Valve to give larger publishers a greater Steam revenue slice

[HEXUS]

Move might help prevent bigger publishers from straying away or starting their own platforms.

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[Ttaskmaster]

Hurrah!!
We don't want people setting up their own shop anyway, right?

[Usernamist]

I get that they don't want big publishers to make their own launchers every time they release a game (Origin, uPlay, Fallout76) but come on. That's disgusting

[chj]

On one hand I don't want to have loads of different launchers installed on my desktop, but competition is a good thing. I'm guessing this move is a result of that.

I do wonder if this will incentivise more microtransations implemented in games which will be a pain in the arse.

[Luke7]

On one hand I don't want to have loads of different launchers installed on my desktop, but competition is a good thing.

This is something of a myth. Competition between game developers is good, competition via an increasing number of platforms is nothing but frustrating for the end-user. What sort of competition are you even talking about? As long as the platform functions (can download and launch games) how can any competition be had? Especially considering the only reason people use additional platforms is because one game or another is exclusive to that platform... that isn't competitive, it is anti-competitive.

"Competition is good" in general is something of a controversy too, but I'll leave the politics for another post.

[LSG501]

Hmmm... maybe it's me but I'd rather see it the other way round, all this is doing is giving more money to companies that can likely already charge higher prices and can afford the dev costs in the first place, rather than giving the small indie companies, who charge a lot less in most cases, a bigger share so they can maybe develop more games or expand their current game etc.

[jibjab]

It would be good to know which sites give more to smaller developers as I'd prefer to use those platforms for purchasing

[GinoLatino]

It would be good to know which sites give more to smaller developers as I'd prefer to use those platforms for purchasing

utopia.com

[Iota]

I get that they don't want big publishers to make their own launchers every time they release a game (Origin, uPlay, Fallout76) but come on. That's disgusting

Is it just publishers they're addressing competitively though, when you also have (not an exhaustive list by any means);

- CDKeys
- Green Man Gaming
- Gamersgate
- GOG.com
- The Humble Store
- Fanatical
- Razer Game Deals

.... and that list keeps getting bigger (I've left out a fair few...). This seems a move to both appease larger publishers who will have their own store regardless now, as well as one to take a shot at the wider picture in terms of distribution. Steam is large, but even they will notice the loss of market share over time.

[darcotech]

Community based app store?

[ik9000]

Don't incentivise micro-transactions FFS. They should be specifically EXCLUDED. But Steam want a cut of the action (or should that be exploitation) so obviously they're going to include them.

[AGTDenton]

I'm guessing the lack of Call of Duty this year has hurt them slightly.