Crusader Kings II - Steam and GG Versions - The Future

[Mjuice]

I would have to dispute this, actually; Steam's current market position is currently dominant enough that it's not really worth making a PC game as anything but a hobby at the moment unless it can be sold on Steam, as it won't reach a significant enough base of customers, who buy exclusively from Steam for myriad reasons. The only exception to that are those who can exclusively provide a product that already has a strong, wide appeal, as in the case of EA.

Seems that companies like Matrix and Battlefront are able to make good profits by selling exclusively through their own webstores and keeping prices very high. So it is possible to be successful if you have a solid niche user base and a quality product.

 

[Pat Cleburne]

I've always been slightly confused by all the steam hate. What do people hate about it? Auto updating? You can turn that off. It also works offline. WTH do people hate about it?

 

[Johan]

Seems that companies like Matrix and Battlefront are able to make good profits by selling exclusively through their own webstores and keeping prices very high. So it is possible to be successful if you have a solid niche user base and a quality product.

A lot of their developers are doing it as a hobby though.

 

[unmerged(448336)]

Seems that companies like Matrix and Battlefront are able to make good profits by selling exclusively through their own webstores and keeping prices very high. So it is possible to be successful if you have a solid niche user base and a quality product.

While this is true, the key element here is "niche", in my opinion. Would it be feasible for these services to expand to such an extent as to displace Steam (whom we assume in this hypothetical grows lazy and complacent tomorrow, relying entirely on inertia, changing nothing about their services in the next five years), and sell the games of unrelated studios in sufficient quantities to support those studios as well? I don't really find it likely, given the poor sales of other stores over the last few years; if they were unable to compete before Steam became the defacto standard, why would newcomers fare any better now that Steam has several additional advantages?

Working with that assumption, I would argue that this isn't evidence that other webstores can be successful, but rather that products independent of Steam can occasionally be successful, and that people will go through additional hassles to be able to purchase them.

 

[Jak9090]

A lot of their developers are doing it as a hobby though.

any chance of a hint of when we may be seeing these keys? 1 day? week? month?, no pressure just don't want to get my hopes up.

 

[Mjuice]

While this is true, the key element here is "niche", in my opinion. Would it be feasible for these services to expand to such an extent as to displace Steam (whom we assume in this hypothetical grows lazy and complacent tomorrow, relying entirely on inertia, changing nothing about their services in the next five years), and sell the games of unrelated studios in sufficient quantities to support those studios as well?

Yeah you are right it is a niche. They sell to wargamers who are happy to pay 80€ for a game because they now exactly what they want and know that that's what they're getting. They don't have the potential to expand to the mainstream. I was just pointing out that it is possible to be successful to an extent without steam even in this day and age as even if some of their people are doing it as a hobby as Johan said, I'm sure they're not exactly losing money because they've been in business for a long time and keep adding to the number of games and groups that they publish.

 

[unmerged(448336)]

Yeah you are right it is a niche. They sell to wargamers who are happy to pay 80€ for a game because they now exactly what they want and know that that's what they're getting. They don't have the potential to expand to the mainstream. I was just pointing out that it is possible to be successful to an extent without steam even in this day and age as even if some of their people are doing it as a hobby as Johan said, I'm sure they're not exactly losing money because they've been in business for a long time and keep adding to the number of games and groups that they publish.

Oh, I wouldn't wish to indicate that it was impossible, certainly, as there are games that have been successful without Steam; I was merely observing that the consensus amongst those making their first game is that it's not worth selling without access to Steam's market. It wasn't meant to describe every game, market, or company.

 

[Qel]

Just wanted to say this is a great thing to do and from the pov of someone who has bought it all on Steam, the prospect of being able to do MP like we can with EU4 is very exciting.

 

[semaphore]

As much as I love Gamersgate and dislike Steam, I guess this was the best possible outcome I could have hoped for. Always knew it was a losing battle, though I wished Gamersgate had higher visibility so not everyone bought a Steam version when they might have preferred GG's model.

 

[semaphore]

Are people really still afraid of Steam in the year 2013?

I can dislike a bloated and unnecessary client all I want regardless of which year it is, thank you very much Mr Strawman.

 

[unmerged(448336)]

Are people really still afraid of Steam in the year 2013?

Not Steam, per se, but rather the sole distributor for an entire hobby having the power to decide what games can be sold in any meaningful quantity, with the sole alternative being a voting process comprised of people who do not generally share my tastes in entertainment.

Though I suppose "fear" is something of an overstatement. It is only entertainment, after all.

 

[Grombeard]

Hi.

Here is what we are going to try to do, if all technical issues works out well..

As the non-steam version is taking way too much time in maintaining, as well as holding us back from adding more functionality, like decent multiplayer, we want to progress away from that version.

We will stop updating the Gamersgate version, and provide those that bought the game there steamkeys for their ck2 games and dlc, so they can get everything in their steam-library instead.

Finally! Yihahohuidideldööö!

 

[Lloyien]

Johan, since you're still following this thread, would it be impossible to get user numbers on Paradox's flagship titles, starting with EU2? So, EU2, HoI 2, Victoria, CK, EU3, HoI 3, Victoria 2, and CK 2? It'd be even better if you could demarcate between which games the transition to Steam occurred. I'm really curious, and I imagine everyone else is really curious, to see how much the user base has grown, and especially determine how much transitioning to Steam has caused the user base to grow.

 

[soturi]

I hate steams savegame localisation, but thank god there is good instructions how to get rid of it.

and when do I get my steam key?

 

[Thure]

and when do I get my steam key?

From the start post:

Here is what we are going to try to do, if all technical issues works out well..

 

[A_Dane]

any chance of a hint of when we may be seeing these keys? 1 day? week? month?, no pressure just don't want to get my hopes up.

Sort of interested too, not because I'm impatient, but because I decided to hold off buying SoA and the unit packs til after I've migrated to steam.

(this is for my own peace of mind, nothing else)

 

[Ciaphas Cain]

So, EU2, HoI 2, Victoria, CK, EU3,

They stopped supporting these games. Why should they transition them to Steam, when this is mostly about a game with a new DLC policy and a weird ingame store?

 

[Lloyien]

They stopped supporting these games. Why should they transition them to Steam, when this is mostly about a game with a new DLC policy and a weird ingame store?

I think you may have missed the point. I don't want these games transitioned to Steam; I'm curious about the user statistics--specifically, the number of people that bought each game, preferably in their first six month window (though it'd be better to have both that and total).

The statistic is bandied about that transitioning to Steam has resulted in a massive growth of users... I want to see these numbers myself, and I'm sure others do, too.

As the saying goes, a chart is worth a thousand words.

 

[FrostPegasus]

Oh wow that's amazing. As someone who bought the game and every single piece of dlc on GG (yes, every single one), I am REALLY happy about this!

Thanks!

 

[Wootles]

Great to hear! I regretted my decision to pre-order the GG edition as soon as I heard the Steam version actually wasn't going to suck this time.