This article, about how many games do not turn a profit on Steam, has been making the rounds. The problem it highlights is legitimate, though it does not take into account how many of these are student projects, in early access, etc.
Even with these issues, and having sold games in physical stores, on mobile, on consoles, and in the modern online stores (Steam, GOG, Zoom Platform), I much prefer the last category (though seeing your game in a box at Target is a thrill). Yes, HOLISTIC DESIGN, INC. games face A LOT of competition on them every day, but these channels also give us sales year after year, as well as the chance to improve our games and find their audience.
We rereleased Emperor of the Fading Suns on GOG.com about five years ago, and it sold all right. When we released the Enhanced version in 2022, sales on GOG jumped. When we released the (even more) Enhanced version on Steam this year, sales on both platforms jumped again. There is no way we could have done this through any of the other sales channels, especially considering our near $0 marketing budget.
Steam is certainly not perfect, and issues like AI slop are definitely going to test it. Still, the sheer number of devs on it, the many who are making money, and the number of players who now have access to indie games they otherwise would never have seen, speak to its value.
I am not as concerned as the author about the low revenue of many Steam games, since the sheer quantity means thousands of games are still making money. Steam also offers a nice long-tail effect. My main concerns with Steam are its problems attracting a new generation of gamers, who are more active on mobile, Roblox and Fortnite. I am glad those platforms exist, but the discoverability problems for indies are even greater on them.
My favorite aspect of Steam, and the one I wish they would emphasize more, is the focus on community. The secret for success on Steam is good game + good community + continuing support x time. Tripwire Interactive’s Killing Floor was one of the early indie successes on Steam and proved this well, and its games continue to prove it to this day.
At DreamHack Atlanta this weekend, we will have more than 70 indiegame developers looking to break through the noise. You can see some of them in the DreamHack Indie Playground Steam sale. A fair number of them have the chance to succeed on Steam, and you get the chance to try them first 🙂
EDIT: I have been reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Leonardo DaVinci, and he discusses how the master worked on the Mona Lisa for well over a decade, and was still working on it when he died. I love that some devs are continuing to work on their older games – tweaking them, fixing bugs, and adding new content. This was something we could not do when we sold games in boxes, and I hope more devs take advantage of this Steam/GOG ability until we have a Mona Lisa-quality game.
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