Answer to people who wondered why 2K use Steam even for retail...

[Rebel44]

u think steam provide digital distribution and copy protection to 2k for free? sounds like a poor business model to me ... and the game doesnt just cost $50 ... that depends on where u live

Yes, they do. What they get from it is more urers of Steam - and lots of them will buy games and DLCs from Steam - which is how Steam makes profit.

 

[Rebel44]

If you take $50 as the base price, Valve take $20-$25 as their % of the sales price for selling through Steam (30% has been bandied about, but I think that is a special deal for indies and Valve take 40%-50% of AAA titles).

If you buy through a retail outlet, the sellers take at least $30 as their % of the mark up. Retail stores have to spend more than digital downloads on such things as a shop, then there's the middlemen and warehousing that the physical products need to move through.

That's the point that particular poster was trying to make, just didn't do it very well.

Buying through Steam would be cheaper if it weren't for price fixing forced by the retail stores. Personally, I'd be giving the retail stores the finger by releasing a AAA title that is cheaper on Steam due to the lower costs.


As for piracy, the key is to prevent pre-launch piracy. Generally it takes about 3 days to crack a title and free it from any DRM measures. HL2 was the first title for a long time that wasn't cracked until after it's release thanks to very robust encryption.

Earlier this year when I wrote article about digital distribution of games, I spoke (off the record) with people working for several developers who have their game at Steam, Impulse etc. and I was told by all of them that 30% cut is standart for all games sold via those services (Steam, D2D, Impulse). Few years ago it was 40%, but Steam lowered their cut to 30% to make it more attractive and their competitors had to change their cut to the same level to be able to compete.

 

[Modiga-Disabled]

lol, I know this guy!

o/

It's nice not to have to moderate discussions here.

u think steam provide digital distribution and copy protection to 2k for free? sounds like a poor business model to me ... and the game doesnt just cost $50 ... that depends on where u live

Valve get money from the sales. It's actually a pretty good business model. Publishers/developers are able to get a far greater fraction of the sales revenue than they typically would through retail channels. This is attracts people to using Steam where they're able to get a high percentage of the sales value and Valve are able to take some off the top. This can be especially good for the smaller developers. Tripwire Interactive, creators of 'Red Orchestra: Ostfront' were awarded a free UnReal Engine license after they won a modding competition. They created their game and despite having funded development internally, they could not find a good publishing deal. TWI have said on numerous occasions that the offer Valve offered them for distributing on Steam is what saved their company.

Source: http://www.totalvideogames.com/Red-...Tripwire-Interactive-Defends-Steam-14652.html

 

[lissenber]

I just checked to be sure and it seems someone has already torrented a cracked civ V game.

The comments on it seem to suggest it`s valid.

 

[Modiga-Disabled]

I just checked to be sure and it seems someone has already torrented a cracked civ V game.

It definitely a working copy? It might just be the disk image or something else equally useless.

Usually when a top title gets pirated pre-release there'll be news articles about it.

 

[lissenber]

It definitely a working copy? It might just be the disk image or something else equally useless.

Usually when a top title gets pirated pre-release there'll be news articles about it.

I can`t really say for 100% sure that it`s a working copy. I`m not going to download and see for myself because it might aswell have 100 viruses. And if it`s real, it would be illegal.
Moderator Action: the site has a zero tolerance policy on piracy (that includes torrent sites), please avoid discussing them

 

[Multiball]

It definitely a working copy? It might just be the disk image or something else equally useless.

Usually when a top title gets pirated pre-release there'll be news articles about it.

Civ V probably isn't a top title in most non hardcore peoples eyes because its a PC only game.. which is a shame

I hope the pirated version is just a bunch of data and 50 trojans.... piracy annoys me, if somethings good, pay for it.

 

[BjoernLars]

Well, on a related topic, I am glad that CiV is being released on Steam since I can buy it here in South Korea (aka the Good Korea) for the same price of a retail store without having to have to pay for international shipping.

 

[Rebel44]

Moderator Action: the site has a zero tolerance policy on piracy (that includes torrent sites), please avoid discussing them

 

[Selous]

Yes, they do. What they get from it is more urers of Steam - and lots of them will buy games and DLCs from Steam - which is how Steam makes profit.

Earlier this year when I wrote article about digital distribution of games, I spoke (off the record) with people working for several developers who have their game at Steam, Impulse etc. and I was told by all of them that 30% cut is standart for all games sold via those services (Steam, D2D, Impulse). Few years ago it was 40%, but Steam lowered their cut to 30% to make it more attractive and their competitors had to change their cut to the same level to be able to compete.

which is it? from your research/opinion, does steam get a direct profits from distributing games or not?

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Moderator Action: the site has a zero tolerance policy on piracy (that includes torrent sites), please avoid discussing them

 

[Rebel44]

which is it? from your research/opinion, does steam get a direct profits from distributing games or not?

Yes, it does. My first quote in your post was answer to someone (you?) who claimed that using Steamworks cost publisher money (its even said on offcial Steamworks website that its available to developers for free).

 

[Rebel44]

Moderator Action: the site has a zero tolerance policy on piracy (that includes torrent sites), please avoid discussing them

 

[12agnar0k]

Ah Isn't Steam great, it stopped guy who thought he could play early right in his tracks.

Steam activation is awesome, it prevents retailers from releasing before Steam does, its taking revenge on delayed release dates for the retailers benefit by saying well if I can't release early, no one can. .

 

[BjoernLars]

I am curious, if CiV requires Steam to play, what happens if your internet is down. Is this going lead me to be huddling in the corner crying like when the WoW servers were down?

 

[Louis XXIV]

It only requires it for the initial confirmation. After that, you can play without internet.

 

[jtwood]

Wait, so someone without an internet connection could never install a hard copy they bought at the store???

I know that circumstance is uberrare these days, but still... Is that right?

 

[Tibblers]

Again, if you are one of the very few people that don't have access to your own internet, you can use an internet cafe, a library or even a hotspot to validate your copy.

 

[bhavv]

Wait, so someone without an internet connection could never install a hard copy they bought at the store???

I know that circumstance is uberrare these days, but still... Is that right?

Yup. Thats how it works now. It doesnt matter if you dont like it, steam is great and wonderful, and everyone should stop buying boxed games and get everything via digital download. Everyone has superfast internet now, and did I mention, steam is wonderful and glorious and we should all LOVE IT!!!!

/Sarcasm.

Anyway, I thought that retail stores are normally allowed to start selling video games 2 days before release day, they do that for online orders, so why exactly does it matter if they put them on the shelves 2 days early too? Its absolutely no different to preloading the game and having it ready on your hard drive.

 

[aksarben]

On the OP, its really not that different than preloading from steam, which I have done. Really the preload is taking money away from the stores, I was going to just buy the box copy of it until I found out about preload which i had never heard of before last week. I think stores should be allowed to sell it early so they dont lose out on money. They would have to make sure they tell the buyer they can only preload it until the "release date" activation.