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[This is a repost from my blog, doolwind.com] Steam's having great success at the moment, with 40% market share making it the #1 platform for online game distribution. They've expanded from in-house games to publishing titles of all shapes and sizes (from Modern Warfare 2 to Osmos). I've always thought they were missing something, Steam Points. Steam Points would be to Steam as Microsoft Points are to Xbox. This entry discusses why this would be a valuable addition for Valve, developers, gamers and even retailers. Features Steam Points could be used to buy games, Downloadable Content and even in-game assets (through micro-transactions). They open up the option of gift cards rather than buying a specific game for someone. This would be perfect leading up to Christmas as non-game savvy friends and family could buy gift cards rather than guessing and thinking "Diaper Dash" is something you'd enjoy.All payment would still go through PayPal keeping the security burden on them. Keeping payment with PayPal also stops Valve from watering down their focus by becoming a merchant facility. It will simply give gamers more options with how they buy their games. Advantages for Valve - Create new revenue sources - gift cards and micro-transactions
- Encourage micro-transactions within games, increasing revenue
- Bringing more developers and gamers to their platform
- Another differentiator to their competitors (not that they really need one)
Advantages for Developers - A new revenue source
- Revenue during the life-time of the game rather than only at the point of sale
- Reduce barriers for customers as the initial cost of the game can be lower
- Micro-transactions allow more styles of games to be developed
Advantages for Gamers - Using a trust company for purchasing points. Valve isn't going bust any time soon
- Initial cost of games will be lower, increasing the number of games a player can afford
- More options for how players want to play (pay for convenience)
- Can purchase points at a retailer removing the need for a credit card
- Unifies the currency leading to less confusion for the international market
Advantages for Retailers - Gives them a simple avenue into online distribution
- Can sell cards in their shops and make a cut of online sales
- Game retailers may resist however it's similar to "iTunes credit" which most music shops now sell
Conclusion Whether you love or hate Steam, it's here to stay. I see a lot of great opportunity for Valve in the future and Steam Points are a great way to begin their move forward. Some people I've discussed this with are against the idea as they already see Valve as having a monopoly over online distribution. What do you think? Would you be happy to start spending Steam Points to buy your games and make micro-transaction? Should other platforms like Impulse use this system to differentiate themselves?
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All the way back to the Disney Dollars, I have always felt they were a way top obscure value, rather than add value.
We've all adapted to the $19.99 is not quite $20 scam, but points are ALWAYS engineered to take advantage of the customer in some way. I guess companies can't resist.
Point using companies intentionally never price in whole numbers of points / dollar value, which is why we always have some left (but never really enough to buy anything )... so we always have to buy another chunk of too many points to make the number for our next purchase.
As an example: My Xbox friends are always floating about $3-$6 of unusable points (times how many Live gold accounts?)...The yget that money in the bank for X time long before we ever actually purchase anything with it (depending on our usage)... add in the subjective value of software to start with (that $70 game is now worth $20.. why was it worth $70 5 months ago?)... it all gets kinda icky and scammy to me.
I prefer straight out dollar value. Assuming you aren't advocating any of the above, I don't see how any of your Pros are specific to Valve points rather than opening up their system to more ways for customers to spend.
Most of it would apply to Valve gift cards (like the store cards we all have now for retail) for both physical and electronic distribution, better incentives to buy smaller games. etc. How compelling is a game really, if we only buy it because we have some leftover points?
Yes it is a lot more work for international sales, with value and conversions to use money rather than shiftable value points... I just see them abused so often (from restaurants to credit card plans) that they seem kinda poisoned intrinsically now.
Then again, I'm pretty poor at the moment, I have no idea if a lot of people really buy into it (probably).
I'm also a monthly plan MMO player, and dislike Micropayment games for the same reason. It always feels scammy outside of the few games that use both models (like DDO).
I'm probably some cranky minority..
P.S. Get off my lawn!
* Using a trust company for purchasing points. Valve isn't going bust any time soon - Or you could just use U.S. Dollars. The Federal Reserve isn't going to bust any time soon (I hope...)
* Initial cost of games will be lower, increasing the number of games a player can afford - Why would points make games cheaper?
* More options for how players want to play (pay for convenience) - Also, no difference from dollars.
* Can purchase points at a retailer removing the need for a credit card - Why not just sell gift cards with a dollar value? Or a specific game?
* Unifies the currency leading to less confusion for the international market - Since points still have to cost different amounts in different currencies, all you're doing is obfuscating normal currency conversion with an additional step. It causes even more problems when, as with Microsoft Points, they cost significantly different amounts of real money in different currencies.
There are no advantages for the consumer except the possibility of supporting micropayments better than credit cards, but even that is better done simply by buying dollar-based credit and spending it a few cents at a time. No points needed.
Even the point system on XBox is a farce and MS eventually made is so you can spend hard dollars for some things.
Point systems are nothing but a hook to keep people married to the institution offering them. Kinda like all those sky miles.
There is nothing that you can do with points that you can't do with a hard dollars.
Want to give gift cards? Go ahead and buy throw-away debit cards offered by Visa, Mastercard etc. Heck, you even have cards that you can refill - and thats the kind of card I use for all my online transactions since I never have to use my debit or standard credit cards for online purchases.