ashes of creation on steam?

EnderiumRace

I was wondering if ashes would be available on steam upon release to buy when it comes out?

Noaani

Last I heard, the plan was to not have the game on Steam.

I personally think that is a mistake, but I am also not in charge.

George_Black

If I had an mmo studio I wouldnt go to steam.
Mmo players know that they want an mmo.
They dont check out whats popular or new on steam. They google: new mmo 2023.
Why should IS share their profits with steam?
0 benefits.

Liniker

steam has a tremendous issue of showing data about concurrent players and player activity/history, this is extremely detrimental for MMOs as people will often use those numbers to consider a game "dead" - there is a big reason why other MMORPG studios that self publish don't show those numbers, it can severely damage the player count with negative snowballing when numbers are going down,

not releasing on steam is a very smart idea

unknownsystemerror

This is just a compilation of Discord pulls, but there are also other examples in livestreams and interviews as to this answer. My favorite is the third one here, where someone on being told no, then came back with "we will see"

Noaani

George_Black wrote: »

If I had an mmo studio I wouldnt go to steam.
Mmo players know that they want an mmo.
They dont check out whats popular or new on steam. They google: new mmo 2023.
Why should IS share their profits with steam?
0 benefits.

The benefit is that you market your game to general gamers rather than just MMO players. Additionally, the profit you share with Valve is only from those players on Steam - if your marketing to MMO players is on point, they will go through your own launcher, leaving profit sharing to Valve only coming from those players that found the game on Steam in the first place.

As a secondary benefit later on in an MMO's life span, it can bring people back to your game (even if only temporarily). Ive gone back to look at ESO a few times over the last few years, and every time it has been from looking through my Steam library for something to play, and seeing ESO there.

Probably would have done the same with Archeage if I had it on Steam.

Kilion

Why would they? I mean there is nothing really to gain from going to steam for them.

GrappLr

I'd say that maybe adding it to Steam like 1 year down the line might make more sense. And give people who play it via original installer an incentive to stay there.

Tiru

I hate MMos who are on Steam... If an MMo Studio is serious and confident enough about their game they will be off-steam IMO.

Raven016

I like Steam but I never payer subscription through Steam because I never had the chance yet. If I will have to choose, for a monthly subscription I would prefer avoiding paying to Valve unless the developer relies on 3rd party stores only.

Drachenpaladin

not only did Intrepid have to share the subcription with valve so we had to pay more, also on steam are a lot of casual player who would demand changing the game to more single player activitys and expect a different experience as a MMO fan would do.

Liniker wrote: »

steam has a tremendous issue of showing data about concurrent players and player activity/history, this is extremely detrimental for MMOs as people will often use those numbers to consider a game "dead" - there is a big reason why other MMORPG studios that self publish don't show those numbers, it can severely damage the player count with negative snowballing when numbers are going down,

not releasing on steam is a very smart idea

well its usual for an game to drop in playercount but this happens a lot when new content is missing, servers are not working and your guildmembers becomming inaktiv so its like a plague where you can hide it for a while or work active against it.

Noaani

To all those talking about subscriptions - keep in mind that Valve isn't Apple.

If the game has a means to buy items or pay the subscription that isn't going through Steam, Steam gets no cut at all - and unlike Apple, Steam don't even attempt to prevent developers from doing this.

Thus, if you have a subscription that you paid for in game, on their website or just in general via any method other than directly within the Steam application, the developer still gers all of your money.

The only way Steam gets money are via people that buy the game via Steam or purchase subscriptions, in game coin or items via Steam.

Since for the moment part these people also discovered the game via Steam, there is no notion of the game developer missing out.

Since Steam is also the number one platform for PC players to find new games (beating out Twitch and YouTube, despite being essential to both of those platforms bringing in new games), it just seems to me like an easy call to make - though understandably one I would make 9 - 15 months in to a games life, rather than at launch.

Lineager

I agree, Steam is an important platform, even very important. Yes, they take 30%, but they also give a large number of players.
In addition to all this, they (Steam) don’t mind if you set different prices on their platform and your own launcher. For example, in Albion Online if you buy on Steam in-game currency (gold) and through the Albion launcher/webpage, then on Steam you will get less gold for the same amount money you spent. Also, even those who plays through Steam can use official webpage for purchases and get more gold. And the Intrepid could do the same, but with the Embers currency.

daveywavey

Presumably Intrepid are savvy enough to have crunched the numbers to work out whether or not 100% of a bit is better than 70% of a lot.

Enigmatic Sage

The advantage to having it on steam is global exposure.

Steam will try to make money from it one way or another for using its platform since there is no box price. Most likely through the ashes store for cosmetics/currency and potentially monthly subscription.

It's really up to intrepid at the end of the day. With streamers from various platforms, they can create a large marketing for global exposure that way too with or without sponsorships. Either way, they're spending money to promote on a platform and we the consumers will be paying for it lol.

Kilion

Enigmatic Sage wrote: »

The advantage to having it on steam is global exposure.

Steam will try to make money from it one way or another for using its platform since there is no box price. Most likely through the ashes store for cosmetics/currency and potentially monthly subscription.

It's really up to intrepid at the end of the day. With streamers from various platforms, they can create a large marketing for global exposure that way too with or without sponsorships. Either way, they're spending money to promote on a platform and we the consumers will be paying for it lol.

That's the advantage of having internet really. And if what Lineager said is true that they demand a 30% cut, taking half that money to finance a proper marketing campaign will be enough. Not to forget that there are already some bigger names amongst the influencers who basically make promotion for the game, like Asmongold.

Ultimately I can't prove that I am "more right" than anyone else here, but I am pretty certain that just like BG3, Cyberpunk 2077 and World of Warcraft back in the day, games do not need Steam or any other company that wants to take a fat 30% cut and can be highly successful on their own. And I am pretty confident when I say that Intrepid can do perfectly fine without Steam.

Enigmatic Sage

Kilion wrote: »

Enigmatic Sage wrote: »

The advantage to having it on steam is global exposure.

Steam will try to make money from it one way or another for using its platform since there is no box price. Most likely through the ashes store for cosmetics/currency and potentially monthly subscription.

It's really up to intrepid at the end of the day. With streamers from various platforms, they can create a large marketing for global exposure that way too with or without sponsorships. Either way, they're spending money to promote on a platform and we the consumers will be paying for it lol.

That's the advantage of having internet really. And if what Lineager said is true that they demand a 30% cut, taking half that money to finance a proper marketing campaign will be enough. Not to forget that there are already some bigger names amongst the influencers who basically make promotion for the game, like Asmongold.

Ultimately I can't prove that I am "more right" than anyone else here, but I am pretty certain that just like BG3, Cyberpunk 2077 and World of Warcraft back in the day, games do not need Steam or any other company that wants to take a fat 30% cut and can be highly successful on their own. And I am pretty confident when I say that Intrepid can do perfectly fine without Steam.

It's essentially all platforms and publishers take an approximate 30% cut. Some may take less but it's definitely an average for years regardless of digital or physical. It's just how the economy and business works. The ones that take less could be making more from it tangentially through ads and what not as well.

Think of any store you have gone to, they don't sell it at the price they get it at or they wouldn't make a direct profit selling it. It's how any supply and demand works.

Kilion

Still, I don't see how Intrepid would be dependent on any of those platforms given that they already have strong market access and the quality of what they want to achieve is set to spread the word through satisfied customers and the influencers Intrepid is getting involved with.

IMO they can do perfectly fine without any of these platforms unless of course I am missing how these platforms provide a technical advantage that Intrepid would needs to take advantage of.