Fallout 76 - Won't Launch on Steam

I've read the responses to my last post, and I agree I might be overestimating the importance of Steam.

JDR obviously understood what I meant though, which was that since I'm not going to buy FO76 on the first day, there's a high chance I'll never buy it. Because what I do if I'm slightly interested in a game is I'll wishlist it on Steam, and further down the road the chance is pretty damn high I'll actually buy the game too, since I visit my wishlist whenever I don't know what game to play.

Like I said, I would gladly play ME3. But it's Origin only, and that means that whenever I'm on the lookout for something new to play, I will be reminded of some other game instead.

I might be in a very small minority though, but I never use the other platforms except for when out to purchase a specific game, which usually means it's a Day 1 purchase. Day 10, 100 or 1000, of it's not on Steam, I've probably forgotten about it.
 
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I might be in a very small minority though, but I never use the other platforms except for when out to purchase a specific game, which usually means it's a Day 1 purchase. Day 10, 100 or 1000, of it's not on Steam, I've probably forgotten about it.

I don't think that minority is very small at all if indeed it even is the minority. I suspect a lot of people have one platform that they stick to almost exclusively.
 
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Steam is simply a nice central library, despite all of its evil (both real and imagined). A game has to be pretty damn outstanding to convince me to install another client; at the end of the day, I have enough of a backlog without jumping through that hurdle.

Additionally, it's a saturated market these days and another Rust clone is hardly what I would call a must-have experience worthy of a proprietary launch platform. It's a test for things to come, of just how much consumers are willing to swallow, before moving forward with other projects.
 
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I've read the responses to my last post, and I agree I might be overestimating the importance of Steam.

JDR obviously understood what I meant though, which was that since I'm not going to buy FO76 on the first day, there's a high chance I'll never buy it. Because what I do if I'm slightly interested in a game is I'll wishlist it on Steam, and further down the road the chance is pretty damn high I'll actually buy the game too, since I visit my wishlist whenever I don't know what game to play.

Like I said, I would gladly play ME3. But it's Origin only, and that means that whenever I'm on the lookout for something new to play, I will be reminded of some other game instead.

I might be in a very small minority though, but I never use the other platforms except for when out to purchase a specific game, which usually means it's a Day 1 purchase. Day 10, 100 or 1000, of it's not on Steam, I've probably forgotten about it.

Sure, that makes sense.

My point was that you WILL be aware of it - even if you don't want to buy it on day one.

Not only because it's Bethesda/ZeniMax and they're always marketing their games - regardless. That's why you still see the occasional huge Skyrim/Fallout poster on a variety of game sites whenever they release an expansion or some kind of new edition.

But also because FO76 is going to be an online game providing a perpetual service. They simply won't let you forget that it exists :)

No matter where you go when you're online, you will be seeing a FO76 poster long after release, eventually. Trust me ;)

Well, unless it absolutely flops - which is, of course, a possiblity - though I don't think it will. I'm also not at all certain it will be a big hit.

As I specifically pointed out - the people who are GENUINELY excited about FO76 - will be getting this REGARDLESS of the platform, except for what I would like to claim is a tiny, tiny minority - which is where the 1% guess comes in.

For the "grey area" potential consumers - as in, those like you who might get it one day or they might not - Steam could be a potential factor, but that would have to mean they'll never - ever - reach a state where they're genuinely excited and interested - because then they would obviously just go download whatever client is needed.

Especially for a game like FO76 - which would require a separate client from Steam whether or not it was available from there.

Then there's the small matter of PC only representing a segment of potential consumers, either way. I have no numbers Googled, but if the combined PC consumer base is much more than 30-40% for Bethsoft games - I'd be surprised.

So, the "combined" losses for sidestepping Steam represents a limited segment of 30-40% of the potential consumer base.

Since Steam takes somewhere between 30% and 35% of ALL revenue for each copy sold - my admittedly limited math skills tell me that even if EVERY SINGLE potential PC consumer (those who're not absolutely in with the game) refused to buy FO76 because it's not on Steam - the loss would be quite manageable.

And it would absolutely not be an awareness issue.

That is my claim.
 
Steam is simply a nice central library, despite all of its evil (both real and imagined). A game has to be pretty damn outstanding to convince me to install another client; at the end of the day, I have enough of a backlog without jumping through that hurdle.

Following that site, this product is going to be outstanding by its badness. Bethesda vanilla versions are so bad they need mods to be bearable to play.

With a distribution coming with paid mode and steam distribution coming without those paid mods, the more outstanding, the better.
 
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