In recent years, more and more games are being re-released and brought to Steam. Publishers that have a suite of historic games to bring back to the market often do this in the form of collections. These collections often include multiple (previously individually released) game titles, released as a single game on the Steam storefront, usually under the collective name of the franchise or IP.

Some examples of this are:

https://steamhost.cn/app/2369900/Castlevania_Dominus_Collection/
Includes Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

https://steamhost.cn/app/477740/Zero_Escape_The_Nonary_Games/
Includes 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

https://steamhost.cn/app/2478970/Tomb_Raider_IIII_Remastered_Starring_Lara_Croft/
Includes Tomb Raider I Remastered, Tomb Raider II Remastered, Tomb Raider III Remastered

As well as many others, including Devil May Cry HD Collection, Mega Man Legacy Collection, Phoenix Wrigth: Ace Attorney Trilogy, KINGDOM HEARTS -HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX , SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics (unlisted)

Collections have a few benefits, such as the (perceived) additional value that is offered for a lower price to consumers, as well as convenience for the publishers due to only having a single listing to manage. It also allows each game to easily use the same infrastructure and engine.

However, I think this practice is a negative trend for both Steam and it's users, and I would like to ask Valve to encourage or force developers to instead use Steam's Package feature, when releasing multiple (historically) individually available standalone games. Especially since these Collections often consist of multiple executables (one for each game), which are simply launched by the collection launcher, making the launcher a simple wrapper that does not add any additional value.

1. Discoverability Many of these collection releases are games that have previously been released (often on older platforms) under their respective original titles. This means that some users will become familiar with the game under this title, which is often not the title the collection visibily uses. For example, the DS Game 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors has quite a cult following, and was rereleased on Steam in the collection known as Zero Escape: The Nonary Games. Searching Steam for the terms '999' or 'Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors' results in no results. Any curious user would presume this game is not available on PC, and would never find this collection. Giving each game in the collection their own store page would mitigate this issue.
   
2. Review Integrity While the fact that these collections are a single purchase, that does not mean that they are a single entity. These collections contain multiple different games, each with their own characteristics, strengths and flaws. Accurately using Steam reviews to rate 5 different Mega Man games under the single banner of 'Mega Man Legacy Collection' is impossible, since certain games in this collection might be fantastic classics, while others are significantly poorer. Collections tend to obscure this, making it harder for users to gauge what they are purchasing, and harming the transparency of Steam Reviews.
   
3. Library Functionality These collections form a single Library entry for users that have purchased them. This comes with multiple issues, first of which is that all the entries in the collection need to be installed, even if you only want to play a single installment. Secondly, most steam users have some kind of categorization or organization within their Steam library using the collections. Most frequently (I presume at least), this involves archiving games that have been played and completed. This is extremely inconvenient with collections, since playing and finishing the first entry in a trilogy collection, does not mean the entire collection can be filed away as 'completed'. Other library functionality, such as tracking of playtime, also does not provide the level of detail and information that individual library entries would.
   
4. Diminished Significance In general the collections diminish the significance of each individual title, since the only reference to the original game title is often in the description of the collection and the selection menu of the executable. With so many interesting and unique titles, it's a shame to not highlight them all and allow users to engage with them and their communities individually.

To be clear, I take no issue with grouping multiple games together in a single purchase, and having this collection be the only way that the game can be acquired. There is no need for each game to also be purchaseable individually, although that would obviously be most consumer friendly.


I would suggest that Valve starts encouraging or forcing publishers and developers looking to launch collections on Steam, to instead use their package functionality. Packages are a collection of multiple individual games, that can be bought as a single purchase.

https://steamhost.cn/sub/6375/
For example is a package that contains the three main installments of the Gothic franchise, purchaseable as a single collection. The individual games do not need to be purchaseable outside of the package (as demonstrated by NINJA GAIDEN: Master Collection, which means packages could remain the only way to purchase the games, which obviously has benefits to publishers and developers. This also happens in Valve's own Orange Box. Packages also have the ability to be activated through steamkeys, meaning that selling collections at third-party vendors is still possible.

While this would require additional work for the publisher/developer, due to the need to populate multiple game pages and potentially additional overhead due to having to manage multiple individual builds, it seems an overall (slight) benefit to the health of the Steam storefront and more convenience for the user, and would therefore be a good precedent for Steam to set for future Collection releases.


Please let me know whether you feel the same way about Collections, and how you'd prefer Steam and developers to handle them. How have your experiences been with these types of Steam releases?