Valve is messing around with Their Party Steam Sales

Taleweaver

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I don't think you've read that article correctly, Sanic. It's about game developers and distributors who request stream keys for their own games. Since devs want to give away free keys (eg to streamers) or sell them elsewhere, they can do this. Steam only takes a cut of the game if it is actually sold on steam. Since steam also allows games to generate trading cards which can be gathered (farmed) and sold, this can lead to games that just facilitate a way to make money (albeit a little) by just generating a whole bunch of cards for stupid achievements (I recently played a game that steam-awarded me three times for doing the amazing task of starting the first level:P).
Tha article is about that practice being... Well... Just hindered, from what I can tell. They just limit how many free keys you can get if the request isn't matching your sales on steam.

Perhaps you've accidentally linked to the wrong article, but i don't see anything regarding steam sales or buying anything in bulk.
 
Last edited by Taleweaver,

Tom Bombadildo

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Taleweaver would indeed be correct, this rule will do absolutely nothing to any normal user using Steam, this is purely for devs/publishers.

This new "rule" Valve is enforcing is supposed to stop game devs/publishers (mainly indie devs, honestly) from abusing the key generation system, effectively creating a "free" Steam game that Valve doesn't receive any cut from.

The main reason this is becoming a thing is because devs generally give streamers and Youtubers a few dozen keys to just give away to viewers, which can obviously cut into Steam's profits quite a bit. For big games that get hundreds of thousands of sales that's not a problem. But when some junky $10 indie game that only sells a few hundred copies starts requesting 1000 keys to give to streamers or Youtubers for them to give away, it becomes a bigger issue. Valve doesn't get a cut from those 1000 keys, effectively "losing money" on that game's listing.
 

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