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>>Is steam so profitable this makes sense? We don't have the numbers obviously, but Steam must be so profitable that Valve is primarily a software distributor

>>Is steam so profitable this makes sense? We don't have the numbers obviously, but Steam must be so profitable that Valve is primarily a software distributor these days. Over the past six years, they've released only two titles (Portal 2 in 2011 and Dota 2 in 2013), and Half-Life 3, a game that is guaranteed to sell millions upon millions of copies, isn't even on the horizon.

ejstronge 10y ago
That's a really great point - do you have any insight into whether Valve's headcount reflects a shift in priorities to software distribution vs game design?
- kbenson 10y ago
  Well, steam now makes hardware as well[1], and invested in VR research quite a bit IIRC, so it's not like they've decided to become a distribution company exclusively. 1: http://store.steampowered.com/hardware/ http://store.steampowered.com/hardware/
DumpOfGenius 10y ago
I don't think they really care about earning money from their original games. They give out team fortress 2 for free, and has been actively maintaining it all these 9 years. They sell all value game as a bundle for like $20 last year. On the other hand. Others like battle.net, origin, uplay are just other game companys trying not to give away 30% cut of their new hot game by selling at valve's platform. They will probably lose more from the 30% cut, than the potential customer they would lose selling only on their platform. I totally understand them, I just couldn't be bother to buy them (except blizzard) Nevertheless, it's just PC games, not a big market. Nowhere compare to apple's iphone games or facebook's web games.
- grogenaut 10y ago
  This is just called Free to Play. Look up how much money TF2 made on hats.
  - icebraining 10y ago
    Yeap. I know many kids who rather spend their allowances and gifts on TF2 items than on new games. Hats, weapons, taunts, all in different combinations for maximum profit.
- kbenson 10y ago
  > Nevertheless, it's just PC games, not a big market. Nowhere compare to apple's iphone games or facebook's web games. Yeah, only estimated to be about 27 billion in 2015[1]. Chump change. (I'll include this aside as a definitive indicator of sarcasm, for those incapable of detecting it accurately on their own). 1: https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/global-games-market-will-grow-9-4-to-91-5bn-in-2015/ https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/global-games-market-wil...

ejstronge 10y ago

That's a really great point - do you have any insight into whether Valve's headcount reflects a shift in priorities to software distribution vs game design?

kbenson 10y ago
Well, steam now makes hardware as well[1], and invested in VR research quite a bit IIRC, so it's not like they've decided to become a distribution company exclusively. 1: http://store.steampowered.com/hardware/ http://store.steampowered.com/hardware/

DumpOfGenius 10y ago

I don't think they really care about earning money from their original games. They give out team fortress 2 for free, and has been actively maintaining it all these 9 years. They sell all value game as a bundle for like $20 last year. On the other hand. Others like battle.net, origin, uplay are just other game companys trying not to give away 30% cut of their new hot game by selling at valve's platform. They will probably lose more from the 30% cut, than the potential customer they would lose selling only on their platform. I totally understand them, I just couldn't be bother to buy them (except blizzard) Nevertheless, it's just PC games, not a big market. Nowhere compare to apple's iphone games or facebook's web games.

grogenaut 10y ago
This is just called Free to Play. Look up how much money TF2 made on hats.
- icebraining 10y ago
  Yeap. I know many kids who rather spend their allowances and gifts on TF2 items than on new games. Hats, weapons, taunts, all in different combinations for maximum profit.
kbenson 10y ago
> Nevertheless, it's just PC games, not a big market. Nowhere compare to apple's iphone games or facebook's web games. Yeah, only estimated to be about 27 billion in 2015[1]. Chump change. (I'll include this aside as a definitive indicator of sarcasm, for those incapable of detecting it accurately on their own). 1: https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/global-games-market-will-grow-9-4-to-91-5bn-in-2015/ https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/global-games-market-wil...