There’s no doubt that, even with all of Epic’s efforts over the last few years, Steam remains by far the biggest online gaming store on PC. Not only that, but it also appears to be more convenient for game developers, even with Valve demanding 30% of everyone’s revenue. In contrast, Epic only takes 12% (and, starting last month, only after they have passed the first million in revenue, which is completely free of charge).
Why is that the case? According to Steam and games industry analyst Chris Zukowski, Valve successfully cultivated a user base of hoarders who buy games they don’t actually play, for the most part.
Valve cracked the problem that Netflix was struggling with: how do you sell to people who have so much entertainment at their fingertips that they don’t have enough hours in the day to play and watch it all. Valve basically added infinite hours to a gamer’s day, it is a theoretical future day where gamers might someday spend hours playing your game (but let’s be honest, won’t).
The reason game developers are willing to give Valve 30% of their revenue is because the Steam marketplace is packed with super gamers who throw money at games they have no intention of playing. When I ran a survey of games that participated in Steam Next Fest, I found that for the median game most people only wishlist a game without even playing the demo. THE DEMO IS FREE! If players are so interested in the game, why don’t they play it!
We have one such example among our staff, actually. Our own Chris Wray owns 6,062 games on Steam, but only launched around 20% of them, as you can see on SteamDB. Needless to say, his backlog is the stuff of legends. Sure, he didn’t buy all the games (some we provided for the reviews), but that’s only a minor percentage. For the most part, he purchased them on his own.
Steam does have some of the deepest discounts available for PC games, such as those seen in the current Summer Sale. By the way, that’s ending tomorrow, just in case you’re looking to buy some games you’re never going to play.
On a more serious note, are you also afflicted with this hoarding disease? Vote in the poll and let us know below!
Do you regularly buy games on Steam that you end up never playing?
