Actually the more I think about it the more I like it. If they open it up then it becomes like the app-store but of course the problem with the app store is that there are simply not enough slots to highlight all the new good games, now we can finally have a chance to highlight obscure indie games that would otherwise get buried and a mountain of crap, and actually have it sell a bunch of units (selling to the steam users).
Welcome change in direction, IMHO.
The Network API concept sounds good in theory, lets see how it ends up in implementation.
Sounds like Google Play and we all know how that turned out. I really like curated stores. I want at least checks in place for malware, viruses and a minimum quality bar. I really don’t want to see page after page of amateur shovelware that popped out of some kids ass during school break.
So I hope they get it right or a viable platform will go the way of the dodo.
But the whole point is anyone will able to create there own curated store, hippos steam store etc.
Why would they do so? What reason could they have to sort through all the rubbish that’ll filter in and select good stuff for their little store? Mind you, most of it will likely be without playing it at all, because otherwise all the stores would be even more restrictive than Steam already is. Nevermind that any popular stores are going to be flooded with requests from crappy game developers who want to be on it.
It’d be everything that’s bad about Steam as it is, plus the fact that the store curators won’t be able to do quality and virus checking first.
Edit: Hippo made a good point about Play. Nothing is stopping someone from making a list of good games on Google Play… And yet, how many actually do? There’s a demand for it! I would love a site that focused on good Android games and listed them, with reviews and previews from Play. But no such thing exists, so far as I know.
Somewhere in the comments of that article, there was an idea that users who maintain curated stores should be given a percentage of the revenue from any purchases routed through their store.
I have not seen it mentioned anywhere that Steam itself is planning to incorporate that idea or anything like that, of course. But if one is looking for incentive, I think something like that would make it viable.
I think the difference is that steam would actually give you a cut of the profits (otherwise there wouldnt be any incentive to do it). Thats probably the reason there is no such thing with google or IOS, also another reason it wouldnt work mobile games use free to play or 99 cent apps. So say I wanted a store that only concentrated on space sims then there would probably be a store that just dealt with that. If a store listed or highlighted all the games without any curation they wouldnt get any traffic anyway.
Take a look at greenman gaming and they have an affliate program where you start off getting 6%.
http://www.greenmangaming.com/affiliates/
Don’t like they idea personally. I prefer the curated approach they currently. Don’t want to see it turn into another App Store or Google Play.
current approach is great, Shouldn’t change.
I still haven’t changed my opinion that this change in direction is welcome. Upon further reflection though, I have a few qualifications.
It would be preferable if the malware testing and the content delivery was done by Steam. Something like what Apple does with the iOS Apps. I think a huge company like Steam would be better suited for these 2 tasks since to some degree economy of scale might be a factor there and also consumers would have more faith in something that has been malware tested by a big player like Steam as opposed to smaller players.
The content display is the one that should be left to these individual curated stores. Basically they could work similar to glorified game review sites. That sort of thing might work well actually
In short, under the current system Steam is doing game testing, delivery and also deciding which games are worthy of getting a look. It would be desirable if Steam delegated its last function to these curated stores.
Then they could become liable? I’m not sure. But what I know is it’s extremely difficult for them to be doing malware testing. It’s not like with the iOS.
If I ran for a store; I can guarantee you each game I put up on there would be much more likely to be clean than steams. I would do a personal approach on each one(not just a “scan with AVG or virustotal” that people think will give them any kind of trustworthy result).
I’d trust my store and my customers should too over Steams any day.
Now, the problem of them updating it and adding Malware after is a different problem. I’d need to be notified of each update and then I would need to check it all over again. After which time if it did have malware all the customers would be infected and I’d have angry customers.
This. I’d still rather make a game that is judged as not good enough to get on Steam than make a game which is good enough but gets buried under a torrent of sludge. Their current system might not be perfect but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Improve the current system - either by employing a few more people to look at submissions or making Greenlight more approachable and more effective. Making Steam the home of shovelware is not the answer.
Ok, I stand corrected then but are you positively sure that this kind of malware testing by individual stores is superior to Steam’s malware testing? Up till now I assume that Steam would be in a better position to do that because being a big company they would have access to better technical expertise.
To be honest, I am not aware of exactly what kind of malware testing Steam puts each submission through but I always assumed it was pretty rigorous.
I’d have to agree. User choice is great, but there needs to be a minimum quality bar.
It’s great to see that they’re willing to try new and creative and unique things, and look at thing in a new way, and take risks.
I could be wrong (I hope I am), but I don’t think that anything they do will “fix” the fact that obscure games are obscure by nature rather than because of the store they are on. For every obscure game that can get thousands of people behind it there are dozens of less obscure games that can get many more people behind it, using the same systems to their advantage. The problem with the App Store isn’t a shortage of “slots”, it’s an over-population of goods and sellers. Adding more slots just dilutes the value of each slot, and changing how things are selected for slots is largely irrelevant if everyone is playing by the same rules. Is an obscure game better off with no slot or a worthless slot? Neither - either way it has to do something out-of-band do increase its standing. If it doesn’t, the presence of functionality or design to highlight it is irrelevant, because nobody will know about it or care about it enough to do so.
Well say I am running the store, and I call it the “Inide game spotlight” (or whatever) so I look for games that are good but are “overlooked”, I do a search of the game to see if its already popular (if it is already popular no need to include it), and do some kind of “test” to see if its “any good” to meet the standard. Each week we add a few new games to the “store”.
Sure, but since everyone and their dog can make such a store, the value of any individual store is pretty diluted as compared to, say, being featured on the App Store. The most popular ones will probably end up with value similar to that, but there won’t be many of those so there’s still a very real limit on the high-value shelf space.
At the end of the day, a sales platform has a finite number of customers who will look at a finite number of things. All that any of the above can do is shuffle around what those people look at. And there is advantage to that, because it means that those people can potentially more easily find stuff that they’re interested in and are more likely to purchase. But I personally think that the idea that anything will “fix” the obscure games issue is Utopian at best.
Hell, right now Steam is pretty good at getting attention onto obscure games because if the game (and it’s developer/publisher) is good enough to get onto Steam then it’s already got a much better shot than anything on the App Store. And that’s because it’s curated. It seems like the problem they have with that isn’t that obscure games don’t get attention (to the contrary - obscure games that make it onto Steam right now don’t tend to stay obscure for long), it’s that Valve don’t want to be the bottleneck that stops good games from getting to the store. I just think it’d be a great shame if, as a result of opening the flood gates to get more good games on the digital shelves, they also end up letting the quality bar drop.
It’s a tough challenge, and I’m really interested in seeing where it takes them. I think it’s awesome that they’re learning from Greenlight and are talking about changes as a result.
So instead of one big market, it might get divided into smaller niche markets. I believe those who are welcoming this change are hoping to benefit from the fragmentation. I suppose their calculation runs something like this
One BIG App Store = Smaller chance of getting noticed among hundreds of thousands of apps but if you do get noticed and the game catches on, you can make a huge amount of money.
compared to
Multiple SMALLER App Stores = Higher chance of getting noticed but the max amount of money you could make even if the game catches on is relatively smaller.
This is just one of their reasons if I am given to understand from some of the forum postings in other sites and other threads. The other being the ability for offbeat games to have a chance etc
Steam are in a better position, but not automated. It’s something you can’t automate out to be as secure as the App Store. Now, if they planned to do each game individually this is a different thing. But if they open the flood gates…nope.
I see. I get your point now. So, the same level of automation the App Store uses when it comes to malware detection cannot be applied to the type of games that get released on steam.