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[IbizaPocholo]

Devolver Boss Defends Steam Amid Epic Store And Exclusivity Controversy

The publisher of Hotline Miami calls for a "reset" of the conversation about Steam and Epic.

www.gamespot.com

One of the founders of boutique game publisher Devolver Digital (Hotline Miami, Genital Jousting, Fall Guys) has spoken up to defend Steam and call for a "reset" of the wider conversation that can at times paint Steam as the bad guy.

"I feel like this conversation needs to be reset," Graeme Struthers told GameSpot at PAX Aus. "The conversation never really took place properly in my opinion."

"Every month we were getting paid, and you were being paid accurately," he said. "We've all got our horror stories about doing audits on our publishers and finding huge discrepancies about what was being reported in sales. Here's Steam--every month, accurate, straightforward, and transparent."

Regarding the revenue share model, Struthers pointed out that Steam's 30 percent cut was a more generous offering than others at the time. The payment scheme that Steam offered allowed publishers to offer more favorable terms to developers, Struthers said.

"To come out of a model [before Steam] where we were, as a games publisher, maybe making 25 percent, and that's if you were successful. To be in a 70/30 relationship, it was transformative in every sense," he said. "And that led to realignment with relationships with developers. If there is more money and it's more frequent, you can have better terms with developers."

"Competition is going to come along at some point. Epic have taken a view that their way of bringing content to their platform is far more generous revenue share and obviously they've been pushing exclusives--that's great," he explained. "And it's giving developers and publishers a choice. You can't compare the two things however as like for like. Steam has invested I don't know how many hundreds of millions of dollars in their platform; Epic have yet to do that. I'm not saying they won't, and hopefully they will. In terms of the features and in terms of the toolsets for developers, there's a ways to go. But competition is good."

Finally, Struthers said all the drama and controversy over Epic paying for exclusives "doesn't really hold up" because exclusivity has been a part of gaming since the beginning.

"The rise about developers and publishers going to Epic and exclusivity, it doesn't really hold up," he said. "I play games on PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, and Devolver--we've done console exclusives with Sony, with Microsoft--I think it's good, but I think we have to respect Steam for what they've done. Without them, none of this would have been a conversation in the first place."

Thanks mods for the title change

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Devolver Is Worried By PS Plus, Xbox Game Pass, And Apple Arcade - Here's Why

Subscription services make cheap games more accessible than ever, but Devolver co-founder Graeme Struthers is worried about what they represent.

www.gamespot.com

Co-founder Graeme Struthers told GameSpot that the increasing popularity of subscription services is a worry because it could lead to a situation where games get buried. The thinking is that subscription packages are so stuffed with games that subscribers might have difficulty finding something to play (anyone who has used Netflix is aware of this phenomenon).

"The world of subscription is a worry. And we're active in these areas, so we can't stand on the sidelines and just complain about these things. Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, and Apple Arcade, they are things we are participating in," he explained. "You do wonder if it's going to lead to a situation where there is so much content that you kind of fall off the edge. That's the one that keeps us up at night. That and Donald Trump, and Boris Johnson."

 

[IbizaPocholo]

"If we're going to be drug dealers, let's not literally mine for addicts"

As questions over the addictive properties of video games continue to swirl, Devolver Digital co-founder Mike Wilson ha…

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[a multicultural team of v]

The games industry can't even give an interview about sales figures without bringing up Trump out of nowhere

 

[johntown]

Finally, Struthers said all the drama and controversy over Epic paying for exclusives "doesn't really hold up" because exclusivity has been a part of gaming since the beginning.

"The rise about developers and publishers going to Epic and exclusivity, it doesn't really hold up," he said. "I play games on PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, and Devolver--we've done console exclusives with Sony, with Microsoft--I think it's good, but I think we have to respect Steam for what they've done. Without them, none of this would have been a conversation in the first place."

It actually does hold up. Playstation and Xbox fully pay for their exclusives and typically self publish. They invest the money and resources into their games so of course they are exclusive. If Epic funded and self published Metro Exodus and Borderlands 3 then it would be the same. You don't here anyone complaining that Fortnite is not on Steam.

 

[Kharnivore2099]

It actually does hold up. Playstation and Xbox fully pay for their exclusives and typically self publish. They invest the money and resources into their games so of course they are exclusive. If Epic funded and self published Metro Exodus and Borderlands 3 then it would be the same. You don't here anyone complaining that Fortnite is not on Steam.

That's exactly it. No one has a problem with publishers funding development for specific platforms, it's when companies just outright buy the exclusivity that irks people. At that point, you are actively limiting one's choices and limiting accessibility. Yet people still can't seem to fathom why consumers are so annoyed at the practice.

 

[Shifty]

Nice to see a publishing house come out and talk straight about attempting to sell games on PC prior to the rise of Steam and standardization of the platform.

It's almost as if the entirely reasonable folks shouting about how greedy they are never stopped to do any research, instead choosing to buy into Uncle Tim's Patented Percentage Politic at face value.

It actually does hold up. Playstation and Xbox fully pay for their exclusives and typically self publish. They invest the money and resources into their games so of course they are exclusive. If Epic funded and self published Metro Exodus and Borderlands 3 then it would be the same. You don't here anyone complaining that Fortnite is not on Steam.

Precisely this.

I think Struthers could have better elaborated his point there, he says it doesn't add up, but doesn't actually present reasoning or nail down any facts.