This is good news, hopefully more companies will see these results and decided to use Steamworks instead of their own awful DRM. Digital distribution is taking over, and I love it.
Steam Flirts With $1 Billion in 2010
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
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I hate to be a downer, but...this actually isn't impressive. In fact, it's kind of disheartening if this is the future of PC gaming. These sales numbers are pretty awful.
Blizzard/Stardock games excluded, I think it can be agreed that Steam is the primary source of hardcore game purchases. Sure, retail makes up some hardcore purchases, but generally the majority of retail PC game sales constitute casual games.
That said, the top selling game on Steam for the year sold 1.6 million copies? That's it?
It was announced about a month ago that Black Ops had finally made $1 billion in revenue through the console and PC markets combined. It only made $96 million on Steam. That's less than 10% of the game's total sales. Or, in the eyes of a publisher, a relatively safe market to ignore in the future. And, keep in mind, that was the highest revenue earned by any game on Steam!
Obviously, that's a console-focused title, so that shouldn't be used as a primary example. But still, 180 games earning $1 million in revenue total is kind of scary. Many people's first thought is, "Wow, 1 million dollars? That's a lot!" For you, it may be. But keep in mind that said $1 million likely has to pay for development costs, as well as the salaries of every employee in a studio for, say, two years. Divide $1 million over 20 people for a game that took two years to make, and you're barely getting by.
I should clarify: I love PC gaming, and I'm not bashing it in any way. I'm just surprised at the overwhelmingly positive response to some very negative information.
Blizzard/Stardock games excluded, I think it can be agreed that Steam is the primary source of hardcore game purchases. Sure, retail makes up some hardcore purchases, but generally the majority of retail PC game sales constitute casual games.
That said, the top selling game on Steam for the year sold 1.6 million copies? That's it?
It was announced about a month ago that Black Ops had finally made $1 billion in revenue through the console and PC markets combined. It only made $96 million on Steam. That's less than 10% of the game's total sales. Or, in the eyes of a publisher, a relatively safe market to ignore in the future. And, keep in mind, that was the highest revenue earned by any game on Steam!
Obviously, that's a console-focused title, so that shouldn't be used as a primary example. But still, 180 games earning $1 million in revenue total is kind of scary. Many people's first thought is, "Wow, 1 million dollars? That's a lot!" For you, it may be. But keep in mind that said $1 million likely has to pay for development costs, as well as the salaries of every employee in a studio for, say, two years. Divide $1 million over 20 people for a game that took two years to make, and you're barely getting by.
I should clarify: I love PC gaming, and I'm not bashing it in any way. I'm just surprised at the overwhelmingly positive response to some very negative information.
I imagine Gabe Newell looking over the numbers and seeing that they hit under a billion then having his eyes bug out.
Good for Steam lets just hope our benevolent overlords stay benevolent for a good long time.
Good for Steam lets just hope our benevolent overlords stay benevolent for a good long time.
Timbydude said:
$96 million on Steam, but that doesn't include retail sales, either, or sales on other DD services. Besides, the $1 billion mark for BlackOps is worldwide, not just US alone. All things being considered (and guesstimated), if these figures are on-par, it wouldn't surprise me if the total strength of the PC market is at least 25%-30% of the overall gaming market . . . which is still healthy, especially for a platform that has actually seen a growth over the last few years.
I think where the optimism comes from is that, prior to this, there had not really been any release of sales information on just what Steam is actually bringing in. The common view is that PC gaming is dying because retail sales are abysmal compared to the console market - but that information has never taken digital distribution properly into account, as these companies do not disclose their revenue.
If one were to combine the retail figures for these games, with these figures - it paints an entirelly different picture to the health of PC gaming . . . and that's also not taking into account other DD services like Stardock.
BUT, and this is a big BUT - these values were not given by Steam themselves. Doing some digging around on other news sites, I ran across a statement made by Valve regarding these figures:
We have gotten a statement from Valve's Marketing Director Doug Lombardi who told us simply, "We do not release our detailed sales. We have never met with FADE."
Source [http://news.bigdownload.com/2011/02/03/study-claims-steam-generated-970-million-in-revenue-in-2010/]
So - they may or may not be accurate, either . . . and that statement is congruent with how things have been in the past; that Steam do not release their sales figures.
Same here. It's good to see that my favorite game made #8 on the list and 13 and 1/2 million dollars!Sacman said:
Holy shit! One BILLION dollars in a year! Whoever came up with the idea of Steam is an absolute genius! And I still feel like I rip off game developers when I buy their games for less than $2...
EDIT: And Portal got over 20 million dollars in sales! And Valve handed it out for free! That's just incredible.
EDIT: And Portal got over 20 million dollars in sales! And Valve handed it out for free! That's just incredible.
Heh, I think I helped just a bit. By this time of the year, last year, I only had like 30 games on Steam, now I have 175 games on Steam. My old job and those irresistible sales helped quite a lot for my library to grow that much.
Also, I'm glad Metro 2033 did well, that game was great, despite it's flaws.
Also, I'm glad Metro 2033 did well, that game was great, despite it's flaws.
