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

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According to this link generation of keys will be much more strict than in the past. If these guidelines are really enforced by steam it seems to be game over for bundles.

  • “It is important that you don’t give Steam customers a worse deal than Steam Key purchasers” thus, the company emphasizes its stance on price parity, demanding that developers don’t sell their titles at lower prices than on Steam
  • “If you request an extreme number of keys and you are not offering Steam customers a comparable deal, or if your sole business is selling Steam Keys and not offering value to Steam customers, your request may be denied and you may lose the privilege to request keys,”

So it seems like at least indiegala has to look into another business model.

1 year ago*

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57 Comments
Fluffster

Sounds like Steam should be the one making it more attractive to buy keys directly on Steam rather than on key stores. And I'm not talking about useless points either...

I think it's a real bad move from Steam considering the Epic competition and that the one thing they have over Epic really is, well... bundles and key sellers.

1 year ago
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PaganFears

It's quite often not Steam's fault, but the publishers' / developers'. Lots of them will sooner agree to sell their game to a Humble Monthly for 50 cents a piece than do a say 75% off sale for 5 EUR on Steam itself. I presume they try to keep the game's value higher for the more casual buyers on Steam.

I don't think there's much new here, it's just a slight amendment to the policy they followed since 2018. Don't think it will affect bundles or key sellers much. I also don't think that bundles and key sellers are that important to Steam's success. They are rather niche and don't bring any direct revenue for Steam.

1 year ago
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Fluffster

They are rather niche and don't bring any direct revenue for Steam.

I don't think they're niche. Just judging from reddit, here and other places people are discussing Steam games (including Steam forums), you can definitely see a spike in discussion about games (or number of players on HLTB stats) after a game is in a bundle for example.
They might not conntribute any revenue to Steam but they help maintain its quasi monopoly.
The more games people have on their Steam library, as opposed to others, the more likely they are to keep playing, and buying games on Steam and not Epic, EA, Xbox pass, Ubisoft etc.

They may not make money directly from it but it does keep them in business.

Not to say Steam will disappear or anything. I'm not an alarmist and I'd rather wait and see what happens whenever changes are made.
If this is an old change that's been reworded a bit, it may not change anything at all.

1 year ago
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BernardoOne

This is not a move at all, the policy remains the exact same as it has been for a decade.

1 year ago
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Fluffster

Good then.

1 year ago
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Nixxi

Good, fuck bundles.

1 year ago
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BernardoOne

No. This isn't a new limit, nothing has changed.

1 year ago
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Yorickmeister

Guys stop looking to bundles, look to xb game pass. Wo Long is available tomorrow for all gp owners, who don't know - it's clone Sekrio.
I really don't want to collect games in library anymore, I want to get game experience.
I think steam should provide a dynamic subscription, for example - every 3 months new list of games. If game is really good for player, he will definitely buy it.

1 year ago
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devotee

It's the end of the bundles as we know it (and I feel fine)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY

1 year ago
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