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News Valve more profitable per head than Google or Apple

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 14 Feb 2011.

  1. misterd

    misterd dremel eater

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    GFWL :p
     
  2. kempez

    kempez modding again!

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    It's good to see a company with good, original ideas, get great profits. Wish I made that much!

    Seriously though, Valve deserve this kind of profit. Steam is a superb platform and really pushes PC (or Mac in my case), gaming forward.

    We shouldn't argue about developers getting profit, that's the point of a business. As long as the games are great value in general there's no issue. The Steam sales are amazing vfm. Counter-Strike was a free add-on for Half-Life 2 and I must have played that for literally over a month in total, never mind playing the game through twice. It's like MW2 and Black Ops: I played mW2 for over 24 days game-time! Bargain at £26 (plus £20 map packs). Can't name anything else I've ever got that good value for money.
     
  3. azrael-

    azrael- I'm special...

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    Competetive pricing...? Only when you consider the various STEAM sales.
     
  4. Necrow

    Necrow Minimodder

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    Steam sales Cheesecake. They have a fantastic business model that is customer based rather than purely for profit. But with 250 staff it's no wonder support is as slow as it is when it is required.
     
  5. ChaosDefinesOrder

    ChaosDefinesOrder Vapourmodder

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    Don't forget EA's online store where everything is full MSRP!
     
  6. kylew

    kylew What's a Dremel?

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    I wish people would stop with the "PC Gaming is dying, Valve are keeping it alive", I love Steam, a lot, I've got over 200 games on my account, but let's stop with this nonsense.

    Also, didn't you read the article? Publishers are making more money from Steam sales, not less.
     
  7. SMIFFYDUDE

    SMIFFYDUDE Supermodders on my D

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    ^

    I was going to say wow 200 games, but i just counted my steam games and it comes to over 90, so 200 doesn't sound as many as i first thought.
     
  8. kylew

    kylew What's a Dremel?

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    Because it seemed like they believe that if the publishers are making a higher profit from Steam, that they're automatically ripping us off. I think the purpose was to highlight just how little those who make and publish the game make when selling in a shop, compared to Steam.

    The simple fact that publishers have a margin of 30% in stores, but 70% online doesn't simply equal rip off. With retail sales, it works on an individual boxed copy sold, essentially, with Steam, they're actually making money while it's costing them money, it's common sense that they'd earn higher margins, regardless of the actual price, because it can be very expensive to get a game in to a shop, whereas it can cost practically nothing to get it on to Steam, until some one buys it.

    You want the developers and publishers to be making a higher margin on the games they make and publish, surely? With all the people who whinge and moan about how "PC gaming is dying" this is surely a good thing?
     
  9. kylew

    kylew What's a Dremel?

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    :p

    That's just my Steam collection of course, I have just as many boxed PC games too, and about the same number of console games. But yeah, with the Steam sales, it's very easy to rack up a good collection of games.
     
  10. wafflesomd

    wafflesomd What's a Dremel?

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    And you can only download the game from them for two weeks.
     
  11. )¡n×

    )¡n× What's a Dremel?

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    Yeah I'm right there with you too. But whether large corporation or small startup they obviously got it right. I bought a second copy of GTA 4, when it went on sale, just to be able to play it from Steam instead of having to deal with a disk check. Besides WoW there isn't a single game I won that I didn't buy or now have a copy of on Steam. And the best part, you never loose them! You'd think Microsoft would be able to at least duplicate some of Steam's success but they made their platform into a joke.
     
  12. digitaldave

    digitaldave What's a Dremel?

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    the best thing about steam is it is portable and cross platform.

    say you go away to your parents for the weekend, mum has say a iMac, and you want to play a game, download steam, download the games that you want (of course not all are cross platform) and you are playing again, legally.
     
  13. bob_lewis

    bob_lewis Lurker extraordinaire

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    "It's a deal, it's a steal, sale of the f*cking century."
     
  14. kempez

    kempez modding again!

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    I'm with you. I got a Mac, but still wanted a quick blast of some older PC games when I fancy. Installed Steam and away I went.:clap:
     
  15. [USRF]Obiwan

    [USRF]Obiwan What's a Dremel?

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    I guess all 250 employees drive a Ferrari then...
     
  16. HourBeforeDawn

    HourBeforeDawn a.k.a KazeModz

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    alright use that money to get more people because dammit I want HL2 Episode 3 >.<
     
  17. law99

    law99 Custom User Title

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    I massively impressed that they give that much back to them as it will really help PC game development. The way the media industry is moving with services like this and spotify, iPlayer, 4od and such is promising.

    Valve are clever to not totally undercut retail as well. Less people angry and bitter = :)
     
  18. M7ck

    M7ck Ⓜod Ⓜaster

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    This
     
  19. Denis_iii

    Denis_iii What's a Dremel?

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    time to expand and sort out HL2 ep3 or HL3
     
  20. frontline

    frontline Punish Your Machine

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    Damn, that must be one impressive profit share bonus each year per employee :)

    Wonder if there is a vacancy for a tea boy.
     
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