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Sigwolfe -> RE: steam release this month (6/6/2021 2:17:03 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: kahta
Lots of good reasons to avoid Steam for small publishers.... a 30% commission and the requirement that publishers do not sell the game for less anywhere else.
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-antitrust-lawsuit-leads-to-questions-about-steams-unwritten-rules/
Warning, book ahead...
So many things wrong with this statement. First of all, Matrix is not a small publisher, so no relevance there. Second of all, yes, they take a higher commission, but that comes with vastly higher exposure. Matrix held the belief that they were better distributing their own games for years, yet somewhat recently came around to Steam distribution and don't seem to be suffering in that regard even though they are making less percentage per sale.
The situation now is not the same as decades past when the price of a sale had to be offset with cost of production, packaging, marketing, storage, and distribution of physical products. Then, sales made less sense, because it could not only eat into profit, but could make a company take a loss on a sale. OMG, Steam takes 30% commission! With that commission, the previous packaging, storage, and distribution is gone. Steam takes care of that part. There's so many factors involved it's ridiculous, but to pretend Steam is just stealing money is even more ridiculous.
Charles Moylan, and Big Time Software/Battlefront maintained just such a position for multiple decades. Must control all sales in-house at all costs. That may have been tenable in a physical product distribution system, though arguable whether it really made sense. Even Battlefront has come around in the digital era, now partnering with Matrix and therefore Steam. They don't seem anxious to back down from that stance, either.
Matrix is playing the game correctly right now. A certain percentage of the market is willing to invest in these games at full price, and willing to support Matrix to keep that alive. A lot of the market is not willing to pay that price for this genre, yet is still interested in the subject. That is where a platform like Steam comes in. Gamers that would not have even looked at Matrixgames.com nor paid full price for a game there, may decide to make an impulse buy on Steam for a game on sale. A purchase they wouldn't have otherwise made for an already developed product that Steam distributes. Matrix makes less on the sale, and spends less on distribution for a product that has already been produced.
What they are doing now makes perfect sense. Release a new game direct-only to attract die-hard fans. They control prices and handle distribution. After a certain point, those willing to pay ~$80 for games like WitE2 start to slow down, so a Steam release, even at subsequent sale prices and considering their 30% cut still makes sense, because it is still money coming in, and money that would never have been attained otherwise.
FWIW, I bought the original original WitE on Steam on sale at 75% off. I then understood why it was priced so high, and have since purchased WitW and WitE2 direct from Matrix, both with the physical hardback manual. A big part in my making that decision was that they also offered Steam keys with that purchase, because I like to keep my game library in one place as much as possible. Matrix is just doing a lot recently to keep fans happy while still expanding the market, and I'm happy to see it.
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