Discord Store goes after Steam, Epic by offering developers more money

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: The advent of yet another digital distribution platform for games could be viewed as either a blessing or a curse. While competition is rarely a bad thing, having too much of it can create excess fragmentation (take cryptocurrency, for example).

Epic Games made headlines earlier this month with the launch of a digital games storefront offering developers a generous 88 percent revenue share. That’s far friendlier than Steam’s distribution agreement (even after a recent revision) but not quite as liberal as what Discord plans to offer developers.

Starting in 2019, Discord will open its game store to developers of all sizes with a 90 / 10 split. Discord’s small share will be used to cover the cost of operating although they say they plan to try and lower it over time through optimizing their technology and making it more efficient.

Discord launched its digital storefront in mid-October after first announcing it in August.

Something worth considering is what I call the Tidal effect. Companies like Epic and Discord have to be careful that they’re not ignoring users by over-catering to developers.

Tidal, if you recall, held a flashy media event in 2015 in which it brought several high-profile artists on stage and essentially marketed its product more towards creators than users. Artists / developers are a huge part of a digital distribution platform but they don’t need to be the center of your marketing campaign. Keep that talk for closed-door meetings and focus your outward message on the consumer.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/77874-discord-store-goes-after-steam-epic-offering-developers.html

 

[cliffordcooley]

That is assuming Discord can sell to a larger audience than Steam.

 

[Uncle Al]

Any competition is good competition, especially for the consumer. Steam has been warned by it's buying public for years about some of it's hard hotheadedness and it appears that it's starting to come true. Steam was once top of the mountain, but lately they just seem to have lost their mojo and don't seem too concerned in getting it back, so it's day may have come and gone .... maybe new leadership is the key ....

 

[kevbev89]

That is assuming Discord can sell to a larger audience than Steam.

I honestly think Discord needs a major overhaul on their store UI. It is kind of messy imo

 

[Fobus]

I think it's fine as long as there is a simple meta launcher, that holds and manages all your games from all these platforms. Unified messaging across these platforms would be a bonus.

Besides, if we could cope with every game essentially being it's own launcher in the olden days, even several game launchers now is not that big a deal, especially as an alternative to monopoly.

 

[Misagt]

At this point I'm too far down the rabbit hole to start over. I have 800 games on steam. I buy else where unless it's a DMR free product I want to activate it at steam. I have too many passwords too many accounts with too many companies. It got to be a really good game to get me to invest in a new account. Yet alone building a new library.

 

[m4a4]

I haven't bother looking into it yet, but I know Steam supports adding non-Steam games to your library (just don't know how well they'll link if they need to go through another launcher).

Otherwise yes, digital distribution is becoming too fragmented. I might be spoiled by Steam, but I don't like having to look for stuff if I don't need to (this goes for all types of media)...

 

[psycros]

That is assuming Discord can sell to a larger audience than Steam.

If they can either provide a friendlier store and at least match Steam's average prices or undercut Steam signifigantly, they will be able to carve out a niche. Discord is the #1 gaming VOIP service so unlike Epic and the rest they already have a foot in the door with potential customers.

 

[Vrmithrax]

I'm guessing the "new guys" to the digital distribution platform business will be fighting to 1-up each other until they manage to cannibalize each others' consumer base enough that most (or all) fail to gain enough momentum. And Steam won't care until they get big enough to be annoying, then they'll ponderously do something to try to squash their adversaries.

But Steam should be careful, it's easy to be overconfident and complacent when you are at the top. They have a huge user base and history, but newcomers these days often like new and different (or trendy) as opposed to old and proven. Steam could find its user base stagnating and/or declining if they don't stay on top of things, and one of these upstarts could end up usurping the top dog.

 

[Trillionsin]

Developers may be offered higher % but will ultimately net less income this way. .

disappointing.

 

[Evernessince]

I wonder if the consumer will see reduce prices on these lower fee platforms.

 

[BSim500]

I wonder if the consumer will see reduce prices on these lower fee platforms.

That's about as likely as the "price-cut" we're still waiting for from 'passing on' the lower costs of digital vs physical distribution...

 

[Mister_K]

At this point I'm too far down the rabbit hole to start over. I have 800 games on steam. I buy else where unless it's a DMR free product I want to activate it at steam. I have too many passwords too many accounts with too many companies. It got to be a really good game to get me to invest in a new account. Yet alone building a new library.

I agree, HOWEVER.

As an online gamer, I use Discord in conjunction with Steam. Now that Discord will be offering games, if the deal is better than Steam I will buy on Discord and have no issue with it. Steam and Discord go hand in hand, if you play online games and communicate with steam 99.9% of the times you will have Discord (because TS, Vent, Skype are ****).