With current generations raised on the lightning-fast processing speeds and crystal clear graphics of Xboxes and PlayStations (and with the tide of virtual reality-based video games fast approaching), it’s easy to forget that just 50 years ago, digital gaming existed in only a few laboratories around the world, the experiments of unknown Ph.D. students or well-known scientists and mathematicians who would change the entertainment industry. Today, video games are an entrenched part of our cultures and routines. According to the Entertainment Software Association, 59% of Americans played video games in 2013. That same year, consumers spent $21.5 billion on video games, the association reported. Gamers today aren’t only packs of teenage boys, either. The average American game player is 31 years old and 48 percent of all American gamers are women, the ESA reports.
We were assigned the platform theme therefore we had to find a fitting technology. Some members of our group had experience with two platforms, Steam and the Playstation Network. With their help we could clearly understand how both these platforms work. Both platform are owned by a third party, Valve for Steam and Sony for the Playstation Network. The aim of these platforms is to join the game buyers and the game developers. To use Steam the players need to download it on their computer and to use the Playstation Network the user needs to have a Playstation console. Both Consoles are therefore serving two separate market, the computer gaming (Steam) and the console gaming (Playstation Network). The use of both platform is free for the players, the platform allows them to join a community of players and to buy games for a cheaper price. The game developers however have to pay a fee to put their games on the platform.
The simple fact that people can now play games online with friends and strangers has been the biggest way online gaming changed the traditional way of gaming. Some gamers now refuse to buy games that don’t have an online multiplayer component. Many of today’s most popular games sell in the millions precisely because of the draw of online multiplayer. Both platforms therefore attract the players willing to play online. Players are forced to use these platform to play online making their use mandatory for them. Therefore this is attracting not only the people wanting to buy games but also the people who wants to play online.
The gaming online platform are disruptive for the video game industry, stores use to make most of the sales for gaming industry. Physical stores keep 70% of the price of the game, Steam only keeps 30% and does not have the cost of a brick and mortar store. Therefore developers have the incentive to put their game on these platform, they can give a lower price to the players while making a higher margin. Once every three month Steam offers the Steam sales where most of game price is cut down, the amount of money spend during this week is huge this summer in one week it sold 37 millions games. No physical store retailers could offer such low price, because of the high cost of distribution, store maintenance and labor costs they have to pay. More value is therefore created for both customer and developers. More than 800 millions games have been bought on Steam, 40% of them have never been played, this shows that players don’t buy games because they want them but because of their price.
To also attract more developers, they also provide services for small developers who do not have the money to pay for the distribution cost in stores. They make it very easy for them to put their games on the market, this enhance the value of the platform as it increases the number of games, Steam has more than 7000 games on its store. Another interesting feature is the fact that it also puts the gamers and the developers in contact the Steam Greenlight allows the players to choose which game they would like to play.
These online platforms represent the future and the present of the video game industry. They already captured most of the players, 75% of online sales on PC are made on Steam. Everyday these platforms grow stronger with more games and more players, they have integrated many functions: Transaction Provider, Community Provider, Service Provider, Content provider. The functionalities offered by the cloud will enhance the possibilities of these platform. The consoles and the computer are limited by their hardware, cloud gaming could offer a great opportunity allowing everyone to play without owning a powerful computer or a playstation.
References:
http://venturebeat.com/2016/06/08/the-u-s-and-global-game-industries-will-grow-a-healthy-amount-y-2020-pwc forecasts/
http://www.onlineeducation.net/videogame_timelinehttp://store.steampowered.com/about/
https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/31/the-history-of-gaming-an-evolving-community/https://www.playstation.com/en-us/network/
Click to access Essential-Facts-2016.pdf
http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/entertainment-media/outlook/data-insights.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/edblack/2013/01/24/music-video-book-game-markets-growing-for-entertainment-industry-study-finds/#57260ffb6e8e
http://www.polygon.com/2016/7/6/12107700/steam-summer-sale-2016-best-selling-games
Team 64
Hi Arthur,
Thank you for the interesting blogpost. As a gamer, I find Steam to be more efficient in distributing the games as well as fostering the tendency of game hoarding. However, I am curious to hear your thoughts on the following matter.
It is true Steam enables indie developers to distribute their games more cost-efficiently and provide a greater reach when compared to Playstation Network. Steam’s Greenlight indeed has enabled developers to publish many great games (Papers, Please, The Stanley Parable, 7 Days to Die to namea few) (Steam Community, 2016). However, the system is not perfect. For example, the developers are giving away free game keys in exchange for votes (Grayson, 2015). This does not support the idea that user votes for a game they believe in but rather in game they get most out of. Also, Steam has currently implemented the refunding system which allows players to refund games (if they have played under two hours). This can hinder the profits of indie developers, especially if their games are short to play (Couture, 2016).
On the other hand, Playstation store is hard to enter due to expensive developer kits. Also, the game has to already satisfy sufficient quality and the developer has to have a proper business (Super, 2015). However, the games are high in quality. This is another spectrum in the game publishing.
How do you think these systems could be improved?
Sources
Couture, J., 2016. Indie devs discuss the pros and cons of Steam refunds. [online] Gamasutra.com. Available at: [Accessed 23 Oct. 2016].
Grayson, N., 2016. Steam Greenlight Is Still Broken. [online] Steamed.kotaku.com. Available at: [Accessed 23 Oct. 2016].
Steam Community, 2016. Steam Workshop :: 100 of The Best Greenlight Games of 2014. [online] Steamcommunity.com. Available at: [Accessed 23 Oct. 2016].
Super, D., 2016. How difficult is it to self-publish a playstation 4 game?. [online] Quora. Available at: [Accessed 23 Oct. 2016].