It’s a thing. If you’re an inspiring indie dev, it’s hard numbers to let you know if you can work with these numbers. If you’re just a gamer, they probably don’t matter at all.
The 1% numbers makes me question by there aren’t more AA initiates out there. we don’t get many 5-10m budget games these days, but the typical AA game is (conservatively) making 15m dollars. So if you can turnournd a game on the level of Claire Obscur (which IIRC had a 10m dollar budget) in 4 years, there should be openings for potential success.
Guess it comes down to the lack of investors who care at that level (who wouldn’t just throw it at AI)
The reality is they want you to find those other games to maximize profit, which is where all of their work into recommendation engines and personalized release calendars has gone. But it’s not going to convince millions of people who want to play NBA 2K that they should buy the latest indie game instead.
And yet every time a Triple A title drops it gets a custom banner on the store page and a guaranteed panel on the recommendation window, even when those indie titles have outsold them in the past without preferential treatment.
Networking is always important. And those AAA studios probably have dedicated lines of support to Valve that can open up such deals way more easily than an indie trying to email support.
Valve also does try to highlight some successful indies, but that’s a small slice of indie pie. While every other AAA studio is that direct line gained from events, existing networks reaching out, etc.
Yes, I’m aware that what Valve does maximises profit, but it’s a trade-off with quality as we’ve seen the larger studios are more likely to be cashgrabs than even some asset flips.
Someone is probably far more likely to pick up a game like that that they just didn’t know was out rather than one they’ve never heard of before. If they could pull that trick on any game, they probably wouldn’t let a day go by without a banner, like today.
im surprised they do promotion for free honestly but I doubt it would have much of an effect but not being so accessible to indie would make them look a lot better for articles like this.
Many stores the producers bring their things in. It was not uncommon to get stuff from them to put up but the store itself generally did not make it. They just put up what they get. I don’t know what universe you live in but that is how mine has in meat space where you are making the comaparison. Promotions were usually more and bigger for the big guys. the guy who sold his homemade stuff maybe had a bit of space by the register.
Considering valve is a for profit company and that steam is centralized and closed source third party software launcher with ads i would say these numbers are not entirely the result of “natural law” like many idiots are claiming but the result of corporations shady business practices.
Is this presented as a bad thing?
It’s a thing. If you’re an inspiring indie dev, it’s hard numbers to let you know if you can work with these numbers. If you’re just a gamer, they probably don’t matter at all.
The 1% numbers makes me question by there aren’t more AA initiates out there. we don’t get many 5-10m budget games these days, but the typical AA game is (conservatively) making 15m dollars. So if you can turnournd a game on the level of Claire Obscur (which IIRC had a 10m dollar budget) in 4 years, there should be openings for potential success.
Guess it comes down to the lack of investors who care at that level (who wouldn’t just throw it at AI)
It’s certainly not a good thing for startup indie devs putting months of work into a project.
its indicative of accessibility for startups. the way a company would change the metric is not gatekeep the smallfry.
Or promote new and interesting works as opposed to maximising profit by promoting established studios and games with already high levels of prestige.
The reality is they want you to find those other games to maximize profit, which is where all of their work into recommendation engines and personalized release calendars has gone. But it’s not going to convince millions of people who want to play NBA 2K that they should buy the latest indie game instead.
And yet every time a Triple A title drops it gets a custom banner on the store page and a guaranteed panel on the recommendation window, even when those indie titles have outsold them in the past without preferential treatment.
Networking is always important. And those AAA studios probably have dedicated lines of support to Valve that can open up such deals way more easily than an indie trying to email support.
Valve also does try to highlight some successful indies, but that’s a small slice of indie pie. While every other AAA studio is that direct line gained from events, existing networks reaching out, etc.
Yes, I’m aware that what Valve does maximises profit, but it’s a trade-off with quality as we’ve seen the larger studios are more likely to be cashgrabs than even some asset flips.
I don’t think we disagree. I’m just talking about how the sausage is made. Squeaky wheels get the grease.
Someone is probably far more likely to pick up a game like that that they just didn’t know was out rather than one they’ve never heard of before. If they could pull that trick on any game, they probably wouldn’t let a day go by without a banner, like today.
im surprised they do promotion for free honestly but I doubt it would have much of an effect but not being so accessible to indie would make them look a lot better for articles like this.
What kind of store doesn’t do promotion? What universe do you live in for promotion to have no effect?
Many stores the producers bring their things in. It was not uncommon to get stuff from them to put up but the store itself generally did not make it. They just put up what they get. I don’t know what universe you live in but that is how mine has in meat space where you are making the comaparison. Promotions were usually more and bigger for the big guys. the guy who sold his homemade stuff maybe had a bit of space by the register.
Considering valve is a for profit company and that steam is centralized and closed source third party software launcher with ads i would say these numbers are not entirely the result of “natural law” like many idiots are claiming but the result of corporations shady business practices.
I mean as opposed to all the non for profit and open source video game stores I totally get it.