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To be fair, steam offers a massive amount of goodies on top, including a built in mod store, tools for multiplayer, forums, and many more. I'd argue that the pl

To be fair, steam offers a massive amount of goodies on top, including a built in mod store, tools for multiplayer, forums, and many more. I'd argue that the platform is worth at least 10% if used to it's fullest (and after a certain threshold the 30% goes down anyway — though imo it should start low for small studios) The same cannot be said for the app store. Save from basic DRM (steam has this), leaderboards (steam has this) & achievements (steam has this), you get much less for that cut.

ask_b123 3y ago
For me mods and multiplayer are worth more than 10%. That said, I also play multiplayer games on the AppStore, although the Game Center friends functionality isn’t as good as Steam’s.
Chatting 3y ago
Plus, as a developer, you're not required to go through Steam, if you don't think it's worth it. There are plenty of other options (Epic Games, Microsoft Store, etc.), each with a different revenue share arrangement. Or you can self-publish on your own website and infrastructure (Minecraft did this and it worked out pretty well for them). Most developers (not all!) clearly have decided that the value Steam provides (features+audience) is worth it. But, crucially, with Steam, it's a choice. With iOS, it's not. You are forced to go through the App Store whether you like it or not (for now, at least). And if tomorrow Apple decides that 30% is not enough and they'd like a bit more, there's not much you can do about it. (Apologies if this is not terribly relevant to the rest of the thread, but it bugs me when I see this kind of "apples to apples" comparisons between Steam and the App Store)
- mey 3y ago
  Even on my Steamdeck I have itch.io and other launchers installed. Granted as a consumer, cross platform cloud saves of Steam and my 19 year old catalog has a pretty strong network effect.

ask_b123 3y ago

For me mods and multiplayer are worth more than 10%. That said, I also play multiplayer games on the AppStore, although the Game Center friends functionality isn’t as good as Steam’s.

Chatting 3y ago

Plus, as a developer, you're not required to go through Steam, if you don't think it's worth it. There are plenty of other options (Epic Games, Microsoft Store, etc.), each with a different revenue share arrangement. Or you can self-publish on your own website and infrastructure (Minecraft did this and it worked out pretty well for them). Most developers (not all!) clearly have decided that the value Steam provides (features+audience) is worth it. But, crucially, with Steam, it's a choice. With iOS, it's not. You are forced to go through the App Store whether you like it or not (for now, at least). And if tomorrow Apple decides that 30% is not enough and they'd like a bit more, there's not much you can do about it. (Apologies if this is not terribly relevant to the rest of the thread, but it bugs me when I see this kind of "apples to apples" comparisons between Steam and the App Store)

mey 3y ago
Even on my Steamdeck I have itch.io and other launchers installed. Granted as a consumer, cross platform cloud saves of Steam and my 19 year old catalog has a pretty strong network effect.