I don't know much about the games side of valve, just comics and what they tell me about their plans. But i would assume based on the conversations i had with everyone there that it is going to be a publisher by publisher basis. I'm sure that valve is going to be collecting a ton of data about macs and steam play over the coming months. I don't think they are going to campaign for publishers to use it, but if publishers are curious the data will be there for them.J T wrote:Hey Nickfil, I wonder if you know the answer to a question I have about this.
Is it up to the publisher to decide if they want to use Steam Play, or is it up to Valve?
As a consumer, I would like Steam Play applied to all games that can be played on both Mac and PC, but I can see publishers wanting people to buy a copy for Mac and a copy for PC. They have to do the work for both, so they will want compensation.
And if the publisher is left to decide, do you guys have some data that would persuade publishers to use Steam Play? The demographic for Steam Play is really people that own both a Mac and PC. I would imagine that if you collected data on how many people in that demographic actually buy the same game on both platforms and compared it against the increased likelihood to purchase a game knowing that it could be played across both platforms, then the data would probably support Steam Play, but it's hard to know without looking at numbers.
Ultimately, I know that valve doesn't want to dictate how anyone should build their game. They just provide options. What will convince publishers is if a ton of mac players jump in steam. If it is a bigger market than they assume it is, and a market willing to spend some cash.
