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Steam's discoverability is unmatched as far as game stores and beyond go, according to Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender, but the problem is too many games shouldn't be made at their planned budgets.
Recent reports revealed that over 19,000 games dropped on Steam this year, but almost half of them were barely played or reviewed by anyone at all. The head of Hooded Horse - publisher behind Manor Lords and Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era - doesn't think Valve is at fault for not pushing these games onto potentially interested buyers, though.
"I've seen a lot of people argue that right now lack of discoverability is a fundamental problem for PC games, but I disagree," Bender argued on a LinkedIn post. "There is no platform that matches Steam's excellent discovery system. I say this not just in relation to games, but also in comparison to streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon, nothing comes close."
"If I go on the Steam homepage right now, the top section is showing me a mix of top sellers and games based on the tags I play. Scroll down and I'm seeing category pages allowing me to view specific genres of choice. I'm seeing the "recommended based on the games you play" section which is hyperfocussed to my niche interests and features many small indies... And this is how the entire platform is, on and on if I scroll further down or navigate elsewhere, everything is designed to help me discover games," he continued.
Bender went on to say that the number of games released on PC - about 19,000 or so - isn't the real problem facing game devs because "store platforms should welcome all entrants and let player preferences guide exposure." Instead, sustainability should come from looking at "the reality of the market size they [devs] will reach compared to their costs."
"In the end, if we want stability we have to make sure a given game's budget is such that 'success' in the sense of costs being covered and the team continuing on to the next game is achieved with moderate sales based on a cautious estimation of its likely reach with players," Bender added. "And that does mean that some games should not be made, at least at their planned budgets."
He also reckons publishers "should not be taking 100% of the revenue of games under recoup terms that guarantee them break-even at the expense of developers." Publishers instead should have a "diversified portfolio" so the hits can make up for the losses, and "corporate owners need to not shut down studios because they didn't make the line go up to match expectations, indeed, large corporate entities that can absorb risk should expect some losses to be balanced out by other gains, and that the team that had a loss this time might generate tomorrow's hit." Hear, hear.
In the meantime, here are the best strategy games to play right now.
