Valve has unveiled several enhancements to the way demos are managed on Steam, along with new options to help developers showcase these demos to potential players. Among the most significant updates is the ability for studios to create dedicated store pages for their free demos. These pages can feature screenshots, trailers, and details about the demo's contents. Conveniently, they will also automatically link to the full game's store page, facilitating wishlisting or purchase by users. According to Valve's announcement, these dedicated demo pages are optional and can be removed at the developer’s discretion. Developers are required to provide a complete written description, screenshots, and tags before a page can be published. This feature is available for demos that are already on Steam
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Stores and publishing
App stores news, their innovations, and the success of certain games on them. This section also features articles about the peculiarities of game publishing.
Valve has made changes to Steam related to demos. Now their functionality on the platform has become much closer to that of regular games
Valve continues to improve the Steam platform, with the latest update focusing on game demos. The new features offer a complete overhaul of how they work and behave on the store.
Red Art Games, a French publishing company, recently experienced a cyberattack. In an email addressed to its customers, the publisher revealed that personal data had been compromised, including names, birthdates, email addresses, shipping details, order information, and phone numbers. Despite the breach, Red Art Games reassured customers that their banking information remained secure and unaffected by the incident
No Man’s Sky has risen again with the release of a new update. However, Hello Games’ survival hit wasn’t the only big winner on Steam over the past seven days.
During their session at Develop Brighton, Hannah Flynn, Izzy Jagan, and Lou Jones opened with an intriguing question: What is marketing? Their discussion, titled 'What games marketing actually works in 2024?', delved into various elements of effective marketing strategies for the gaming industry.
A recent study published in Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation indicates potential money laundering activity on the Steam Marketplace. The research specifically targeted trading within Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, leveraging publicly available data to analyze "the frequency and quantity of trades" over a five-day span in August 2020.
A 60% discount and the release of the major update Worlds Part 1 significantly boosted No Man’s Sky sales on Steam. As a result, for the week of July 16 to July 23, the game ranked ninth in the platform’s best-selling products list
The Federal Trade Commission has expressed disapproval of the recent price adjustments for Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, unveiled last week. In a document submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals, the FTC argued that Microsoft's "actions are inconsistent" with its earlier statements regarding price hikes, asserting that this maneuver "is exactly the sort of consumer harm from the merger the FTC has alleged." The revised pricing structure, set to take effect on September 12, encompasses increases across existing Game Pass tiers and introduces a new standard option that excludes day-one releases
The year 2024 has witnessed unexpected indie titles leading the Steam charts. Games such as Palworld, Balatro, and Manor Lords have achieved remarkable sales, surpassing numerous AAA releases on the platform and emerging as some of the top launches this year. While some titles had built anticipation before their release, others, like Gray Zone Warfare, gained traction unexpectedly. Although Gray Zone Warfare had garnered a niche and loyal following in the previous year, its commercial performance was unforeseen, selling 400,000 units within the first 48 hours and exceeding 900,000 copies in less than a month. Several external factors played a role in its success, but a significant contributor was the game's strategic Early Access release, launched just as the development budget was dwindling and necessitating public release
Gaming marketing expert Chris Zukowski found out which genres had the most "hits" — games with a thousand or more reviews* — on Steam in the first half of 2024
Gaming marketing expert Chris Zukowski looked at how many new releases in the first half of 2024 on Steam became "hits." That is, gathered at least a thousand reviews* on the platform. There weren't many of them
There are several genres that Steam players love the most, but the market as a whole is not stagnant. Game marketing expert Chris Zukowski has analyzed how many games and in what niches performed the best in the first half of 2024.
New insights into Valve's organizational structure, employment practices, and workforce numbers have surfaced in the context of an antitrust lawsuit involving Steam. Though segments of the documents submitted in Wolfire's lawsuit against Valve were obscured, Pavel Djundik of SteamDB identified that some information remained accessible beneath the redaction, including details of Valve's employee numbers, compensation, as well as gross margins and commissions spanning from 2009 to 2021. In 2015, Valve's Steam division employed 142 individuals, but by 2021, this figure had decreased to 79, even as nearly 10,000 games were launched on Steam that year
After leaving Valve and going indie, veteran game designer Matt T. Wood found success with his studio Double Dagger and cute adventure title Little Kitty, Big City. Here is some new data about the game’s commercial performance.
The Steam Summer Sale has been a success for Bohemia Interactive. Here is how the studio’s tactical shooter Arma 3 performed during the event.
Bohemia Interactive announced that thanks to a recent sale on Steam, the audience for the shooter Arma 3 has grown by more than half a million people. Of those, 100,000 bought the game on the first day of the sale
Forza Horizon 5 has reached an impressive milestone in less than three years after its launch. The game remains one of the most successful Xbox first-party games.
A third of all developers in the mobile app store RuStore are game developers, reports VK. There are now more than 3,000 gaming teams on the platform
It’s time for a weekly review of the highest-grossing games on Steam. Last week, four of the top 5 products on the platform were free-to-play titles.
During the week of July 9 to July 16, the highest-grossing project on Steam was PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS. Player spending likely increased due to a collaboration with car manufacturer Lamborghini
The newest GamesIndustry.biz Microcast can now be downloaded or viewed. This week's episode features James and Chris discussing Microsoft's alterations to Xbox Game Pass, which include price hikes across all existing tiers and the launch of a new Standard tier that excludes day one releases. The discussion delves into the company's strategy for its subscription service, in addition to its fresh 'You don't need an Xbox to play Xbox' ad campaign. The episode also touches on the atmosphere at Develop Brighton 2024 and Nintendo's unconventional teaser campaign for an upcoming horror game
Embark, the developer behind The Finals, has issued an apology to Xbox players following the delay of its comprehensive 3.4 patch on Microsoft's consoles. While the update was successfully deployed on PC and PS5 last week, Xbox users are facing a "lengthy delay" due to an unspecified issue that is hindering the 3.4 release on the platform.
"We're currently working together with Microsoft on the situation that's blocking the 3.4 release on Xbox. I currently don't have an ETA for when we will be able to release, but as soon as I learn anything, I will share it with all of you," an Embark spokesperson stated in the official Discord channel
On July 13, an assassination attempt was made on former US President Donald Trump, resulting in the politician being wounded in the ear. Following the incident, Steam users recalled the 2016 game Mr.President!
In addition to the box office top, MobileGamer journalists also published a list of publishers whose games amassed the most downloads in the first half of 2024. The top spots in the list were taken by companies that primarily publish hyper-casual projects
MobileGamer has compiled a ranking of mobile game publishers with the highest IAP revenues for the first half of 2024 based on data from the analytics service AppMagic
Slava Gris, an independent developer and author of games such as Fearmonium and Catmaze, gave a talk during the first session of the "Gaming Industry" conference. Drawing from personal experience, he provided detailed insights on how to work with Steam from Russia in the current realities
If there were any lingering questions about Xbox's dedication to Game Pass (and industry speculation earlier this year suggested there were many), the company has decisively addressed them in the last two months. It started with the announcement that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be available on Game Pass the same day it launches globally. This was followed by a dynamic Xbox Summer Showcase, during which every first-party title was accompanied by the phrase: 'Play It Day One On Game Pass,' covering games into 2024, 2025, and beyond. Xbox is clearly committed to ensuring the success of Game Pass. However, there is a significant obstacle. Game Pass subscriptions have stagnated over the past 18 months. Additionally, the performance of premium Xbox game sales has been underwhelming. Notably, Hellblade 2 did not even enter the Top 100 in Europe following its release in May
Ex-employees of Nintendo and Sega have established a new firm called First Break Labs, focused on supporting independent game developers. The company intends to offer funding and marketing assistance to partnered studios, leveraging over 20 years of its team's experience with both indie games and major AAA titles. Alfonso Cubias, the chief publishing officer, has a background of over five years as head of product marketing at Sega and has held senior marketing positions at Digital Extremes and SmileGate
Once Human is a new free-to-play multiplayer shooter with survival elements from NetEase’s subsidiary Starry Studio. The game has shown impressive numbers at launch, but player reception has been mixed so far.
Big sales on Steam always spark increased interest among players in time-tested hits. This fact was confirmed by the developers of the city-building survival game Frostpunk
Microsoft has revealed plans to raise the prices of its current Xbox Game Pass tiers and to launch a new Standard tier, which will not feature games upon their initial release on the service. According to a post on the company's support site, Game Pass for Console will be discontinued for new subscribers. The new Xbox Game Pass Standard option will be priced at $14.99 per month and is expected to become available "in the coming months"
Game marketing expert Chris Zukowski has found out that many developers try to launch their games during the gap between Steam’s major events. So is this really a good release window or is it better to pay closer attention to other things?
On July 9, NetEase's Starry Studio released the multiplayer post-apocalyptic survival game Once Human on PC. At launch, the game managed to attract a large audience
Game marketing consultant Chris Zukowski has shared a deep analysis on genres that Steam users love to play. Based on this data, it is hard for an indie developer to make a profitable platformer unless it is mixed with other genres like metroidvania or roguelike.
Game marketing consultant Chris Zukowski has launched a free class How To Make A Steam Page.
Steam’s seasonal sales are definitely one of the best events to boost interest in older hit games. And Frost punk developer 11 bit studios has some nice stats to prove it.
Almost half of the top 10 highest-grossing games on Steam over the past seven days were free-to-play. Let’s take a closer look at last week’s biggest winners.
The cooperative looter-shooter The First Descendant is doing well. The game topped the chart of the highest-grossing products on Steam for the week of July 2 to July 9, displacing Elden Ring, which was the leader the previous week
Tim Bender, the CEO of Hooded Horse publishing, disagrees that Manor Lords has fallen into the "early access trap." This opinion was previously expressed by Raphael van Lierop, the head of Hinterland studio, who pointed to infrequent updates and a decline in the game's online presence. According to Bender, none of this is a problem for Manor Lords
The new Dawntrail expansion has significantly increased player interest in Final Fantasy XIV. Square Enix’s MMORPG hasn’t had this many people playing it simultaneously across all platforms in over 10 years.
A few days ago, Devolver Digital announced plans to issue 23.9 million new shares on the stock exchange and to raise £7.9 million ($10 million) from their sale. It seems that in the end, they exceeded their investment target
Sony Interactive Entertainment will make a return to this year's Tokyo Game Show. According to VGC, the company hasn't had a major presence at the event since 2019. It did attend last year but focused solely on independent titles. Sony revealed its 2024 line-up during the digital State of Play presentation in May. The line-up features the live service multiplayer game Concord, PC versions of Until Dawn and God of War, and Astro Bot, all set to be released before the event.
According to Renato Fragale, Senior Director of Consumer and Gaming Client Relations at AMD, the company could have gone bankrupt without the PlayStation 4 console. He mentioned this in the description of his LinkedIn profile
VR enthusiast Bradley Lynch discovered a mention of Waydroid in the Steam database—a free and open-source emulator that allows Android apps to run on Linux devices. According to him, Valve may be working on adding Waydroid support to the portable PC Steam Deck
PC gaming is on the rise in China, with playtime and spending growing year-over-year. Here are the key findings about the behavior of local players.
79.5% of Chinese PC gamers use Steam to play premium games, according to a report by the analytics company Niko Partners. Moreover, the overwhelming majority prefer the international version of the platform
Steam is experiencing a boom in cooperative projects, according to a report from the analytical service VG Insights. Last year, 799 games with co-op were released on the platform — the highest result at least since 2018
Nexon has just launched its new online third-person shooter The First Descendant. The game quickly drew a lot of attention from players, many of whom criticized its monetization elements, among other issues.
On July 2nd, the cooperative looter-shooter The First Descendant was released on PC and consoles. The game by the South Korean company Nexon immediately became one of the most popular new releases of 2024 on Steam
本周热门
Valve’s Kassidy Gerber recently shared several updates on Steam as a platform and some of its key metrics. Here are the key findings.