End of bundles as we knew it? Steam seems to impose limit on key generation allowance

It seems so, yes. Webs such as IndieGala and DailyIndieGame usually sell games that organically don't gain traction on steam by themselves.
I checked today on DIG and most of those games have their "all-time-peak" sitting at the double digit mark.

Bad news. Hopefully fanatical and humble continue to stay in business.

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Since it mainly targets kusoge that nobody wants to play and just keep it to collect dust in the library, not a lot of people would miss cheap trash.

less trash gamez

Doubt this will change anything. Steam already has some rules like this, such as "if your game is free somewhere at some point, it needs to be free on Steam at some point as well". Or something like that. Alas, no one really cares.

good. less bundle trash

I think this is trying more to stop the BS sites from selling S**T games that are overpriced on the store and sold "regular" price on some sketchy website. You know the $100 games recently that are $1 on some other site?

This sounds more like it's targeting shovelware on Steam that no one would ever purchase on its own, but can be sold in a $1 bundle of 50 terrible games. Steam is probably happy to have bundles being sold of high-quality games because it drives more and more people to use their platform.

I wouldn't worry about quality bundles. Nothing will change. Steam was already being willing and ready to deny new keys to any developers that asked for too much and didn't sell anything on the store. The only thing that really changed is that devs now know upfront how many keys they can ask for and actually get before they enter the "shady if not already selling well/AAA" category.

Ofc they'll allow Microsoft or Bethesda millions of keys if needed, but they won't to Ivan Assetflipper for his "sold 3 copies on steam, needs 400.000 keys for reasons".

It´s basically to control the external market or the "best" offers in steam key format (in other webs as fanatical, humble bundle and etc)? And to leave the "offers" on Steam itself, which in some regions are a regional theft?

Totally disappointed, for real.

If it takes effect immediately and results in higher prices (and lack of alternatives to the Steam store)... I'm sorry but I'm out of Steam, as an Argentinian.

Unfortunately, every new update they put out (over the last 5 or 6 years) is worse than the last one...

I wish we would go back to the days of the big and good events for example, like coals and others... And not the ones of the HORRENDOUS limitations (including destroying the gift trading, under the excuse of "scammers", who were NOT kicked out then and are not kicked out now. They basically wash their hands of doing what's best for them).

It´s sad :c.

There are products where countries already make such demands, that the product can't be listed as more expensive in their country than on other countries. It's really stupid when you then consider different countries have different VAT rates and whatnot, especially for product types with lower rates in some countries while being at standard rate in another (0% vs 25% as an extreme example). Idk if governments are expanding this interference into stuff like what Steam does, or maybe just gave them bad ideas

I am not sure I read it the same. It seems more about indies, so yeah DIG and IndieGala may need to worry about their bundles, but not so worried about the big ones. Gaben still likes money.

As someone who pretty much only buys games in bundles, I'm not the least bit worried about being affected by this, or that Fanatical, Humble, and other authorized key/bundle stores will be driven out of the competition (with the possible exception of certain penny-game bundle sites).

Valve has always had a very relaxed stance on keys, allowing developers to generate near limitless amounts without charging a fee - which is honestly quite consumer/developer friendly for games that are hosted, advertised, and given community space on Steam.

This seems to be an attempt to limit the hundreds of shovelware/money laundering games that have been bloating up the Steam store with products no one is actually buying.

I agree with a lot of the guys on this post, Fanatical and Humble will be safe. This also explains why the sudden increase in prices as well as the insistence on forcing to buy the whole bundle these days. Indiegala will probably move away from their bundles to focus on their store more. As for DIG, this will be the end of the site.

As others have already pointed out this is probably aimed at those devs that overprice their games in order to sell keys in shady sites and call them a deal, so I don't think this will affect the official bundle sites like Humble or Fanatical, but it will probably force IndieGala to rethink their current strategy and be the end of DIG.
As an aside, bundles have already been in decline in recent years anyway so the golden days of paying one dollar and getting three or four great games is likely not gonna come back. Under these circumstances it's tempting to think of the old backlog pile as hoarding food for a long and harsh winter.

Even if this is meant to target asset flips. The default is still 5000 release keys and 2500 beta package keys (which tend to be the full game anyway) that any developer can request. 7500 keys is still a big number of keys. I don't think this will heavily impact those kind of bundles, but possibly make them increase their price.

This isn't really a new thing, This happen years ago.

It didn't really kill anything.

Valve was sued for this policy in early 2021, so changes to text could be related to that (or not).

so this is the alternative to just 'giving steam users a better deal'.

Bundles aren't selling individual discounted games, I'm not convinced this guideline's targets are the bundles.

Steam only exists because we can buy cheaper keys outside of Steam. I haven't bought anything directly on Steam for years because it's just not worth it to me. And since new year, Steam has raised the currency conversion rate by 25% for my country, so I won't buy anything there. If the keys disappear, piracy will return.

Seeing how Hogwarts Legacy was like 10 -15 euros cheaper before launch on GMG and other sites and newer games have a tendency to be slightly discounted on other sites, I think this might be related.

Honestly I've been surprised keys are still a thing at this point, since physical games are nearly extinct, and many of those are just a box with a code in it. I thought they would have cut that off years ago. Or at least stop giving them away for free. Not that I am complaining.