Discussion Was talking to a fellow gamemaker and realized that Steam has become a vanity publisher

[jb skaggs]

Vanity publishers were book printers that you paid to print your book. For the most part it was considered a mark of shame to have to use a vanity publisher to get your book in print.

But as I was talking with another person, I just realized that is exactly what Steam had done. They have created the world's largest vanity publishing scheme. Yes they do have bestsellers, but for the majority of their customers they will never recoup their "publishing" costs.

There is something to be said for a the traditional model of win an agent and a publisher with a marketing team.

Where once you win your contract, then they use their leveraged marketing and industry connections and sell the bejeezus out of the product.

Steam does no such thing. They just offer the equivalent of Amazon print on demand book publishing. Yeah every person with a computer has steam and amazon- but how many actually will ever see any return as they have no connected marketing or industry clout.

 

[Kobold]

...Yeah every person with a computer has steam and amazon- ...

...I guess I am an exception, then, haha.
I have bought Silent Hill Homecoming (for PC) over eBay a year ago and as it arrived it wouldn't work without internet.... turns out you need to install Steam in order for it to run... Very next step was: I wrapped it back up, returned it to sender and got my money back.
This is how I go about Steam

Edit: ...if you think about it... what is the purpose of releasing a Survival Horror (Single Player only) on a hard-copy if it requires you to download it anyway? Would make sense for an MMO... Such a fail concept.

 

[jb skaggs]

...I guess I am an exception, then, haha.
I have bought Silent Hill Homecoming (for PC) over eBay a year ago and as it arrived it wouldn't work without internet.... turns out you need to install Steam in order for it to run... Very next step was: I wrapped it back up, returned it to sender and got my money back.
This is how I go about Steam

Edit: ...if you think about it... what is the purpose of releasing a Survival Horror (Single Player only) on a hard-copy if it requires you to download it anyway? Would make sense for an MMO... Such a fail concept.

It is actually hurting new game sales. By making games unplayable at time of purchase, and the download servers crash. I agree if you by a game it needs to be playable at time of purchase without extra downloads. Optional patches etc is fine, but mandatory day download updates has killed franchises.

 

[SilverSurfer1221]

There is something to be said for a the traditional model of win an agent and a publisher with a marketing team.

Where once you win your contract, then they use their leveraged marketing and industry connections and sell the bejeezus out of the product.

Agents can get you a publisher. Publishers are the ones that have the industry connections to leverage marketing, etc. They are two separate things. But I suspect you know that.

Having said that, even when you do eventually land a publisher, and even if said publisher has the connections and the clout to get good product placement, that does not mean that they will use it for you and your product. Take the case of authors, agents, and publishers as an example. There are many authors that are professionally published, yet they make very little. You may not necessarily find their books in Barnes and Nobles. And even if you did, their books may not be placed in such a way as to "push" their product on potential customers. Publishers will instruct book sellers on where and how books get placed on shelves (i.e. front facing out or spine out, for example), whether they are on an end-cap or some other prominent place, etc. And unless you are a Stephen King, good placement is NOT going to happen for your book. On top of that, most authors only make about 90 cents per book sold. That's right. You spend your $16 or $25 or more and the author is only getting around a dollar ... sometimes only 70 cents. It all depends on their deal with the publisher. And, once again, unless you are someone like Stephen King, you won't get much of a choice on your deal. Mostly "take it or leave it".

I am engaged to a wonderful woman who has 24 professionally published novels. They sell and she has a fan base. Her accountant told her that she won't be able to keep claiming it's a business unless she turns a profit (it costs money to attend events, purchase books for book signings, etc.).

So, to me, Steam is not really like a vanity publisher. They may not necessarily push your product, but they will provide a platform that has millions of potential buyers. To gain access to those buyers, you need to pay. But the vast, vast amount of marketing will be up to you. Most of the vanity publishers do not sell your books or provide a means of selling your books. This is why they want you to pay them to publish it. They want to make their money from the author instead of readers. It then is up to the author to pimp and sell his novels. With Steam, they provide the platform to sell your game or application, process transactions, and pay you your cut. This is something a vanity publisher is not going to do.

Now, I am not saying that Steam is a good platform for selling your game. It may be or it may not be. I am not defending them. However, I just don't see them as vanity publishers for games.

 

[RichHopefulComposer]

Exactly. Steam is a store that'll sell your games on consignment. Nothing more, and nothing less.

There's nothing wrong with that, either! =)