I have a mixed opinion of Valve, in one hand I love them. In my other hand I feel should I trust them? As far as digital distributors go, they care about other devs, since they are developers themselves more than well... every other digital distributor.
Same, since the game is going to be partly free to play, I don't think the devs can afford the fees involved in hosting on steam.
I say yes but not as requirement. Think of DC Universe Online, I think that works also without Steam, for example on the PS3 you don't need steam to place DCUO. But as an optional tool it would be cool as it would bring additional marketing to casuals and those who use steam for everything or want easy to share screenshots etc. on their steam account. So: Why not?
Well me neither, I just see a win-win. Steam is a good place for marketing itself as it has many visitors and users. So I just think the more the merrier.
I think Steam is an ideal source for the game on PC/Mac. They do have their share of MMO games at the moment.
Not to forget Steam hosts more and more MMO's besides DCUO they also host Prime World, Global Agenda and a few others. EDIT: people could perhaps buy stuff for the cash shop also probably over Steam? (At least DLC's / Add-Ons which make payments & downloading easier too)
Valve takes a percentage cut from all purchases made via their service. OR They charge the developer a quarterly fee for the use of steam. I don't know the full extent to the costs involved involving Valve, but the only way to get "free" hosting on Steam is though Greenlight and it's only free so long as your game is completely free, as in no in-game cash shop or making use of steam features, otherwise the standard contract applies. Valve are no where near as brutal in their cuts as say... Microsoft is. But they do take enough that in the case of games which are free to play with cash shops or have a Freemium system going on, Valve in the contract take a percentage from every purchase players make to buy in game cash shop currency. Theoretical Example: Someone places a Free 2 Play MMO on Steam and makes use of the Steam API and Steam Features because well... gamers love steam and developers who can afford it make use of steam because well steam is rad. Under the contract Valve requests that the use of their service to gain a proffit means Value legally would like to take a royalty fee for the use of their service. In which case it's let's say in this contract, 10% of income. So a player decides to make a cash shop purchase of $5.00 so they get 2500 Hoopaloopaz, which is the Premium currency of said theoretical MMO. Out of that Valve take 50 cents. That doesn't seem a lot, well no it doesn't. Even less when only part of your population uses the Steam client rather than your own Client to play the game. However, this is only fine if you can afford it and usually developers with a massive player base can afford it, like say Perfect World for example. When a game only has a population of around ~50 to ~200 000 players (which is the average size of most "successful" MMOs, success meaning it actually maintains a large enough population that it isn't canceled or the studio suffers financially, in other words a healthy MMO) and said MMO doesn't restrict content to F2P players but instead offers a cosmetic cash shop and a single payment to upgrade to unlock the rest of the game akin to a Buy to Play game. That is where the problem arises, can the developers afford the 50 cents or more Valve take from every purchase made by the 1% who always buy the $5 or more packages every day, the 1% of that 200 000 players who are the only people who consistently buy things? Only 60% of the population actually upgrades and that's all they might purchase, some may make one or two purchases because they want that really neat hat, 40% may choose to simply play for free, not to mention likely half of said 40% are game hoppers who move from one MMO to the next because they are bored and F2P games have a lot of said people.
Nice explanation! I have nothing to counter at this point and can only leave with saying: I guess that has bE to discuss with Valve if they want something like that / how to handle it if bE would like to go steampowered.
