Can you publish games on PC without steam?
Of courseā¦ But the question is, do you have the customer base to do it on ur own site without the need of steam? Id say not if ur asking this though.
Absolutely. There are a number of routes available such as The Humble Widget, Digital River, and Send Owl.
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PC is a pretty open platform. You can always simply throw up an install file on your website and direct people there. We do have several devs with games that donāt qualify for steam that follow alternative routes.
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Yes, you can publish a game without going through Steam. You probably would not want to, though. Steam is a large market.
League of Legends are doing okayā¦
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As does Blizzard.
Itās worth noting that steam and digital distribution is a relatively recent phenomenon. Lots of us still find picking up a game in a box from a brick and mortar store to be more to our liking.
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One of the more prominent indie examples would be Minecraft, which is still published off of its own website.
If Steam wonāt have you, or you donāt need what it offers, thereās nothing stopping you from publishing and distributing your game yourself. It means some extra work for you, but it is entirely possible, even plausible.
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You hit on something that I think about often. I am not sure if it is due to my age or not but as much as I appreciate the instant part of digital products I definitely prefer a physical product. Itās cool to have an actual game box in my hands. And often inside the box along with the game media there was a nice instruction booklet and perhaps even a map and other tidbits for the game. That part seems to be lost these days. It used to be a big part of the game experience.
Iāve often thought if I ever make a game for sale Iād try to duplicate that experience as much as possible.
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ijii games! jk.
You would think so, yet 3 years later theyāre still trying to figure out āappear offlineāā¦ which steam has accomplished. Itās a running joke similar to āSoon(trademarked)ā because it did actually say āsoonā, and then nothing.
Context ( Ķ”Ā° ĶŹ Ķ”Ā°)
Interestingly enough, you had to pay to fully integrate with steam in the past because you needed pro for plugins. So you never needed steam, and besides source2, thatās true of any engine. Itās just easier now because they handle file distribution and marketing (sort of).
Yeah the humble bundle, itch.io, greenmangaming, amazon, probably more but steams the biggest audience
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You can also publish to the Windows Store.
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off topic a bit, but, https://theindiebox.com/
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LOL! Thatās pretty awesome. Thanks! And I was actually thinking of a Deluxe package being basically just like this. A USB with the game on it, some photos of the game design doodles and so forth. Mailed out to people. Obviously higher priced than the digital download.
So much stuff out there how can anyone find it all? Thanks for posting I will probably sign up for this.
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This is one thing I hate about modern collectors editions. They charge a fortune and still give you a stinking optical disc rather than a more durable media. Infocom called these sorts of extras feelies and even used them as copy protection.
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A cd/dvd might be better I guess. I just think itās cool to get something physical. Part of why games these days have less perceived value other than the vast amount of them I think is because they are all (Indie at least) just virtual not too far from being seen as vaporware. Something tangible is nice. Not exactly the same but there is a difference between looking at a photo of a car and holding the key in your hand.
Even something like Unity. The huge download seems like yeah we got something. But if a huge package arrived in the mail opened it to find a boxed cd/dvd set with huge printed manual. I donāt know it just seems way more valuable. Obviously for their paid versions not the free one. lol
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This seems like a good idea. Itās the Windows equivalent of the Mac App Store, right?
You could probably also publish to wii u, if your willing to pony up 1500 for a dev kit.
Imagine Infamous on Wiiu