A leaked picture from the private Steam forum for developers has emerged, that show Valve will in fact limit the amount of keys developers can generate if it isn't worth the cost to Valve.
Valve will no longer automatically fullfill key requests from the developers to combat game sales outside of Steam. pic.twitter.com/Gp1TyivEeO
— Steam Spy (@Steam_Spy) August 17, 2017
In case the tweet vanishes, the image says this:
QuoteIf we are denying keys for normal size batches it's likely because your Steam sales don't reflect a need for as many keys as you're distributing, and you're probably asking for more keys because you're offering cheaper options off Steam and yet we are bearing the costs. So at some point we start deciding that the value you're bringing to Steam isn't worth the cost to us.
For example, say you've sold a few thousand copies on Steam but have requested / activated 500K keys, then we are going to take a deeper look at your games, your sales, your costs etc.
Right now you can buy games on Steam, or through a reseller like Humble and the vast amount of other stores. Developers also sell Steam keys directly at times, or give them away with purchases from stores like itch.io along with giving them a copy on their service.
I've seen quite a few people indicate that this is Valve being stricter on Steam, but I'm not so sure. The wording doesn't seem to indicate that it's a new rule they're imposing. It looks like they're simply explaining to a developer an existing rule after one was denied. I would be quite surprised if it was a new rule, because it would imply for a long time that Valve wasn't doing anything to limit keys for developers (which I'm sure would have caused more problems).
However, if this is Valve being stricter, then I see that as a good move. I've always found it extremely odd when I've been told developers can just grab as many Steam keys as they need. Key requests not being manually looked into will always be open to abuse.
Anyway, I've reached out to Valve to see if we can get any kind of clarification. Would be interesting to see if it's a response to Steam Direct, Kickstarter or abuse of some kind.
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That makes perfect sense to me. In fact, I have been wondering about this rule for some time.
That, and free games (although there are some valid reasons to allow them, in this case).
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Edit two hours later, as it doesn't seem to be that obvious, and to elaborate a bit:
There are some costs associated with Steam. They need to pay for the development of the Steam client, website, infrastructure, store, support the ecosystem by submitting patches to the engines (Steam VR, Steam Audio, Steamworks). This admittedly doesn't cost much more if some developers try to game the system. The real issue is probably with the CDN: maintaining Terabytes of games and saves in various datacenters around the world, and handling support for various issues has a cost, however. The more games/people, the higher the cost. And it isn't fair to other developers to try to avoid Valve's cut (as it would result in a higher cut for the others).
Just to give an idea of the size of the infrastructure, according to Gabe Newell, in 2013, dota 2 updates accounted for 2-3% of the worldwide IP traffic when they were going live.
This is still valid for free games; although developers don't make money on these, so this is less profitable, and less unfair to other developers. But free games still drive gamers to the steam platform, and that may help Valve reach economics of size on their CDN, as well as gathering new people to market to. Moreover, there are often tradings cards or other involved, which can generate revenue (and this is probably not a coincidence). Free to play games are technically paid games.
Last edited by MayeulC on 17 Aug 2017 at 8:44 pm UTC
That, and free games (although there are some valid reasons to allow them, in this case).
_____
Edit two hours later, as it doesn't seem to be that obvious, and to elaborate a bit:
There are some costs associated with Steam. They need to pay for the development of the Steam client, website, infrastructure, store, support the ecosystem by submitting patches to the engines (Steam VR, Steam Audio, Steamworks). This admittedly doesn't cost much more if some developers try to game the system. The real issue is probably with the CDN: maintaining Terabytes of games and saves in various datacenters around the world, and handling support for various issues has a cost, however. The more games/people, the higher the cost. And it isn't fair to other developers to try to avoid Valve's cut (as it would result in a higher cut for the others).
Just to give an idea of the size of the infrastructure, according to Gabe Newell, in 2013, dota 2 updates accounted for 2-3% of the worldwide IP traffic when they were going live.
This is still valid for free games; although developers don't make money on these, so this is less profitable, and less unfair to other developers. But free games still drive gamers to the steam platform, and that may help Valve reach economics of size on their CDN, as well as gathering new people to market to. Moreover, there are often tradings cards or other involved, which can generate revenue (and this is probably not a coincidence). Free to play games are technically paid games.
Last edited by MayeulC on 17 Aug 2017 at 8:44 pm UTC
6 Likes, Who?
Sounds like typical greedy Valve.Sounds like Valve clamping down on greedy developers.
I don't think so, for me sounds more like Valve stopping a bottomless pit of expenses, that bring no monetary return. Or being a sound business practice.
21 Likes, Who?
Servers cost more than that you have in mind ...So at some point we start deciding that the value you're bringing to Steam isn't worth the cost to us.
What cost are they talking about here? Valve didn't made that particular game so Valve invested 0 money in that particular game. Valve only take a % from the game sales. There are basicaly 0 costs for Valve (Steam will run even if every single developer will decide to no longer sell on Steam because Steam is needed for Valve games).
They allowed free games on Steam. They get 0 money from those free games and yet those games use Valve infrastructure.
For free games I'm not sure for all of them but many use the steam money, nothing is free.
9 Likes, Who?
So at some point we start deciding that the value you're bringing to Steam isn't worth the cost to us.
What cost are they talking about here? Valve didn't made that particular game so Valve invested 0 money in that particular game. Valve only take a % from the game sales. There are basicaly 0 costs for Valve (Steam will run even if every single developer will decide to no longer sell on Steam because Steam is needed for Valve games).
They allowed free games on Steam. They get 0 money from those free games and yet those games use Valve infrastructure.
yeah it brings costs to steam, you're using it's infrastructure, hard to tell how much it costs exactly, you got a good point saying they allow free content, they have their reasons to allow free content, i don't know how exactly it helps them, but it's easy for anyother platform sell a steam key cheaper than steam, because they don't have to pay the infrastructure, they're using steam's for free. Seems fair to me.
i'm pretty sure steam is still one of the platforms giving more freedom in keys for developers.
7 Likes, Who?
Mblackwell 17 Aug 2017
Running CDN servers costs quite a lot.
4 Likes, Who?
sounds more than reasonable... no one of us will work for free.. and preventing misuse will help side-projects like steamOS to grow/be funded before valve is starting to get the big money out of it...
actually I'm very much surprised they come up with such a thing right now/that late, but it seems that key resellers took quite a while to grow into a significant problem...
actually I'm very much surprised they come up with such a thing right now/that late, but it seems that key resellers took quite a while to grow into a significant problem...
1 Likes, Who?
SeekTheShrubbery 17 Aug 2017
Another option might be for Valve to allow developers to pay for more keys instead of just saying no more third party keys. Understandably, it isn't fair to Valve if the developer sold 1000 copies on Steam and then they sell a hundred thousand keys elsewhere, but they should look at updating the Steamworks page and being more transparent about these limitations. Current Steamworks page says: "It’s free: There’s no charge for bandwidth, updating, or activation of copies at retail or from third-party digital distributors." ([Link](http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/))
0 Likes
Could a discrepancy like this stem from a bad game getting included in a bundle somewhere, like in the mostly crap-filled cheap bundles you see on Bundle Stars? Assuming someone actually buys them. Still within Valve's rights to do this. Steam is not a public service.
1 Likes, Who?
Another option might be for Valve to allow developers to pay for more keys instead of just saying no more third party keys.
Indeed. There are two distinct entities: steam the store and steam the infrastructure. There is a point in not charging infrastrucure. The more games use your infrastucture, the less likely it is for a competitor to reach critical mass.
Look at GOG which is i think the second most used infrastructure (on PC of course). Multiplayer is still a big problem on games using steamplay because gog users remain isolated from the huge majority of players.
If steam forbid third party ressellers, then it would open the door for others stores which would then gain popularity.
Look at Google or Facebook, their infrastructure cost a LOT but serach and personal usage have to remain free to make to much money
0 Likes
Look at GOG which is i think the second most used infrastructure (on PC of course). Multiplayer is still a big problem on games using steamplay because gog users remain isolated from the huge majority of players.
You cannot compare GOG and STEAM infrastructure. To my knowledge, GOG doesn't provide such unified and feature-full service as steam, with such huge amount of software, mods, multiplayer support and cloud for saves. GOG infrastructure is tiny compared to that.
3 Likes, Who?
HollowSoldier 18 Aug 2017
So Valve staff still does frequent the forum, only they ignore us, regular peasants, and only talk to devs. Nice.
0 Likes
Sounds like typical greedy Valve.
Let me explain you how the game industry with crappy games was working....
for example....
I as a developer I create a crappy fps game with all the game assets being bought dirty cheap , create some lvls and put it on Greenlight....
Now I need people to vote for my game in order to get it to steam
So I put my game in many bundle sites or I can do maybe some giveaways and "force" people to vote for my game in order for them to get a steam key when my game gets greenlight.
Finaly my game gets greenlight even though it was not worth it but Steam cant do otherwise since people blindly voted for it.
But now I need 30K keys to fulfil my promise to bundle sites and giveaways.
So I request from valve 50K Steam Keys for a game that I put on steam that costs 0.99 or maybe 1.99
Lets say that I also sold the other 20k steam keys even dirty cheap for 0.10 or 0.05 so in short I Am out of keys and I request another 50k keys from steam.
So again I use these keys to put them in bundles or sell them dirty cheap even 0.02 cents and that ends my sales on that game.
So in short I spend 200$ to create this game
I sold 50k copies in Bundles for 0.10 = 50k x 0.10 = 5000
I sold another 50k copies dirty cheap = 50k x 0.02 = 1000
Total 6,000 - 200 = 5,800 profit for a crappy game....ok nice business , lets create another crappy game!!!
So Steam has decided to end Greenlight but at the end it was not the greenlight the real problem but the abusive use of Steam Keys from greedy developers.
Some developers from "poor" countries may sell their games for even 0.01 cent because their monthly salary is like 300$ so even if a crappy game earns like 400$ or 500$ they are more than happy with that.
Last edited by wolfyrion on 18 Aug 2017 at 4:46 am UTC
6 Likes, Who?
lucifertdark 18 Aug 2017
Sounds more like Valve trying to do a Microsoft, monopolise all the other stores out of the market. I hope I'm wrong.Sounds like typical greedy Valve.Sounds like Valve clamping down on greedy developers.
1 Likes, Who?
So at some point we start deciding that the value you're bringing to Steam isn't worth the cost to us.
What cost are they talking about here? Valve didn't made that particular game so Valve invested 0 money in that particular game. Valve only take a % from the game sales. There are basicaly 0 costs for Valve (Steam will run even if every single developer will decide to no longer sell on Steam because Steam is needed for Valve games).
Steam provides a Plattform for distribution (mods included), additional transactions, payment, cloud services, community forums and a recommendation system that increases your sales. This has a really high value and I am surprised that they don't just demand the steam percentages to generate keys for external distribution (so the steam service would be sold with the keys instead of given away). The way they are going means losing the money other stores make while providing the ecosystem.
3 Likes, Who?
Bandwidth and storage doesn't grow on trees. Staff wants to be paid. Hard- and software needs to be maintained. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Last edited by crt0mega on 18 Aug 2017 at 8:27 am UTC
Last edited by crt0mega on 18 Aug 2017 at 8:27 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
This could be great news!
I hope now "Humble Bundle Inc." will start to further develop its own CDN (or, rather, its own Torrent trackers, which it has) and will sell more DRM-free games directly instead of Steam-keys only. ^_^
I hope now "Humble Bundle Inc." will start to further develop its own CDN (or, rather, its own Torrent trackers, which it has) and will sell more DRM-free games directly instead of Steam-keys only. ^_^
2 Likes, Who?
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