IS NOW THE TIME TO DITCH STEAM AND CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES FOR DIGITAL GAME DISTRIBUTION?


Vadim Andreev, CEO and co-founder of global distribution platform Rokky, discusses why publishers and developers should be considering marketplaces beyond distribution giant Steam, and how you can begin to navigate the minefield of other marketplaces in the first place.


W


ith Steam facing legal trouble for “ripping off 14m UK gamers”, could the distribution giant’s market dominance be shifting?


Valve Corporation, the owner of Steam, which is the largest


digital distribution platform for PC games in the world, has found itself in hot water as it is accused of using its market dominance to overcharge 14 million people in the UK. With the company being sued for £656m and audience trust seemingly low, is now the time to consider alternatives when selling digital games? Right now, Steam dominates the online gaming marketplace


with an estimated 400 million games sold on the platform in 2023 and an annual gaming revenue of 8.56 billion dollars. As a result, it’s often the place publishers, distributors and developers use to provide their game keys to the masses. But with the storefront giant allegedly requiring publishers to sign up to price parity obligations, in addition to taking a 30% cut from revenue generated, people may be questioning their allegiance to Steam. Between 2024 and 2027, the global revenue for digital video


games is forecast to continuously increase by $80.9bn, an equivalent to 28.65%. By 2027 that brings an estimated reach of 363.19 billion US dollars, which is certainly not something to ignore. When looking at Steam specifically, the platform’s gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2022 hit $10 billion and according


34 | MCV/DEVELOP August/September 2024


to SimilarWeb data, the site sees 165M visitors a month. In comparison, G2A, Eneba, Kinguin and Gamivo had a GMV of $0.9M, 10% of Steam’s sales in 2022, and the sites together reach 30M visitors per month, 18% of what Steam is attracting. So, if we put the legal troubles aside and focus on the stats


above, why would you bother with marketplaces when Steam appears to dominate in terms of reach and GMV? Well the first reason is that an 18% cut is a significant amount


of people that you could be missing out on. The second, and also the main reason, why you should


bother with alternatives is that Steam takes a 30% share, whilst marketplaces provide much more flexible terms and could be highly profitable for the publisher. There are, however, nuances and pitfalls that should be


considered when working with marketplaces. It’s these difficulties and risks that often make these marketplaces and stores fall into a grey zone that publishers prefer not to dive into. That being said though, the opportunities shouldn’t be ignored.


WHY PUBLISHERS DON’T TRUST MARKETPLACES Naturally, digital game distribution is much more cost effective than physical sales. However, that doesn’t mean care shouldn’t be taken when considering who’ll be distributing those important keys.


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