If Valve bumped their cut from 30% to 40%, do you imagine publishers would rush to EGS? Epic’s cut is already 15 points lower than Valve’s. It hasn’t moved the needle.
Valve kills studios by saying ‘no thank you.’ They have immense power. They just don’t use it in any way that freaks people out. The mere possibility shapes the entire industry. Only niche studios try weird shit, because large studios don’t risk poking the bear. Games want to feature nudity and intimacy, but most are so self-censored, they could be televised. The cultural prevalence of nude mods is proof of demand that has been frustrated.
If you’d rather blame Mastercard and Visa openly dictating what art can and can’t be sold, by all means, we can talk about their joint control of online payment. But it might get blunt if you insist one store taking Bitcoin means that’s not a duopoly.
why would any studio choose not to release on Steam?
Epic gave Remedy a shitload of money, up-front. All exclusivity these days works like that. Nobody wants to reach fewer customers. Some of them are convinced to - some of them are forced to. Alan Wake exemplifies the former, and there’s a good chance Remedy regrets the decision.
So not being on Steam isn’t widely known as dooming the game? If everyone knows not being on Steam will force your studio to shut down how could you possibly convince anyone to choose to do so?
Remedy took money up-front, expecting it to be more money than they would make later.
Being on Steam means access to customers, and more sales. You said so. So Epic, to promote the Epic Game Store, estimated how much revenue Alan Wake 2 would lose by not being on Steam, doubled it, and wrote that on a check.
If Valve bumped their cut from 30% to 40%, do you imagine publishers would rush to EGS? Epic’s cut is already 15 points lower than Valve’s. It hasn’t moved the needle.
Valve kills studios by saying ‘no thank you.’ They have immense power. They just don’t use it in any way that freaks people out. The mere possibility shapes the entire industry. Only niche studios try weird shit, because large studios don’t risk poking the bear. Games want to feature nudity and intimacy, but most are so self-censored, they could be televised. The cultural prevalence of nude mods is proof of demand that has been frustrated.
If you’d rather blame Mastercard and Visa openly dictating what art can and can’t be sold, by all means, we can talk about their joint control of online payment. But it might get blunt if you insist one store taking Bitcoin means that’s not a duopoly.
Back to your earlier point: why wasn’t Alan Wake 2 on Steam? Did Steam say ‘no thank you’?
If it’s such a wide reaching and well known issue, why would any studio choose not to release on Steam? Do you know something they don’t?
They they do. Steam has full on porn games on it.
Epic gave Remedy a shitload of money, up-front. All exclusivity these days works like that. Nobody wants to reach fewer customers. Some of them are convinced to - some of them are forced to. Alan Wake exemplifies the former, and there’s a good chance Remedy regrets the decision.
So not being on Steam isn’t widely known as dooming the game? If everyone knows not being on Steam will force your studio to shut down how could you possibly convince anyone to choose to do so?
‘But if not being on Steam means they can’t get enough money, how would more money help?’
You cannot be serious.
You’ve been saying everyone in the industry knows not being on Steam means your game won’t be successful and it warps the industry around it.
You’ve also been saying that Alan Wake 2 was guaranteed to make a lot of money if they released on Steam.
So given these two arguments you’ve been making, why would a company choose to make less money by not releasing on Steam?
Epic… funded… the game.
Remedy took money up-front, expecting it to be more money than they would make later.
Being on Steam means access to customers, and more sales. You said so. So Epic, to promote the Epic Game Store, estimated how much revenue Alan Wake 2 would lose by not being on Steam, doubled it, and wrote that on a check.