Steam has been the primary indie platform for games for like 15 years. Xbox had a moment in the early Xbox love arcade but the time the Xbox One came out, it was Steam and it has been ever since especially after Greenlight and early access
More like there’s more weird blogs than ever but not interest in any to really become famous at least for some day time talk shows to joke about (another format that’s now in an ocean of content rather than a pond).
Going back to the spike TV days, it has always seemed to me that Geoff just wants glitz and glamour in video gaming that he can enjoy. And then with age that makes the glitz and glamour crowd for him also get older. Video game developers, welcome to the art gallery world, film/book/music/stage/television awards. It’s a bunch of old people with money and glitz and younger glamour that call themselves producers of any kind they can think of predators trying to party and network and that’s about it. Thing is with the game awards is that award shows peaked back in like 2005-2010 before YouTube and social media really took over media gossip. The game awards has been trying to make some prestige event out of a dying format that lost credibility with how non-inclusive these awards actually are. And I’m not talking about American social politics inclusiveness, I’m talking awards shows that want to be American/Euro-centric in a media landscape that is increasingly not that. So awards shows we know out here are declining marketing platforms for their potential domestic sponsors too because they’re just not able to appeal to people like they used to when these shows aren’t recognizing peoples super favorite game from like Colombia or China that was a hit on Steam but never paid a dime in advertising to American and European media organizations so get no media coverage
At least it’s a practice what you preach example. I know far more people that love to preach and the attention it gives them and then mostly does the exact opposite. Sometimes so much to the opposite that they’re more predatory than things/people they preach against
This complaint feels like 2009 again. It was entertaining to me the period of time of younger people complaining about millennial grey/beige. A complete rejection of millennial minimalism to make way for popping colors and crowded tables of purchased knick knacks. Now it’s back to minimalism, spending won’t make you happy. Whatever the latest cope trend is
It sucks but my impression is that people familiar with releasing games on Steam all seem to immediately see why this could happen and gave feedback. Also it doesn’t seem like a beloved early access game in general by those that bought into early access. It had its hype period a long time ago and limped out of early access. Now Valve is trying to help them market
Steam for the most part is the primary marketing platform for indie games. Not just for PC, also PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo because of how lackluster those shops are for discoverability of games that aren’t front page advertised with large thumbnail/poster placements. Success on Steam is viral marketing for other platforms
Still recommendations are always to try to build a following both on and off Steam. Twitter for a while were the major social media accounts indies should spend time building up a following. Now it’s Tiktok. YouTube and Twitch influencers are also a good choice for getting viewers converted to customers but you can’t just pick a popular person, got to be mindful for if their viewers watch for game recommendations or for the personality only. So in that way, it’s not as simple as pay a popular streamer to play your game and their fans will play the game
Regardless Steam is the best for marketing. Steam curators are way smaller than YouTubers, streamers, Tiktok but it’s highly directed at spending customers. Some Steam reviewers have followers. You can follow game developer/publisher pages. That’s how I learn of some games. I get emails and check out publisher Steam pages of games I like.
Until any competitor actually tried to compete with Steam as a service, I’m not going to knock Valve heavily over Steam. They keep improving. Itch is not anything close to marketplace that can compete with Steam. It’s even more barebones of a service than Desura over a decade ago. At the basic level to compete with Steam, it needs a desktop client and social media functionality for developers to build followers. Maybe it needs to open source and join under the Linux foundation or KDE or something to help guide it to the next level
I’m hoping Steam Machines usher in good TV/movie streaming apps for Linux. I’d love to use a miniPC with a remote to replace AndroidTV/Roku