{"id":254,"date":"2009-11-11T12:05:12","date_gmt":"2009-11-11T02:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/?p=254"},"modified":"2009-11-11T12:05:12","modified_gmt":"2009-11-11T02:05:12","slug":"would-steam-points-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/would-steam-points-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Would Steam Points Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/images\/blog\/steampoints.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" title=\"Steam Points\" src=\"http:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/images\/blog\/steampoints.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"251\" height=\"82\" \/><\/a>Steam&#8217;s having great success at the moment, with 40% market share making it the #1 platform for online game distribution.\u00a0 They&#8217;ve expanded from in-house games to publishing titles of all shapes and sizes (from <a href=\"http:\/\/modernwarfare2.infinityward.com\/games.php\">Modern Warfare 2<\/a> to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hemispheregames.com\/osmos\/\">Osmos<\/a>).\u00a0 I&#8217;ve always thought they were missing something, Steam Points. \u00a0Steam Points would be to Steam as\u00a0Microsoft Points are to Xbox.\u00a0 This entry discusses why this would be a valuable addition for Valve, developers, gamers and even retailers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Features<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Steam Points could be used to buy games, Downloadable Content and even in-game assets (through micro-transactions).\u00a0 They open up the option of gift cards rather than buying a specific game for someone.\u00a0 This would be perfect leading up to Christmas as non-game savvy friends and family could buy gift cards rather than guessing and thinking &#8220;Diaper Dash&#8221; is something you&#8217;d enjoy.<\/p>\n<p>All payment would still go through PayPal keeping the security burden on them.\u00a0 Keeping payment with PayPal also stops Valve from watering down their focus by becoming a merchant facility.\u00a0 It will simply give gamers more options with how they buy their games.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Advantages for Valve<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Create new revenue sources &#8211; gift cards and      micro-transactions<\/li>\n<li>Encourage micro-transactions within games,      increasing revenue<\/li>\n<li>Bringing more developers and gamers to their      platform<\/li>\n<li>Another differentiator to their competitors      (not that they really need one)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Advantages for Developers<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A new revenue source<\/li>\n<li>Revenue during the life-time of the game rather      than only at the point of sale<\/li>\n<li>Reduce barriers for customers as the initial      cost of the game can be lower<\/li>\n<li>Micro-transactions allow more styles of games      to be developed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Advantages for Gamers<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Using a trust company for purchasing      points.\u00a0 Valve isn&#8217;t going bust any      time soon<\/li>\n<li>Initial cost of games will be lower, increasing the      number of games a player can afford<\/li>\n<li>More options for how players want to play (pay      for convenience)<\/li>\n<li>Can purchase points at a retailer removing the      need for a credit card<\/li>\n<li>Unifies the currency leading to less confusion for the international market<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Advantages for Retailers<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gives them a simple avenue into online      distribution<\/li>\n<li>Can sell cards in their shops and make a cut of      online sales<\/li>\n<li>Game retailers may resist however it&#8217;s similar      to &#8220;iTunes credit&#8221; which most music shops now sell<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong> Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Whether you love or hate Steam, it&#8217;s here to stay.\u00a0 I see a lot of great opportunity for Valve in the future and Steam Points are a great way to begin their move forward.\u00a0 Some people I&#8217;ve discussed this with are against the idea as they already see Valve as having a monopoly over online distribution.\u00a0 What do you think?\u00a0 Would you be happy to start spending Steam Points to buy your games and make micro-transaction?\u00a0 Should other platforms like Impulse use this system to differentiate themselves?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steam&#8217;s having great success at the moment, with 40% market share making it the #1 platform for online game distribution.\u00a0 They&#8217;ve expanded from in-house games to publishing titles of all shapes and sizes (from Modern Warfare 2 to Osmos).\u00a0 I&#8217;ve always thought they were missing something, Steam Points. \u00a0Steam Points would be to Steam as\u00a0Microsoft <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/would-steam-points-work\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[112,48,49,52,68,69,79],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-game-development","tag-microsoft","tag-modern-warfare-2","tag-osmos","tag-steam","tag-steam-points","tag-valve"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgEc5-46","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doolwind.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}