valve – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Steam Finally Makes It Clear: You’re Buying A License, Not A Game

from the etched-in-steam dept

We’ve been writing stories about how, when it comes to digital purchases, we typically do not own what we’ve bought. Instead of buying a product, such as the digital version of a video game, what we are instead buying is a non-transferable license to use that product. While readers here will be largely familiar with this annoying concept, most online retailers bury the language for this so deep inside their labyrinthian EULAs that the overwhelming majority of the public is none the wiser. Steam has traditionally been no different, which is how you get confused fans complaining about how a game they bought has been changed via an update, or how your Steam library just disappears when you shove off this mortal coil.

But thanks to a California law that goes into effect next year, this has already changed. Ahead of that law, Steam has updated the messaging users see when purchasing a game to put the lack of game-ownership right in their faces.

Now Valve, seemingly working to comply with a new California law targeting “false advertising” of “digital goods,” has added language to its checkout page to confirm that thinking. “A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam,” the Steam cart now tells its customers, with a link to the Steam Subscriber Agreement further below.

California’s AB2426 law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom Sept. 26, excludes subscription-only services, free games, and digital goods that offer “permanent offline download to an external storage source to be used without a connection to the internet.” Otherwise, sellers of digital goods cannot use the terms “buy, purchase,” or related terms that would “confer an unrestricted ownership interest in the digital good.” And they must explain, conspicuously, in plain language, that “the digital good is a license” and link to terms and conditions.

Frankly, the idea that this had to be mandated by state law is silly. That law didn’t suddenly educate Valve and other online marketplaces for digital goods that there was a problem here. Surely Valve has fielded questions and/or complaints from consumers in the past who had thought they’d bought a game only to find out they hadn’t. These companies could have proactively decided that informing their customers of the reality in a way that doesn’t take a set of bifocals and a law degree to parse through a EULA or ToS was a good idea. They just didn’t want to, for reasons that I’m sure you can decipher for yourself.

But now consumers will be better informed. And what will be interesting will be to see if this changes anything when it comes to the macro-behavior of customers.

In other words, if there isn’t some precipitous drop in purchases now that this new language is in place, the open and remaining question will be why Valve and companies like it weren’t more upfront about this reality all along?

Filed Under: ab2426, california, copyright, digital goods, false advertising, license, ownership, steam
Companies: valve

Two Decades Of Content In ‘Garry’s Mod’ Taken Down, Possibly By Nintendo Impersonator

from the nintendon't dept

The capricious nature of Nintendo’s IP enforcement practices are, if you’re a regular reader here, quite legendary. In this case, however, it seems like Nintendo’s reputation is what played a part in some copyright fuckery, rather than the company engaging in said fuckery itself.

If you’re not familiar with Garry’s Mod, then you obviously weren’t much of a gamer in the mid-2000s. Built off of Valve’s Source engine, the “game” is essentially a sandbox game with all of the physics of the engine, but in an open “world” in which players can more or less do whatever they want. It also allows for all kinds of user-created mods and content to be added. And, because Nintendo was and remains quite popular with a sizable segment of the gaming population, some of that user generated content created over the past roughly two decades included content and characters from Nintendo games.

The past tense in that sentence being important here, given that it was only recently that Kotaku reported that Nintendo demanded and got all of that content yanked down from the game entirely.

In an update to Garry’s Mod’s Steam page, the developers stated, “Some of you may have noticed that certain Nintendo related workshop items have recently been taken down. This is not a mistake, the takedowns came from Nintendo.”

The update continues, “Honestly, this is fair enough. This is Nintendo’s content and what they allow and don’t allow is up to them. They don’t want you playing with that stuff in Garry’s Mod – that’s their decision, we have to respect that and take down as much as we can.”

So why would Nintendo do this now, after years and years of the content in question existing? It obviously cannot be that Nintendo is suffering some form of irreparable harm due to its own fans having fun creating Nintendo-y things within Garry’s Mod. Were that the case, surely all that harm would have come to Nintendo’s attention somewhere over the course of the last eighteen-plus years. But for all that time, Nintendo was silent.

And, it appears, Nintendo has remained silent. Truth be told, there existed a version of this post taking Nintendo to task for being a bunch of nonsensical copyright assbags. That post has since been rewritten into this one, however, after we noticed some interesting contributions from our awesome community on our Techdirt Insider Discord channel.

Brewster T. Koopa was one of the modders who had content removed from Garry’s Mod. They were adamant from the jump that it was unlikely Nintendo was actually behind the takedowns, based mostly on the above timeline. Then came the answer, with a screenshot from another person explaining just what happened.

We’ve seen this sort of thing before. And, frankly, the story here is the same as it was in that previous case with Bungie. The reason these bad actors are able to pull this sort of crap is due to two things. First, and least important, is Nintendo and Bungie’s reputations for being absolutely draconian when it comes to copyright enforcement. That’s something fairly close to victim blaming in this instance, to be sure, but it’s hard to imagine someone being able to pull this off with a CD Projekt Red or a company with a reputation for being more lenient on copyright matters.

But the real culprit here is Valve’s DMCA review process. If some folks on the internet can figure out in fairly short order that these takedowns are coming from an email address and domain that are not actually owned by or associated with Nintendo, then someone on Valve’s end could have figured this out as well. Instead, the content just came down. And if we’re going to have a DMCA process that looks anything remotely like it does today, that’s a pretty damned big problem. Collateral damage when it comes to matters of speech are simply not acceptable.

So, Valve needs to do better. And, sure, it would be nice if Nintendo turned over a new leaf and was better on copyright matters generally, but the company in this case was also something of a victim here.

Filed Under: copyright, dmca, garry's mod, steam
Companies: nintendo, valve

Rockstar Releases Same Buggy, Broken ‘GTA Trilogy’ Game To Steam… But On Sale!

from the well-that's-one-solution dept

Over a year ago, we discussed an annoying and strange set of actions taken by Rockstar and Take2, the companies behind the popular Grand Theft Auto series of games. Two actions were taken in sequence by those companies that were clearly related. First was that they worked to get a fan-made GTA 4 mod taken down, after learning that the mod essentially brought the cities and some of the gameplay from previous GTA games into GTA 4. Shortly after that was done, Rockstar released GTA Trilogy, which was a re-release bundle of those same older games the mod was incorporating. The problem is that GTA Trilogy was such a broken mess that the company had to pull the games out of online stores almost immediately. The launcher for the game was broken, the games were buggy as hell, and so on.

So why are we talking about this again? Well, GTA Trilogy is getting released again, on Steam first. But if you thought the bugs had been worked out and all is well with the title… LOL, no. Instead, a buggy version is being released again as is, but this time on sale!

Today, after some leaks and rumors, Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition on Steam. The good news: It’s on sale, meaning you can grab all three classic games for cheap. The bad news: It’s the same infamously messy remaster that hasn’t received a substantial update since nearly a year ago. As you might expect, folks ain’t too happy about the situation.

Rockstar ultimately had to apologize to the community because the remasters were so awful. Eventually, Rockstar and Grove Street Games did fix some of the problems players had cataloged online. But the last major update for the game was in February 2022. Since then, the remastered trilogy has remained in a fairly rough state. So it doesn’t seem like the best time to release it on a new platform and yet, here we are.

$30 for three games really should sound like a good deal. But the public fully knows how buggy these games are and it’s completely tone-deaf to release those buggy games with the only give-back being a discount on price. And if you want to speculate that Rockstar has some patch in the works to un-break the games, keep in mind that the trilogy has been off the market for over a year now. There was plenty of time to fix the title before re-releasing it. I also imagine that buyers would prefer to have a completely working game rather than a discount on a broken one.

While some hold out hope that Rockstar will still swoop in, patch these games up and fix all the visual bugs and other problems, that seems more unlikely after today. Instead, it seems this is as good as things are going to get. Not to mention that Rockstar has plans to release these games on the Epic Store later this month, too. It does seem as if the time to fix GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas has run out and Rockstar is ready to move on. What a shame.

It’s not just a shame; I struggle to understand how this move makes any sense at all. Discount or no, the release of a buggy game is going to get Rockstar absolutely murdered in terms of customer responses to this whole situation. It’s making the mistake it made over a year ago all over again, but telling the public to be satisfied with a discount on the game.

As they say, when you’re in a hole, the first step is to stop digging.

Filed Under: bugs, gta, gta trilogy, steam, video games
Companies: rockstar games, take 2, valve

Ubisoft Runs Away From Epic Store And Back To Steam

from the they-be-back dept

It’s been a long while since we last discussed the platform war that started between Steam and Epic several years back. The crux of the situation was that Epic began offering a far better revenue split for game publishers compared with Steam, with something like a 10-20% delta in how much of the revenue Epic takes versus Steam. This led to all kinds of public reactions, particularly as Epic began gobbling up game and publisher exclusives as part of that revenue split offering. In general, the public sentiment was essentially: yes, pay publishers more, but to hell with your exclusives.

Ubisoft was one of the publishers that jumped into Epic’s arrangement back in 2019. At the time, the company said Steam’s revenue split made remaining on the store unattractive. Well, it’s three years later, and if you want to take the temperature on how well Epic is doing in keeping publishers away from Steam, guess who just got back on Valve’s platform?

A page for 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was officially added to Steam Monday, listing a December 6 launch date on the platform. Ubisoft has also told Eurogamer that 2019’s Anno 1800 and Roller Champions will be coming to Steam, confirming earlier rumors to that effect.

“We’re constantly evaluating how to bring our games to different audiences wherever they are, while providing a consistent player ecosystem through Ubisoft Connect,” a Ubisoft spokesperson said in a statement provided to the press.

Ubisoft isn’t a one-off case, either. Activision Blizzard had also been off of Steam for some time but recently came back to the platform.

So, what does this mean? It means there is more to the value of a platform than just a revenue split agreement. Say what you want about Steam and how it operates, but the platform has built a robust following and a massive market share percentage. Between that and the familiarity gamers have with Steam, the fact is that the delta in revenue splits may not make up the difference for publishers looking to move the most amount of titles.

The platform wars aren’t over, of course, but they also aren’t going to end in a trouncing by one side or the other.

Filed Under: exclusives, platform wars, video game stores, video games
Companies: activision blizzard, epic, ubisoft, valve

Valve Briefly (Accidentally?) Shows Off Steam Deck’s Useful Ability To Use Emulators

from the whoopsie! dept

Buckle in, because there are essentially two ways to write this post but both of them start off the same way. Regular readers here will be familiar with Nintendo’s now years-long war on emulation. The whole thing is ultimately quite stupid, because there is no indication that emulator and ROM sites ever really had a negative impact on Nintendo’s business. Despite that, first with the release of Nintendo retro-consoles and then back catalog games on modern platforms like the Switch, Nintendo went on a legal and DMCA spree trying to end Nintendo emulation on the internet so it could, in some cases, release its own far shittier product. The point here is that, no matter the context, Nintendo hates the idea of having its games emulated.

So imagine the company’s reaction to when Valve released a video showing off how useful its Steam Deck handheld console is, while including a cameo for a Nintendo Switch emulator!

You had to be pretty eagle-eyed to spot the reference in the less than three-minute YouTube clip, but Twitter gaming insider Nibel did, and pointed it out in a tweet that immediately blew up. The Yuzu thumbnail on the home screen is only visible for a split second, but it’s absolutely there, and presumably was downloaded by whoever at Valve assisted in making the YouTube video.

Before the end of the day, Valve removed the video and swapped it with a new one in which the Yuzu thumbnail has been replaced by art for Portal 2. But the damage was done: One of the biggest gaming companies in the world had officially broached the taboo subject of video game emulation. “Streisand effect is strong with this one,” wrote one commenter. “I will definitely be emulating Switch on the Steam Deck.”

And here’s where we could choose a path on what we believe or don’t believe about how this all went down. On the one hand, Valve was very quick to remove the video and replace it with one sans the emulator appearance. It’s also entirely reasonable to think that whoever had put the video together in the first place hadn’t really paid attention to the icons that were appearing on the Deck and didn’t think anything of releasing the video. And we’ve seen many, many times that even tech companies don’t understand the Streisand Effect, or attempt to elude it.

If the above is true, then Valve accidentally notified the world of a useful feature of the Steam Deck: the ability to run emulators. This also doesn’t really represent a major threat to Nintendo, as emulating the Switch on the Deck is not really a replacement for a Switch generally. At most, you’ll have some really dedicated pirates, but far more tinkerers and hobbyists, checking out how it all works. One big happy accident that doesn’t really harm Nintendo.

Or, if you’re the tin-foil hat type of folk, Valve did all of this on purpose and only pantomimed the scramble to replace the video to take advantage of the Streisand Effect. It’s not like there isn’t a market already for emulation on the Steam Deck, after all.

The Steam Deck, meanwhile, has become a hotspot for all types of other emulation besides the Switch, including the Game Boy Advance, GameCube, and PS2. If you’ve ever heard anyone espouse the virtues of Valve’s new Switch competitor, its capable emulation abilities have likely been listed among its main perks. Normally Valve doesn’t make that explicit, however. I can only imagine how quickly founder Gabe Newell started getting phone calls from Nintendo’s lawyers, though of course we don’t currently have any evidence the latter was involved in getting the video taken down.

Personally, I don’t believe this was done purposefully. As they say, it’s always better to assume incompetence as opposed to malicious intent. But at the end of the day, emulation on a Steam Deck simply doesn’t replace the console versions of Nintendo’s products. I do expect Nintendo to freak out about this… but it shouldn’t.

Filed Under: emulators, steam, steam deck, video games
Companies: nintendo, valve

Valve Gets ‘Right To Repair/Mod’ Right With The Steam Deck

from the deck-the-halls dept

We’ve talked a great deal about the public’s right to repair the tech they own and how right to repair has finally started to shift in favor of the consumer as of late. In tech in general, and specifically in the video gaming hardware space, manufacturers have long fought to make it impossible for the public to repair their own gear. Or mod that gear, as well. And this isn’t just a Nintendo thing, though that’s likely the first name that leapt into your mind. Sony, Microsoft, ASUS, and HTC all lobbied heavily to prevent DIY repairs or mods.

But then there’s Valve and its new handheld device, the Steam Deck. Valve appears to have gone completely the opposite way, both in making the Steam Deck very easy to get into to begin with, but also allowing some major names out there to sell repair parts or upgrades directly to the public.

As reported by The Verge over the weekend, the legendary repair advocates over at iFixit.com plan to offer essentially every part of the Steam Deck for sale, including the motherboard with its custom AMD chip. While word of this was undoubtedly exciting for Steam Deck fans, iFixit took to Twitter to state that the news was a little bit premature and that a full reveal of its replacement parts offerings is yet to come.

As Kotaku notes, to get the full scope of what it means to have a company like iFixit saying it’s working directly with Valve on repair and mod parts, you have to couple that with Valve’s forward-thinking approach to the schematics of its Steam Deck design. By that I mean to point out that Valve simply released the design files for the handheld console via a Creative Commons license.

When you combine this with the fact that Valve—much as it did for its now-departed Steam Controller (RIP, my darling)—has made the CAD files for the Steam Deck available under a Creative Commons license, and designed the machine to be remarkably modular in comparison to other controllers and portables, it’s hard not to be impressed and inspired by the potential for this machine to become a gold standard for user repairability in the video game space.

Here we see yet another example of a company being willing to give up just a bit of control over its product in order to make it far more attractive to many more potential buyers. Not only do buyers of a Steam Deck now know that they can get their devices repaired if something goes wrong or if normal wear and tear result in issues, but suddenly there is also a wide open world of potential 3rd party methods for enhancing the product.

Beyond repairability, access to CAD files has inspired fan-made solutions to accessories Valve has yet to make itself. A trip through Thingiverse will reveal all kinds of stands, docks, and battery holders designed by gamers with an eye for engineering and access to a 3D printer.

It’s hard to see how any of this does anything beyond making the Steam Deck either a more valuable purchase for the end customer, or at least a safer one. Either way, that should result in only a greater willingness to throw money in Valve’s direction for the handheld. All because Valve decided to give up a bit of control. Funny how that works.

Filed Under: right to repair, steam deck
Companies: valve

The Video Game Blockade Against Russia Begins With Volunteer Companies

from the no-games-for-you! dept

When it comes to Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine and the world’s response to it, timelines obviously get quite compressed. I’ll admit to being somewhat surprised at how much relative unity there has been in the West’s response to Putin’s attempt to destroy European peace with its invasion of a neighboring country. This isn’t to say that more couldn’t be done, of course, but the cohesive response has been nearly as admirable as the fight the Ukrainian people are putting up against a formidable enemy. On the list of ways the world has responded, it perhaps seems something of a lesser thing that Ukraine called on the video game companies of the world to essentially blockade Russia from its activities. Lesser or not, however, the call was heard and several major players in the video game industry have done as asked.

We’ll start with the larger gaming marketplaces and studios, several of which have voluntarily decided to simply cut the Russian market off from their services.

French mega-publisher Ubisoft became the latest game company to take action against Russian customers Monday morning, telling Bloomberg that it is “suspending its physical and digital sales” in the Russian market. Take-Two announced a similar move earlier in the morning, telling Mashable that it is stopping “new sales, installations, and marketing support” in Russia and Belarus, including purchases made through the Rockstar Game Launcher.

The new announcements come after a flurry of similar actions taken by large game publishers over the weekend. Activision Blizzard announced late Friday that it will be cutting off games sales and offering a two-to-one match on employee contributions to relief organizations operating in Ukraine. Electronic Arts also announced Friday that it is halting Russian game sales, including the sale of virtual currency bundles in its popular games, “while this conflict continues.” That action comes after EA Sports earlier removed all Russian teams from FIFA 22 and NHL 22, mirroring similar moves from international organizations managing those sports.

Before anyone wants to launch into a lecture about how cutting access to video games is far different than parking troops on Russia’s border, you’re missing the point. There is a multilateral squeeze of the Russian citizenry happening through sanctions and voluntary actions being undertaken, of which this gaming embargo is a part. Parts of the world are now actively denying Russia’s citizens access to aspects of global culture. Agree with that as a tactic or not, it’s damn well going to be felt by the very people that at the ultimate level allow Putin to retain power. An end to this madness only happens if Putin himself feels pressure to do so and that can ultimately only come from his own pissed off people. Every little bit helps.

The platform level is getting involved here, as well. GOG was the first marketplace to cut Russia off from the market. Eventually both Microsoft and Epic joined GOG. Then Nintendo did as well, though it appears its hand was forced due to payment processing sanctions. Same goes for Steam. Sony hasn’t said anything publicly at the time of this writing, though some games have already been pulled from the Russian market.

And this has trickled beyond the developer/platform space as well. Esports organizations are also cutting Russia out of the game, so to speak.

On Wednesday, the popular ESL Pro League became the latest to announce it was barring “organizations with apparent ties to the Russian government, including individuals or organizations under alleged or confirmed EU sanctions related to the conflict” from participating in its events. The league stopped short of sanctioning individual players on those teams, though, saying they were “not complicit with this situation” and were welcome to still compete “under a neutral name, without representing their country, organization, or their teams’ sponsors on their clothing or otherwise.”

Now, at least one team has complained that it isn’t sponsored by the Russian state and is being unfairly targeted simply for being Russian… and that’s a complaint worth paying attention to. There’s a fine line to walk here. Those in favor of this blockade and its IRL counterparts do want to squeeze the Russian citizenry and make them feel pain due to their leader’s decision. But we also absolutely need those folks to eventually be on our side.

Still, this is cultural seclusion we’re talking about here. That isn’t to be done lightly, but it’s hard to argue that this sort of collective action doesn’t fit the bill in this case. Now we await the reaction from the Russian public.

Filed Under: blockade, boycott, russia, ukraine, video games
Companies: activision blizzard, ea, epic, esl pro league, gog, microsoft, nintendo, ubisoft, valve

Indie Game Dev Decides To Leave Industry Due To Steam Returns On Short Game

from the predictable dept

It has now been over six years since Valve finally put in a refund policy for video games purchased on its Steam platform. At the time of its announcement, I was very much in favor of this move by Valve, given how previously the prospect of buying games on the platform was laughably tilted in favor of publishers and developers. On top of that, a whole bunch of the outcry from publishers and developers over the policy seemed to mostly center around it existing at all, meaning such concerns were mostly just requests to go back to the one-sided policies that favored them. Some developers even saw large numbers of refunds as a good thing, arguing that those refunds were likely largely from people that never would have tried their games out if a potential refund weren’t in place.

But going way back to that first post over its announcement, one concern brought up by developers seemed legit. Given that the refund policy required the buyer to have bought the game within the past two calendar weeks and to have not played more than two hours of it, well, what about very short games that can be completed well within that timeframe?

That exact scenario has now impacted one indie developer such that it is quitting the game development industry altogether.

Summer of ’58 is the latest first-person horror title from indie developer Emika Games, which was released in July and features a video blogger investigating an abandoned and supposedly haunted Russian children’s camp – which of course goes very badly indeed. At £6.19/$6.92 on Steam it’s a cheap purchase even full-price, and it’s currently 23% off.

The game’s Steam page makes it very clear that Summer of ’58 only has an average play-time of around 90 minutes. However, according to Emika Games, Summer of ’58 has received “a huge number of returns” – despite being rated ‘very positive’. The developer blames this on the fact that its game “does not reach two hours of playing time” – under Steam’s return policy, any game under two hours can be refunded.

As a result, Emika Games announced on Twitter that it is leaving the games industry entirely for an “indefinite time”.

Now, we could have a discussion about whether this is an overreaction or not. We could talk about how Steam’s refund policy is completely public, meaning that Emika Games knew what it was getting into when it put its 2 hour game on the platform. We could talk about business models and all the other ways the game could have been sold to the public other than via Steam, or other ways the developer could have made money from it.

But whatever side of those arguments you’d want to come down on, it wouldn’t change the simple fact that this is an obvious flaw within Steam’s refund policy. And, frankly, it’s one that developers and industry commentators saw coming a mile away. Hell, in my first post on the announcement, I managed to come up with a simple solution to this myself.

It might be an even better solution to simply allow game-makers to have options on the game-time of their refund policy. Say, two hours, five hours, or thirty minutes. Then consumers could decide for themselves if less game-time was worth the risk of purchase. I imagine that would create more administrative work on Steam’s end, but it ought to keep the indies happy.

It seems Steam decided not to keep the indies happy. And now one of them is leaving not just Steam, but the entire industry. Why? Because Steam caters primarily to the AAA publishers? That’s probably part of it. Because Steam didn’t want to give up that kind of control over its policies and platform to developers? Probably another part of it. Because this would have created work for Steam that it didn’t want to do? Likely yet another part of it.

But whether it is one of those explanations or the trifecta, a good indie gaming scene means this policy has to be altered to make it workable for those making shorter games.

Filed Under: return policy, returns, steam, video games
Companies: emika games, valve

Steam Still Can't Seem To Keep Its Hands Off Some 'Sex Games' Despite Hands Off Policy

from the pron-store dept

It’s been three or so years since Valve announced a new “hands off” approach towards approvals for games on its dominant Steam storefront. This new “policy” was unfortunately rolled out in an extremely Steam-like manner: vague and largely indecipherable, full of holes, and all with a caveat baked in that Steam could still do basically whatever it wants. Later, the company clarified that the chief goal with all of this was to allow for more adult-oriented games while still giving Steam the ability to disallow “troll games“, as though that actually clarified anything. Predictably, this new policy set off confusion all over the place, and even years into the change its application appears to be aggressively inconsistent.

Three years in and it’s still a problem. The developers of Holodexxx, a VR sex game featuring VR-rendered real-life porn stars, has expended thousands of dollars to try to comply with Steam’s policies only to find the game banned from the platform. Interestingly, the developers of the game appear to have intended this to be less of a gross or trollish look at a sex video game and more as something that is both adult-oriented but a “sex positive” experience.

Holodexxx is a game in which simulated versions of real adult performers interact with the player in virtual reality, with AI guiding elements of the performance. Its creators bill it as an ethical, sex-positive game being made in conjunction with and featuring real sex workers. Steam, at this point, carries a plethora of games that include adult content—some of which venture into much dicier thematic territory than Holodexxx. But that didn’t stop Valve from chasing Holodexxx off its holodeck.

On pre-2018 Steam, this is a game that would absolutely not be allowed on the platform. But the whole point of the change in policy was supposed to be to allow for more content of this nature, so long as it didn’t dive into “troll” territory. And, to some extent, that policy shift achieved its goal. There are a great many adult sex games on Steam these days, with the level of raunchiness in those games playing across a spectrum for that sort of thing. But in this case, the game has been rejected several times, no matter what the developer tries to do to comply with Steam’s policy.

In a recent lengthy blog, the game’s developers outlined everything they’ve tried over the course of multiple months. To begin, they submitted a “PG-13 experience” to Steam starring a clothed version of adult film actress Riley Reid, along with a censored video of live adult stars. Valve, say Holodexxx’s developers, blocked the submission “with a boiler-plate explanation that video pornography was not allowed on Steam.” So then the developers spent additional time creating a new demo without video of adult stars, in which the player could instead look at a model of adult film actress Marley Brinx in a virtual environment. Again, Valve blocked it on the basis that it was “pornography.”

At that point, Holodexxx’s developers went back to the drawing board and spent “months” on Holodexxx Home, a more elaborate interactive experience with dialogue systems and direct physical interactions. It involves undressing a character, but so do other games on Steam, so in theory, it doesn’t necessarily activate any of Valve’s tripwires. However, you can probably guess what happened next.

“We submitted Home and waited a few weeks,” wrote Holodexxx’s developers. “After poking Steam via help tickets, our build was reviewed two days later… and banned. The explanation was again, that Steam does not allow ‘pornography’ on their platform.”

In all, the developer claims that it has spent something like $20,000 just trying to get a version in place that would meet Steam’s guidelines. Unfortunately, that effort appears to have failed as that last rejection once again simply regurgitated the anti-pornography stance previously iterated.

Now, let’s be clear on a couple of things. First, you may not like the idea of adult games showing up on Steam. That doesn’t really matter for this story. Steam shifted policies to allow for more of them and they can run their platform as they choose. Secondly, I’ll reiterate that point: Steam can block this game from its platform if it wants.

But the problem here is the lack of clarity in the policy and the inconsistency with which it is applied. If you need this broken down further, I’ll put it this way: when a developer can spend five-figures trying to comply with a platform’s policy and can’t manage to do so, the problem is on the platform’s end. Either the policy isn’t clear enough for developers (check!), hasn’t been applied in a way that’s consistent enough to allow it to be interpreted (check!), or the communication in feedback to developers about the policy as it applies to their specific games hasn’t been handled well (check!).

In this case, Steam has failed at all three levels. Again, the platform can do as it pleases with its property, but if the platform is going to have a policy, it might as well make it one that actually works.

Filed Under: adult content, content moderation, holodexx, steam
Companies: valve

The EPIC Effect: Microsoft Changes Revenue Split To Match EPIC Store, Steam Holds Firm

from the competition-is-amazing dept

Way back when Epic released its Epic Store PC game storefront, the release of this new competitor to Steam focused on two major selling points. The first was timed exclusives that it shelled out tons of money for, allowing it to sell games the public couldn’t get anywhere else for a certain period of time. This pissed off lots of people, as the public generally doesn’t like exclusives. That said, Epic did mention that it would end its exclusivity practices if the rest of the gaming storefront world, especially Steam, mirrored the Epic Store’s second key selling point, which was a far more favorable split offered to game developers than the “industry standard” 70/30 split that sees places like Steam getting nearly a third of game revenue just for hosting the game on its platform. Instead, Epic’s store has a 88/12 split, meaning the platform is willing to take less than half of the revenue Steam extracts from gamemakers.

In other words, Epic positioned its exclusivity program as merely a method to get the other storefronts to take less money away from game developers, which softened the blow with the public and surely made it a great many fans in the gaming industry.

Well, Steam hasn’t caved yet. But Microsoft did just announce that it is moving to match the splits offered by the Epic Store, marking some movement in the industry and perhaps an indication of things to come.

“As part of our commitment to empower every PC game creator to achieve more, starting on August 1 the developer share of Microsoft Store PC games sales net revenue will increase to 88%, from 70%,” Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty wrote on the Xbox blog. “A clear, no-strings-attached revenue share means developers can bring more games to more players and find greater commercial success from doing so.”

The move is the latest in a bit of a sea change for game revenues. In a survey released yesterday by the Game Developers Conference, only 3% of respondents thought the once-standard 30% take by a platform was justified. The Epic Games Store broke onto the scene by notably only taking 12% of the revenue. Over the last year, both Apple and Google have lessened their cuts for games making under $1 million. Steam, meanwhile, has held more or less firm on its 30% take, with the cut lessening the more money a game makes, a system that makes more money for larger, richer publishers, while penalizing smaller indies.

Funny what a little bit of competition can do. While it is certainly notable that Steam is watching all of these changes with its proverbial arms folded, doing no sort of splits-changing of its own, maybe that’s okay and maybe there’s a place for that. Or maybe the pressure continues to build and the Epic Store does end up being the preferred storefront for smaller titles and indie developers and Steam eventually does have to come down from the 70/30 split.

All I know for sure is that without Epic entering this arena and pushing the envelope, be it for altruistic reasons or otherwise, it seems unlikely that even Apple, Google, and Microsoft would have made any of these changes. That’s why, whatever you think of the Epic Store, the added competition certainly is nice.

Filed Under: competition, epic store, steam, video game stores, video games
Companies: epic, microsoft, valve