Needless to say, Steam made big bucks in 2010. Will we go all digital in five years?
If recent numbers gathered by Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE) are correct, then brick-and-mortar retail shops definitely have something to worry about in regards to physical products vs. digital counterparts. If anything, the numbers show that digital distribution is growing at an incredible rate as gamers migrate to online "shops" like the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and Valve Software's Steam.
According to the firm, Steam alone had an estimated revenue of $970 million USD in 2010. Its biggest-selling game for the year was Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops for $98.2 million followed by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for $39.4 million. Its third largest selling game for the year was Valve's own Left 4 Dead 2 which raked in an impressive $36 million. Steam even took in an estimated $213 million in December alone, probably due to its crazy year-end holiday sale.
"Steam's growth has been remarkable during the year," said FADE director of research and analysis Benjamin Schlichter. "Over 180 titles were estimated reaching over $1 million USD in revenue for the year, painting a very healthy market for developers and publishers, with more room for growth in the future."
Here's the top selling titles on Steam for 2010:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision) - $98.2 Million USD
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision) - $39.4 Million USD
- Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve) - $36.0 Million USD
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Electronic Arts) - $25.4 Million USD
- Sid Meier's Civilization V (2K Games) - $21.9 Million USD
- Portal (Valve) - $20.0 Million USD
- Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda Softworks) - $17.0 Million USD
- Metro 2033 (THQ) - $13.4 Million USD
- Mafia II (2K Games) - $11.9 Million USD
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising (THQ) - $10.8 Million USD
Keep in mind that the Steam numbers only reflect PC versions offered by Valve's platform. That doesn't include other digital distribution services like Direct2Drive, Gamer's Gate, OnLive and so on. It also doesn't include digital versions (if available) hosted on the console networks. But add all the distribution services together and the resulting picture may appear to show physical retailers quickly losing their hold on gamers. Is it any wonder why GameStop and other stores don't want games using Steamworks on their shelves?
It will be interesting to see the numbers at the end of 2011. Retailers will still be able to depend on a chunk of revenue generated by the Nintendo 3DS. And even though the PSP2/NGP device won't have a UMD drive, Sony will still provide software on game cards to be purchased in-store. But with space for PC games narrowed down to just a few shelves, Steam numbers shouldn't be surprising at all.
Edit: I forgot to mention perhaps the best part of steam. Put your steam folder on a different drive/partition then your OS, and you don't have to worry about losing your games when you reformat/upgrade windows. You can drag that steam folder around at will, and you don't have to stop and reinstall your games. I've moved my steam folder 3 times now, and you just double click steam.exe, it updates itself really quick, and you're back in business. I wish all my other games didn't need to be installed.
some of the older titles go for under $10...
and many go for 25% to 75% off as well...
I picked so many games on last Christmas sale and some of the weekend deals past couple of months in 2011...
last game I got was Penny Arcade Episode 1 and 2 for $3!
While Steam most certainly isn't perfect, it beats the hell out of losing old CDs and serial keys. Instead, you just have to worry about getting your account banned/stolen etc.
I do wish however they would state some critical aspects such as a game not supporting widescreen, or the game is locked at 1024x768, maybe even just a little hint when you buy an online game that the total server population is 0 etc.
I have to run cracks on several of my Steam games just to even use them properly.
The strong Canadian dollar (relative to the US dollar) makes buying games extremely inexpensive (compared to how much EB Games or Future shop/Best Buy charge).
That was exactly my thought. Every week an article is posted somewhere about how PC gaming is going the way of the dodo. Usually it's blamed on piracy. Almost a billion dollars!
"Oh I'll play it some time, and it's only $5!!".... yea right.
Awesome service though.
Steam name Tava... with the Mario mushroom as my picture.
Very true. They are either jerks that could care less if you buy a game or not, thieves (swipe games from young kids that are trying to sell them back and sell them for themselves), or creepy as all get out.