Not Spaceghost
Spaceghost
I get why valve is doing this but it's still shitty.
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Valve will no longer automatically honor requests for STEAM keys for developers
- Thread starter Tripon
- Start date
But you have to remember, this was offered FOR FREE as a user of Steamworks. Valve allowed you to sell your games elsewhere without them getting their 30% cut. All this was up front.
Now they are changing that. They are making it that you can only get so many keys depending on how many copies of your game has sold on Steam.
What if you never wanted to use Steam's store? That was allowed before. But now? How would you get the keys if you've never sold your game on the Steam store?
This is on them. They made it free from the start but now they want something out of it. Which I do understand, of course, but then they should have never made Steamworks free from the start or only allow Steamworks to be used on the Steam store.
GlamFM
Banned
I hope.
Mobius and pet octopus
Member
Weird how people automatically assume this is shitty, as if anything insert name does anything it's just the worst thing ever.
No, they won't. They get their keys from boxed copies in regions where the games are very cheap and to be quite frank I wouldn't be surprised if some keys are even stolen.
I think this is it. Shovelware devs sell their keys in mass for next to nothing to these trashy sites which create giant bundles and use shovelware to pad out their numbers. Everyone wins but the customers.
bonesmccoy
Banned
GMG and CD Keys don't really go after the barely known indie games that seem to be the target of this policy change. Their thing is to offer (sometimes steep) discounts on popular titles.
I think this will impact Humble more acutely than any other non-Steam storefront.
Same as now, you just won't be able to request half a million keys for your project without satisfying some criteria first.
Judging from the example this seems like a very targeted measure. For those mentioning cdkeys, it seems rather unlikely that Valve is going to begrudge major developers/publishers any amount of keys they request, which is the level of content that cdkeys is used for anyway.
I could see humble being affected, although most humble games are already popular indie titles. You might see in a drop in GMG mystery bundle type shit though.
I could see humble being affected, although most humble games are already popular indie titles. You might see in a drop in GMG mystery bundle type shit though.
balladofwindfishes
Member
I'm pretty sure you could never use steamworks without selling your game on Steam. I believe it's a requirement of the platform
This and it's worth noting key requests have always been manually fulfilled for precisely the reason Valve states in the post. All that is changing here is Valve considering the circumstances of smaller requests as well as larger ones so that developers who are believed to be using keys to frequently and massively undercut the store can't continue to do so.
SteamSpy is a great data analysis tool, but Galyonkin could stand to learn more about the intricacies of the platform and Valve's policies.
It's not so much a rule as it is a guideline on account of being somewhat loosely enforced. Atari sells the Steam versions of Ghostbusters and Riddick exclusively on GameStop.com, for example.
My guess is this effects a small percentage of games, probably bundle filler that only sells a few copies legitimately, but ends up requesting hundreds of thousands of keys.
This also runs counter to their prevailing strategy of free market curation of their store. Of course there are going to be games in that scenario that do not produce a profit for Valve.
Interested to see more on this.
This also runs counter to their prevailing strategy of free market curation of their store. Of course there are going to be games in that scenario that do not produce a profit for Valve.
Interested to see more on this.
GlamFM
Banned
AcceptableGhost
Member
This.
Linkstrikesback
Member
Last I heard, no, actually, they gave them out for free, presumably under the idea that more customers on the service would balance out he cost.
No idea if that ever changed though.
DOBERMAN INC
Member
Seems reasonable enough.
AcceptableGhost
Member
Keys are free.
Guess I need to post this again since there are some people who seem to have already forgotten after 2 page. Wow, how the mind slips!
"Allegedly"
Opening admitting to sexually assaulting someone(then banning anyone who called him out for it)
Posting revenge porn with their real full names then another admin(a now jailed pedophile) printed the photos and jacked off over them and sent it to the boyfriend.
You're right, how can we even know if he's guilty or not? HMMMM
Also:
The devs/publishers set the price on their steam page...
I don't know if this is shitty - I'm more inclined to say the previous policy was rather generous - but its basically bad news for anyone who doesn't own Valve shares.
Nothing in this affects CDkeys in any way since they rely on actual cd keys from phisycal copies.
This is not what is happening here. Regular Devs have nothing to worry about here.
Hello? This is Hailun!
Member
The example they have was thousands of sales on Steam but requesting 500k codes.
Something out of the ordinary is going on in that situation. Devs and Pubs who have an ethical relationship with Vale aren't going to be affected.
Something out of the ordinary is going on in that situation. Devs and Pubs who have an ethical relationship with Vale aren't going to be affected.
PandaPedinte
Member
I don't think it will affect CDkeys as some are thinking but it may affect GMG with their loot box. As the exemple provided in the steamwork forums they will investigate if a game only that only sold a few hundred copies requests an abnormal number of keys.
Won't stop the people already on their crusade in this thread.
Yeah, this.
The way this sounds this won't have any effect on any legitimate games/third-party stores or customers.
But companies that mass buy cheap products from poorer counties to sell to customers in richer countries above the poor countries retail price are not doing it for the money of course.
To my knowledge Valve does neither set prices nor discounts for the games on the store and the 30% cut is industry-standard. (and they getting from sold keys)
I'm curious what your beef with them is.
Because I said that right? It's to my benefit to buy from other regions.
If they didn't want to do that, they shouldn't have done that.
Valve assumed people would buy through Steam because it's Steam. They probably didn't see the rise of legitimate bundle sites people trust in numbers, or developers getting better at marketing and selling their games on their own sites.
If they want to force developers to only sell on Steam, that's their choice. Isn't that completely counter to what PC platform has always been though? Open market, freedom of choice, no walled gardens, etc...
Steam, the Best Buy of digital game purchasing.
Yes you did actually. By saying one side is greedy and you will support CDKEYS as if they are doing it for good will.
Hello? This is Hailun!
Member
It won't but prices may go up a bit. Sites that have limited keys may have less.
But this is mainly indie devs dumping their games on whole sale sites. So games that most of us don't have visibility to anyway.
That's not the case here. They're stopping devs from abusing the Steam store as a content delivery service. Valve doesn't care what platforms you use they just don't want you to abuse theirs.
I wasn't comparing cd keys to steam. There was just a thread about how these corporations avoid paying their fair share of taxes. And cd keys probably don't even get many of their keys this way.
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
Surprised it took them this long
Like the kind of stuff we see on Bundle Stars?
uncredited male
Member
Maybe some of there 40+ games for a dollar bundles. But a lot of their games are retail keys anyway.
Edit - I trust in JaseC. It probably won't effect someone like BundleStars.
oxrock
Gravity is a myth, the Earth SUCKS!
As long as they follow the example in the OP then I'm fine with this. I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner. There's no reason you'd need 20-50x more keys than your sales unless you're abusing steam's key system. As long as they still permit a generous amount of keys to cover marketing needs then I don't see an issue.
If they but physical copies and sell the key inside, I can't imagine they'll be affected.
maabus1999
Member
Surprised they haven't looked at collecting a fee (which is some % of the MSRP) from publishers/developers for every key activation to be honest.