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Valve, as usual, is keeping their Steam sales figures a secret and refusing to release them to the public or NPD. Steam is Portal 2 developer Valve's digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer, and communication service. According to the head of Steam, Jason Holtman, the service provides publishers and developers with "rapid and perfected" information so releasing the sales figures to the public isn't beneficial.
According to GI.biz, with Steam, publishers and developers know through hourly updates of download figures exactly how people are responding to marketing efforts. These numbers are what Steam and Valve think are important, not charts.
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Holtman explains it by saying, “What’s important [for publishers and developers] to know is exactly how your game is doing – why it’s climbing and why it’s falling. Your daily sales, your daily swing, your rewards for online campaign number three. That’s what we provide.”
In the end, information is power and Valve has no reason to release the sales numbers to the public. Being the big dog in the digital distribution era allows them to know what works; by not releasing the sales numbers they give their competition less information on the size and demographic of the market. It's a smart business move, and at the end of the day Valve is a privately held company.
People are saying "PC games are dying" and Valve clearly doesn't think so. They could release digital numbers to debunk the theory but have chosen not, probably because of how well their titles have sold.
Refusing to release the sales data hasn't seemed to have hindered Steam in any way, but it does throw a wrench in the NPD's attempt to show digital sales. The US tracker shows the hardware and software sales each month and has adopted integrating digital sales into their methods, but with the exclusion of Steam sales, their data will never be correct as (presumably) a large portion of PC gamers use Steam and only Steam.
What do you think of Steam not releasing it sales data? Do you think they should change or keep true to their own system? It seems to be working, after all.
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Comments
Displaying 1–16 of 16
germany1993
Everyone of their games are amazing, so do the numbers really matter? OH NO I dont know how many copys of L4D2 they sold! IM GONNA GO SHOOT SOMEONE! Numbers don't matter to much.
2ez4u2c
Just out of sheer curiosity I'd kind of like to see the exact numbers, but at the same time I dont see a good reason for them to do so for the time being and I'm certainly not about to fault them for withholding information generated through their own service.
l4mpshade
Long live Steam! Easily, the best part about Steam is how simplistic it is to receive a PC game. Secondly: I don't have to stand in line at midnight release party. Third: if I'm patient enough I get ridiculously cheap games (ie: Borderlands: GOTY, got it for <$8 last week!) which is really awesome considering that PC gamers cannot sell back games. And lastly, I don't have to worry about keeping track of CDs/DVDs. Hell, even if my hard drive crashes I can just reinstall Steam and begin downloading my games immediately.
I can't imagine how PC games would be failing with Steam making purchasing so easy and ,at times, affordable to everyone.
jasonmicron
The only folks that would care would be investors. I don't know if Valve is publicly traded or not, however if they were I would imagine that they would be releasing this information.
strangeboi63
@UK_John
Consoles have a definitive architecture and hardware parameter, and in that there are companies that develop with that in mind. While PC has a center point of hardware consideration instead of a "box" (forgive me for the pun) to build around. As well if Valve wont tell you can't say how well or poorly sales have gone.
There are those of us that prefer a more customizable and higher quality of gaming experience. Those are PC gamers. We have a MUCH lower mouthy kid factor and can run three 23" (which es teh shiznit) monitors and get games for 10% cheaper in almost all occasions. And Valve caters to us. For that they get to make MAD amounts of cash.
And on a side note I was a console gamer for years, but finally grew tired of the less than articulate controls.
UK_John
The problem is if PC sales are dropping off substantially (down 30% or more in 3 years, and Valve doesn't tell the industry, it will not be able to react quick enough.
I think Steam has too much power, and if a title like GTA IV didn't sell well on Steam, could that be the reason Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption and L.A.. Noire is coming out for console only?
strangeboi63
I think they should keep on doing what they have been doing for some time now. Although it would be nice to put an end to the "pc is dead" rant from a bunch of over glorified thumb wrestlers. It's not hard to login and see 2.9 MILLION active users on any given day. DICE wised up and is porting to (not from) console with BF3. PC gaming IS more versatile at almost ANY point of measure.
I'm just sayin'
Avalanche33
I buy alot from steam because they have tons of discounts every week and your games get updated automatically. I love to have the cd in my hands but not when it requires the cd to play the game. With steam its just a couple clicks and your playing a game and can play it on my desktop or my laptop.
cwbys21
All numbers do is fan the fires of fan boy wars. Just so long as great games make enough to get a sequel, I don't care.
Mystyr_E
I think they're too busy swimming in their money Scrooge McDuck style to release sales figures
MartiansfromUranus
Valve: "We sold alot. Duh."
x-chicken
THE NUMBERS MASON. WHAT DO THEY MEAN?
They're *in* the computer?
x-chicken
THE NUMBERS MASON. WHAT DO THEY MEAN?
They're *in* the computer?
Shiboe
People purchase from steam. It's easier, it's better, and very often, it's cheaper. I feel this goes a long way to explaining why people think computer gaming is dying, and why they are wrong. Same as people who say desktops and laptops are dying IMO.
TheBRADLeyB
WHAT DO THE NUMBERS MEAN MASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
balss248
to be honest, valve is such a big company, i dont think it really matters if they choose not to show there sales, because we know what the sales already are.
in short: "hey, remember that valve game that was bad and didnt sell good?"
me neither
Displaying 1–16 of 16
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