Steam Releases in 2017
I think its fair to say that Steam has the PC gaming market pretty well sewn up. This, in itself, is rather funny. I remember the first games I ever encountered that required Steam (around 2003 I think) and remember hating it. I could not stand Steam.
Well, around 15 years later and about 340 games in my library later would suggest I’ve come around to Gabe Newell’s way of thinking.
In what will surely be no surprise to anyone who games on PC. 2017 was a good year for Steam. With the company recently revealing its best selling games (or highest earning) there weren’t that many surprises, although definitely a few.
What is, however, surprising is that in 2017, Steam has revealed in a report via PCGamesN that over 7,600 individual games were released on the platform. That’s around 21 new games each and every day.
Certain advantages
There are of course certain advantages that Steam has over console publishers. For a start, their publishing fees are significantly lower and they don’t have to deal with any pesky companies like Sony or Nintendo wanting their slice of commission.
In addition, making games for the PC is remarkably accessible. Nearly anyone can do it and in addition, they can utilize Steams Greenlight or Early Access to really help budding or cash-strapped developers get their game out there.
There are of course downsides to this, one such is the growing criticism that Steam does host a lot of low-quality shovelware games. Something the company has looked to address, but that being said, I’d be willing to bet that at least a third (and I think I’m being kind) of that 7,600 would possibly fall into that category.
They might, therefore, have just broken their own concurrent player record, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they were all playing good games.
What do you think? Should they concentrate on monitoring the games it currently has? Should it look to publish more? – Let us know in the comments!
