Steam Exlusively

[PetzI]

Will the only way to buy Overgrowth be through Steam? Because this has some big disadvantages:

1 - Steam will take part of the profit Wolfire makes when selling games through Steam.
2 - We'll be dependant on the Steam platform.
3 - The guys at steam are a bunch of idiots who think $1 = 1€, and make all european countries except for the UK buy their games at that price rate, even countries that don't use the euro. Which brings me to another question: will Overgrowth have the correct pricing for europeans? There was one particular indie game, Savage 2, that had the price correctly converted.

Thanks. I understand if you can't answer these questions so early, since you probably don't have a price set yet, but I started worrying when I saw that you were going to sell it on steam.

[Alchemist]

Hello PetzI
1. You can preorder it here if you have paypal or a credit card.
http://www.wolfire.com/overgrowth
2. Steam wont take any profit of the sells.
3. Steam doesnt set the Prices for games, The developer/Studio decides the price. Dont blame Steam for it.
Most indie games like "Killing Floor" or "Zeno Clash" have fair prices.


note:
If you pre order now you pay around 21.50€ (thats what i paid[30$]).
And you get lots of bonus stuff.

I hope i could help you.

[PetzI]

Hello PetzI
1. You can preorder it here if you have paypal or a credit card.
http://www.wolfire.com/overgrowth
2. Steam wont take any profit of the sells.
3. Steam doesnt set the Prices for games, The developer/Studio decides the price. Dont blame Steam for it.
Most indie games like "Killing Floor" or "Zeno Clash" have fair prices.


note:
If you pre order now you pay around 21.50€ (thats what i paid[30$]).
And you get lots of bonus stuff.

I hope i could help you.

1. I don't want to preorder, but I want to know if I can still buy it directly from Wolfire after it's released.

2. Yes it will. To have your game sold on steam, you need to sign a contract, and it says that part of theprofit goes to steam. I'm not presuming this, I've had confirmation from another indie studio (1st page of this thread): http://forums.savage2.com/showthread.php?t=14544

3. What happens is, while Americans pay, for example, $40 for a game, Europeans will pay 40€. 40€ = 57$. So the correct pricing would be 27€. I'm not sure if this is still true for all games (like you said, some indie games have the correct conversion rate) but I'm mad at steam for it, so I don't want to keep giving them my money. They decided to rip off every single european costumer. How can I "note blame steam for it"? Are you saying nearly all the game companies decided to convert 1$ to 1€?

Yes, you paid that because you bought it from Wolfire directly. I want to buy it from them so I can be sure I'm paying the right price and that all the money goes where it's due, and not to those steaming bastard.

[TheBigCheese]

Unfortunately, it is very likely that it will be steam exclusive (or also with other similar programs). I'm no dev, but the amount of money that Steam would take would be definitely worth it compared to having to hire a credit company to track and sell the copies. For the actual game, using keys like Lugaru does wouldn't be anywhere secure enough to stop pirating. Steam has it all built in. Only the person who bought the game can play it, and there's no need to fuss with anything else.

Of course, I'm not sure about the state of Steam on Mac and Linux, so there's always the chance that a different pay method would arise.

2. Yes it will. To have your game sold on steam, you need to sign a contract, and it says that part of theprofit goes to steam. I'm not presuming this, I've had confirmation from another indie studio (1st page of this thread): http://forums.savage2.com/showthread.php?t=14544

They may take some, but I honestly doubt it's more than 3% or so. Which isn't too much in the grand scheme of things.

3. What happens is, while Americans pay, for example, $40 for a game, Europeans will pay 40€. 40€ = 57$. So the correct pricing would be 27€. I'm not sure if this is still true for all games (like you said, some indie games have the correct conversion rate) but I'm mad at steam for it, so I don't want to keep giving them my money. They decided to rip off every single european costumer. How can I "note blame steam for it"? Are you saying nearly all the game companies decided to convert 1$ to 1€?

Again, Steam isn't to blame. The very fact that any games have correct pricing means that the developer chooses the prices. It's likely that most producers/developers that are US-Centric don't really think much about the European market, and thus they just price them the same. If it was Steam's fault every game would be more expensive.

Yes, you paid that because you bought it from Wolfire directly. I want to buy it from them so I can be sure I'm paying the right price and that all the money goes where it's due, and not to those steaming bastard.

I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm sure whichever way you buy, Wolfire will make enough profit on the copy.

[Count Roland]

it's not going to be steam exclusive, you'll still be able to buy directly from wolfire and in fact they'd prefer it because steam does take a certain amount of the price for each sale of the game. they'll back me up on it if you want but really there's no reason for them to have to.

[Hal1989]

It's not going to be steam exclusive. In fact, the devs were working with other game networks similar to steam to make it more available and it's going to be available on wolfire's website too.

1. I don't want to preorder, but I want to know if I can still buy it directly from Wolfire after it's released.

If you are able to preorder directly on Wolfire, it's pretty much likely you will be able to buy it directly from Wolfire. If it was Steam exclusive, I guess the preorder would be on steam instead on Wolfire.

Besides, how it could be steam exclusive if the game is going to be also available on Mac and Linux?

[BunnyWithStick]

Before I Boot Camp'd Windows onto my MacBook I'd agree with "Steaming Bastards", but now that I have TF2 and Gmod on my machine, I actually really like Valve.

I did preorder Overgrowth through Wolfire, of course.

[Jeff]

As others have said, Overgrowth will not by exclusive to Steam. Steam is simply one of many ways to buy OG. The best way is always directly through us at wolfire.com, in terms of supporting us.

However, there's a lot of misinformation in this thread, so let me clarify.

Steam wont take any profit of the sells.

This is incorrect. Steam does in fact take a significant portion of the profit. We are not allowed to say how much they take.

Steam doesnt set the Prices for games, The developer/Studio decides the price. Dont blame Steam for it.

In most cases, this is true. However, I have heard that Valve sometimes insists on a specific Steam price, as they have a lot more experience with marketing on their platform than indie developers. As for international prices, Steam controls this per the famous $1 = 1€ fiasco.

Unfortunately, it is very likely that it will be steam exclusive (or also with other similar programs). I'm no dev, but the amount of money that Steam would take would be definitely worth it compared to having to hire a credit company to track and sell the copies. For the actual game, using keys like Lugaru does wouldn't be anywhere secure enough to stop pirating. Steam has it all built in. Only the person who bought the game can play it, and there's no need to fuss with anything else.

Well, we've already built our own order processing system and we didn't need to hire anyone. We will be using something very similar to the preorder system for the actual game as well. That is, accepting credit cards, bank accounts, paypal, amazon payments, google checkout, and trialpay. I think that might be more comprehensive than Steam.

Regarding DRM; piracy is inevitable on PCs, I don't think being Steam exclusive would affect our piracy numbers much.

Valve would have to pay us a lot of money if we were going to be Steam exclusive.

[Valve] may take some, but I honestly doubt it's more than 3% or so. Which isn't too much in the grand scheme of things.

Whaaaaaaaaaa. I am so jealous of Valve's pristine reputation right now. I cannot tell you how much they take, but it makes me sad to think about all of the people who will be buying OG through Steam, thinking they are giving us 97% of the revenue.

[Endoperez]

3% is a really small number. I'm not even sure if that would cover the costs of having thousands of people downloading new games daily.

[Ragdollmaster]

David just said they DON'T take 3%. The rates for Steam are pretty mind-blowing (oho they are secret rates but be assured they are not 3%, nor 4%, or even 10%) if you consider that they're just a middleman used to carry over games. But in the end, the extra money earned by the added publicity is more than worth it, it's a smart marketing strategy

[Zaphon]

Jeff just said they DON'T take 3%

I'm sure he understood that, he was pointing out that it seems very unlikely that the percentage is as low as 3, since that doesn't pay off. They are a company. Hosting and publishing stuff for free doesn't really make sense.
I like Steam (and I ♥ Valve), but the 1$ = 1€ ratio sucks.
Prices used to be great (The Orange Box was a steal!), now they're uh, not so much.
Of course, indie games are still fairly cheap. (And when there's a sale the prices are good)

Anyway, PetzI, if you plan on buying Overgrowth, why not preorder it now?
All the money goes to the developer. And it's pretty cheap. And it's gonna be awesome!
Word.

[PetzI]

Thanks a lot. I really prefer to buy directly from Wolfire. It annoyed me a lot that I couldn't do the same, for example, with Zeno Clash.

Don't get me wrong, I did adore Valve BEFORE they did that whole $1 = 1€ business and the other issue that makes me doupt them is the L4D2 business. But I'll stop here before this goes too off-topic.

Thanks again. I'm considering pre-ordering, but I think I'm gonna wait to see a bit more than a WIP engine before I show you the innards of my wallet. I'm a bit afraid it will spoil the story and the surprises to be messing around with the game's files during the beta. Of course not at this point, but when they start making the "game" part (rather than the engine). But don't worry, I'm going to buy it eventually.

[Uberbeard]

A bit late in the game, but I have a few points to make here.

1. Did a little digging and there seems to be a consensus that Steam's profit cut is around 35 - 50% but, obviously, I can't possibly verify that without some kind of insider admission.

2. Prices for games over here in the UK and Europe are usually about a third higher than over in America anyway, and although Valve have occasionally done a 1 for 1 exchange rate on their pricing the points made were that they are obligated (or, kinda threatened) to price match with the current retail market. The suggestion being that retailers are highly paranoid about digital distribution killing their industry, and have threatened to stop buying as many games (and theoretically killing a lot of developers profits) if digital distribution got too cheap.
Next Gen Podcasts has a good chat about that, but I can't remember what episode it was. Steam was mentioned on there, too.

3. Steam is kind of cool but OG is not exclusive, so why keep the grumble? Let's all be thankful Valve don't see the potential in OG as much as we do.

4. Nom nom nom, nom nom, nom nom nom!

[Eagle0600]

Nom nom nom, indeed. Good post.

[Mike_Cuzins]

1. Did a little digging and there seems to be a consensus that Steam's profit cut is around 35 - 50% but, obviously, I can't possibly verify that without some kind of insider admission.

that's massive! ohwell, you make some very clear points.
also, i to happen to know that your not getting ripped off in europe because they cant be bothered doing the right currency conversion. it is simply because games in europe cost more. you should ask 'the man' why.

a friend of mine recently went to taiwan, you can get the same retail copies of games there (dont say pirated cos i had them checked out) for like 10 bucks australian. thats 7/8 bucks american.

thats not because they forgot to change dollars to yen or whatever they use up there.

ps. games are more expensive in australia too.