3 ms·

Sadly this is unlikely to happen for anything above indie/niche games, unless the newcomer has some sort of groundbreaking advantage: first, these platforms als

Sadly this is unlikely to happen for anything above indie/niche games, unless the newcomer has some sort of groundbreaking advantage: first, these platforms also act as ad/exposure for game studios with limited advertisement budget by giving them access to a massive existing audience, which you're just not gonna get at this point from a new platform, and second (and more pernicious) they all have some sort of price matching clause, so if you want to take advantage of lower fees to cut the prices on the new platform and attract more people there, by contract the incumbents can adjust the price of your app unilaterally, cancelling out this move. There is also the fact that not all 30% are equal, so to speak : for example, Steam gets a lot less bad rap than the others due to the amount of tooling/services they provide. There is no easy fix to this situation.

beerlord 8y ago
I'm not aware of any price-matching clause. None of the key resellers would exist if that was the case. Retail stores would be unable to offer sales. For Steam and Mobile, you need to create your own playerbase. Merely launching onto the platform will get you nowhere. If you are putting a huge effort into advertising and PR to generate an audience - you must think, why not direct them to a platform that charges me less than 30%? Android and iOS are effectively closed shops, but for PC I think its simply that no decent competitor has ever come along.
- Hasknewbie 8y ago
  I can't find a source for the price-matching clause (I'm on my phone, sorry) but have read it several times. The lower-priced keys typically come from cheaper markets/regions (e.g. Russia), which AFAIK is kind of a grey area depending on jurisdiction, or from time-limited offers. I base part of my reasoning on this article, where the author points out there are already cheaper options with good tooling such as itch.io, yet they do not attract a lot of titles: https://www.fortressofdoors.com/so-you-want-to-compete-with-steam/ https://www.fortressofdoors.com/so-you-want-to-compete-with-...
  - beerlord 8y ago
    Keys from those regions are almost always region locked. What about the Humble Store? Those are mostly Steam keys. Itch.io has even less curation than Steam. It has less of a feature that people want.

beerlord 8y ago

I'm not aware of any price-matching clause. None of the key resellers would exist if that was the case. Retail stores would be unable to offer sales. For Steam and Mobile, you need to create your own playerbase. Merely launching onto the platform will get you nowhere. If you are putting a huge effort into advertising and PR to generate an audience - you must think, why not direct them to a platform that charges me less than 30%? Android and iOS are effectively closed shops, but for PC I think its simply that no decent competitor has ever come along.

Hasknewbie 8y ago
I can't find a source for the price-matching clause (I'm on my phone, sorry) but have read it several times. The lower-priced keys typically come from cheaper markets/regions (e.g. Russia), which AFAIK is kind of a grey area depending on jurisdiction, or from time-limited offers. I base part of my reasoning on this article, where the author points out there are already cheaper options with good tooling such as itch.io, yet they do not attract a lot of titles: https://www.fortressofdoors.com/so-you-want-to-compete-with-steam/ https://www.fortressofdoors.com/so-you-want-to-compete-with-...
- beerlord 8y ago
  Keys from those regions are almost always region locked. What about the Humble Store? Those are mostly Steam keys. Itch.io has even less curation than Steam. It has less of a feature that people want.