Random Gaming Talk

[Nintex]

Yap yap yap what a moron

Steam isnt a monopoly

Steam doesnt do 'very little'

Fucking assclown

Steam actually does very little. The "backend" for developers is a real mess and visibility is a challenge. The top 10 or top 20 account for like 90% of the total sales.
But it works and doing very little also means they don't interfere as much as Sony, Epic, Microsoft and other platform holders usually do.

If you have a problem with the Xbox Store as a dev, you have to go through the maze of Microsoft corporate support and escalations which seldom involves a human being who can actually fix something. In some cases an entirely different Microsoft entity is responsible and not Xbox. Epic meanwhile has waiting lists to get shit fixed and published because between Fortnite upkeep and Unreal Engine support they're understaffed. Plus, they often change their policies and conditions. With Valve you can just shoot an email to your friendly Valve rep, who will tape it together for you or fix a bug. Valve is first and foremost a software company with a "if it works don't change it" mentality. 

Xbox/Epic etc. do offer a lot of promotions for visibility that sound good on paper but in reality it means they have a lot of control over the message. With Valve it's more like: "We're doing a Steam sale, don't forget to upload your banner". The downside of course is that on Steam your game doesn't get a lot of visibility. It's a level playing field for everyone and divas like Randy don't like that. So Borderlands 4 will sit alongside Hentai Puzzle 2025 and Poop Slinger in the "coming soon" list.  

The only promo thing that really works these days is Nintendo Direct. That shit is like magic so developers gladly jump through hoops to get a spotlight and if possible a shadow drop. The Indie World / Partner Direct they aired the other day has 2 million views on the Nintendo of America YouTube channel alone. That's twice as much as Gamescom opening night live and it wasn't even a regular Nintendo Direct. The Castlevania Dominus Collection for example just instantly skyrockets up the charts thanks to the Nintendo Direct reveal.