried they're going to try to ensure they're relevant with terrible contracts that hurt the authors and/or consumers.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Snapjak:

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Book publishers are still trying to adjust to the prospect of their current business model being out moded. Much like film camera manufacturers and VCR retailers.

As is. The ne surge of eBVooks has given Writers more power and choice than they ever had before. You don't need a big publisher to print your book. You don't even need to print a physical book anymore. So more and more they're trying to figure ways to stay relevant to writers and to readers.

Yup. That's why I think they're hard to deal with, since it's sort of the same thing that happened with the music and movie industries when digital first started to become popular. Not to mention how it panned out in the beginning with amazon and google doing ebook things.

I'd be worried they're going to try to ensure they're relevant with terrible contracts that hurt the authors and/or consumers.

Oh they've been doing that for decades already. If you ever saw the BS they slip into contracts. ANd they're doing worse. RIgfht now they're trying to squeeze the authors for more money. Smaller advances plus charging for things like, marketing and promotion, arranging book signings, etc.

[B l u e b e r r y P o p t a r t]

As I love to read books and listen to audiobooks all the time while playing games (and off ofc) if I don't need to talk to people while playing, but I'd rather not have them on steam unless they were game related like Halo, Diablo, ect.

[Refurbished Hamster]

Eh, I'd rather not see that here. There seems to be a constant struggle filtering out obviously paid-for reviews and keeping what few features we have working correctly. If they can get to the point where we're not saying, "Yeah, that's been broken since it showed up" on so many things, then okay, that's fine, but right now, there are plenty of other places for that.