News Valve GDC talk - new library design, API changes and more.

[Mor]

Yesterday it took place the Valve talk at the annual GDC with Tom Giardino, Alden Kroll and Ricky Uy, all three announced really interesting stuff for both players but also developers.

Let's take a look at the live blog in order:

First of all, Steam Link Anywhere, Stream your game wherever you are.

"Steam link anywhere beta. Our goal is overnight your game can be available anywhere with less work for you."

The first feature announced was Events, a new page where players can opt-in to receive regular updates via mails about the games the own, design of this new page was shown.

"Steam is customers ability to subscribe to events so they can opt in to receive emails. This is huge. Email drives engagement better than any other form of messaging."

Design Events pictures inside

Event window design

Mail template for the reminders

Next new library design was shown and explained, new features coming to customize your content.

"Players can filter their library and save that filter as a "collection" so they can create custom groupings. "

"Steam wants to allow creators to define when and where your game appears within the Steam Store. Can also see better stats about visibility. Such as how many players saw my game because they saw their friend playing it. This allows you to figure out how to strategize "

Design Library pictures inside

General view of the new Library design.

Tag System

Individual game page on library

Tom also confirmed that they already have a 5-year plan Road-map to keep improving the service and the community. They also released a past-to-present Road-map with all the changes and features that have been appearing on the platform over time.

After showing the big news the team answered some developer requests and concerns they have received over the time such as notify and engage with my existing customers, connecting with potential new ones or the steam review bomb debacle, let's take a look.

"Dev request: "When I release my next game how do I notify my existing fans?"
Answer: Developer Homepages. Build your audience over time. "

"Dev request "How do I show potential players what it's like to play my game?"
Answer: Store page broadcasting. So you can host a live stream on the store page."

"Dev request "Impact of off-topic review bombs"
Answer: "we will automatically hide review bombs. So if we see a surge of comments we will review them. We have the ability to see if there is a review surge, so we will contact the developer and ask them if they are ok. There will also be a "help" button that devs can push and it will alert valve moderators to check it out"

Next section was about the API changes and Steamworks SDK, features, improvements and new services detailed.

"API improvements: - View player download speeds around the world.

"API improvements to operating an online game. Valve network. "

"Valve network is built on the same content delivery network but online game packets are prioritized so that online games will run faster. You just need to integrate the steam API into your game code."

"Steam network provides protection from DDOS attacks. If there is an attack, they will re-route traffic. To implement this you use Steamworks SDK. "

And now some business data that was given to the audience in order to give more perspective of how their potential customers use the service.

"Valve is traveling around the world to see what customers need around the world. Emerging markets are defined as one with a growing economy (India) or a potential to grow a lot more (Japan)"

"10 Years ago steam was available in Russia so Steam tried to improve market: price, convenience, language, day and date launches, support for local developers, fast network, feature parity, community. All of these things helped improve penetration in the Russian network."

"Countries like Japan pay for their games that are different than the north American model. Japanese customers prefer to go in store to purchase a voucher. Japanese customers prefer to use cash. So Steam retail cards match the Japanese model for purchasing games."

This one about the 90-10 in payment methods is for Asia

"Steam provides 100 Payment methods. Only 10% of purchases are done via credit card, paypal, paysafe. The remaining 90% of purchases are mostly done via cash. Your customers probably don't use credit cards."

PC Cafes are the preferred way for Korean players to interact with steam. So Steam rolled out a PC cafe model. You can make any of your games available in the PC Cafe program. Just click "create a commercial Page", then chose how a you want it paid for. You must opt in to do this

Details about the release were said:
-Release in beta state
-intended for Summer release
-wave release as we have seen until now.

 

[itsamiracle]

The Payment Method stat is the most surprising one to me. I would have guessed it was the other way around.

 

[Mor]

The Payment Method stat is the most surprising one to me. I would have guessed it was the other way around.

Yeah, I think it got us all by surprise, although the Steam cards are something common but who would have guessed that it represents that vast majority of the total payments, it's actually really crazy. would be amazing to have a infographic per country about each payment system.

 

[lashman]

Yeah, I think it got us all by surprise, although the Steam cards are something common but who would have guessed that it represents that vast majority of the total payments, it's actually really crazy. would be amazing to have a infographic per country about each payment system.

what's really crazy is that volvo covers the 15% cost of printing and distributing those things

and people say they don't do anything to earn their 30%

 

[Alexandros]

I followed the live blog by SteamDB, it was pretty interesting. As I already said, I appreciated the customer-centric approach even though this was an event for developers. It may seem like a small thing but there is actually an important difference between "here's a new feature for developers" and "here's a new feature so that developers can make customers happier".

As for the announced Library redesign, it looks cool and I'd like to try it but I am more interested in information on the new Big Picture Mode and sadly we didn't hear anything about that.

 

[lashman]

I followed the live blog by SteamDB, it was pretty interesting. As I already said, I appreciated the customer-centric approach even though this was an event for developers. It may seem like a small thing but there is actually an important difference between "here's a new feature for developers" and "here's a new feature so that developers can make customers happier".

yeah, exactly ... that's the thing with volvo (and it's always been true really) - they want to make BOTH the customers AND the developers happy

not just "everything for developers" and then herd the customers like cattle because they can't buy the games anywhere else because of moneyhats

 

[Nabs]

"Steam provides 100 Payment methods. Only 10% of purchases are done via credit card, paypal, paysafe. The remaining 90% of purchases are mostly done via cash. Your customers probably dont use credit cards."

I was listening to the talk, and they were focusing on Asia as an emerging market when they brought up that stat.

 

[lashman]

I was listening to the talk, and they were focusing on Asia as an emerging market when they brought up that stat.

yeah, that might've been only for Asia

i find it really hard to believe that's a global stat ... i would expect something like 70% ... maybe 80% even, sure ... but 90% globally? dunno about that

 

[Mor]

"Steam provides 100 Payment methods. Only 10% of purchases are done via credit card, paypal, paysafe. The remaining 90% of purchases are mostly done via cash. Your customers probably dont use credit cards."

I was listening to the talk, and they were focusing on Asia as an emerging market when they brought up that stat.

yeah, that might've been only for Asia

i find it really hard to believe that's a global stat ... i would expect something like 70% ... maybe 80% even, sure ... but 90% globally? dunno about that

For clarification I put that in might be just for Asia.

 

[Copons]

To be honest, to a certain extent I feel the pain of small devs that likely don't use or even care about most of the features included with Steam's 30% fee.
Rami Ismail had a good point in one of his tweets, saying that small devs can't possibly handle the community side that Steam "forces" to them. It's totally a legit issue, especially for those who want to keep it clean and decent, who will need to waste time (or hire somebody) moderating all day and night.

I wonder if it would make sense for Valve to offer several pricing tiers, e.g. starting with a 10% for just hosting and selling the game, and going up gradually to make use all the other stuff.
Like, at the very least to stfu all those devs complaining all the time about not being able to have a working business plan make a living with their games get an 88/12 split.

 

[Ge0force]

I wonder if it would make sense for Valve to offer several pricing tiers, e.g. starting with a 10% for just hosting and selling the game, and going up gradually to make use all the other stuff.

I was thinking about this as well. But wouldn't this result in the majority of devs (and even big publishers) choosing for the cheapest tier to make more profit? That certainly wouldn't benefit us as consumers.

 

[Copons]

I was thinking about this as well. But wouldn't this result in the majority of devs (and even big publishers) choosing for the cheapest tier to make more profit? That certainly wouldn't benefit us as consumers.

Well it would depend on what you offer in the "premium" tiers.
Let's say that all the storefront, user-facing stuff are included in the base tier. The premiums would include, say, the matchmaking, or the DRM, or whatever.
Features that not everybody needs (e.g. a small dev working on a single player game doesn't really care that the 30% fee also covers the matchmaking system), but that are very enticing and worthy of the lower margin for those who indeed need them.

 

[Ge0force]

Well it would depend on what you offer in the "premium" tiers.
Let's say that all the storefront, user-facing stuff are included in the base tier. The premiums would include, say, the matchmaking, or the DRM, or whatever.
Features that not everybody needs (e.g. a small dev working on a single player game doesn't really care that the 30% fee also covers the matchmaking system), but that are very enticing and worthy of the lower margin for those who indeed need them.

Yeah, that sounds good. I suggest mailing Gabe about this. He'll probably answer.

 

[Copons]

Yeah, that sounds good. I suggest mailing Gabe about this. He'll probably answer.

Nuh, I'd be very surprised they haven't already thought about it, and decided against it

 

[Alextended]

Sigh, RPS didn't even cover this. What a great PC enthusiast site it has become. Oh no, actual transparency and strategy talk of exactly how they attempt to combat industry-wide issues beyond paying a bunch of high profile devs/pubs and media mouthpieces off. That's too much for game journos to comprehend.

 

[Mor]

Sigh, RPS didn't even cover this. What a great PC enthusiast site it has become. Oh no, actual transparency and strategy talk of exactly how they attempt to combat industry-wide issues beyond paying a bunch of high profile devs/pubs and media mouthpieces off. That's too much for game journos to comprehend.

I'm glad you like this information, I was waiting until today as I wanted to post it correctly and as detailed as possible, I really hope I can keep providing all of you with interesting information, so far this community has been very receptive and much participative so that makes things even better.

 

[Wildebeet]

All I want is for somebody to tell me Valve isn't ditching grid view.

(oh yes I did use my first post on that. hi all.)

 

[Ascheroth]

Thanks for summing up nicely!
Lots of cool stuff coming up, very much looking forward to it.
LIBRARY FILTERING HERE WE FINALLY GOOOOO~~

 

[lashman]

All I want is for somebody to tell me Valve isn't ditching grid view.

same .... grid view is awesome!

(oh yes I did use my first post on that. hi all.)

... and yet, you ignored my welcome post

 

[Wildebeet]

same .... grid view is awesome!



... and yet, you ignored my welcome post

Yeah sorry about that. I'm sure I had a very good reason though!

 

[Ge0force]

Yeah sorry about that. I'm sure I had a very good reason though!

Don't feel bad about it, we all ignore lashman here

 

[lashman]

Yeah sorry about that. I'm sure I had a very good reason though!

Don't feel bad about it, we all ignore lashman here

 

[Guilty of Being]

Don't feel bad about it, we all ignore lashman here

lashman is my biological father.

 

[Ascheroth]

Don't feel bad about it, we all ignore lashman here

He's Dead & Forgotten after all.

 

[lashman]

lashman is my biological father.

He's Dead & Forgotten after all.

i hate you all

 

[Ascheroth]

i hate you all

 

[lashman]

 

[Guilty of Being]

i hate you all

eggplant.gif

 

[Gengis Khan]

Sigh, RPS didn't even cover this. What a great PC enthusiast site it has become. Oh no, actual transparency and strategy talk of exactly how they attempt to combat industry-wide issues beyond paying a bunch of high profile devs/pubs and media mouthpieces off. That's too much for game journos to comprehend.

Maybe Gamesindustry.biz, as soon as they will be done with the HOTTEST TAKES?

Epic Games Store is making the industry better but “gamers don't see that”

It must have been satisfying for Epic Games to see the PC sales figures for Metro Exodus.The post-apocalyptic shooter w…

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[Ge0force]

Maybe Gamesindustry.biz, as soon as they will be done with the HOTTEST TAKES?

Epic Games Store is making the industry better but “gamers don't see that”

It must have been satisfying for Epic Games to see the PC sales figures for Metro Exodus.The post-apocalyptic shooter w…

www.gamesindustry.biz

These articles are hilarious. But I'm curious: has Epic actually said that Metro Exodus already sold 2.5x more on EGS than LL did on Steam? Many sites are writing this, but Epic's PowerPoint doesn't mention that all of these sales were on EGS. This means Steam pre-orders, retail and keys from keystores may be counted as well. Other sources also say they only took the sales of LL in the launch period...

 

[Gengis Khan]

These articles are hilarious. But I'm curious: has Epic actually said that Metro Exodus already sold 2.5x more on EGS than LL did on Steam? Many sites are writing this, but Epic's PowerPoint doesn't mention that all of these sales were on EGS. This means Steam pre-orders, retail and keys from keystores may be counted as well. Other sources also say they only took the sales of LL in the launch period...

It's all bullshit posturing in the end. Not only their wording is vague enough that it's hard to tell if Steam preorders were included in their count, but the bragging is pointless anyway because "2.5X what LL did at launch" is deliberately obfuscating.
LL at launch wasn't surely setting the charts on fire, for one, and with roughly 200,000 preorders Exodus on Steam was trending far stronger than that compared to the previous games.

The fact that they are making reference to an unknown quantity over an unknown timeframe tells you all you should need to know.
If they had any numbers worth bragging they'd be screaming those on top of their lungs. They are just playing the press and the most gullible portion of the user base like fiddles.

They can't tell you that they sold, say, 100K in one week at best, because then you'd have a clear number to compare with the Steam preorders made before they pulled out the game and you'd KNOW they are operating at loss.

 

[lashman]

It's all bullshit posturing in the end. Not only their wording is vague enough that it's hard to tell if Steam preorders were included in their count, but the bragging is pointless anyway because "2.5X what LL did at launch" is deliberately obfuscating.
LL at launch wasn't surely setting the charts on fire, for one, and with roughly 200,000 preorders Exodus on Steam was trending far stronger than that compared to the previous games.

The fact that they are making reference to an unknown quantity over an unknown timeframe tells you all you should need to know.
If they had any numbers worth bragging they'd be screaming those on top of their lungs. They are just playing the press and the most gullible portion of the user base like fiddles.

yeah, exactly .... 2.5x sounds impressive ... until you look closer and see 15 asterisks next to that statement, lol

and yeah, 2.5x sounds impressive, but what if in reality it's like 10,000 copies, for example (i'm sure it's more since they fucked over everyone who pre-ordered outside of steam and all physical copies which i'm sure LOTS of people were pissed off about when they received those and found out it's not a steam key ... and you just KNOW they're counting all those keys and physical copies as "sold on EGS" as well) .... not so impressive anymore

 

[lashman]

Tom posted a recap of the presentation (along with the slides):

 

[Mor]

OP updated with the official slides directly from Tom's Twitter thread.

 

[Le Pertti]

Also worth remembering about those metro 2.5x numbers, a portion of those are people forced into it unknowingly by thinking their retail copy would be steam.

 

[lashman]

oh hey ... look what they just uploaded

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

Thanks for posting. I'll watch tomorrow since I have to go to work soon.

 

[lashman]

Thanks for posting. I'll watch tomorrow since I have to go to work soon.

no rush, it's not going anywhere