Definitely not the best, but still worth a mention is “Stormworks: Build and rescue”. Basically a Lego like “build a ship/plane and do missions on the oceans” game - missions nowadays are also including far more than rescue.
Probably will get some groans but World of Warships is actually modeled very nicely. And yeah its a free to play monetized game, but it is miles ahead of war thunder in terms of actually having fun and playing the game at high FPS and great quality even with a potato computer.
The engine has some cool tricks that really makes it shine with water spraying and sloshing onto your vessel.
Dave the Diver has a very good early game, but eventually the grind just became needlessly tedious in my opinion. I liked going down and getting the fish etc. but the grind in mid to late game is just very time-skip heavy
I agree with you however I have one barrier to entry that others haven’t elaborated on.
Firstly, I’ll say how they could overcome some of the other challenges mentioned.
Steam would just have to add the ability for developers to upload android builds of games alongside the windows, Linux, Mac builds. All of a sudden, users would have huge, existing libraries of games. Most games built with Unity can target Android. I suspect a lot of indie developers would happily add the build.
Leaks have implied they were working on an arm emulator/translation layer but I assume this had to do with VR prototyping. Possibly the same effect as above but so many more configurations to target, they couldn’t handle it the way they do with steam deck.
Require/recommend to users to use a controller on Android
If either or both of those first 2 points succeed, Valve doesn’t need to do much more to ensure the utility of Steam games on Android. PC gamers are considered among the most willing and able to jump through hoops for a result. Going to a website to download the steam store plus a little warning on Android wouldn’t stop a reasonable percentage of them. It wouldn’t stop me.
It’s almost 0 risk to them, right? Right? I don’t think so.
Here’s the big barrier I mentioned. I assume they have a not-insignificant number of sales through the the android app. If they start allowing users to install android games, Google is going to stop them from having purchases in their play store app. And while I said that users would install their app from a website, what percentage of users would do it? How many fewer PC game sales would they make (from the Play Store app) in order to let their current users play games on Android?
Additionally, what would Steam do if they started getting android-only games being submitted. Or mobile-quality games dominating their store? Does this dilute Steam’s identity?
Additionally, it might be something they’ve discussed but they would have rather focused on steam deck-type gaming for mobile. Or perhaps an ARM-based steam OS+steamdeck approach would make more sense for them and then the difficulty/cost (and opportunity cost) increases do instead they simply don’t pursue it.
The cross-buy thing is something that Gog or Epic could do but they don’t have nearly the same “customer profile” (size, behaviour etc) so it isn’t as likely to have the same impact.
Regardless, in my view you’ve asked a great question and it’s a solid idea.
They would have to distribute it independently. Google would have no say in the matter.
That’s exactly my point. The current app lets you buy PC games despite being distributed through the store. If you can buy Android games on it, well, I doubt Google will ignore it. And even if Google was okay with it, there’s no way to easily communicate to users who start using the app there that they need to download another app from a website.
I’m not saying it’s a bad idea. I’m just saying I think there are reasons they haven’t done it (yet?). I think they certainly must have considered it. I’ve certainly been wondering about it for a long while too.
why not both?
Sure. I would assume they would do it the same way as steam deck, where that’s the priority. The wide variety of phone specs on the market might have an impact on how they could support it etc.
That’s exactly my point. The current app lets you buy PC games despite being distributed through the store.
And they could continue doing so while also distributing a separate app independently that allows you to buy Android games.
Notice if you try to buy a movie from Amazon on Google TV they redirect you to the website. They could do the same or redirect you to the non-Google version.
I’m just saying I think there are reasons they haven’t done it (yet?)
I agree, I just find it very curious what those reasons are.
I don’t think they would get away with selling games in the app if games were playable on Android (demonstrating Android compatibility). I think they would have to do what Amazon kindle does and tell you to go buy your game somewhere else.
Now that I’m thinking about it they’d probably have to de-list those cross-platform games from the Google app or make them unavailable, which would probably lead to a lot of confusion.
I hella want to mod KCD2 to have magic spells and dragons. Though I do find it funny to say “It’s a great RPG based in reality. You get to do awesome quests like digging a ditch or herding sheep!”
Valves strategy of not doing anything new in the last decade while every other publisber shoots themselves in the foot seems to be working pretty well for them.
I don’t know, it’s only been around for a few months.
Valves strategy of not doing anything new in the last decade
That’s not their strategy. I mean, among other things you may have heard of this thing called the Steam Deck? Or Family Sharing? SteamOS? Shit there’s a new video every week about Steam Client updates and improvements.
I think it ultimately comes down to having to support another platform ads more work and risk then its worth.
For example theyd have to convince people to essentially break androids walled garden which means valve has to make sure everything they offer for android isnt malicous. Then there is the fact that phones are different specs, more testing, potential customer support … Its a whole can of worms, but valve would gain little. There arent many people who want steam on their phones but dont already have it on pc.
Vavle is good at what they do, they have basically cornered the PC and portable PC markets already, i think not mucking around in an already monopolistic mobile market is a pretty wise business decision on their part overall.
I didn’t realize that but it doesn’t change the fact that:
The PC draws way more power than is needed
The PC must be powered on (mine draws ~40 watts at idle)
A monitor has to be plugged in and turned on.
The aspect ratio on the devices have to match or you’ll get letterboxing.
If your main display is 4k it will run the game at 4k even if you’re playing on a 720p display so you have to go in and change the graphical settings every time you switch devices.
In my limited experience it literally just doesn’t even work at all.
Even if you’re running over the web you’re limited to the strength of your data connection.
It just doesn’t work like it should, in my opinion. Hopefully they can fix this in the future with Steam Machines.
What would you suggest they sell on their Android store that users would be so encouraged to install a new store and then what they want?
Steam already has a store on Android, you just can’t play games there because most games on steam either already exist on the native google play store, or aren’t compatible with mobile architectures like Arm64. Most mobiles unlike a arm laptop, have no x86/amd64 emulator which is what those games are compiled as by their developers.
What would you suggest they sell on their Android store that users would be so encouraged to install a new store and then what they want?
…games?
Steam already has a store on Android
Uhhhh they have an Android app which you can use to buy and manage PC games. That’s not what I’m talking about.
because most games on steam either already exist on the native google play store
…no? Even if they did you’d have to buy 2 licenses instead of 1. As I mentioned in the OP.
Most mobiles unlike a arm laptop, have no x86/amd64 emulator
I’m not suggesting emulation or translation (although that would be great as well), I’m suggesting an app store for selling and installing native Android games.
I’m trying to figure out the gap in the market you’re trying to fill other than “for steam fan boys it would allow us fans of steam games that already exist in a native place, in a non native place!”
Correct me what is going into it that isn’t already somewhere, and who that appeals to?
Well there is that but there’s also the example I gave in the OP where devs could potentially extend their existing games into a new market, increasing their potential audience. A single license would gain a new platform with potential sales opportunities.
I really need to get into the habit of just linking all my previous ones at the end of each of these. I just worry it’ll look ‘messy’ or something!
I guess its easier to just follow my username then filter by posts? Or…something. Thanks for asking though, that is a confidence boost to see it wanted!!! <3
I’m not sure how this works, but I checked your posting history and it didn’t show up there, either. I guess the great weakness of the fediverse is if the links are interrupted. Perhaps it was due to instance maintenance or something.
Thank you for letting me know, from the next post I share I’ll start including links to all the previous installments I’ve made, to make it easier for people to navigate to them. What a strange thing to not be able to find them, I’m sorry!
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