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The number of games released on Steam could top 5,000 in 2017most ever in a year

P

Poetic.Injustice

Member
It's no wonder your Steam backlog keeps growing: the platform is releasing more games than ever before. According to analyst Daniel Ahmad, of Niko Partners, the number of games released on the platform so far this year has already surpassed the total for the whole of 2015.

Around 1,300 games have popped up since June's launch of Steam Direct, the replacement for Steam Greenlight that lets developers publish on Steam without passing through an approval process. If that pace carries on then the number of games released this year could top 5,000 for the first time.

That would mean there were more games released this year on Steam than in the eight years between 2006 and 2014. Pretty staggering.
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http://www.pcgamer.com/the-number-o..._source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer-pcgamertw
 
B

Big-E

Member
I have gone through every game in the explore queue. Nowadays, there are like over 20 games a day added to the queue when before Tuesdays would be the only day where there were games.
 
P

Piers

Member
Can't the people developing these games change career paths/hobbies if it's going to amount to virtually nothing at this rate? Going by how so many games go unnoticed amongst the sea of everything else.
 
Lashley

Lashley

Why does he wear the mask!?
Piers said:
Can't the people developing these games change career paths/hobbies if it's going to amount to virtually nothing at this rate? Going by how so many games go unnoticed amongst the sea of everything else.
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tbf, if a game is good it'll be noticed
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Is this supposed to be a problem?

I feel like Steam is the only storefront I've ever heard of where having a huge variety in what it offers is considered a weakness instead of a strength.
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Lashley said:
Yes, when about 4700 of those games will be trash
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Vast majority of shit on iTunes and Amazon is trash too. Nobody seems to give a fuck about that though.

Don't buy the garbage. Problem solved.
 
P

pretty done

Member
Kinyou said:
Yep, very hard for a decent indie game to stand out among all the rubbish if they don't have funds for marketing.
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Word of mouth usually carries the decent to good games to relative success.

Problem is there's just way too much now so that there's really no point in playing an average game. Devs need to step their shit up if they wanna get noticed.
 
I

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
Got to laugh at the people that expect Steam to be a boutique store that only cares the finest games.
 
B

Big-E

Member
I really don't understand how more games is a problem. How many documented cases do we have of a game being buried with no one knowing about it that was good?
 
1

120v

Member
looking at that graph is nuts... i never really noticed that sort of jump in my five years or so of using steam. i do uncover a lot of random crap i've never heard of but a lot of them are "old" games
 
M

MUnited83

For you.
Piers said:
Can't the people developing these games change career paths/hobbies if it's going to amount to virtually nothing at this rate? Going by how so many games go unnoticed amongst the sea of everything else.
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Not really. This system gives more opportunities to be sucessful to more devs. Why would they leave because of it?
Lashley said:
I was quite obviously being facetious

But a large number of that 5000 will be shit games
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The average steam review score has showed very little changes since the games started releasing more. You have the same percentage of crappy games that were always there.
 
T

TheSpoiler

Member
Kinyou said:
There's a middle ground between boutique store and selling garbage that barely works.
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There are enough tools for the regular Steam user to make an informed purchase. Additionally, the refund system allows the user to return the game. Oh, and there's tons of filters so you don't have to look at the trash unless you are actively seeking it out.

So yeah, you can have it whatever way you want it.
 
Stilton Disco

Stilton Disco

Member
Orthogonal said:
Its crazy because I am buying fewer and fewer each year. The sales suck too now.
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So much this. The sheer volume of shite that you have to wade through to find anything good is incredibly off putting. It's actually pushed me back to consoles for the most part.
 
T

texhnolyze

Banned
If we look at Steamspy annual Steam sales report, it's actually concerning. The number of games sold in 2016 went down (though not by that much) compared to 2015, even though the number of games released AND Steam active users went up. It'll be interesting to see 2017 report later.
 
Plumpbiscuit

Plumpbiscuit

Member
It use to be a feat to have your game on Steam, now literally anybody can put their crappy asset flip onto it. With all these junk games coming out how will people find the good games they want?
 
I

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
Plumpbiscuit said:
It use to be a feat to have your game on Steam, now literally anybody can put their crappy asset flip onto it. With all these junk games coming out how will people find the good games they want?
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Same way you find good music, books or movies, even though iTunes and Amazon are filled with garbage.
 
T

TheSpoiler

Member
Plumpbiscuit said:
It use to be a feat to have your game on Steam, now literally anybody can put their crappy asset flip onto it. With all these junk games coming out how will people find the good games they want?
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How they did it in the past - research, and if necessary, refunds. Like, it's not that hard.

Edit: You can literally sort by user reviews as well in any of the search lists. There are curation options built in the client itself but most of you act like you are constantly pelted with ISIS Simulator at every turn.
 
xrnzaaas

xrnzaaas

Member
Sadly it's starting to happen on PS Store as well. More and more super shitty games that you have to get through to find something truly interesting and worth your money.
 
A

Arulan

Member
The number of games released on a platform is irrelevant assuming discovery tools are able to showcase quality content, which in my experience Steam does very well. And due to the ease of indie publication (on Steam, and to a lesser extent now on consoles) and the separation of content-creation from publishers (crowd-funding), I'd argue there has never been a more diverse and numerous quantity of good games released than today.
 
P

Piers

Member
BernardoOne said:
Not really. This system gives more opportunities to be sucessful to more devs. Why would they leave because of it?
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Because their game under-performs in sales due to the deluge of other games screaming for attention. If you're tossing a simple project on there, that's fine. But if it's months or years of painstaking work, especially when it costly, it's massively crushing and some devs simply can't find the motivation to try for another swing in the pitch after that. Piracy probably doesn't help either.

And it's not even the indie scene. The ice under bigger studios thins, and marketing becomes even more crucial. With studios that have to close up shop, there's a margin of those who'll change career paths to something that has better pay, hours and less stressful.
 
M

MUnited83

For you.
Kinyou said:
There's a middle ground between boutique store and selling garbage that barely works.
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Air Control has been removed from Steam for like 3 years now.
Piers said:
Because their game under-performs in sales due to the deluge of other games screaming for attention. If you're tossing a simple project on there, that's fine. But if it's months or years of painstaking work, especially when it costly, it's massively crushing and some devs simply can't find the motivation to try for another swing in the pitch after that. Piracy probably doesn't help either.

And it's not even the indie scene. The ice under bigger studios thins, and marketing becomes even more crucial. With studios that have to close up shop, there's a margin of those who'll change career paths to something that has better pay, hours and less stressful.
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Many good devs and studios wouldn't even be able to get on the store before. They are making more money than they were when they couldn't get on the store.

Plumpbiscuit said:
It use to be a feat to have your game on Steam, now literally anybody can put their crappy asset flip onto it. With all these junk games coming out how will people find the good games they want?
Click to expand...
Recommendation queue, word of mouth, researching? The recommendation queue is great, it never shows my any asset flips and it introduced me to great, great games.
 
A

Arulan

Member
Piers said:
Because their game under-performs in sales due to the deluge of other games screaming for attention. If you're tossing a simple project on there, that's fine. But if it's months or years of painstaking work, especially when it costly, it's massively crushing and some devs simply can't find the motivation to try for another swing in the pitch after that. Piracy probably doesn't help either.

And it's not even the indie scene. The ice under bigger studios thins, and marketing becomes even more crucial. With studios that have to close up shop, there's a margin of those who'll change career paths to something that has better pay, hours and less stressful.
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There are more good games now than ever before. Naturally that means increased competition in the marketplace. Before it would only benefit the few developers who luckily managed to get on Steam. Valve made the right decision to remove themselves as the gatekeepers of quality.

The larger studios have been in decline for far longer than Valve's decision to open Steam, and have far greater problems. The race to the top of budgets to target an even greater mainstream audience caused the ruin of many publishers. Their problems are of their own making.
 
D

Durante

Member
Great, there's an unprecedented selection of great stuff to play out there.

By the way, more than 100000 books were released on Amazon (my favourite book store) in 2016.
 
C

Crankshaft

Member
I imagine that it will regulate itself before long. All these games that will flood the market and not make much money will force the developers to give up.
 
C

Chairmanchuck

Member
Even AA devs struggle, but not because of shovelware games but because they dont even do any marketing.

One Piece just released without any PR since May and sold 1k. SAO releases in 3 days. Announced just yesterday...
 
Z

Zombine

Banned
It's gotten so out of hand that I honestly just use sale sites like GMG for the games that are talked about by the gaming press/demoed at events like PAX and buy them there. Steam is just the crappy DRM.
 
H

Hamster Plugin

Member
Ikuu said:
Got to laugh at the people that expect Steam to be a boutique store that only cares the finest games.
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It used to be. I miss those days a lot.

Crankshaft said:
I imagine that it will regulate itself before long. All these games that will flood the market and not make much money will force the developers to give up.
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A huge amount of these "games" are just quickly ripped from Unity asset store with very little or no work done on it. Even a couple of hundred bucks is enough to make it worth something.
 
B

BanjoLayleeYookaKazooie

Banned
Durante said:
Great, there's an unprecedented selection of great stuff to play out there.

By the way, more than 100000 books were released on Amazon in 2016.
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Got no doubt at all about that, I know you're someone very knowledgeable about this, but as much as I understand that I do believe that quality control is a good thing, regardless of the risks it carries. Unless you think Digital Homicide made Steam a better place?

I just don't understand why the only 2 options are closed gardens or open floodgates. Like I said you're the expert, is there no way Valve can run an online storefront whereby Firefighters the Simulation and The Slaughtering Grounds fail a quality check and Stardew Valley manages to pass?
 
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