How to significantly increase sales number on Steam

Alle diskussioner > Steam-fora > Suggestions / Ideas > Trådoplysninger

ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ 24. aug. kl. 2:29

How to significantly increase sales number on Steam

Make it possible for devs to setup a time-limited trial of their game.

Edit : Advantages to this feature :

1- allow players to test a game on their hardware
2- remove the need to make and maintain dedicated demo builds for devs
3- hook players, increasing sales
4- differentiate Steam from other stores
5- allow players to test the latest iteration of the game, including latest updates/fixes (which isn't guaranteed for older demo builds)

Edit 3 :

The point that this feature, for some reason, wouldn't help sales or be undesired by developers keeps being brought up.

As long as we don't get actual conversion rate data from Valve or another 3rd party, it'll be hard to quantify the effect of such a feature. I'm convinced this rate is positive based on :
- recent effort from Valve to promote demos
- the fact that free week-ends, f2p, demos, and other forms of limited trial exist

It's ok to think otherwise though. As a user I'd still like your opinion about it :
Disregarding considerations about devs and Valve, would this feature be useful to you? Would it be interesting to you to try out a game before a purchase, or when wishlisting it ?

(OP updated to come across as less combative)

Sidst redigeret af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ; 25. aug. kl. 17:35

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Hi Im Swat 24. aug. kl. 2:32

Hell no.

ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ 24. aug. kl. 2:36

Oprindeligt skrevet af Hi Im Swat:
Hell no.

Why ?
It'd functionnaly serve the role of a demo, without needing for the devs to make and update a demo build... It'd allow players to test out games on their hardware, and would increase sales by hooking up some of them.

Would you care to elaborate why you think it'd be a bad idea ?

Tito Shivan 24. aug. kl. 2:47

What you want already exists. It's called 'Free to Play'
Not every dev is interested in that kind of business model.

Ettanin 24. aug. kl. 2:50

Oprindeligt skrevet af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ:
Make every game free to play for the first 30mn/1h, to hook players in. You know, kinda like your local dealer offering the first dose for free...

and then i create an account every 25 minutes and continue my saves where i had left off and valve and the dev earn zilch

Nx Machina 24. aug. kl. 2:50

Why? Developers have options on Steam. None are mandatory.

A demo, a free weekend and the recent time limited trial for a game.

Sidst redigeret af Nx Machina; 24. aug. kl. 2:51

ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ 24. aug. kl. 2:59

Oprindeligt skrevet af Ettanin:
and then i create an account every 25 minutes and continue my saves where i had left off and valve and the dev earn zilch

I'm sure there'd be many ways to prevent this.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nx Machina:
Why? Developers have options on Steam. None are mandatory.

A demo, a free weekend and the recent time limited trial for a game.

True, but I was thinking of a store-wide feature. No need for extra work on a game-to-game basis. These options (fully f2p, free we, demo builds...) would still be available.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Tito Shivan:
What you want already exists. It's called 'Free to Play'
Not every dev is interested in that kind of business model.

It's not a business model, just a store feature suggestion...

Sidst redigeret af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ; 24. aug. kl. 3:02

Ettanin 24. aug. kl. 3:06

Oprindeligt skrevet af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ:
Oprindeligt skrevet af Ettanin:
and then i create an account every 25 minutes and continue my saves where i had left off and valve and the dev earn zilch
I'm sure there'd be many ways to prevent this.

Not all games use cloud only or account authenticated saves and there are a lot of drm free indie games. Everything stored locally on your system can be edited.

Devs will offer demos if they want to. Valve will not force them.

Sidst redigeret af Ettanin; 24. aug. kl. 3:09

ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ 24. aug. kl. 3:13

Oprindeligt skrevet af Ettanin:
Oprindeligt skrevet af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ:
I'm sure there'd be many ways to prevent this.
Not all games use cloud only or account authenticated saves and there are a lot of drm free indie games. Everything stored locally on your system can be edited.

Devs will offer demos if they want to. Valve will not force them.

Fair point, but I don't think all players should be deprived of an interesting feature because of some marginal abuse. Also pretty sure it'd require less work to protect saves from abuse than maintain dedicated demo builds. In fact a majority of games can't afford to offer a demo because of the issues it entails :
- diverts manpower and time from the main build to maintain/debug/playtest
- requires separate updating in parrallel of the main build to maintain an accurate representation

Sidst redigeret af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ; 24. aug. kl. 3:15

Ettanin 24. aug. kl. 3:21

Oprindeligt skrevet af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ:
Oprindeligt skrevet af Ettanin:
Not all games use cloud only or account authenticated saves and there are a lot of drm free indie games. Everything stored locally on your system can be edited.

Devs will offer demos if they want to. Valve will not force them.
Fair point, but I don't think all players should be deprived of an interesting feature because of some marginal abuse. Also pretty sure it'd require less work to protect saves from abuse than maintain dedicated demo builds. In fact a majority of games can't afford to offer a demo because of the issues it entails :
- diverts manpower and time from the main build to maintain/debug/playtest
- requires separate updating in parrallel of the main build to maintain an accurate representation

The PC is not a console, hence there is no manufacturer that can dictate its architecture, and those that can afford DRM already do. An indie that cannot afford DRM won't be able to afford "save protection" DRM either nor will limit their game to Steam in order to implement such system because Steam cloud save infrastructure is Steam exclusive. Not to mention that Steam Cloud is a synchronization feature and not a DRM feature, hence requires saves to be local.

You want to know whether a game is good for you? Watch streams and let's plays. Those made demos obsolete.

Sidst redigeret af Ettanin; 24. aug. kl. 3:24

Nx Machina 24. aug. kl. 3:27

Oprindeligt skrevet af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ:
True, but I was thinking of a store-wide feature. No need for extra work on a game-to-game basis. These options (fully f2p, free we, demo builds...) would still be available.

Store-wide feature?

Do you have the data to backup How to significantly increase sales number on Steam and convince the developers, publishers of your suggestion.

They have options already as previously stated: A demo, a free weekend and the recent time limited trial for a game. None of those are mandatory, it is their choice to participate or not as it would be to allow their game to be played for thirty minutes or one hour for free.

You can watch YouTube videos for free and get to decide if the gameplay hooks you in.

Sidst redigeret af Nx Machina; 24. aug. kl. 3:33

#10

ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ 24. aug. kl. 3:29

Oprindeligt skrevet af Ettanin:
Oprindeligt skrevet af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ:
Fair point, but I don't think all players should be deprived of an interesting feature because of some marginal abuse. Also pretty sure it'd require less work to protect saves from abuse than maintain dedicated demo builds. In fact a majority of games can't afford to offer a demo because of the issues it entails :
- diverts manpower and time from the main build to maintain/debug/playtest
- requires separate updating in parrallel of the main build to maintain an accurate representation
The PC is not a console, hence there is no manufacturer that can dictate its architecture, and those that can afford DRM already do. An indie that cannot afford DRM won't be able to afford "save protection" DRM either nor will limit their game to Steam in order to implement such system because Steam cloud save infrastructure is Steam exclusive. Not to mention that Steam Cloud is a synchronization feature and not a DRM feature, hence requires saves to be locally.

You want to know whether a game is good for you? Watch streams and let's plays. Those made demos obsolete.

The (very moderate) burden of protecting saves from abuse would rest on Steam. And an easy fix for this abuse would be to restrict free trials of games to confirmed accounts (those that bought something already, are older than a set amount of time, etc.)

Streams and lets play are useful for some things, but don't exactly offer the same advantages : one can't test the technical aspect of a game on its own PC from a let's play, nor can experience the "feel" of a game from a stream.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nx Machina:
Store-wide feature?

Do you have the data to backup How to significantly increase sales number on Steam and convince the developers, publishers of your suggestion.

They have options already as previously stated: A demo, a free weekend and the recent time limited trial for a game. None of those are mandatory, it is their choice to participate or not as it would to allow their game to be played for thirty minutes for free.

Do you have data showing it wouldn't increase sales ? Basic logic and countless other examples tell us a free trial is a great way to entice people into a sale. There wouldn't be free week ends on Syteam if that also didn't work for games...

As previously stated, it wouldn't remove any option from devs, just offer more functionality to users.

Sidst redigeret af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ; 24. aug. kl. 3:34

#11

Ettanin 24. aug. kl. 3:31

Oprindeligt skrevet af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ:
Oprindeligt skrevet af Ettanin:
The PC is not a console, hence there is no manufacturer that can dictate its architecture, and those that can afford DRM already do. An indie that cannot afford DRM won't be able to afford "save protection" DRM either nor will limit their game to Steam in order to implement such system because Steam cloud save infrastructure is Steam exclusive. Not to mention that Steam Cloud is a synchronization feature and not a DRM feature, hence requires saves to be locally.

You want to know whether a game is good for you? Watch streams and let's plays. Those made demos obsolete.
The (very moderate) burden of protecting saves from abuse would rest on Steam. And an easy fix for this abuse would be to restrict free trials of games to confirmed accounts (those that bought something already, are older than a set amount of time, etc.)

This requires servers. Servers require RECURRING costs. Recurring costs are something an indie, if at all, cannot spare.
Servers mean DRM. Most indies do, in fact, not use DRM.

Steam is not a charity, either. They will not offer servers that do not promise a return on investment.

Sidst redigeret af Ettanin; 24. aug. kl. 3:31

#12

Nx Machina 24. aug. kl. 3:34

Oprindeligt skrevet af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ:
And an easy fix for this abuse would be to restrict free trials of games

Restricts free trials? Sound familiar. Oh! time limited trial for a game.

#13

ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ 24. aug. kl. 3:36

Oprindeligt skrevet af Ettanin:
Oprindeligt skrevet af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ:
The (very moderate) burden of protecting saves from abuse would rest on Steam. And an easy fix for this abuse would be to restrict free trials of games to confirmed accounts (those that bought something already, are older than a set amount of time, etc.)
This requires servers. Servers require RECURRING costs. Recurring costs are something an indie, if at all, cannot spare.
Servers mean DRM. Most indies do, in fact, not use DRM.

Steam is not a charity, either. They will not offer servers that do not promise a return on investment.

The servers for downloading game builds, storing saves on cloud etc. are maintained by Valve as it is already the case, I'm not sure I understand your point ? If this feature increases sales, then it's far from a charity, I thought that was clear in the OP.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nx Machina:
Oprindeligt skrevet af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ:
And an easy fix for this abuse would be to restrict free trials of games

Restricts free trials? Sound familiar. Oh! time limited trial for a game.

I'm not sure I should be answering this since you cut of the sentence to make it look worse. Bad faith move. As stated in the rest of the sentence you cut, the restriction would only apply to newly created accounts, those that are already restricted from basic social and store features... It feels you're missing the point on purpose TBH.

Sidst redigeret af ⓢⓔⓇⓘⓊⓢ_ⓢⓘⓂ; 24. aug. kl. 3:38

#14

Tito Shivan 24. aug. kl. 3:36

Oprindeligt skrevet af Ettanin:
Devs will offer demos if they want to. Valve will not force them.

And that's the root of it.
Steam cannot offer free time for the games in the store without dev/publisher explicit permission.
And for that devs already have the tools to do so.

#15

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