5 ms·

Fragmentation and walled gardens are a false dichotomy. Steam is actually a great example of this, there are many other stores (Humble Bundle, Fanatical, GMG, w

Fragmentation and walled gardens are a false dichotomy. Steam is actually a great example of this, there are many other stores (Humble Bundle, Fanatical, GMG, whatever) that sell you Steam keys so you can keep your game library in one comfortable place.

simonh 6y ago
Yes Steam are still perfectly comfortable staying at 30% as I said it's clearly a market driven level.
- throwaway2048 6y ago
  Steam keys sold off steam do not give valve a cut.
  - simonh 6y ago
    Right, they believe their store value is enough for them to compete with 0%.
  - jsjohnst 6y ago
    Valve is definitely getting some kind of money out of the deal.
    - throwaway2048 6y ago
      They are not "Steam keys are meant to be a convenient tool for game developers to sell their game on other stores and at retail. Steam keys are free and can be activated by customers on Steam to grant a license to a product." https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys
    - throwaway53453 6y ago
      I'm a developer who uses Steamworks. Keys are free for us to generate and sell at will. Valve reserve the right to say no, but from what I can tell, their only policy is to not take the piss (selling millions of keys), and not to charge more to customers who buy directly from Steam.
    - jsjohnst 6y ago
      I didn’t mean to say they are getting a direct cut as sibling commenters indicated, but Valve definitely is getting at least some kind of money indirectly out of them offering this.
  - 2muchcoffeeman 6y ago
    I wonder what a user is worth to Steam? They didn’t have to acquire the user themselves and now they have more eyeballs on their service. How many of these users buy a few things later and make waiving the fee worth it? Steams not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.
    - throwaway2048 6y ago
      nobody claimed otherwise, only that its trivial to sidestep the 30% fee, even if you wish to remain distributed by steam.

simonh 6y ago

Yes Steam are still perfectly comfortable staying at 30% as I said it's clearly a market driven level.

throwaway2048 6y ago
Steam keys sold off steam do not give valve a cut.
- simonh 6y ago
  Right, they believe their store value is enough for them to compete with 0%.
- jsjohnst 6y ago
  Valve is definitely getting some kind of money out of the deal.
  - throwaway2048 6y ago
    They are not "Steam keys are meant to be a convenient tool for game developers to sell their game on other stores and at retail. Steam keys are free and can be activated by customers on Steam to grant a license to a product." https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys
  - throwaway53453 6y ago
    I'm a developer who uses Steamworks. Keys are free for us to generate and sell at will. Valve reserve the right to say no, but from what I can tell, their only policy is to not take the piss (selling millions of keys), and not to charge more to customers who buy directly from Steam.
  - jsjohnst 6y ago
    I didn’t mean to say they are getting a direct cut as sibling commenters indicated, but Valve definitely is getting at least some kind of money indirectly out of them offering this.
- 2muchcoffeeman 6y ago
  I wonder what a user is worth to Steam? They didn’t have to acquire the user themselves and now they have more eyeballs on their service. How many of these users buy a few things later and make waiving the fee worth it? Steams not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.
  - throwaway2048 6y ago
    nobody claimed otherwise, only that its trivial to sidestep the 30% fee, even if you wish to remain distributed by steam.