I don't think you should charge 100 for selling games

[johnmc50]

Why? even though game engines make it easier.
It still take allot of time
...............................
It's even harder for game makers who use pro
they pay monthly.
................................................................

I was planning to make a game people may like
but what games are out are cheaper to buy then to
make, why bother making one.
.......................................................................

[Brian9824]

Steam is a store and the $100 fee covers the cost of your store page and advertising.

引用自 johnmc50：

I was planning to make a game people may like
but what games are out are cheaper to buy then to
make, why bother making one.

To make money? It's always cheaper to buy a game then to develop one, so not sure what your trying to say. If you want to make money off a game then you have to develop one and list it for sale.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

It is a 1 time fee and after you sell $1,000, you get it back.

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/gettingstarted/appfee#4

[nullable]

引用自 johnmc50：

I was planning to make a game people may like
but what games are out are cheaper to buy then to
make, why bother making one.

Do you want some kind of guarantee that you'll make money if you make a game?

Nearly any creative endeavor carries some risk of failure. If you're paying for it out of your own pocket you bear 100% of that risk. If you don't want to bear that risk get a publisher, get financing.

At any rate don't expect the system to cater to you when you haven't done anything yet.

[Reggaejunkiedrew]

It used to be very difficult to get a game on Steam, they've provided a way that anyone can now.

Steam is absolutely flooded with low quality games made by people who are just learning how, just look in new releases. I'm fine with that, but there needs to be some kind of barrier to entry, if you don't think your game is good enough to make a few hundred bucks why would anyone else want to play it?

[Dutchgamer1982]

there used to be a proper quality differentation :

cost of release :

in the olden days :
-a game had to be put on a floppy, that could be done at home, and a sticker printer would be enough to label the floppy... but to get your item into a store you would need to print a nice box.. and a nice manual.. likely some posters to sweeten the deal...
-> and than if you were a new studio.. you would need to get yourself known.. likely you would give out free demo's of your game at events.. every floppy did cost you depending on year between 5 and 50 cents... and you would need to hand out a couple thousand of them to even get noticed...
-> if you managed to get crowd notice.. as marketing those days went almost 100% mouth to mouth... you could get yourself a nice spot on a shelf in a fysical store.... for those stores had to be convinced to purchase your product for resell.. many releases were national only....
**upfront cost of this was quite steep... that is why for example amiga would allow you to send in a floppy or casette with your c64 game programmed in basic.. and if they wanted it.. you would recieve 200 guilders (about 200 euro with conversion and inflation added) and thats you would all ever see of it.. they would handle distribution as they had the name the stores liked and they trusted the big publishers to do the selection.. if they would not... that publisher would be dropped.


some years later.. you could not even do that anymore.. free samples on floppy were still a thing (they remained a thing untill demo's would be released on the internet) in the late 90s...
now those floppy's were more often send for free with pc magizines.. and ofcourse they too would charge you for that service... if not them listing you in an article could do wonders for you...
the actual cost of releasing your game was however MUCH higher... yes you still needed to print a box, and a manual and those posters.. but now you also needed to have your game put on a cd-rom.. and personal burners did not excist yet and would not be of the quality users desired... having a batch of 1000 cd-roms stamped was quite expensive about 2800 guilders (or nearly 3000 euro)... at that kind of price.. making a profit would not be feasable.. so you would need the larger numbers to lower that printing price..
**this was for users the golden era of gaming because the margins on a succesfull game were small.. and marketing had still little effect... it ment the only thing to sell a game with was quality.. it HAD to be good.. they would just not get away with the trash today released.
**you would need the stores to purchase your product... and even if you manage to get them to buy it in bulk because of you having build a good name.. if it sold bad (and remember in those days it was totally possible to return a game to the store if it was bad... so not only would you lose sales if the game was bad because 1 customer telling his friends do not buy this... he would also refund his product upto 14 days after he bought it...
and a gameshop that would end up with stock they could not sell or had to lower the price of a lot.. will not want to buy more copies of your future game... in risk... nor would his customers.. so even if the next game was good.. and you had the funds to survive 1 bad recieved game.. you likely still would go under...


next era... internet fast estabilised... but pre-steam... you now had more options to release a game.. proper AAA titles with 60 euro pricetasgs would still only be sold in fysical stores. but there was a rise of pages like bigfish... and similair ones (online shops) those would offer games in the 5-20 euro range.. games like fish breeding tycoon, plant breeding tycoon, westwards, tradewinds, chocolatier... ofcourse those platforms would screen you if you wanted to release your game... they would deem you worthy or not.. and they likely would demand a cut too.. but other than that it was a lot cheaper now to release your game... not as cheap as in the basic days it still had to be a medium sized game.. but well it COULD be done...


enter today.... your publishing costs are nearly 0...
**mobile game apps can be released for free... anybody stupid enough to buy your thing.. will earn you money no upfront cost.. just work done. the software you will need however likely is more expensive to licence than in the olden days..
*want a little bigger... well there is steam... 100 euro to get acces is INSANELY cheap (if it were me steam would still have to individually check every incoming game and reject any not upto a quality point.. so your complain this bar is to high.. no no it is not it is way to low.
*and if you want even bigger you COULD still get yourself a fysical copy... out there in stores... printing a cd has become much cheaper so now also those 20 euro games can profitably put on shelves.. if you can convince stores to take inventory...
(for pc it will be hard to convince them these days.. (I am of that dying breed of pc gamers who prefer a fysical copy)... but doable... likely you will want a younger market...
*if you want a larger fysical release.. you will want to do that on console.. and that will mean a far more expensive licence from that platform than just 100 euro...


so never before the cost of releasing your game was so cheap for devs...
and never before so easy to start earning money.....


if 100 euro upfront is to expensive for you... because you don't expect to sell 200 euro worth of copies... (steam will take 40%.. and you must pay VAT and/or income tax over your sales) than perhaps you are not ready to sell games commercially.
after all even a half-baked mobile app will take a single person a couple hundred manhours to make.... and would you work a couple hundred hours for 100 euro???
a pc game likely would take at least a couple thousant...

yeah there are already to many people who used basicly the default unity assets with barely any work in think they are brilliant and flood steam with it... thats not what I want to see...

if your game is better than that... well you will surely earn your 100 euro back...

[Start_Running]

OP. This is business. If the dev/pub cannot pony up even a measley $100 to get their game on a store front..then they aren't worth being on a store front.

You basically saying the dev doesn't know 10 people that could lend them $10.

Honestly I kinda think it should be raised to $150.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

I think it should be $1,000 and you can not recoup it.

[Leonardo Da Pinchi]

It prevents stuff like 10 year olds just pumping out asset flips for money. I see nothing wrong with a $100 charge.

It ensures the dev is at least semi-serious about their product, prevents a lot more crappy poorly coded clones (FNAF clones for example, yes there's thousands out there, there'd be millions more without the charge)

[Digital Merc]

considering in most countries you can run a business with a negative annual net income [then get money back as a tax return] when you're starting the business, crying over $100 is pretty laughable, and shows a lack of basic business knowledge... which you might want to ham up on before trying to 'sell a game'.

[The End]

引用自 cSg|mc-Hotsauce：

I think it should be $1,000 and you can not recoup it.

Sounds like a great idea, that would get my vote.

[76561198407601200]

引用自 cSg|mc-Hotsauce：

I think it should be $1,000 and you can not recoup it.

:qr:

This exactly. Even if they sell their game and earn $25 per, they only have to sell 40 copies to break even.

[Crazy Tiger]

引用自 cSg|mc-Hotsauce：

I think it should be $1,000 and you can not recoup it.

Agreed.

[Radene]

引用自 cSg|mc-Hotsauce：

I think it should be $1,000 and you can not recoup it.

:qr:

That'd kill niche-but-maybe-okay stuff, but it wouldn't kill just-another-titty-simulator ones.

[wuddih]

the fee exists as a paywall to block the absolute gutter of developers and it works well enough. the low quality on Steam is far beyond what you see on other game platforms.

$100 is not much, a good hobo can do that in a week.
and that fee is also recoupable ... if the product is not trash and also marketed as such.

no real ambitioned game developer that cares about their work will have any problems with gathering 100 bucks. this is probably the easiest task in releasing a game on Steam.

your post reads like you do not even have a game yet.
why not finish your game first and then think about releasing it somewhere?
start with problem #1. not with #1280

[Start_Running]

引用自 Radene：

引用自 cSg|mc-Hotsauce：

I think it should be $1,000 and you can not recoup it.

:qr:

That'd kill niche-but-maybe-okay stuff, but it wouldn't kill just-another-titty-simulator ones.

Agreed here. One of the things that made Steam great and continues to give it anm edge is tghe fact that yes. You can have games targeting very odd yet small niches. I mean look at a Game like Viscera Cleanup Detail.

Aww ♥♥♥♥♥ did we just agree again.
That's it. I'm calling HR.