Steam revenue estimated 2024: $10.8B

Google Play Store gaming revenue 2024: ~$31B

Why doesn’t Valve want a part of that? I mean they already have an Android app. Several, actually. I realize there’s some amount of investment but surely the payoff is worth it, and they have the necessary funds and skills? I mean if F-Droid can do it with nothing but volunteers and grants…?

Certainly plenty of games won’t lend themselves well to the mobile experience but also plenty of them do.

From a personal perspective: I don’t really care a whole lot for mobile games but I do like Balatro and want to play it on my phone, but if I want to do that I have to buy another license, which I can’t even do because I don’t run Google Play Services.

Epic got in on this already. Where’s Valve?

Edit: my reflections on this conversation:

Valve could distribute their own app like Epic but they’d also probably have to remove it from the Play Store because now a cross-platform game would give them an Android version, thus breaking Google’s ToS. So would doing such a thing outweigh lost sales from the Google version, and would it impact customer satisfaction? I wonder how many people are actually purchasing PC games in the Steam Android app…?

  • Evkob (they/them)@lemmy.ca
    10·
    11 days ago

    Paragraph 4.5 of Google Play’s Developer Distribution Agreement is a rather large barrier. I’ll paste it here:

    4.5 You may not use Google Play to distribute or make available any Product that has a purpose that facilitates the distribution of software applications and games for use on Android devices outside of Google Play.

    I’d wager the majority of Android users have never downloaded an application other than from the Google Play Store. Even among those who would try, a large amount of them would probably get scared off by the “unverified sources” popup Android gives you if you try to install an app in another manner.

    • Ulrich@feddit.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      11 days ago

      That’s like saying Amazon has a “barrier” to online sales because they refuse to allow Target to sell products on their site for free. They’re competing services, why would they allow that?

      I’d wager the majority of Android users have never downloaded an application other than from the Google Play Store.

      Developers most often distribute software outside of official repos in Windows and MacOS, and they do so successfully.

      It’s not that hard, you just follow the prompts on the screen.

        • Ulrich@feddit.orgOPEnglish
          1·
          11 days ago

          The average user already uses Windows and/or MacOS, and I would argue those installation procedures are far more complicated.

          • missingno@fedia.io
            6·
            11 days ago

            The average person has never had to install Windows or MacOS, they buy a computer with it pre-installed. And they buy phones with Google Play pre-installed.

            • Ulrich@feddit.orgOPEnglish
              1·
              11 days ago

              We’re not talking about installing an operating system. I’m not suggesting Steam create their own OS (although they’re also doing that). We’re talking about installing an app.

              • missingno@fedia.io
                3·
                11 days ago

                Then why did you bring it up?

                The average user already uses Windows and/or MacOS, and I would argue those installation procedures are far more complicated.

                  • missingno@fedia.io
                    2·
                    11 days ago

                    You didn’t explain anything. You said it’s easier than installing Windows, and then you said you weren’t talking about installing Windows. Huh?