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Comment by thefreeman | Hacker News Reader

Steam as a platform has done amazing things for gaming and independent developers. ~70% of the revenue from steam games goes to the developers. This was absolutely unheard of in the past.

edit: I was totally wrong about trading used games. My bad.

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> Steam games are all digitally tied to your account, and can be traded / exchanged between accounts just like a physical disc.

Huh?

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6748-ETS...

> Does Steam Trading mean I can sell my used games?

> No, only games that have been bought as a gift, and thus have never been played, can be traded. Once the Steam Gift is opened and added to your game library, you won’t be able to trade it again.

Didn't the european court rule not too long ago that the resale of "used" digital software is legal and has to be an option for owners?

http://www.dw.de/oracle-loses-court-fight-over-software-resa...

Unfortunately this is why steam software is "rented forever" not "sold" to you.

> ~70% of the revenue from steam games goes to the developers

So, when Black Ops II made a billion dollars (http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/12/05/news-black-ops-2-grosse...), steam made ~430 million? That's huge!

IIRC, Valve negotiates a different cut with each developer, and requires them to keep their terms secret. I would not be surprised if Activision ended with more favorable terms than your average indie studio.

No, as the vast majority of Black Ops 2 copies sold will have been the console version.

Most of those sales would be on the PS3 or Xbox 360 where Valve won't take a cut.

Steam is terrible for most indie developers compared to android, iOS, windows store or Xbox (if we include indie games). All of these charge for entry, but only steam makes it a lottery with terribly bad odds (via greenlight)

I like Steam because of its selectivity. I can buy a game on Steam with a certain level of confidence that it will be a professional product. There's nothing wrong with selectivity on Steam because it's not the only option. That's not the case with the app stores on iOS or Windows Phone.

You have to learn about the huge wave of extremely bad games that killed the Atari platform.

All the other consoles closed-certification schemes are just made to prevent this from ever happening again.

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