Scoobes said:
Slimebeast said:
Scoobes said:
Slimebeast said:
Scoobes said:
Slimebeast said:
You can get very good games for dirty cheap on Steam sales.
I am still surprised that it's so successful. But very glad about it.
Anyway, what's the difference between Steam games and Steamworks games (as it says only 14.5 million Steamworks games were sold in 2011)? I thought it was the same thing. |
Steamworks games have extra features like backing up your saved games, matchmaking services (provided through Steam), acheivements, in-game DLC, better community features/integration, microtransaction support (through Steam) and the possibility of cross-platform play (e.g. Portal 2 on PC and PS3 or a number of PC/Mac titles).
It's as much a developer tool as a positive for gamers as it means the devs already have a solid infrastructure to build upon rather than having to build all these features and implement them themselves. I believe it also gives them better stats on real-time player usage (including bugs) and has tools for beta testing.
Steam games on the other hand are just games available to download that don't neccessarily use Steam's in built infrastucture (e.g. Fallout 3 which uses GFWL or Dragon Age Origins which uses EAs services).
|
So you can buy Fallout 3 off of Steam but not do anything more than launch the game from your Steam game list?
On the other hand Skyrim then, does it count as a Steamworks game?
|
Pretty much. Same with Dragon Age Origins; I had to get all the DLC through EAs in-built system and achievements were on my Bioware profile rather than my Steam ID. Fallout 3 was much the same but through GFWL. Essentially, the only real advantage you have then is that your game is tied to you Steam account.
Skyrim however is a Steamworks game. It backs up saved games via cloud storage and you have Steam acheivements. Bethesda have also recently started doing Beta patches (again using Steams Beta participation system) so they can find problems with future updates before they officially release them. I think version 1.4 beta should be up soon if it's not already.
|
Okay, but if Skyrim is a Steamworks game how do you explain the total $2 billion revenue for Steam, which suggests 100-200 million copies sold if the average price is $10-20, while the article says only 14.5 million Steamworks games were sold? The vast majority of games sold on Steam aren't Steamworks games.
For example, all these best selling Valve games like Half-Life, Left4Dead, Portal and Counterstrike, who sell millions through Steam, aren't they Steamworks games? And who are all these 100 or 200 million non-Steamwork games sold on Steam?
|
Not sure. The Valve games are all steamworks games although some weren't when they were released (e.g. Half-Life 2, Counterstrike). Maybe they don't include Valve games? Alternatively, it could be because they don't include physical sales in the 14.5 million figure. I bought my copy of Skyrim off Amazon but it still registered on my Steam account.
On the revenue however, it's worth noting that it encompasses all Steam games and microtransactions & DLC will contribute towards the total so it's not neccessarily 100-200 million games sold.
|
The real question is... does it count Team Fortress 2 hats? If so that's probably half the revenue figure there.
