SteamProphet is a game about the game of submission.
Didn't I just talk about this? How would Epic attract developers on the enterprise level? Turns out it is easy, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Turns out Epic is just gonna brute force its way in through the grand sales of The Division 2. Oh, wait the marquee is Division 2? Oh. Ok.
I can't call it, man. Video games mostly suck nowadays, and to be 100 stack emoji with you all Steam has been fucking up for a long time. It's just too much shit on there of crap quality, and when it was a walled garden there was just too much-controlled crap on there. Fine, I admit it.
But is this street fight the answer for independent developers who are crying for better curation of their games and better opportunity to make a buck? Sure the cut on Epic is lower but once again what does that matter when no one can find your game? What does that matter when a publisher is charging 80% before the cut Epic takes. Say any of them win, what does "Amazon for digital delivery" do to help the industry over the company that becomes it?
You could have all the money in the world, means nothing you can't keep the people that cared about you from the start happy. Shouts to Bezos.
The answer is none of it matters because the digital platform is out for itself, the major developers are out for themselves, and the indies are out for themselves. Only two of those variables have the money and pull to survive out there alone in this real-time survival sim.
Which sucks because the possibility of indies even existing is a very small window, from when console-based games on cartridges controlled the industry to when PC's and PC developed games got inexpensive enough to allow the garden to grow. Then we see the Majors losing ground, then we see the Minecraft outselling the Warcraft, then we see the yoke beginning to slip off the little guys and girls with big sell dreams. None of that, kiddos.
Who knows, maybe this is just the market correcting itself, maybe this is a sign that the independent gaming market is about to enter a golden age of freedom and profit. Maybe young black kids can go to the corner store at night in a California street and not have to worry about gangs or cops or lions or tigers or bears. We can dream.
Either way, let's all just see what happens.
Shouts to information, rest in peace TB rest in peace TC rest in peace Tall-T. Love is snoochie hatred is boochie, get out there and do great things I believe in you also jerbz and shit.
The protoculture mixtape : Issue : Games : Bidding
