Online gaming became a demanded and well-developed industry where aggregators like Steam, Origin, and Humble Bundle allow creators to earn by distributing the playing experience among these platforms’ subscribers. Business models, policies, and procedures are mostly similar: platforms earn from advertisement, subscriptions, and by taking the percentage of sales revenues, have strict guidelines and moderation for content. Steam and Humble Bundle allow independent creators to place their products, while Origin requires employment due to its strict European regulations (Origin, Steam, Humble Bundle, 2020). These aggregators’ main advantage is that they allow a user to play, share, and download an unlimited number of games on a monthly subscription basis or by paying for each game separately (Sivakumar, 2020). The cons for the creators are the moderation policies, revenue share requirements, and limiting technical parameters.
Steam is the most appropriate aggregator to use because it allows adding various products, while Humble Bundle is limited by the games of certain types such as indie or strategy. Moreover, Steam’s content criteria are related to violence and malware software without a particular plot or content requirements (Steam, 2020). Both Steam and Humble Bundle do not provide distributors’ authority rights, which is beneficial for the game creators due to the elimination of legal responsibility with future customers.
Steam offers more services for independent creators because of the variety of integrations. Both Humble Bundle and Steam can be streamed on YouTube for profitable content distribution (Game Designing, 2020). However, Steam offers to save and share games or streams through multiple social media platforms to gain traffic (In, 2019). A game developer only needs to pay a $100 fee for placement on Steam for unlimited distribution, while on Humble Bundle, the developer has to earn at least $250 of revenue to get the first pay off (Humble Bundle, 2020). Both platforms allow a client to set a price and offer the strategies to evaluate a product for making it profitable (Steam, 2020). According to business models, aggregators earn by deducting a percentage from sales of content distributed through them. Steam takes 30% of revenue from a game’s income, and Humble Bundle charges 25% (Game Designing, 2020). However, a creator can withdraw the money from Steam without any time limits or minimal earnings requirements (Steam, 2020). After comparing Steam to competitors, it became evident that this platform is the most suitable. It allows more freedom for a creator’s product management and has better partnership conditions with more flexible policies.
References
Frequently asked questions. (2020). Origin. Web.
Gamers making millions on Youtube: 2019. Game Designing. Web.
Humble store FAQ for developers. (2020). Humble Bundle. Web.
In, J. (2019). Game marketing strategies to reach gamers. Juicer Social Media Aggregator. Web.
Joining the Steamworks distribution program. (2020). Steam. Web.
Sivakumar, B. (2020). How does Steam work: Steam business model. Feedough. Web.