Hello everyone
I usually don't post in these kind of forums as I have become a behind-the-scenes guy.
However, I think I might be able to add something the this conversation here.
For many years I have been working as a 3D artist and animator for the PC gaming industry. I have been involved in many projects for different simulation platforms and worked with publishers many of you here in the forums will know very well. I have also worked with Dovetail games in the past.
When I joined a small group that wanted to create a DLC for Train Simulator we discussed at lengths which publisher we would want to contact. In the end we turned to the largest outlets online and sold it through them. After about a year or so we decided to give steam a go. As mentioned above, steam take roughly a 30% cut and Dovetail also take a cut sinc all Trainsim DLC has to be sold through their shop. Therefore, the income per sold unit is minimal. We had to adjust the product slightly and change a few things before it was approved. After a brief testing period it went on sale on steam...and I haven't looked back since.
Yes, the profit per sold unit is low, but boy oh boy steam really churns out copies left right and center. The sold units quickly overtook everything we had sold in the previous year on several other platforms combined and kept shooting up.
I have since been involved in further products, many of which have made it onto steam and the result is always the same. If we believe the official figures there are currently 125 million active users on steam. All can be reached with a simple ad on their steam page.
Personally, I would have preferred if someone...anyone would have come up with a brand new, up to date platform for flightsim. Sort of a DCS for civil aviation (only on a grander scale), but somehow that hasn't happened.
I also believe that Dovetail are making a big mistake by requiring third party developers to go through them regardless. At least in trainsim the developer can produce products and sell them individually without ever going anywhere near steam or Dovetail. It sounds like this time around we would have to sell in tandem on steam and externally to be allowed to go to market in the first place. That is simply a very bad plan.
Having said that, I would urge all developers to take a very good look at steam. It has quickly become the go-to platform for PC games and reaches millions of customers with a few mouse clicks.
Personally, I hope that PMDG, FSLabs, Aerosoft, JustFlight and co all reach an agreement with Dovetail and that this new platform will flourish. If not, well then we just have to move on and FSW will go the same way as Flight.
Either way, interesting times.
Kind regards
Stefan Lorenz
PS: Please understand that I cannot give more specific data on anything than what I have mentioned above.
