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Post by Danjal on Oct 5, 2014 23:06:24 GMT
So, Totalbiscuit gets together with 5 other guys (3 indie devs, a PR guy and a journalist) and discusses the Steam Discovery update. Going into what effect it is having onto Steam and the industry at large, aswell as discussing how marketing and advertising are taking its course these days. Some interesting highlights: - With the introduction of the Curator system, titles that get on those high list (or on many lists) see their sales go up by 15~25%
Similarly, titles that do not get on these lists have seen their sales DROP by a similar percentage.
Giving these Curators a tremendous amount of power as to which games will currently make it or not. (Which can be both good and bad depending on who you are.)
- As with all other curation systems, this is currently a matter of the rich becoming richer. If you're successfull you will get exposure which leads to sales.
It is in Valve's best interest to expose the games that sell (similar as to how the iOS store advertises based on IAPs and downloads) because each sale results in more revenue.
Long story short - if you can get your game on the radar of the right youtubers and review sites, and your game is good enough. Then you're guaranteed sales.
Its a long video, but the "video" part isn't that important so you can basicly listen to it while doing something else. Definitely worth the watch/listen if you're interested in developments such as these.
Argueably interesting for 22cans to look at aswell if they at some point want to break back into the PC-scene and start selling copies. The trick? Make a game thats fun and entertaining - then find the right person with the right audience to promote your game. As opposed to blindly trying to maximize the monetization potential of your title (which directly pushes people away from you).
*enjoy* |
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Matthew Allen
Former 22Cans staff
Full Time Rock Star
Posts: 295 
Pledge level: Elemental
Steam: MrMatthewAllen
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Post by Matthew Allen on Oct 20, 2014 17:37:13 GMT
I don't really have much of value to add in regards to chatting about whether 22cans will dabble with this new feature set, but Steam has really been evolving in some interesting ways in the last year alone. We've seen a huge amount of games released in quantities that we've never really seen before on Steam with the advent of Greenlight. Curating seems to be an opportunity to try and 'reclaim' some of that. It reminds me a bit of the differences between iOS and Android marketplaces in how one is more heavily curated by the platform and the other one...is not. I honestly think Steam needs to get a number of other issues fixed before trying to introduce new feature sets. One good example is that their rating system is pretty shit. In regards to the affect that Steam curating has on sales, here's some good additional reading: |
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Post by Danjal on Oct 20, 2014 17:59:21 GMT
There's definitely a lot of work to be done within the system - but I notice a trend where the games that aren't getting "out there", suffer for it.
Trying to stay under the radar results in reduced exposure and thus reduced sales.
And games that just aren't cutting it similarly don't really get much attention.
Which potentially gives 22cans/Godus a chance to make up for lost time (once things get fixed).
Since turning the table before, would've meant that since you already passed your day-one burst exposure would be hard to get unless you got a new story that went viral.
This new one however? Get the right people to pay attention and become interested and they do your work for you.
I know for a fact that TotalBiscuit is a fan of Dungeon Keeper and Populous - and thinks its a massive shame that 22cans went for the freemium route (he's mentioned it several times).
If 22cans were to, 6~12 months from now, reach a point where it could proudly call itself the re-imagining of these games on PC (as opposed to being an iOS derivative), well I can only imagine the attention you guys would get.
Good games breed good publicity.
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Matthew Allen
Former 22Cans staff
Full Time Rock Star
Posts: 295
Pledge level: Elemental
Steam: MrMatthewAllen
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Post by Matthew Allen on Oct 20, 2014 18:11:30 GMT
I agree. I also agree that I'd prefer to hold off on a large publicity push until the game is more aligned with expectations that PC gamers have for it or, at the very least, many outstanding issues are addressed in a dedicated sprint. Doing anything before that point would be rather premature, in my opinion. Granted, I'm not always in charge of the timing of these things but I think that'd be a good route for us to go.
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Post by Danjal on Oct 20, 2014 19:37:52 GMT
Oh I definitely agree that not going public untill that point is the way to go.
I just hope that "the powers that be" do truely intend to follow through within a reasonable amount of time.
These constant delays are taking their toll. And its not gonna make it easier to get back over that hump and make people believe a single word 22cans says.
As it stands, just taking the Weyworld update, there's so much potential being lost because of the focus on freemium monetization.
Its making it hard to see that the focus will ever change considering that the promised PC sprint has pretty much been delayed till next year (earliest).
And that has basicly been your guys' ace card to play for the entire summer "iOS focus now, but after that we'll get a PC spring! We promise!"
And since you (and George) are my (our) direct lines with the 22cans higher ups, I can only hope that through you, we can convince Peter and such that to reach the result he wants.
He'll need to convince the people at large. And not just stick to what works for freemium iOS games.
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