donate button

[M3xX]

Hello all!

I think Steam is great! It's just fun to play games and the deals! Oh the deals, they are awesome!
Unfortunately, I feel bad about it. I've bought most of my games in deal promotions and spent countless hours in them. Therein lies my problem, I bought the game for a fraction of the actual price and feel the developers deserved more.

Here's my request: can you add a "donate" button to the games? A lot of studios, especially small ones, deserve more for their creative masterpiece. This way more studios can focus on what is important, the fun of the game, and hopefully not on expensive microtransactions to earn money.

I know that it takes a lot to implement, especially a beginning. :)

with love a gamer

[Wolf Knight]

why would steam want to be responsible for collecting donations. the game developers can add DLC people can buy as a donation

[Brian9824]

Yeah game developers already have this option if they want it such as https://store.steampowered.com/app/1776450/Developer_Donations_DLC/

Most won't have it, if you really want to support them then it would be better to buy a copy of the game and gift it to someone instead

[Cathulhu]

They can also use in-app purchases for that.

[✨Saint✨]

I have seen certain developers with a donation option on their main page. If you want to donate, you may have better luck looking there.

[Gwarsbane]

As mentioned they can already use DLC to do that if they want.

And no for all the reasons mentioned here and in all the other threads on this topic....

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/3092275748083420918/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/4956744526902549052/
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/1/1796278072848543124/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/1745605598711109461/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/412448158148304324/

a couple of these are for donate buttons for users, but its the same reasoning why its a big no.


Just buy their games, if they want more they can put up alternate ways to get more money or they can start making digital art packs that contain stuff they have around that costs them nothing to put together.

They can make a number of packs and just put up DLC that has nothing in it also.


Also don't feel bad that you bought their games on sale, at least you bought them and they are ok with you buying at a discounted price because they are the ones that set that price.



It also takes a lot more than you think it does for Valve to put something like this in. They can't just put a button in and then walk away. After that there is a whole lot of new and expensive banking & tax rules (from many different governments) that they would have to follow.

[M3xX]

The point is not that I can't / won't buy the same game again, but that you can use the Steam purchase option to give money to the developers.
As I said before, they should focus on the core of the game and not invest power in stupid ideas.

The player should be able to decide for himself if and how much he is willing to give to his favorite game to keep the interest of the studio alive. You can already see from the community that there is great interest.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by M3xX:

The point is not that I can't / won't buy the same game again, but that you can use the Steam purchase option to give money to the developers.
As I said before, they should focus on the core of the game and not invest power in stupid ideas.

The player should be able to decide for himself if and how much he is willing to give to his favorite game to keep the interest of the studio alive. You can already see from the community that there is great interest.

There really isn't a great interest..... Hence why the majority of companies don't do it and barely any users have even inquired about it. A few threads on it over the years isn't exactly great interest,

If companies want donations they'd arrange them on their own site where they keep 100% of the donation instead of paying steam's cut. Or use the existing methods that already exist

Steam doesn't set up store pages, donations, etc. That is up to the developer as those funds needed to be accounted for and tracked as they are reported differently then sales. So its not a steam suggestion

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by M3xX:

The point is not that I can't / won't buy the same game again, but that you can use the Steam purchase option to give money to the developers.
As I said before, they should focus on the core of the game and not invest power in stupid ideas.

The player should be able to decide for himself if and how much he is willing to give to his favorite game to keep the interest of the studio alive. You can already see from the community that there is great interest.

As said in the many threads about this;

-Developers can make Supporter DLC
-Developers can accept donations via their site, discord, funding site etc
-Developers can also make micro-transactions such as skins or items for their games.

The Developer can make ways for you to be able to donate to them

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by M3xX:

The point is not that I can't / won't buy the same game again, but that you can use the Steam purchase option to give money to the developers.
As I said before, they should focus on the core of the game and not invest power in stupid ideas.

The player should be able to decide for himself if and how much he is willing to give to his favorite game to keep the interest of the studio alive. You can already see from the community that there is great interest.

As said Devs can already do this if *THEY* want such donations. And believe you me there are quite a few reasons why a Dev wouldn't.

They can add DLC, MTX, a link on their actual website....yeah. Feature already exists.

[Brian9824]

Yep, for instance many people seeing a developer having an option for donations would be seen as a sign of them begging, or being desperate for money and can hurt their image.

[jamesglen7]

That's a generous offer indeed while you are already supporting the developer with purchases.
Talented developers don't need handouts and placing a donate option will have a negative impact on their credibility.

[MaNsTi]

good

[Dieter]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.