Según publica Gamasutra, Steam en lo que llevamos de año ha publicado ya más juegos que en todo 2013 y acabamos de entrar en el quinto mes del año. Las previsiones actuales son de 2000 juegos nuevos en 2014.
Un crecimiento exponencial en usuarios y publicaciones que lleva a más ventas y sitúa de forma incontestable al PC como plataforma por excelencia para los videojuegos.
Por otro lado es donde llegan las dudas. Algunos developers están empezando a tener miedo de la competencia brutal de la plataforma lo que frena el lanzamiento en PC de algunos juegos.
think that the glut of games launching on Steam comes with pros and cons," he tells me. "On the plus side, it's easier for developers to get their games out there; and having watched a lot of developers struggle to get their titles on the platform in recent years, that's a good thing."
But, he adds, "it's so much harder for developers to actually succeed on the platform. With increased competition, it's becoming increasingly important to stand out from the crowd."
"I feel extremely fortunate with Tower of Guns," he continues. "If I'd released only a few weeks later I would have only received a fraction of the attention I did. Tower of Guns launched well enough that I can't complain personally, but I see how my colleagues' games have fared in more recent weeks and it's alarming how quickly the release landscape has shifted."
"Given my next game won't make it out till early next year on Steam, there's a real concern with what the market is going to look like by then," he tells me. "Just this last October, I was timing the release of my game Cook, Serve, Delicious to get maximum exposure on the New Releases section of the front page of Steam, where it stayed for several days."
"That kind of exposure is gone," he continues. "Not only are there a mass of games released every day to push your own game off the front page, but the section tabs on Steam default to Top Sellers instead of New Releases, something that I can understand, but goes to show the kind of problems Steam is facing right now."
"If Valve decided to just open the floodgates and allow everything? That would be a very dark time for everyone involved."
¿Terminará steam matando más developers que ayudándoles al intentar dar acceso a todos?
¿Si finalmente quitan greenlight y dan acceso a todos, que pasará al convertir a Steam en una plataforma estilo app/play store donde sólo un 1% de las apps on visibles?
¿Perjudica al usuario tener tanta variedad a precios tan ridículos? ¿O quizás sea simplemente la competencia de un negocio democratizado donde cualquiera puede hacer videojuegos a día de hoy y no se necesitan estudios multimillonarios para triunfar o poder vivir de ellos?
Lo único claro es que Steam ha cambiado la industria para siempre.
