As an unintentional side effect of Valve's latest sales event, the Steam Grand Prix, it seems a lot of users have begun cleaning out their Steam Wishlists.
Why? Well, it gives you the chance to win an item from your Steam Wishlist but only from the top three slots, it's not random. Valve's rules are pretty clear on how it all works but it still seems to have caused a lot of wishlist deletions. Removing games doesn't actually improve your chances, but likely will affect your future purchases of games you're no longer following as a result of it.
I don't think it's just that though, it's likely also a result of more people also now remembering that they've wishlisted a ton of games, some they're not likely to buy but either way it's not good news for smaller developers.
As an example of this, Raymond Doerr developer of Rise to Ruins (an awesome indie city-builder) shared this image on Twitter to show just how many are being removed:
You can obviously see how clear it is and that it started around the Summer Sale. They're not alone in this, tons of indie developers are seeing the exact same thing, my Twitter feed is absolutely full of developers talking about it over the last few days, some seem quite concerned by it. From what I've seen, it's quite normal to see a drop around these events but nothing like it is currently. Steam Wishlists can be one of the deciding factors on whether an upcoming game will see many sales and whether an already released game will continue to live on. When a lot of indie developers are already struggling, this is obviously not great.
Sounds like for many indie developers, the Steam sale hasn't been too kind to them with many seeing quite a drop compared to previous sales too. I spoke personally with David Stark, developer of Airships: Conquer the Skies, who said:
Looking at the stats for the first day of the sale of my game, Airships: Conquer the Skies, I noticed that for every copy sold, around three other people simply deleted the game from their wishlist. Clearly, some players are just taking the opportunity to tidy up their wishlists, but talking to other devs and players on Twitter, it seems that at least people are misunderstanding how the Grand Prix sale promotion works, and are deleting all but the most expensive games from their lists, in the hope of reaping the maximum reward. I really don't think this was Valve's intent, but it's unfortunate, especially as long-tail sales for games really rely on wishlists.
I also spoke with Tom Vian of SFB Games, developer of titles like Detective Grimoire and Haunt the House: Terrortown who allowed me to share their image too showing the same thing for their titles:
Certainly seems like something awry here.
Going further into it, J. Kyle Pittman, co-founder of Minor Key Games (Slayer Shock, Eldritch, Super Win The Game + more) also shared this image:
When I asked Pittman how that compared to previous years, keeping in mind they're another developer that's been through many years of sales, they said:
Previous summer sales have looked similar to the one from May. Some deletions but mostly purchases and additions. Last year’s holiday sale was about 50/50. This is the first time in history that deletions have exceeded purchases and additions by a wide margin.
Another who didn't want to be named, who I've followed for multiple years also said "I've never seen anything like it, we rely on Wishlists for so many reasons, it's a disaster". Plenty more like this, this one, also this one and so on. That's not many examples, sure, but keep in mind I follow thousands of developers (and getting permission to quote takes a long time in some cases) and not a single one has said anything good about what's happening. Every image I've seen, is showing the same issue—oh dear.
Another factor in all this, is that more people might possibly be heading over to the Epic Games Store. I know, I know, I've mentioned Epic Games and it's likely to cause a riot somewhere but stick with me a moment. Epic Games also only recently kicked off their own Mega Sale, so the timing of that likely hasn't helped things. Same with GOG and Humble Store, but Epic Games likely have a bigger pull than those two put together.
Tough times to be an indie game developer indeed. Being discovered on Steam seems like it's getting a lot tougher as time goes on, as thousands more are released on Steam each year, which may end up pushing out a lot of smaller developers. There's also been a ton of talk about Steam changing their algorithms, which has also reduced a lot of traffic to some developers.
Not only that, I've also seen numerous developers post about how Steam has been emailing wishlist sale notifications to a vastly smaller percentage of users than usual, in some cases around only 10% of emails have gone out compared to previous years.
Something to remember though, is that it's not Valve's job to market every game possible. Realistically, that's the job of the developer and publisher, Valve just provide the store and the tools to help a little along the way. However, when some of these tools start to work against them (even when unintentional) it's obviously not good.
Seems like developers are going to have to get a lot more creative somehow in pushing people towards their Steam pages. If any of it makes you think and you want to help, then perhaps next time you enjoy a game putting up a little review on Steam will help. Oh, and stop removing games from your wishlist when you don't need to.
Note: After publishing, Valve put out a post to clarify some elements of the game. They also clarified in that post, that you don't need to remove items. Along with this PSA on Twitter, it's clear Valve now knows it caused an issue.
Article was updated after publishing with more info.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
QuoteTo clarify one point: if your team makes it to the podium and you are randomly chosen to win something off your Steam Wishlist, then we’ll grant you the top item. Just move your favorite item to the top of your wishlist and you should be good to go. There's no need to remove other items from your wishlist -- keep them there so you'll be notified when those items release or go on sale.They also did a PSA on Twitter, so yeah it's clear they know there's been an issue.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 27 June 2019 at 7:47 pm UTC
Worst Steam sale 'event game' thingamajig yet IMHO. Will not bother with it at all.
Edit:
They probably shouldn't have made the event rely on team popularity to begin with. Not only was the choice of which team to join either purely arbitrary or a bandwagon of everyone jumping to join whoever was in the lead, but it sucks to leave a portion of your customers out of any real chance of taking part in your event meaningfully.
They could have made one's chances of receiving a free game based on individual contribution instead of team rankings (the more points you contribute to the race, the more entries you get in the draw, with a minimum of 1 per account per draw) and the race results would just have been fluff. Or the race itself could have been based on proportional team member involvement rather than absolute numbers. i.e. if team corgi had 10 times the points of every other team, but only 1% of its members had actually contributed to the event, they might be outranked by a team where 50% of people actively boosted throughout the event. Just off the top of my head.
Last edited by Salvatos on 27 June 2019 at 8:16 pm UTC
ElectricPrism Jun 27, 2019
% wise the Linux base may be a small amount of the pie, but dollar-wise I spent $125 on 12 games.
I think in terms of games purchased and dollars spent we account for a much higher % than we get credit for -- one developer noted us as 11% of his sales during this sale IIRC.
Quoting: ElectricPrismLiam, maybe to mitigate the global effect of sales being effected it would be a good strategy to highlight some deals and talk about what's a good deal.We do a dedicated article for the Steam Summer Sale each year usually, already did for this one.
% wise the Linux base may be a small amount of the pie, but dollar-wise I spent $125 on 12 games.
I think in terms of games purchased and dollars spent we account for a much higher % than we get credit for -- one developer noted us as 11% of his sales during this sale IIRC.
Quoting: devnullBit confused by this, there are many reasons why people would remove an item from their wishlist that have nothing to do with the sale let alone something Valve caused. Simply logging in and seeing things in their list may be enough to clean house a bit. Or valve banned a few botnets, never know.I'm honestly amazed faced with all the evidence, plus Valve themselves having to release statements, that some still refuse to believe it.
I'm more surprised that kind of metric is available to developers. How long is the data kept because I know people who added things at Christmas only to remove them later. I'm not personally interested in direct marketing outside friends which is what I thought those lists were restricted to.
People are inferring wayyy too much.
As mentioned, there's always a drop but every developer spoken to has shown the same thing, it has never happened before like it is now. I don't know what it will take for some people to see...
Quoting: devnullI didn't miss your point, I am arguing against it. What has happened is not normal, at all.Quoting: liamdaweI'm honestly amazed faced with all the evidence, plus Valve themselves having to release statements, that some still refuse to believe it.
As mentioned, there's always a drop but every developer spoken to has shown the same thing, it has never happened before like it is now. I don't know what it will take for some people to see...
What? Think you missed my point a little. There are other reasons why people would remove an item. Yes, sales are one as is any event. And those people will probably add them back after the event. You're right, Valve did respond lest they have a PR nightmare as developers fail to understand people. The sale itself did not cause people to not want what is in their wishlist any more or any less.
I stand by not wanting that data to be public period. Using it as a metric is just weird statistical masturbation.
Yes it is normal for wishlists to get removed, i've mentioned this numerous times now. If you can't see the difference between this and normal activity with all the evidence then I have nothing else to say on that really.
Developers only see numbers, they don't know exactly who has wishlisted it. Wishlists also affect store visibility and are directly tied to how a game does when it launches. As for not wanting developers to see it, I guess you entirely missed this then.
Quoting: liamdaweI didn't miss your point, I am arguing against it.
Healthy discussion on the Intnernet? *GASP* :) Glad we're on the same page.
Quoting: liamdaweWhat has happened is not normal, at all.
Yes it is normal for wishlists to get removed, i've mentioned this numerous times now.
It's a statisticallly significant event yes but you're I think only seeing the short term negative side of it.
Quoting: liamdaweIf you can't see the difference between this and normal activity with all the evidence then I have nothing else to say on that really.
I do see the difference I just take a more pragmatic inference.
Quoting: liamdaweDevelopers only see numbers, they don't know exactly who has wishlisted it. Wishlists also affect store visibility and are directly tied to how a game does when it launches.
Think that has more to do with user sorting preferences no? Two filters I use are what others are playing and what's new. Sales are nice but there are other factors too.
Quoting: liamdaweAs for not wanting developers to see it, I guess you entirely missed this then.
I have, don't really see the relationship though. I've had Windows and Linux both checked for a whille because well, Proton is awsome. If I understand that post it would only be singled out if -one- category was selected.
You understand there is a difference between a wishlist and something like prepurchase right? :) To me a wishlish is more like an upvote, yes it shows interest but it doesn't really _mean_ much. One can be botted, the other not so much. The flipside of people clearing out their lists are people looking at the items. It would be an interesting metric to see if titles also got more hits, but it's all pretty fluid in terms of SALES.
Quoting: devnullYou understand there is a difference between a wishlist and something like prepurchase right? :) To me a wishlish is more like an upvote, yes it shows interest but it doesn't really _mean_ much. One can be botted, the other not so much. The flipside of people clearing out their lists are people looking at the items. It would be an interesting metric to see if titles also got more hits, but it's all pretty fluid in terms of SALES.You might find this interesting: https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JakeBirkett/20180425/316924/How_many_wishlists_should_you_have_when_launching_on_Steam.php
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