By running a digital distribution service and cleverly using frequent sales, Valve can avoid manufacturer costs and sell games for a fraction of their original price, still making a profit because people are willing to buy them. Additionally, since many older titles go on sale, Valve can usually make a profit despite the age of a game.
So all this might get one wondering: why aren’t other companies getting in on this?
New report from Skillsearch found that 22% of those surveyed had been laid off within the past 12 months.
It's a step forward for Stop Killing Games.
The Callisto Protocol director thinks the solution involves the right people, the right timing, and perhaps a little bit of AI
I don't agree with that. I WISH I could agree with that. But buying habits and customer opinions prove otherwise
We've seen developers in the AAA space try new things and ideas. More often than not, the customers aren't willing to give things a chance, or not enough people buy into the project for it to grow.
Creativity works better in the indie space because the budgets, pressures, and expectations aren't the same.
it's a nice idea and it worked during the PS2/PS3-era when AAA didn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars. smaller budgets and shorter development time left room for more creativity and more risk. a game didn't need to sell 4 million+ copies to break even. things are different now.
This is the guy who bragged about crunching his staff and having them work through the night. Crunch culture has lost more talent and done more damage to the industry than any other factor. Screw him.
I don't like retail for convenience purposes and also I have the internet to make it a viable option but obviously many people don't.
Options are always the king whether your internet is slow and has data caps or you love to collect physical media is a needed option for the foreseeable future.
Personally I prefer physical unless the game is too small to fit on disc; or if I'm a major fan of a series and I know the digital version will not disappoint.
Because I want a physical copy of the game that I can lend, trade,and stare at. Retail and physical are great, but simply digital (at least on consoles) is not the way to go yet, in my opinion. It's great to just sit down one day and sift through your collection saying, "Oh yeah, [X] game! Good times." And I like to sniff my game manuals...What? Don't act like you don't. We all do.
Valve doesn`t have manufacturing costs except of their own games and that`s only a tiny fraction of the games that are on steam. For PC every publisher has his own manufacturing costs because they pick and hire what factory makes their discs unlike consoles where Nintendo, MS and Sony have their factories to print the games. Not to forget Valve also still sells their normal games at retail and not digital only.
The PC sections at retailers are small also because at least multiplatform games don`t sell well on PC if you compare the sales on consoles. PC only games are a different story.
How come when he talks about possible problems of digital only he doesn`t mention that people without a stable or fast connection (it`s all fine and good in western countries but there are plenty of countries that don`t have good internet) won`t be able to play games then and that many ISP`s have download limits?For next gen I`m sure games will easily reach 20GB and more, so if you have an ISP with a limit and games are above 20GB that`s easy to quickly go over the limit.
THe question should be the other way around.
Why bother digital? considering the price advantage is near zero, but you get less.