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I keep repeating this: two things Steam does right are effortless no-questions-asked refunds, localized prices in many regions of the world, so that people in p

I keep repeating this: two things Steam does right are effortless no-questions-asked refunds, localized prices in many regions of the world, so that people in poorer countries pay affordable prices. I do think that Steam is only going to grow bigger, because most of the growth in game sales are going to come from China, Russia, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Africa, Mexico, Brazil etc than US and Europe. But most other stores does not seem to understand that expanding to these markets is key, and seems to be operating in US&Europe centric strategy. (Off-topic: Incidentally Indonesia is not far behind the US in population, but current predictions show that they aren't going to overtake the US anytime soon, however Nigeria is on track to overtake both US and Indonesia to become the 3rd most populous country by 2050).

benologist 8y ago
Their refund policy is good but it's worth nothing they only give those refunds because they were taken to court in Australia, where a judge said their previous refund policy was designed to give no refunds and used to deny an estimated 21,000 refunds just within Australia. They changed their policy and escaped punishment everywhere else. https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/video-games-website-steam-fined-3-million-for-refusing-refunds-20161223-gthdux.html https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/video-games-websit...
mywittyname 8y ago
GoG does both of these, and have done so for much longer than Steam.
- billfruit 8y ago
  It doesn't not to do either of them as wholeheartedly as steam: GOG refunds are for technical issues not no-questions-asked. Similarly in my region Steam prices are lower than GOG prices. Moreover like GOG, steam also supports DRM free games(if the developer wants a game to be DRM free).
Rebelgecko 8y ago
Valve's refund process is certainly better than nothing, but it's not consistent. I don't think you can get a refund for Artifact (Valve's own game). You can do a credit card chargeback, but then they'll ban your entire account.
deleted 8y ago
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beerlord 8y ago
The question will be: how will developers respond to this lower commission? Will it result in cheaper games for the end user? Personally I'm being conservative, that the Epic Store will lack of a lot of features upfront and need a higher advertising budget, and some additional support costs if I have to self-administer cloud saves (eg. via AWS) if Epic don't have that feature yet. So I've budgeted for about 10% lower sales, 50% increased advertising spend, about $10k extra development costs. I come out slightly less profitable than Steam, but I calculate that the risks of launching on Epic are much lower, since there's a chance that the game can just flop and die immediately on Steam on launch, whereas at least on Epic I have the boost from being selected. Plus, the potential upside on Epic is much higher.
honestoHeminway 8y ago
Remember Ruanda, where the overpopulation civil-war/purge was redeclared a genocide. African countrys regularly peak and then vannish into year long civil-wars. People alone, do not make for wealth and progress - let alone stability. India is stable and populous- and even there, nothing of gtreat value (compared to the possibility that is people) is created.

benologist 8y ago

Their refund policy is good but it's worth nothing they only give those refunds because they were taken to court in Australia, where a judge said their previous refund policy was designed to give no refunds and used to deny an estimated 21,000 refunds just within Australia. They changed their policy and escaped punishment everywhere else. https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/video-games-website-steam-fined-3-million-for-refusing-refunds-20161223-gthdux.html https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/video-games-websit...

mywittyname 8y ago

GoG does both of these, and have done so for much longer than Steam.

billfruit 8y ago
It doesn't not to do either of them as wholeheartedly as steam: GOG refunds are for technical issues not no-questions-asked. Similarly in my region Steam prices are lower than GOG prices. Moreover like GOG, steam also supports DRM free games(if the developer wants a game to be DRM free).

Rebelgecko 8y ago

Valve's refund process is certainly better than nothing, but it's not consistent. I don't think you can get a refund for Artifact (Valve's own game). You can do a credit card chargeback, but then they'll ban your entire account.

deleted 8y ago

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beerlord 8y ago

The question will be: how will developers respond to this lower commission? Will it result in cheaper games for the end user? Personally I'm being conservative, that the Epic Store will lack of a lot of features upfront and need a higher advertising budget, and some additional support costs if I have to self-administer cloud saves (eg. via AWS) if Epic don't have that feature yet. So I've budgeted for about 10% lower sales, 50% increased advertising spend, about $10k extra development costs. I come out slightly less profitable than Steam, but I calculate that the risks of launching on Epic are much lower, since there's a chance that the game can just flop and die immediately on Steam on launch, whereas at least on Epic I have the boost from being selected. Plus, the potential upside on Epic is much higher.

honestoHeminway 8y ago

Remember Ruanda, where the overpopulation civil-war/purge was redeclared a genocide. African countrys regularly peak and then vannish into year long civil-wars. People alone, do not make for wealth and progress - let alone stability. India is stable and populous- and even there, nothing of gtreat value (compared to the possibility that is people) is created.