Indie developers vs. Valve: how independent studios met innovations on Steam
Recently, Valve has managed to annoy a lot of indie developers. Now they are massively expressing their claims to the company and its Steam store on social networks. App2Top translated a selection of opinions of independent studios compiled by the publication Gamesindustry.biz .
Last Friday, Valve announced news that stirred up a certain group of developers on Steam. The distribution of shares has changed in the store. Steam has moved away from the standard distribution of “70% to developers, 30% to the store” and introduced a multi-level system that increases the share of those developers whose income from the game is above a certain level.
In particular, the creators of titles that earn more than $ 10 million after October 1, 2018, will give 75% of the revenue, while Steam will take 25% for itself. If the game earns over $ 50 million, the developer will receive 80% of the revenue, and Valve — 20%.
Such an innovation does not look strange if we recall that AAA publishers are leaving Steam. Ubisoft and EA are already releasing games in their own stores (although Ubisoft is still published on Steam). Bethesda and Activision joined those who left Steam at the beginning of the year, releasing Fallout 76 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in the Bethesda Launcher and Battle.net accordingly. The most probably discussed game of 2018 — Fortnite — also did not appear on Steam. And then, Steam now has competitors to worry about.: this is a Discord store and, in the future, a store from Epic Games, which was announced yesterday.
However, the reason for the dissatisfaction of indie developers is not that Steam has introduced new shares, but rather that this change benefits only publishers and AAA developers, who are almost guaranteed to reach the required threshold.
So, over the weekend, independent studios expressed their disappointment on social networks.
Neat Corporation co-founder Freya Holmér, formulated the essence of most of the complaints:
It seems to me that this idea (changing the share of Steam) in general is not so bad. But some people, including me, think that Valve has given the middle finger to small developers. Her actions are aimed at making the rich even richer. In my opinion, this is wrong. The alternative is that big publishers are already getting rich outside of Steam, they don't bring new players to the store, and publishing in it becomes unprofitable for everyone, including indie developers. In addition, AAA attracts players to stores where indie projects are not available.
Co-founder of Neat Corporation
However, in the finale, Holmer spoke to Valve with more friendliness than other indie developers.
Valve could reduce its share to 20% for all developers, and it would be beneficial for both indie projects and AAA. But, in my opinion, we should be glad that at least someone's share has increased, even if not all developers are so lucky.
Co-founder of Neat Corporation
Jake Birkett from Grey Alien Games said that sales of indie games (including his game) on Steam have been falling since the search algorithm for the store changed.
Since Valve liquidated my income in early October, slightly tweaking the search algorithm, I don't care if they take 30% or less. I'd rather they fix what's broken first.
Founder of Grey Alien Games
Most other independent studios were not so merciful to Valve.
Are the affairs of the most competitive trading platform so bad that Valve has to subsidize large studios? And do major studios really not want to get involved with Steam so much that it's easier for them to launch their own store?
Co-founder of Vlambeer
Apparently, Valve is trying to support the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 on Steam at the expense of indie studios.
Developer of the game The End is Nigh
Some developers believe that Valve did not deserve its share of revenue.
Wandersong game Developer
Mike Rose, founder of No More Robots, also spoke out:
Very short-sighted on the part of Valve. I am always asked at conferences whether Valve has the right to ask for 30%? I used to answer that yes, because they provide such and such, such and such a service. Now I will answer differently.
Founder of No More Robots
Hidden Folks developer Adrian de Jongh spoke with a Steam representative and posted his answers in a long Twitter thread. According to the representative, AAA games are more appreciated, because they bring more people to the store. Therefore, Valve is considered primarily with them.
De Jong writes that, according to Valve, increasing the share for those developers whose games earned less than $ 10 million will deprive them of an incentive to increase their income.
De Jong’s personal opinion: a multi—level system of distribution of shares is not the best solution.
If Valve wants to give up part of the revenue for the sake of games that bring Steam 90% of revenue, then why not show a good attitude to indie and increase their share to 99% to make up for these last 10%.
Hidden Folks game Developer
Finally, the Devolver Digital studio spoke out:
If no one buys your game, Valve will get nothing. That's how, dear indie developers, we need to fight.
Fictional CFO of Devolver Digital
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