When I first got a Steam account, my original plan was to buy every game released on it. But now that’s impossible.
I wondered which studio would be bold enough to do blatantly insult an entire marketplace of potential customers, but it’s just some guy.
Chris Zukowski.
I am a game marketing consultant and strategist. I have helped Games-as-a-Service companies, indie publishers, and small to single-person teams understand their audience and communicate with them in a more personal way.
Funny way to communicate with your clients audience mate, calling us all “a bunch of drunken sailors”…
I specialize in optimizing your marketing for the Steam algorithm
Ah, so you’re part of the reason nothing has a soul any more. Got it.
This just sounds like sour grapes whining paid for by Epic games who actually just want that to be them rather than Steam, despite Steam having provided the same service for free, consistently, for multiple decades now. The real offense here is PC Gamer attacking its primary consumer base (try to tell me the majority of PC gamers aren’t Steam users), so you KNOW Epic is paying a shit-ton for this manufactured consent and wish-casting. Counterpoint to this article: having more games that you want to play than you have time for, without breaking the bank, is GOOD actually, and other launch platforms only seek to enshittify YOUR experience for their own gain. Thanks!
Edit: grammar
Will I get around to playing my whole library? God no, but do i want to give this indie Dev my money? God yes!
You best be glad these sailors are drunk and laying about on their hoard. Before Steam, those sailors were pirates. Do not tempt them to set sail again.
I do have a lot of games but most of them came from big bundles from Humble Bundle.
Giving 30% for Steamworks Multiplayer servers and matchmaking, player inventory and trading, modding support w/ workshop, forums, cloud saves: 🙅
Giving 30% because players ‘spend irresponsibly’: ✅✅✅
Didn’t have to call out my 20+yo steam account
I mean, where is the lie? Gimme cheap games, I’ll “buy” all of them!
It’s not cheap
As with almost everything. Cheap is subjective. And not even just as in “I have more money so everything is cheaper for me” but also like “The value I derive from this thing for my specific use-case makes the cost feel cheap. To me.”
He’s right
Some people have huge backlogs of games they will naver be able to play, some games alone will count for hundreds of hours of playtime.
You can’t manage all them, and that platform encourages overspending
The perfect south park clip to illustrate this story:
Randy explains how stupid other people are with their money.
Guilty.
It’s like gym membership or books. If everyone with gym membership would go regularly, the business won’t be profitable. Or if everyone only buys a new book after they finish what they have bought, the publishing industry would be in shambles.
These businesses play the probability game. They are actually just insurance by a different name.
