If you own more than 10 games on Steam, ‘you don’t matter’ to the $99.3B gaming industry

cageymaru

Fully [H]
Joined
Apr 10, 2003
Messages
22,062
If you own more than 10 games on Steam, ‘you don’t matter’ to the $99.3B gaming industry.
If you own more than 10 games on Steam, ‘you don’t matter’ to the $99.3B gaming industry

So how does it feel to no longer matter? Irrelevant? No longer catered to? Maybe Konami is right after all to can Kojima for mobile gaming.

“We used to think that Formula 1 were the core gamers and the core of driving, and everyone else was casual,” he said. “But it’s important now that car makers think of all driving as a core experience.”

Discuss.
 
Out of the millions of Steam users, I'd bet less than 1% of them have less than 10 games.
 
I have 31 and almost NEVER buy games. I bought a few things on holidays. $5 here, $8 there... couple of free to play. looks like most of them were bundled with video cards.
 
I have absolutely no idea what the hell Danc is talking about to even trying to get across, the beginning of the article directly contradicts his rounding out statement. The fact that he called some of the audience "you don't matter" and then towards the end "I dislike these giant dichotomies... There’s so many different groups playing games right now. Any time you split up the group to two — into us and them — you’re doing a huge disservice to them and yourself." So you are saying splitting the player base into "Do matter" and "don't matter" somehow doesn't strike him as the biggest dichotomy of his speech?

He has completely failed to tell the audience the definition of the word "matter". In essence, I do not know what to feel about his speech, as I have no clue what kind of message he is trying to push, assuming he is pushing one. Either worst speech of the year trying to say a point but utterly failing, or completely succeeding in saying nothing of importance in the speech and yet provide a large amount of publicity in the ensuing 'interpretation'.

I feel it's best to ignore that article completely.
 
When the article quotes:
most “core” people who make up those audiences aren’t worth chasing after for most studios building games
you have to bear in mind that "most studios building games" includes the countless small nobodies making worthless match-three trash for the itunes store. I'm sure people with more than 10 games on Steam matter to Valve.

The sort of casual games developers that don't care about me, don't matter to me.
 
When the article quotes:

you have to bear in mind that "most studios building games" includes the countless small nobodies making worthless match-three trash for the itunes store. I'm sure people with more than 10 games on Steam matter to Valve.

The sort of casual games developers that don't care about me, don't matter to me.
That's the one thing I do not understand.

Is the message intended for game developers, or for actual gamers. The conference is GDC, yet Danc asks the audience for the number people with steam games (which, if the speech was directly solely at GD's, should be completely irrelevant).

The words "Most studio building games" would have drastically different meanings depending on which demographic you are talking to. For gamers, that usually means the big companies, even if they are relatively tiny in number.
 
during a panel at the Game Developers Conference today, several mobile developers argued that this distinction is tribalistic and incorrect

Since when do mobile developers who make P2W games have opinions that matter?

Spryfox's arguably biggest game thus far is Triple Town, a match 3 game released for free, with a paid version (that I bought for $1.99) which no longer even exists because they killed the mobile app after turning it into a free Facebook game.

Seriously, who the fuck cares what this guy says. I've spent more on a whim on indie bundles than I paid for his game. For all the nonsense the last 5+ years about how mobile games were the future and would revolutionize gaming and kill the notion and idea of anything BUT mobile gaming....give me a break. People don't buy mobile games. Devs may make money off ads with their freemium stuff, but freemium mobile app games make peanuts compared to AAA game industry (even though that in of itself is largely a joke nowadays).

Wake me up when a single mobile game is more useful than a time waster while taking a shit, because that's all they're good for.
 
He is upset that people don't care about his crappy shovelware titles. Sure a lot of people will buy them, but it is like toothpaste. People don't get enthusiastic over trivial stuff. You're comparing something you do to kill time on the bus to something people do for a hobby.
 
I am pretty sure I don't matter since I spent a bucket load to build the billion dollar industry.
 
Since anyone with at least 10 steam games have some sense of what a good game is. He can't sell his crap to people who can tell it's crap by looking at it.

IF the conclusion was if you have more than 10 steam games, then you don't matter to the casual gaming industry, that would be spot-on. And the casual gameing industry doesn't matter to any non-casual gamer either. So let's stop pretending that we have anything in common and move along.
 
That sounds like a bad choice of words. Every market wants to get new people involved, to sell their products to people who weren't buying them before. So arguably, people who already own that many Steam games aren't a new market. They're focusing on hooking new people who didn't bother gaming before, so they don't matter in the sense of increasing profits because they're already taken for granted as a source of revenue. But on the other hand, the people who are more passionate about gaming will pay more for a game.

It seems like a gross oversimplification. It's like saying that people who buy expensive fountain pens don't matter to BiC or Pentel, and so there's no market for them. But it ignores the possibility of different revenue models. One developer might be relying on selling a million copies of a $5 game, while another might be relying on selling 100,000 copies of a $50 game. Both companies would make about $5,000,000. But you could easily say that those 100,000 people are only 10% of the market and try to make them seem irrelevant. There's no logistical problem with targeting a small market segment as long as you can command a reasonable premium from that segment.
 
Steam can suck it when is it the last time the Video Game Industry cared about anyone except profits?
 
I have ~300 games in Steam. I must REALLY REALLY REALLY not matter. :bigtears: My day is entirely ruined now. I don't even know what I'm going to do with myself. I guess I could go play some of my games.
 
Since anyone with at least 10 steam games have some sense of what a good game is. He can't sell his crap to people who can tell it's crap by looking at it.

IF the conclusion was if you have more than 10 steam games, then you don't matter to the casual gaming industry, that would be spot-on. And the casual gameing industry doesn't matter to any non-casual gamer either. So let's stop pretending that we have anything in common and move along.

Perfect response.

And just to add a little spite to it :D Casual game developers should have their own conference.
 
Since anyone with at least 10 steam games have some sense of what a good game is. He can't sell his crap to people who can tell it's crap by looking at it.

IF the conclusion was if you have more than 10 steam games, then you don't matter to the casual gaming industry, that would be spot-on. And the casual gameing industry doesn't matter to any non-casual gamer either. So let's stop pretending that we have anything in common and move along.

They truthfully are different markets. Customers may overlap, but they are different markets. Customers buy each product for different reasons. I'm not sure why some people find this so hard to understand.
 
Oh god, this nonsense again about how women who play Candy Crush and Farmville on their phones are also "gamers"...
 
I can see people getting butthurt if they only read the title and first paragraph, but the rest of the conversation is right on point. Trying to separate people into "Core" or "Casual" gamers because of the medium they play on absolutely ridiculous.
 
I think the appropriate message from all that is that gaming is a booming industry, regardless of the platform of choice. The high title owners on Steam (or other services) do matter in several senses:

  • We are more likely to be early adopters and buy AAA launch titles. Since the big AAA titles can generate hundreds of millions to a billion+ dollars within months, that is still a desirable market.
  • We buy hardware. Core gamers with large libraries are more likely to buy gaming peripherals (big monitors, flight sticks, wheels, gaming mice, gaming keyboards, etc). The gaming peripheral market is producing billions in revenue and profit.
  • We buy software. Core gamers are more likely to buy hardware utilities to maintain our systems and optimize them.
  • We kickstart. For the developers attempting to move away from the traditional publisher funding models, kickstarter is providing opportunities. You are much more likely to get a core gamer to buy a kickstarter tier and we are more likely to buy the higher deliverable tiers (beta access, soundtrack, etc).
  • We are loyal gaming consumers. Casual gamers come and go and lose interest (there are just a lot of them so they can cycle in and out of games). Core gamers play for years/decades and buy titles for that entire period (you don't get 300+ Steam libraries at one Steam sale usually).
  • We provide crossover potential. Bethesda did well with their Fallout Shelter app partly because of loyal Fallout Players killing time while we waited for FO4. The PIPBoy app was a successful addition to the franchise and could provide potential 2nd screen add on opportunities down the road.
Game companies can certainly succeed focusing on mobile casual gamers, but the high revenue and high profit opportunities are rare. The Core gamers on both console and PC still provide the best opportunities for Franchise revenue streams and licensing streams (comics, soundtracks, shows, movies, etc). There are only a few mobile Juggernauts (Angry Birds, Candy Crush, etc) but there are many console and PC games that generate billion+ revenues through all the revenue options (WoW, DoTA, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Battlefield, Assassin's Creed, GTA, etc).
 
I can see people getting butthurt if they only read the title and first paragraph, but the rest of the conversation is right on point. Trying to separate people into "Core" or "Casual" gamers because of the medium they play on absolutely ridiculous.

There is actually a pretty big distinction between these types of gamers. (though there is overlap) There is nothing at all wrong with referring to like-minded individuals as a group. I'd rather be classified as a core gamer, and be marketed to appropriately than have to wade through thousands of crappy mobile games. There is another equally important group, that thinks those crappy (in my mind) mobile games are great, and they probably don't want to have to wade through what I like either. There is no reason a distinction can't be made. People are different. They have different tastes, habits, responses to products and marketing. We do not have to be homogenous.
 
Back
Top