discussion The Steam business model?

[Freyr]

Can someone explain the business model that Steam offers for adult VN devs?

I don't use Steam myself but if I go there and look around, I see mainly finished AAA games which you can buy, often at a discount.

Not unfinished games from unknown indie devs.

Also, I can understand the Patreon / Subscribestar model, because you are paying devs a monthly fee in order for them to be able to continue development.
But if you pay them a one-time fee for an unfinished product, aren't you actually removing the incentive for them to finish the game?

 

[Anon1990]

I guess at steam you got a bigger audience of potential buyers for the game. The mass "one-time"-selling overweight monthly fee via Patreon / Subscribestar.

 

[Republican Bear]

Basically a bigger audience to sell your game and a way to promote it better.

Though it comes with both positives and negatives. Especially when you have to censor certain things.

Also Steam takes a decent cut of every sale as well.

Steam takes a 30% cut from the revenue generated by game sales on its platform. This means that out of every dollar earned by

developers on their games, Steam keeps 30 cents, while the remaining 70 cents goes directly to the developers' pockets.

 

[SegmentCoalescing]

There's plenty of unfinished early access games on Steam.
A bonus on Steam is that you can sell items/skins/trading cards for Steam money which can be used to pay for an AVN or whatever else. So you can pay for something without actually putting in your own money.

It makes sense to put your AVN on there if you're a dev, a one time payment is better than none.

 

[coxor777lc]

Steam works best for devs after they've used the Patreon model to complete or substantially complete a game. Version .001 of a game would be panned by the Steam community if released there. Steam is available in more places, I believe. I use it for AVN's because I can use a prepaid Steam gift card and no one gets my IRL name. Patreon simply can't do that.

 

[fd13333]

steam even doent like too much games with nudity and can ask devs to turn 18+ content off (like everlasting summer) maybe because it free game idk

 

[Freyr]

Steam works best for devs after they've used the Patreon model to complete or substantially complete a game. Version .001 of a game would be panned by the Steam community if released there. Steam is available in more places, I believe. I use it for AVN's because I can use a prepaid Steam gift card and no one gets my IRL name. Patreon simply can't do that.

You mean that you can buy a Steam gift card with cash in a store?

That is actually a really good point!

 

[coxor777lc]

You mean that you can buy a Steam gift card with cash in a store?

That is actually a really good point!

In the US of A at least, yes you can. You do need to supply Steam with an email address and a physical address. I believe the physical address is exclusively about paying local taxes, etc.

This caused me to wonder if the US states that are (insanely) requiring ID to buy pornography online are causing Steam to require ID's in some way. I don't know. But I am confident that none of my brothers and sisters on this fine website would ever, ever lie to a webpage on the internet about what state they live in. Or tell their friends about this.

Right?

 

[Freyr]

But I am confident that none of my brothers and sisters on this fine website would ever, ever lie to a webpage on the internet about what state they live in..

I live in Afghanistan, so I have nothing to worry about!