They are free
Also here -"If my game is accepted through Steam Greenlight, can I give my previous customers keys for the Steam version?"

Once your game is accepted for distribution on Steam, we will give you as many keys for your game as you want at no cost.) "Once your game is accepted for distribution on Steam, we will give you as many keys for your game as you want at no cost."

just something I wanted to say on this topic but It got closed

11 years ago*

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This

11 years ago
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How do retailers run out of keys then? How does Valve make money off Steamworks games outsides of their store? Why would steam generate these codes to give out to retailers if it costs them money maintaining servers? Why don't retailers undercut Valve 100% of the time?
I think it's logical to conclude that Steam does charge retailers for keys.

This however is about developers being granted unlimited free keys to their product when it goes on Steam. There is likely a legal agreement that forbids the resale of these keys outside of the Steamstore either completely or without Steam taking a cut.
Giving Steam keys to people who have already bought the game on another service is essential to get people to vote for the game but benefits Valve as it gets more people using the Steam client and therefore likely using the Steam store.

11 years ago
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About that "How does Valve make money off Steamworks games outsides of their store?":
I think that it works the same way F2P games work, when you get more people using Steam Valve can make more money from it because people would probably buy some games sooner or later.

I also don't think that every dev gets as many keys and can sell them at which price they want, that could eventually cost Valve money.

11 years ago
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That is how steam made me join,I actually just wanted to play TF2 :D

11 years ago
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Same. I didn't have Internet though, so I got a cracked version, then promptly made a Steam account and payed Valve $20. A year later I got my first Internet connection. As if to celebrate, Valve made Portal free for a while.

11 years ago
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Even if that was the case it would be likely that Valve would charge the developers/publisher a lump fee for the licence to use Steamworks. The cost for hosting major games like Skyrim would be massive.

11 years ago
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Yeah, I doubt that the keys are free, especially for AAA games but on the other side all those key giveaways (Metro 2033, The Ship, etc) would cost much money for the dev.

I think the only way to get an answer would be to develop and release a game on Steam ;)

11 years ago
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"How do retailers run out of keys then?"

Easy, I ask Steam for 5000 keys to my game and sell them to the retailer. When he sold all those keys, he's out. As a developer, I have to request more keys from Steam to sell them to the retailer so he can continue selling my game to it's customers.

11 years ago
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So you're saying it's the full responsibility for the developer to run between retailers negotiating restocking keys from Valve. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that that's an over complicated system involving an unnecessary middleman when Valve could just negotiate the sale of the keys for themselves and take a cut.
Why would Valve give free keys to a developer if (s)he was allowed to sell the keys which would then only cost Valve money as server costs. There is not benefit in such a system and I have yet to see a developer sell steam keys rather than just DRM-free version or linking to the steam store.

11 years ago
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Market penetration. More users on Steam, more users for their Store. Atleast that is the original idea, it might change in the future though...

11 years ago
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They can already do this without the need for a developer acting as a middleman by just selling the keys directly to the retailer.
As I've said before giving free keys to the developer for them to hand out to people who have already bought their game on different services is an essential part of making sure games get Greenlit, a courtesy but also a manner of market penetration. This part has nothing to do with retailers as I am most certain that developers are not allowed to sell those keys.

11 years ago
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There is a simple benefit. More people using steam, more people seeing the steam store.

11 years ago
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That's because it's run through Greenlight. That's a benefit for the developers to join Greenlight. If it's not on Greenlight, they have to buy keys.

11 years ago
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I've heard from developers in the past that they don't pay for keys.

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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Not really sure how greenlit games are similar to shops like gamergate obtaining steam keys

11 years ago
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"There’s no charge for bandwidth, updating, or activation of copies at retail or from third-party digital distributors."

11 years ago
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Nothing of that has to do with the sale of the key. That's just saying there's no additional costs when it comes to bandwidth, updating or activation. >_>

11 years ago
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Ok, so because Greenlight is working like this, you deduce that the whole steam market for retail is working the same. Nice deduction dude. Hope you're not in the police or a scientist.

11 years ago
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This page is much older than Greenlight itself.

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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From 2009

  • With no licensing fees and no charge for bandwidth, keep your customers up-to-date and together with a unified system.
  • There is no requirement that you sell your game on the Steam digital store.
11 years ago
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first page is about steam keys as whole, nothing to do with greenlight.

11 years ago
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There is only that they don't charge money for activation and such stuff, not about giving keys out. And the Greenlight page doesn't have to be valid for big publishers.

11 years ago
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This.

Learn to read and then start the discussion.

11 years ago
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i think that is only for green light dude

11 years ago
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Again, read the first link. That is not for greenlight.

11 years ago
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It's not.

From 2009 (before Greenlight)

  • With no licensing fees and no charge for bandwidth, keep your customers up-to-date and together with a unified system.
  • There is no requirement that you sell your game on the Steam digital store.
11 years ago
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Hilarious.

11 years ago
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Nice, so if I buy from other sites steam gets no money.

11 years ago
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"With no licensing fees and no charge for bandwidth, keep your customers up-to-date and together with a unified system. There is no requirement that you sell your game on the Steam digital store."
I still fail to see where it says that Valve doesn't take a cut from steam key generations. One can not charge for licenses or bandwidth yet still charge for keys. Maybe try "There is no per-copy activation charge..."

Also, how exactly is this even important to that discussion? So what if other stores get their keys for/from Steam?

Btw, if you're looking for indirect evidence that keys from elsewhere don't end up in Valve's pocket, look up Borderlands 2 on GMG. It's been effectively 20-30% off since launch. I have no idea how they could maintain that kind of business practise when divvying up the profit between themselves, the publishers, and Valve.

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It's surprising, but true. That's one of the things that makes Steam so appealing to developers and publishers. They're a loss-leader, charging nothing for most of the service that they give to sellers. Mainly, Valve takes commission only from the customers they bring in themselves through the Steam Store, and they'll still cover the distribution expenses of sales that you make without their help. On the flipside, this gets more and more people on Steam constantly, which keeps throwing 75% Steam Store specials in their faces - and it's commission on those that keeps Steam profitable. It's a big gambit that turned out to work very well for Valve.

11 years ago
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You still have to distribute those keys to other retailers somehow and same goes for first party (the publisher/dev) services. That is the reason why they can run out of keys. You generaly just don't go out giving your master key gen out...

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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Read these two articles. It seems like they do in fact host games on Steam for free, only making money when the game is sold through Steam.

11 years ago
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Closed 11 years ago by BernardoOne.