The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Infinitron]

That wasn't a "bug", Ars Technica shills: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...discussion-thread.68581/page-186#post-5696756

 

[DalekFlay]

Toooooons of people buy games on Steam in sales (even pre-order sales) and don't launch them for years, so I don't think that's super solid evidence of anything. Interesting though.

 

[Azalin]

PoE2 is at #1123.

And it's got about the same sales as a game called Feminazi: The Triggering

 

[LESS T_T]

Top sellers from the second week of Summer Sale, a.k.a. Larian in the Big League Edition:

#10 - DARK SOULS III - The Fire Fades Edition
#9 - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
#8 - The Forest
#7 - Divinity: Original Sin 2
#6 - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition
#5 - Jurassic World Evolution
#4 - FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION
#3 - Event Pass: Sanhok
#2 - Grand Theft Auto V
#1 - PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS

It really is.

Result from the last week of Summer Sale:

#10 - ARK: Survival Evolved
#9 - The Forest
#8 - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
#7 - Jurassic World Evolution
#6 - Divinity: Original Sin 2
#5 - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition
#4 - FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION
#3 - Event Pass: Sanhok
#2 - Grand Theft Auto V
#1 - PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS

Interesting thing from these uninteresting charts during Summer Sale: there was no Skyrim. Fallout 4 was only in the first week, at #7. Larian, CDPR, and Square Enix gone strong in terms of RPGs. Oh, and Larian did only 20% discount.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...-take-wegame-worldwide-as-steam-rivalry-grows

Tencent plans to take WeGame worldwide as Steam rivalry grows
International takeover with begin with Hong Kong version, now in development

Chinese games giant Tencent is preparing to take its popular PC games marketplace beyond its home nation with a global version of WeGame in the works.

The South China Morning Post reports that a Hong Kong edition of the platform is now in development, and will be used to target players outside China, as well as try to recreate local titles' successes in overseas markets.

WeGame launched back in September, replacing the Tencent Games Platform, and has been likened to Steam. Its catalogue currently only consists of 220 titles, encompassing a mix of Chinese titles and a selection from international companies. But Tencent is hoping it will be able to expand on this significantly once the new site has launched.

"The Hong Kong version of WeGame is now under development," a spokesperson said. "This version will be available for overseas users, and we will use this platform to bring more Chinese games to the global market."

The move is almost certainly in response, at least in part, to Valve's recent announcement of a Chinese version of Steam. The company is working with local publisher Perfect World to create a marketplace specifically for Chinese gamers as the international version is restricted in the region in various ways by the Chinese government.

Steam does, however, have a significant Chinese audience; a recent Valve survey reportedly revealed that more than a quarter of Steam users have set Simplified Chinese as their preferred language, suggesting a large and active userbase in the area.

While WeGame has a much smaller catalogue than Steam at present, it does have one major advantage in being owned by Tencent: the Chinese corporation has invested or acquired multiple major games firms around the world - including Riot Games, Epic Games, Glu Mobile, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft and more - potentially granting access to their portfolios once the site goes live.

It's likely new releases will also be able to reach Chinese gamers faster than they do under the current system. All games headed for China must be reviewed by the government, and are often rejected for even the slightest hint of violence or sexual content. By launching games via a Hong Kong-based site, which is accessible to Chinese gamers but not under the restrictions of the government, Tencent can rapidly expand WeGame's catalogue.

Neither WeGame Hong Kong nor Steam China has a release date, so the race is on to see who can change the game in the region.

FYI, upcoming challengers to Steam and their strengths:

• WeGame - Chinese money, devs/pubs all over the world Tecent owns or has some shares
• RobotCache - Fargo connections, reselling, (possibly) blockchain
• Kartridge - experience running Kongregate

 

[Gerrard]

Yeah, good luck with that. And good luck to Capcuck if they plan to release MHW on that shit in the west.

 

[Modron]

Yeah, good luck with that. And good luck to Capcuck if they plan to release MHW on that shit in the west.

It's already slated for steam https://store.steampowered.com/app/582010/MONSTER_HUNTER_WORLD/ that said can't hurt them to hit all available platforms.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1699429118305015582

Improvements to the "Upcoming" tab on Steam

Today we are rolling out a bunch of improvements in how we show you upcoming games on Steam.

In the past, the Steam homepage included an Upcoming tab that showed customers a complete list of everything that was coming to Steam. This was a pretty simple feature -- it was literally just a chronological list of upcoming titles. It didn't do anything to build a list of games suited to anyone's interests and just wasn't doing its job. Hundreds of new games are coming to Steam every month, but customers weren't using this list to find new things to play. It was a feature that needed work.

Therefore, as of today the Upcoming tab will be a smarter, more tailored list called Popular Upcoming. This list will take into account the pre-release interest in a game -- that is to say, data we gather through wishlists, pre-purchase, and a developer's or publisher's past titles. We believe Steam does a good job of taking early customer interest (even if that interest isn't enormous) and helps a game amplify that interest through connection to quality customers. This smarter list on the front page aims to do just that.

Furthermore, when you click on "see more Upcoming Releases" at the bottom of that tab you'll be taken to a dedicated Upcoming Releases page. This page will make suggestions based on your unique interests and show you what's coming to Steam in a much more digestible format.

If you follow a developer or publisher with a new game coming out, the Upcoming Releases page will feature those games. If you've wishlisted a game, it will appear here as well. If you've shown Steam some of your interests, we'll be taking that into account as you browse through games that are coming to Steam. Conversely, we won't be populating this page with things you've willfully said you're not interested in or with DLC for games you don't own.

We also recognize that some of you do want to see the complete list of releases in one place -- you don't want us or our silly computers doing any work for you; you prefer a raw, unrefined deluge of new games. Well, on the Upcoming Releases page you can view a totally unfiltered list of everything that is coming to Steam, and while looking through that list you'll know that as you add games to your wishlist or share them with friends, you'll be helping Steam make it discoverable for everyone else.

We think these changes are going to help connect you towards games you're excited about and make browsing all the new games coming to Steam a more enjoyable and productive experience. Making Steam more useful is never an exact science so we'll be maintaining and adjusting these new features as more and more of you use them to find games you want to play.


Upcoming Games on Steam Q&A

Q: Can't you replace this tab with something else? I have an idea about that, actually.
A: We spend a lot of time listening to customer feedback on improvements to the store, so please, let 'em fly. This change is in direct response to feedback and data from both customers and partners on the usefulness of Steam's front page.

Q: I'm a developer and in the past I knew that my game would be in that unfiltered list on the front page, at least for a little while. Doesn't this make my new game even harder to find?
A: We've spent a lot of time looking at data about how folks find and buy games and are certain that isn't the case. The previous iteration of Upcoming was just too unfiltered for most customers to use it effectively. A piece of data for you: the old Upcoming list was only clicked on by less than half of one percent of customers whereas Top Sellers is clicked on by almost four percent. It's clear to us that a brief (and sometimes very brief) spot on Steam's front page isn't useful if your game is shown to a random set of customers -- what's best for everyone is if your game is shown to the right customers, ones who have shown that they might like your game. If you're building a great, entertaining product with a store page to match, these improvements will facilitate connections to those customers in a higher quality way.

Q:So let me get this straight, if me and all of my pals wishlist a game, we can help it get to the front page of Steam via the Popular Upcoming tab?
A: Yes but probably no. We spend a lot of time writing code and monitoring these systems so they aren't manipulated. Now, if you love an upcoming game and wishlist it or even pre-purchase it and we identify that this is a natural trend across Steam's diverse customer set, we will start suggesting it to other folks who may feel the same way.

Q: I have another question, you can't predict me with your flimsy Q&A.
A: Please share it below and we'll try to address it if it's thoughtful and well-meaning.

Direct link to top wishlist list: https://store.steampowered.com//search/?filter=popularwishlist&os=win

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-revenue-cut-tim-sweeney

Steam could be profitable with an 8% cut rather than 30%, says Tim Sweeney

The man of his word. : http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...lit_for_Unreal_Engine_Marketplace_sellers.php

Epic increases revenue split for Unreal Engine Marketplace sellers

Epic has changed how revenue sharing works on the Unreal Engine Marketplace, and it's good news for game developers.

Moving forward, Marketplace sellers will be handed 88 percent of the cash from all product sales, a significant increase on the 70 percent cut that's generally considered the standard.

The new split will apply to all Marketplace transactions, and sellers will even be able to retroactively apply the rate to previous purchases dating back to the store's 2014 launch.

Why the sudden burst of generosity? Epic CEO and founder Tim Sweeney has explained the success of Fortnite, which has amassed 125 million players in less than a year, has allowed the company to pass the savings along.

"Thanks to both the Marketplace's growth and the success of Fortnite, Epic now conducts a huge volume of digital commerce," he commented.

"The resulting economies of scale enable us to pass the savings along to the Unreal Engine Marketplace community, while also making a healthy profit for Epic."

And also 'lolo Fortnite is making us so much money!'

(Come to think of it, the massive user base for Epic Launcher makes it a potential Steam competitor...)

 

[Latelistener]

I don't think Sony and MS take less and with even less support to their platforms: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...y-to-save-game-from-impending-server-shutdown
The game came out in 2017, and they're already shutting down the servers. Greatness awaits.

 

[unfairlight]

I like Tim Sweeney, but I still don't like Epic because they are owned by the Chinese.

 

[Average Manatee]

I don't think Sony and MS take less and with even less support to their platforms: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...y-to-save-game-from-impending-server-shutdown
The game came out in 2017, and they're already shutting down the servers. Greatness awaits.

It's honestly disgusting to me that the consoles require a monthly subscription for online play and yet that money doesn't buy continued server support. MS/Sony should have some kind of deal where the dev runs everything through them and support for games will remain up until whenever the entire service shuts down, not this current hodgepodge of crap where games randomly shut down after a year because the dev doesn't feel like paying the electricity bill for a single box.

 

[LESS T_T]

Result from the last week of Summer Sale:

#10 - ARK: Survival Evolved
#9 - The Forest
#8 - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
#7 - Jurassic World Evolution
#6 - Divinity: Original Sin 2
#5 - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition
#4 - FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION
#3 - Event Pass: Sanhok
#2 - Grand Theft Auto V
#1 - PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS

Interesting thing from these uninteresting charts during Summer Sale: there was no Skyrim. Fallout 4 was only in the first week, at #7. Larian, CDPR, and Square Enix gone strong in terms of RPGs. Oh, and Larian did only 20% discount.

Sandbox toys? Check. CS:GO? Check. GTA V? Check. Battle royals? Hey, there's a new one. Anyway, check. Pre-order of a new AAA game on the top? Check!

#10 - Planet Coaster
#9 - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
#8 - Monster Hunter: World - Deluxe Kit
#7 - Raft
#6 - Jurassic World Evolution
#5 - Grand Theft Auto V
#4 - Event Pass: Sanhok
#3 - Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale
#2 - PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS
#1 - Monster Hunter: World

 

[LESS T_T]

It's still going on: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...rily-halting-new-adult-game-releases-on-steam

Valve temporarily halting new adult game releases on Steam
Company isn't approving updates or new games until planned filter is in place

In the latest chapter in Valve's ongoing saga of answering, "What goes on Steam?" the company has apparently hit pause on new adult game releases. Several developers have reported updates or new releases are not being approved until Steam's promised filter system is firmly in place.

The most detailed report of this comes from Love in Space, developer of Shining Song Starnova. The developer has been waiting for Steam to approve its release build for over a month now, and in a recent Twitter update, gave this as the reason why the game hadn't launched yet:

"We've now been updated by Valve in regards to Shining Song Starnova, the summary is that they are working on new features to give people more control over the content they see and SSS has been identified as needing these features in place before it can go live on Steam," it reads. "Unfortunately we've not been able to get a timeline on this but we'll continue to keep you all informed once we have new information as well as any other decisions we make in the meantime."

Love in Space isn't the only developer affected by this. Techraptor reports that publisher Sekai Project has had the same issue with multiple titles for two months, and according to a post on the Steam forums, Kukhtenkov Georgiy has been unable to release Boobs Saga for the same reason and has been forced to delay a planned release date.

So, what is Valve holding them for? Apparently, a better filter system. Last May, Valve unexpectedly instructed a number of established adult games (largely anime visual novels) on Steam to censor certain aspects of their games, or be removed from Steam. This didn't go over well, and after a backlash, Valve backpedaled on their requests and permitted the games to continue under a new policy: everything is now allowed on Steam except games that are considered "illegal or trolling."

To facilitate the new policy, Valve promised improved filtering tools to allow users to better avoid content they do not wish to see, including adult games. There is currently no given ETA on how long it will take for such a system to be put in place and, consequently, no timeline for when adult games like Shining Song Starnova might release.

 

[Irata]

Porno or no, I wish Valve had a better filter. There are so many tags where I know the game will never interest me and I'd like to not even see them. I'd also love to filter out anything below a certain rating. To be fair, it is pretty rare that I don't know what game I'm looking for when I use Steam.

 

[Latelistener]

Former dev is shitting on Valve. No one else has posted this except for the forum you all love, so I'll just link his Twitter:

So-called “self organizing” companies are controlled by mass anxiety. Anxiety is contagious. I don’t think they are healthy places to work.

So-called self-organizing companies have a corporate arm somewhere controlling the entire operation from “above”. Find them and their friends to figure out who has the real power.

What you’ll find is that the corporate arm influences, controls, and “anxiety spikes” the self-organizing arm nearly constantly. It’s not self-organizing, it’s a company with opaque managers ruled through mass anxiety and fear.

If you’re at a place like this, you must learn who the corporate managers are, who are their friends, and the cliques. They are the ones with real power and everything else is an illusion.

At self-organizing companies with bonuses, workers will watch for rivalries between other coworkers to exploit. They will team up with one dev to bring the other (disliked) dev down a notch in some way. (I’ve seen this several times.)

At self-organizing companies, coding must be done super defensively as anyone can come in and “turd up” the code you’re working on. You must design your systems for this inevitability.

Related: At places like this, you dare not depend on other systems actually working for any period of time. Copy/paste/rename the helper functions you depend on so others can’t quietly break or jankify your systems and make you look bad.

On a competitive team within a self-organizing company, avoid asking for help unless you absolutely, positively need it. Any information you receive may be purposely distorted in some way. If you do ask for help, gather consensus from multiple devs.

Related: Route around problems vs. asking for help or modifications on these teams. Once you ask for help the other dev(s) have control and may purposely send you down a blind alley.

On teams like this, it’s the Wild West. The devs aren’t working for the greater good of the company, they are working for good bonuses. This is one reason why bonuses in this type of environment are a really bad idea.

At self-organizing companies you must be very social. Early on you need to identify who is closely interacting with the corporate arm, who their friends and cliques are, and what they find valuable. If you fall outside this group’s favor be prepared for pain.

Related: You need a powerful “Sponsor” or “Baron” to back you. Figure out what they want and like. Watch or read “Hunger Games”. Once you get to this level you are almost untouchable.

At a self-organizing company you must pay attention to subtle hints from the corporate arm. They just won’t come to you and say “work on this”. Events will just happen and you need to be wise and realize that nothing happens by accident at places like this.

Your mental model should be a hierarchical corporate arm with a self-organizing layer underneath. The corporate arm will reach into and influence the self-organizing arm using various tools.

Some tools are key strategic hires forced into the system, random firings, hints placed with devs that something is valuable or interesting, exposing devs to extra resources like the ability to pay contractors, destroying resources like test labs, or bonus payouts.

You can also just reach in and grab devs and force them to a new team. (That’s why you have wheels on your desk.)

If at one of these companies you find yourself in the basement with a stapler, working alone: be prepared to be fired unless you have a strong Sponsor and are taking an approved break.

If you’re running a self-organizing company, you need to have a measure and understanding of the current average and peak Anxiety Level within the self-organizing arm. Or it blows up and talent walks.

Random firings, messing around with key resources like test labs, encouraging toxic behaviors through massive bonuses, and forcing devs to move around randomly are all anxiety increasing/morale decreasing events.

And this is why I walked away from a self-organizing company 1 week after being given options. It was just too unhealthy a workplace, and it impacted my health too much. I would say most of my coworkers where ridiculously stressed out (I learned some had to go on meds to cope).

Another type of temp strategic hire you can make is to recruit a well-known author, a famous dev, or a person with specialized skills (like an economist). Have them write gushingly about their amazing experiences at the company. Once you’re done with them quietly let them go.

And so this is a form of Developer Marketing. Hire some key person, push them to write or blog, then once you’re done with them let them go. The “pawn” won’t complain too much as their career will be enhanced by being associated with your company.

What the developer actually writes is actually consensus based mumbo-jumbo. It’s just marketing. It’ll be based off the version of reality the corporate arm wants to market to developers they haven’t recruited yet.

If you run a self-organized firm and you have turned up the anxiety levels too high, your company will become brittle and prone to mass talent flight. Wealthy competitors can come in and make offers and basically steal all your tech and devs right out from under you.

Company parties at self-organizing firms can be incredibly awkward events. Imagine Stalin holding a Worker’s Party at a Gulag. That’s how fun they are. Genuine relationships are rare at these places and there’s too much mass trauma.

All legit self-organizing firms have to “leak” an official unofficial Company Manual. It’s got to be slickly made and fun to read. Developer Marketing gurus create these productions to sway new recruits into the Hiring Funnel. Insiders laugh at these things.

Worth noting (and I guess a reason why it was posted on this one specific forum): http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Rich...Video_Game_Programmer_Culture_Must_Change.php

Where are the women video game programmers?

Maybe you're thinking "it's not our industry's fault, women can't or just aren't interested in coding!" Let's stop and do a quick history lesson, because this is bullshit.

 

[unfairlight]

Worth noting (and I guess a reason why it was posted on this one specific forum): http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Rich...Video_Game_Programmer_Culture_Must_Change.php

This is so fucking retardo. Jesus Christ.
This retard's "history lesson" is showing 5 pictures of women near old computers and this is 1000% proof that women invented computers and it's the patriarchy keeping them down.

 

[Gerrard]

I wonder if "Bob" didn't happen to be the same faggot who was responsible for the anime holocaust.

 

[Nano]

Worth noting (and I guess a reason why it was posted on this one specific forum): http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Rich...Video_Game_Programmer_Culture_Must_Change.php

This is so fucking retardo. Jesus Christ.
This retard's "history lesson" is showing 5 pictures of women near old computers and this is 1000% proof that women invented computers and it's the patriarchy keeping them down.

He also linked a detailed article on the subject. For the people who missed: https://www.npr.org/sections/alltec...en-female-programmers-who-created-modern-tech

 

[unfairlight]

I know who Grace Hopper is and she's great, but be realistic here they didn't create modern tech. They might have influenced it and made some innovations in the field but it was still predominantly men who built it all up.

 

[gaussgunner]

Most of the women programmers I've worked with are competent. There just aren't many of them. Because to get good, you have to spend half your free time alone sperging out on a PC. I've never seen many girls doing that. They're more social creatures than boys. They have a naturally higher "EQ" or something, even if their IQ's are the same. They're cute, mostly. Their "female privilege" allows women to escape the drudgery of construction work, garbage work, sewage work - and fucking programming.

By some twist of fate, programming became a prestigious profession. That won't last.

Actually I doubt if many boys are sperging out on PCs anymore either. Maybe they're taking phone selfies of themselves wearing dresses and makeup, just like the girls. When men are better at being women than women, women could be forced into the coding sweatshops. Then they'll be complaining about that.

Jesus H. Christ, I sound like Neckbeard Shitlord.

 

[Joined on the 4th of July]

Jesus H. Christ, I sound like Neckbeard Shitlord.

The Codex management should bring him back. It's not really fair that others are forced to take up his duties during his absence.

 

[Rahdulan]

I find it amusing these complaints about shitty treatment and unhealthy work culture coincide with Valve seemingly returning to game development. Has actual management taken over and primadonnas can't handle working under supervision? Considering how opaque Valve is with their inner workings and state of our industry at large it could be a deadly combination of both.

 

[Irata]

Weren't these "self organizing" companies supposed to be a dream workplace scenario? Google, Valve, etc. with no set hours or tasks. I suspect it takes a certain mindframe to work in a place like that. I know I couldn't do it. If no one told me what to do I'd just sit around all day.

 

[Lutte]

Weren't these "self organizing" companies supposed to be a dream workplace scenario? Google, Valve, etc. with no set hours or tasks. I suspect it takes a certain mindframe to work in a place like that. I know I couldn't do it. If no one told me what to do I'd just sit around all day.

Like Rich said, Valve created that image out of thin air through key hires that had specific treatment and also didn't remain long in the company.
Things like this official, company-representing blog :
http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/economics/

You have read Valve’s survival manual for new employees. You have read Michael Abrash’s wonderful account of working at Valve. Now read my political economy analysis of Valve’s management model; one in which there are no bosses, no delegation, no commands, no attempt by anyone to tell someone what to do. Can useful lessons be drawn about not only Valve’s inner workings but, importantly, regarding the future of the corporate world?

Massive PR campaigns toward potential hires.

It wasn't random actual people praising corporate flat structures. Those who did were hired specifically for it and were asked to contribute to PR campaigns. Not quite organic.

I used to talk to someone who worked at valve (no, I won't specify anything identifiable) and much of Rich's account sounds like stuff that guy would have said. He found the environment stressful but the pay good enough to stick around in his case.

I suspect it takes a certain mindframe to work in a place like that. I know I couldn't do it. If no one told me what to do I'd just sit around all day.

Age and specific talent and luck to work on actually interesting projects have to do with it too.
Let's get real, for large companies like Google, the experience will be dramatically different when comparing the guys who work on the self-driving bit vs the guy who's just a DevOps with little chance to make it up the ladder in terms of importance. You can bet Rob Pike, the main guy behind the Go language at Google, will not find the environment as stressful as someone who needs to prove himself daily to get a promotion. Doubly true for his age group, the special treatment will really soften the edge.

In the age of constant PR, whether organized or coming from key employees just living in their bubbles, you need to realize that not all pigs are equals and those who speak praise of The Google among the 85 000 employees may have experiences that differ from the average grunt.

The thing is, royalty is royalty. Royalty would love their job no matter where they work. People like Abrash, Pike and the likes would never be treated like any other employee. They can be happy at Valve or Google because they are Abrash and Pike, not because there's a flat structure. I don't believe Johnny Ive is any less satisfied of his job working for Apple, a very, very hierarchical, structured and secretive company.

Any hype about a specific company structure should just be treated as the word of the modern gifted royalty.