Today's video talks about a new system being tested by Valve to revolutionize game discovery on Steam, aiming to fix the current broken marketing system.
The Current State of Game Marketing #
- Traditional marketing tools are weaker than ever.
- Content creators need payment, unless hopping on trending games.
- Traditional press is struggling due to layoffs.
- More games are released now than ever, including many great ones.
- A great game doesn't matter if nobody buys it.
Steam's New Game Discovery System #
- Valve is testing a new system on Steam Labs: an 8-week calendar similar to SteamDB.
- The calendar shows games released in the last month, last 7 days, and upcoming games by release date.
- The system personalizes recommendations based on games a user plays, wishlists from similar users, and filters out unwanted content (e.g., early access, mature content, ignored tags).
- Users can see 10 to 500 games on one screen and filter by tags (e.g., rogue-likes).
- Goal: To surface new games users don't know about and cut out marketing middlemen.
- Current marketing finds players in the world; Steam's plan reaches them where they already are.
- Turns Steam into a platform for recreational browsing, like Netflix.
Case Study: Little Rocket Lab #
- A recent successful game with a publisher, No More Robots, and developer, Teenage Astronauts.
- Mike Rose (No More Robots) reported 80,000 players in 3 days.
- Marketing Strategy:
- A wholesome direct generated 8,000 wishlists.
- Game Pass deal helped recoup costs within a week.
- Publisher-backed playtesting improved the game.
- Significant investment in ads and influencers ($50,000 total).
- Conclusion: Even with a great game, large marketing budgets are often necessary for success.
The Problem with Marketing Costs #
- Tracking influencer marketing impact is difficult without sponsor codes, leading to unpredictable returns.
- Regular ads offer more transparency and specific targeting.
- Marketing costs scale exponentially with game size.
- Examples of huge marketing budgets:
- Scopely (Monopoly Go): $1 billion
- Cyberpunk 2077: $142 million (2/3 of dev budget)
- Modern Warfare 2 (2009): $150 million vs. $50 million dev budget.
- Marketing is often a zero-sum game, competing for player attention.
- All these efforts aim to drive purchases when players reach the store.
Steam's Platform and Developer Challenges #
- Steam has a near-monopoly on PC game sales, yet marketing on Steam is hard.
- Developers can't purchase ads on Steam.
- The ratio of wishlists to purchases has decreased, indicating wishlisting doesn't guarantee sales.
- Developers need a strong launch day to hit review thresholds and boost visibility in the Steam algorithm.
- External marketing is currently the only way to reach new players post-launch.
- Valve aims to help smaller developers at launch, counteracting issues hindering the indie market.
- Valve's 30% cut is earned if they provide effective discovery systems.
Potential Flaws of the New System #
- Players still need to wishlist games to enter the system, requiring initial marketing/showcases.
- Steam's algorithms can be self-reinforcing, potentially limiting novelty and diversity in recommendations (e.g., only suggesting more rogue-likes if you like rogue-likes).
- The curator system is largely ineffective.
- Adds another system for developers to learn.
- Increases Steam's importance and user lock-in, posing systemic risk.
Valve's Motivation #
- Valve wants to keep users on Steam and prevent them from buying games elsewhere.
- This initiative benefits developers by facilitating discovery and helps Valve earn its 30% cut.
- The focus is on new and upcoming games, to prevent them from being "absorbed into the background radiation of Steam."
- Better discovery means more sales for developers, allowing them to make more games.
Call to Action #
- Viewers are encouraged to comment on how Steam could be improved.
- Mention of Payday 2's situation as another interesting trend.
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