The North American company modifies its publication policies and will prevent developers from talking about versions available on other systems.
Valve has modified the conditions of publication of video games through Steam. Gabe Newell’s digital platform, market leader on PC, will now prevent development studios from talking about the versions of their games available on other platforms. In this way, it will not be possible for them to mention the availability of their works in other suppliers or distributors.
The recently updated community section for developers, in its Frequently Asked Questions section, it is specified that Steam may not be used as a promotional speaker for communications related to the sale of games away from Steam; a policy that applies to both full versions and patches or mods. Nothing.
“In the game that you launch on Steam and in communications related to it on Steam, you can only promote the version you have on Steam and its availability on Steam, and not what you have on other distribution systems. This applies both to the full versions of your game and to any content patch that modifies the existing version ”, they argue in the last question of the FAQ.
Developers take 70-75% of the profits from sales
Before the policy change in late 2018, games sold on Steam split revenue 70% for the development studio and 30% for Valve. Since December of that year, the company replicated the powerful strategy of an emerging Epic Games Store and applied a variable offering 75% for the publisher and 25% for Gabe Newell’s whenever the video game manages to exceed 10 million dollars. If the success is even greater, with 50 million dollars, Valve will receive 20% and the publisher the remaining 80%.
With distribution channels like Epic Games Store, Discord, Twitch or GOG, the competition is increasing; the way to seduce users, increasingly limited. The reaction of developers to this new measure remains to be seen.
