Subscriptions, they're everywhere and more seem to appear all the time. So, what IF Valve were to announce their own Steam Game Pass to give you access to a great many games?
Let's be realistic here though - Valve doesn't need one. Steam is and will be for a long time to come, a money printing machine because of the user share they have across PC platforms (Linux, macOS and Windows). However, Valve do have competition increasing all the time. Not just from the Epic Games Store but thinking more on the likes of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate - which includes a ton of games along with upcoming game streaming support too. That has proven extremely popular for Microsoft and services like that absolutely will pull people away from buying more games on Steam. Why would you, after all, if you can get 100+ (and growing) AA/AAA and indie games often close to release in a single subscription?
It's something I've been thinking on for a long time, and I've probably mentioned it in some previous articles. I speculated a little back when the subscription and rewards features for Steam leaked out. Although that turned into the points shop and allowing the likes of EA Play and the Crusader Kings II - Expansion Subscription. So now Valve allows other developers to use subscriptions but what about Valve directly though? Are they going to bring out their own, should they do it and would you actually use it?
Many questions! Some of which I posed to our Twitter followers (#1, #2) with the results being quite surprising. A small sample with the majority thinking Valve aren't doing one but 50/50 for people who want it versus not wanting it. I actually expected the question of people wanting it or not to swing quite hard one way which it clearly didn't.
For gamers, it might work out to be more cost effective to have a subscription. Thinking on the cost of these subscription services, it can work out at the price of 1-2 AAA games a year to gain access to tons. You would have to play quite a few of them to actually make it worth it - but a lot of people would probably forget about that part. Even if you're only interested in a few of the games, it could still work out as reasonably good value. For a store like Steam, compared to streaming services, being able to choose between outright buying and subscribing to have access gives the best of both worlds (compared with the likes of Stadia, where it's streaming-only and if it's gone, it's gone even if you "buy" it).
The drawback for developers though is monies. It all depends on the revenue split of each subscription, likely based on how much time is put into each title which could end up being worse for smaller developers who often struggle on Steam as it is. There's a lot of different angles like that to think on. What sort of levels would the subscription have? It could be interesting with different selections like Indie Gems, AAA classics and so on. Could even be an additional bit of marketing for developers as people might spots games from the lists they want to actually buy from it. Also, as a reminder, you don't actually own what you buy on Steam, as per the Steam Subscriber Agreement you get a license to play it.
A Steam Game Pass would probably be quite popular if Valve actually did it though, but will they?
Over to you in the comments: what are you thoughts on if Valve actually did a Steam Game Pass system?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
More generally, I fear what would become of the vibrant gaming ecosystem if subscription services become the norm. It would install new gatekeepers when at least Steam right now is open to pretty much any developer (others already not so much). And in doing so it would likely narrow the types of games remaining viable, and affect even their gameplay to better match the affordances of a subscription model.
So no, even though it might be the inevitable future, I'm neither interested nor thrilled.
With the current model at least I can come back in 6 months and be, for the most part, sure the game will still be there.
benjamimgois May 24, 2021
slaapliedje May 24, 2021
This discussion is making me re-think subscribing to channels on Amazon Prime though. I mean I do that instead of getting cable. But I also have a large collection of movies on physical medium still. Thinking I should just go with that, it's weirdly cheaper in the long run to just buy series on disc instead of renting an episode for 1.99...
But I prefer the traditional model. I fear that subscription models would end up hurting the smaller developers in favour of the big players on the field.
And while a huge success on certain platforms for sure, I can not see them actually generating more money for single devs with a lets say 10 dollar subscription. I think most gamers spend more than 120 dollars / year on games. I do, and I do not count myself as one who plays a lot.
no_information_here May 24, 2021
The main issue I have with these services is content vanishing from the sub as my playtime is so erratic these days due to other commitments...Good point. My family watches Netflix, but I don't watch much passive TV. I might notice a movie I want to watch but I don't get around to sitting down at the TV for 3 months, but by then it is gone off the service.
With the current model at least I can come back in 6 months and be, for the most part, sure the game will still be there.
Games would be much much worse. I have a session of New Vegas I need to get back to from about 2 years ago.
Well, yours might be, but mine won't. My internet is fairly reliable, but there have been enough exceptions and enough times playing games on my laptop away from wi-fi, that I can say generally I can play Steam games offline. It squeaks that it can't find Steam and asks plaintively if I want to play in offline mode. Then I do. I can't see how that would be different if I was online but Steam no longer existed.I like Steam a lot but I also have all my games here, so even if I wanted to, I couldn't just up and leave without basically throwing away a load of money.
I like this point here. If I don't own the game anyway, why should I pretend to own it. If steam shuts down my games are lost regardless
As I understand it, at this point there almost is no indie music as we used to think of it. Rather, there's amateur music. Independent musicians mostly make so little money they're no longer living on a shoestring doing gigs, rather they're living on a shoestring waiting tables while doing music as best they can on the side for basically nothing. Of course Covid made all that even worse, but the prospect of making a living as a musician had pretty much imploded in the last 20 years even before that.My biggest fear with subscription services is that I'm not sure if it is actually viable for smaller developers.Exactly. Ask smaller-name musicians how much money they make on spotify or other streaming services.
Streaming only benefits the platforms and the big names. Everyone else loses.
However, I do understand this appeals to everyone who buys lots of games at face value, so I can only hope such an implementation doesn't mean the end of the current model.
While of course you'll get access to a huge amount of games for a fraction of a cost, there's one catch.
You'll get it temporarily.
I do not play a lot of games at the same time, so i find it irrational to have temporary access to huge pile of stuff while using only a small fraction of it.
Not to mention a trend for games to have a hefty playtime.
And what if you want to replay the game but your subscription ends? You have to pay for it again or just buy it separately for the same price like if you never played it, rendering subscription useless if you used it only for that specific game before.
Don't get me wrong, Steam may pull the plug on your access to already bought games, but they allow you to download your games even if they were removed from steam store, why would it change in any foreseeable future?
Yeah, if it went down overnight. That isn't really all that likely IMO. I mean, I don't see Valve going down at all, so that's a small chance within a small chance. If Valve goes down it will take a decade or two of dropping market share, missteps and so on. I'm pretty sure it would look a bit rickety for years before it actually turned out the lights. By that time I can buy a spare hard drive.So what he meant was, I think, if Steam itself shuts down forever, in which case you probably won't be able to download more Steam games, since there wouldn't be anyone left running the servers. That means you'd be stuck playing your already installed games.Well, yours might be, but mine won't. My internet is fairly reliable, but there have been enough exceptions and enough times playing games on my laptop away from wi-fi, that I can say generally I can play Steam games offline. It squeaks that it can't find Steam and asks plaintively if I want to play in offline mode. Then I do. I can't see how that would be different if I was online but Steam no longer existed.I like Steam a lot but I also have all my games here, so even if I wanted to, I couldn't just up and leave without basically throwing away a load of money.
I like this point here. If I don't own the game anyway, why should I pretend to own it. If steam shuts down my games are lost regardless
Also, even in offline mode, you still have to log in from time to time. Especially on a new system, even if you transplant the Steam installation from somewhere else, you still have to log in the first time.No it doesn't. What would be their motivation to be jerks about it? Hello, the scenario is Valve shutting down and ceasing to make revenues. They would gain no monies from screwing people, and I've never gotten the impression that anyone major at Valve was motivated primarily by spite.
And yes, I know Steam says they will take care of it if it comes to that, but that means absolutely zero.
In any case, if Valve shut down, there would be nobody to sue anyone for making a workaround, or to make adjustments to block workarounds. And I doubt it would be that hard, and there would be a huge mass of people with motivation to create such a thing. So, a workaround there would be, in short order. There is no way the millions of Steam users would find themselves forever locked out of their games, it's silly.
Now Stadia is a different question--you can't download your games at all in the first place, so there's nothing to enable or to work around. If they shut down, that's it--you never had any games, you just had the privilege of accessing their servers to stream certain things. But with Valve, you download games and they work on your personal Turing engine, which means they are functionally yours and will stay that way.
no_information_here May 25, 2021
And yes, I know Steam says they will take care of it if it comes to that, but that means absolutely zero.If Steam shuts down forever, you can bet that Piracy will absolutely explode. Whether they know it or not, the game publishers desperately need Steam to keep going. Valve's invention of a low-friction legal marketplace was complete brilliance. Look at all the other storefronts to see what the world would have looked like without steam, and that is after steam heavily influenced them.
[Yes, GOG is also pretty good, but they only exist because publishers learned to be less scared of digital markets after working with Valve.]
slaapliedje May 27, 2021
And yes, I know Steam says they will take care of it if it comes to that, but that means absolutely zero. Not only do they not give any details at all, but with such a sensitive topic, they would have to give a VERY detailed description of what would happen to even begin to trust that would actually happen when it comes to it and are not just empty words.The interesting thought about this, is even if they honor this, and disable periodic checks, any of the games that warn about 3rd party DRM would probably be unplayable.
No matter how much you trust Steam now, when/if it comes to it shutting down, you can't just rely on it on such a promise anymore, especially so if it's a vague promise from so long ago it's probably the same age as most of its users are.
Not that I see Valve dying or killing off Steam anytime soon. The store is a freaking goldmine.
I keep seeing these random videos thinking the 'SteamPal' (hope they name that something cooler, though Neptune was a doomed Sega Console) that it was going to be a Tablet, and no one would want to play their Steam games on it... are they insane? If there were a dockable handhold game syatem I could play my giant Steam library on... I would be all over that!
When they start with the first gen and start releasing updates to them, it could be way sweet! But yes, absolutely would need an Offline mode (or a cheap 5G sim in it!)
The interesting thought about this, is even if they honor this, and disable periodic checks, any of the games that warn about 3rd party DRM would probably be unplayable.3rd party as in not Steam/Valve? Why would Steam shutting down affect those?
slaapliedje May 28, 2021
I could totally see all the keys becoming invalid.The interesting thought about this, is even if they honor this, and disable periodic checks, any of the games that warn about 3rd party DRM would probably be unplayable.3rd party as in not Steam/Valve? Why would Steam shutting down affect those?
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