Steam is a great avenue to pick up stragglers...so your strategy seems sound. I'd buy FOF8 and Paradox games the day its released...all others (in my case) are usually on whims...with Steam though, its about impulse.

Going forward, I won't buy games on anything but steam. For example, to use a competitor's example, I bought Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 4 late last year. Shortly afterwards, my computer blew up, and required a major rebuild.

So, with eSellerate and other such stores, I'd have to basically beg to get my license back, and risk them saying "Tough titties, you pirate".

On steam? Install steam, say "Install". Poof. Done.

It's ease of use/mind that makes steam more powerful then anything else out there.

edit: A more pertinent example.. I haven't asked you Arles to resissue licenses for the various stuff that I've purchased through your company (because of the computer going boom).. because that's a pain in the ass for all involved.. I just stopped playing, and that affects my desire to purchase new games involved

I'm fine buying elsewhere than Steam, provided it offers similar ability to redownload games. No way I'm using something like eLicense with limited activations though.

+9999999999999999999999999

I would also think that releasing on Steam from day 1, even with the % taken by Steam, if the usual number of people purchased it there rather than through the web store as they usually do and managed to get it onto the top-sellers list, it would probably have a positive impact on sales overall I would think. The top-sellers list is generally the first thing I look at when I fire up Steam.

I'm not opposed to having multiple DRM sites. I'm just opposed to having a DRM site with no compelling reason to own it, which is clearly the case right now with Origin judging by how people are voting with their purchasing power.

There's sites that sell games on Steam (Greenman Gaming, etcetera). Origin is the result of EA looking at Steam and saying "Hey, we're EA. We want some of that.". The problem is that EA is undoubtedly big in sales, one of the biggest around (possibly THE biggest if you don't count MMOs like World of Warcraft). but the amount of games available on Steam is... what, 500? 1000? times as much. So you end up using Origin (sighing all the while) when you HAVE to play an EA game.. and end up using Steam for everything else.

eLicense is the 90's / early 2000's solution. It does seem archaic now. The control panel app hasn't worked in how many years now?

and, so far, I don't HAVE to play any EA games. No Origin for me. If EA wants my money, they can put their games on Steam

The Origin thing doesn't bother me in the slightest. I installed it. It works perfectly fine for what it's supposed to do. It's not the best, not the worst. It's not invasive. I never run it unless I want to play an EA game, which is pretty rare. And when I'm not running it, it's just another in a see of icons on my desktop.

I love Steam. I think it's great. I'd definitely prefer all my games to be on it and have even bought games (on the super cheap) that I purchased through other means just to have it on Steam, but for those rare exceptions, I am fine with alternatives.

I won't buy Ubisoft games for this reason as well. I bought Settlers 7, had nothing but problems connecting to UPlay or whatever it was and generally it just made me not want to fire up the game. So yeah, I get the idea and I miss out of some stuff I'd like to try. And I still have a backlog even without Ubisoft or Origin.

Steam is the best customer experience for licensing - I love it for games as well. One of the things we have done for relicensing via Elicense is Scott Vibert and I handle all requests ourselves. We have found that it allows a quicker and better (for mass relicense for CPU issues) process. I just had a guy who had 9 licensed Grey Dog games and his HD quit. He emailed elicense and they immediately forwarded him to us and (within 24 hours), we had an email to him with all 9 licenses listed and reset.

I have a pretty good relationship with the lead developer and CEO at Viatech, so they have given us a ton of freedom and leeway. The system is not as streamlined as steam, but we have made it part of our business model to ensure customers get quick and direct responses on re-license requests.

I think the Steam model is (as many have said above), more about deals and impulse. Listing TEW 2013 on steam for 34.95 with few sales for the first year or so wouldn't provide that many additional sales than what we get from our site directly. Now, if instead, we list TEW 2010 and allow it to be priced at 19.95 with some "humble bundles" and sales, we may end up landing 1000 new TEW customers over a period of 3-4 months. If half those customers buy the newer game for $30-35 at our site, suddenly Steam is paying dividends. I look at steam as a marketing engine, no different than ads on other sites, free demo downloads and so forth. The goal is to use them to increase our overall customer base for new releases - with the idea that eventually we could hit sales totals on steam that allow it to be our main avenue (but I don't see that happening anytime soon given the success of our webstore and direct marketing effort).

The problem is the person who picks up TEW2010 on Steam isn't going to look for something on your site. They will wait until they see a newer version on Steam to pick it up.

That depends. I have found games on Steam I liked from indie developers, and then looked them up to see what other games they have released and bought those as well.

So, as an example, I bought a game in 2013 (can;t remember the title off the top of my head) that I liked (a space sim game, nice and short and sweet, but not a 4x one) and I went and bought the expansion from their website, because it wasn;t on Steam yet.

I love that stuff!

I am willing to bet that isn't the norm. I have plenty of games (more than I need) that were bought during impulse buys because of Steam sales. Some of them I have really liked but never would have even known about them if they weren't on Steam. I have no clue if the developer has anything that isn't on Steam. While I liked them, I wouldn't spend time past seeing what they had on Steam.

I'll even use the case we are talking about now as an example and this is a company and product that I know about. I might give TEW a try now that it is going to be on Steam, but it will be the version that is on Steam. WMMA is a different story, that is something that I was much more passionate about and already sought that out and purchased it. I would even do what I did with FOF7 and repurchase WMMA 4 if it were on Steam just to support the company/product.

Give me a product that I can add to my Steam library and not have to jump through hoops if I have to restore my laptop or get a different laptop (or equally important, can use on a work laptop when I go on trips). Give me a product that will update itself through Steam and I won't have to continually be directed to the web site to update it. I am several patches behind on WMMA 4 because I got tired of having to continually go back to the web site every time a new patch came out.

Given the mod/community aspect of both TEW and WMMA, I think a lot of Steam customers will visit our forums (there's a link from the game exit as well). Some may just download a mod, follow a dynasty or add their two cents on the game they bought. But, I bet a decent number will check out the other titles for sale.

At the end, this is a low risk experiment for us. If sales blow off the doors for us, maybe we consider a "sell it on greydog for 6 months and then move it to steam" model. But, even if it doesn't sell at the level needed to make that change, there still is value in getting our name out to the steam audience.

I'm in agreement with some of the others here, Steam is all I want at this point. If it's not on Steam it has to be SUPER AWESOME to get me to consider it.

agreed.

However, I'm also on board with the "sell it on developer X website for six months (or less) and then move to steam" model. There's a (maybe large) part of me that still wants to support the Gary Gorski's, Markus', Jim's of the world and have them get a bigger part of the pie of sales on products that I would buy regardless of platform and as long as it eventually went to Steam and I can get a code to fulfill my one-stop-gaming spot, then I'd be happy.

Yep, this is key. I'm always Steam, but if someone wants to start on their site to make money for even a month or two, I'm good with that as long as they offer Steam keys once they get there.

Anyone have, or pick up TEW? How do I schedule matches? In scheduling I can schedule shows but I see no where to schedule matches in a show.

When you goto the show screen on the day of your show there should be an option for add match, or add angle?

Thank you, I'll try that.

By the way my recommendation is to start out with a small promotion like MAW while you're still learning, you have a lot less to worry about and it's a great way to ease into the game.

My steam id is tough to remember... Shoveler

Just look for Michael Bolton in the pirate hat..

We are working on getting this on Steam as a guide, but here's a good starting thread for TEW:

Steam guides - Grey Dog Software

I'm doing a "Steam Amnesty" for the first 250 people of each game (WMMA3 and TEW2010) who contact me and bought the game on our site. Just an FYI if any of you guys did.

I guess I should ask since I don't have either. If I buy one of them from your site now, does it come with a key?

Thank you!

I just wanted to add that aside from being a Cards fan (I just can't forgive anyone for this, sorry), aside from that, Arlie is a pretty decent guy. Thanks!

For the first week or two of sales, we will provide a steam key to anyone with a matching elicense. So, if you did buy the game on our site (or do buy it), let me know and I can get you a key.

Hey, not everyone can root for their baseball team "the right way" :D - but thanks for the kind words anyway :)

So, with the Steam Key, how does this work? How do I install WMMA on Steam without adding it to my cart?

There's an option somewhere to enter codes at the top

It's super easy. It's one of the options along the time. Something like "activate game with steam code" or something. You click it. Past the code into the box and the game starts to download.

Super easy.

Yeah, the posts above are correct. On your top menu, click "Games" and "Activate a Product on Steam". Then, type the key code and you should see the game in your list.

Thanks guys

NO NO, DEAR GOD NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Sorry, my initial response when Steam is down... :(

Looks like I caught the servers as they went down, they are coming back up.

Anyone paying $45 for Pillars of Eternity?

I paid $50 for it a couple years ago.

Greenmangaming has it for $34. So no, I won't be paying $45. I do want to see some reviews of the game though.

Already paid, don't remember how much...didn't really care though. :)

Ok.. I prefer Steam.. so I was just wondering, not like I haven't blown that much on a game before.

gmg does give you a steam key.

Oh.. heading there now. :) Thanks!

Wow.. I don't remember ordering from them before, but I did order FM 2013 a couple years ago. Anyway paid $33.14.. thanks!

I guess they send out the Steam key the day of release?

Varies from game to game. By release you'll have a key. If they get steam keys for preloading they get them sent out early.

Thanks! I'll dig into this one a good bit Thursday since I'm on vacation. ;)

Should be release day, sometimes they get it a little late but it's worth it for what you save buying there.

I paid $20 back on September 14, 2012!