Game devs praise Steam as a 'democratic platform' that 'continues to be transformative' for PC gaming today - eviltoast
  • lad@programming.dev
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    7 months ago

    Michael Douse, Larian’s publishing director, called Steam “a democratic platform.”

    “There’s like two of those, I think,” he said. “Steam, and the Switch, too, is quite a democratic platform. If your game is really, really good, you have a very good chance that people on Steam will see it. You have to make an effort, it has to be good, it’s not that simple, but it’s so much better than, for example, having to campaign for your game with somebody else for like 12 months to get their store team to care about it.”

    I wonder if GoG and itchio are not democratic, don’t provide a good enough discoverability, not aligned enough with corporate values, or something else.

    Both seem to be quite good and democratic for me as a client 🤔

    • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      I feel like itch might be a bit too democratic for some people, if that makes sense. Every time I look at it it seems to be complete anarchy lol.

      Not that that’s a bad thing either, there’s definitely space for a store that’s just the wild west. But it probably takes a lot of effort to dig up the gems there.

      • lad@programming.dev
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        7 months ago

        Anarchy is a good description, yeah, discovering things on itchio is not easy, and I usually only come by external recommendations to specific projects

        • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Thats bcz most games on itch come from short game jams. There’s literally no barrier to entry on itch, beyond, don’t upload a virus or spammy program unrelated to gaming. I would be sad if there was. Indie devs need a place to hone their skills, and get their games out there without too much hassle or financial barriers.