Oh so a free market where companies can decide to sign exclusivity contracts isn’t ok but a free market where everything is released on the platform that you like is ok.
Sufficient consumer protection would see Valve being broken apart as a preventive measures because they’re in a position where they can sway the market any way they want and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Funny how you guys never talk about their monopolistic position in the market, right?
Try to come up with something a bit more original. You don’t give a crap about exclusives as long as they’re on the platform you like, it’s pure hypocrisy.
That’s the thing though, you can make an excellent game and never recoup your cost just because you didn’t get the luck of the draw.
Do you know how many games released on Steam this year? 18k. How many did you hear about? How many were successful? How many were good but didn’t get the coverage they needed? Hell, sometimes you have indie games that will suddenly become successful years down the road. It’s. Just. Gambling.
Even for a well established company, sometimes one in the hand is worth two in the bush.
We see big studios that made successful games going bankrupt every year, don’t you think a studio like that would have loved to have an income guarantee so they could finish their next project instead of closing their doors?
The analogy I used makes more sense with indie games because I’m talking about having a job (small scale), but the same logic applies to companies.
A company like Lockheed Martin will do R&D to come up with new engines and hope to recoup their cost by selling the technology later on, they’ll also sign governmental contracts with guaranteed payments as the project moves forward. You need a mix of both.
Bullshit. The only way it ruins PC gaming is by forcing you to use a launcher that isn’t Steam, you will never complain about all the games that only release on Steam.
18k games released on Steam this year, how many did you hear about and how many were actually successful?
There’s tons of good games that just won’t sell enough for the devs to recoup their cost just because no streamer decided to play them. Go read on indie devs communities what the experience is like when releasing a game you put your heart and soul into only to get no coverage and no sales.
I’m talking about smaller studios but even for big studios, guaranteed income instead of gambling can be more interesting for certain projects.
The logic is still the same.
It’s like selling your product at Costco instead of Walmart. Costco will rent you the space to sell it for a certain amount of time and you are gambling on the fact that you’ll make more revenue than the rental cost you, Walmart buys your product and sells it for more. Hell, Walmart even pays for exclusive products as well so the example truly fits. It doesn’t prevent companies from selling other products at Costco, but it gives them a guaranteed income from one source.