Guild Wars 2

I suppose this is a two-part thread.
One. I was curious to know why ANET seems to prefer Overwolf over Steam. I know it’s like comparing apples and oranges, but whatever.

In my opinion:
Why Overwolf?
+Can create extremely basic overlays to assist with various things. (Mapping, wvw, etc.)
-Any of these apps can be accessed outside.
-A second monitor, in my opinion, basically renders these overlays pointless.

Steam
+Access to huge playerbase.
+Overlay works better than Overwolf.
+Overlay internet is better.
+Overlay is laid out better.
+In general, they both have about the same things, but Steam is leagues better.

And two, why not on steam anyway? Now, I know GuildWars1 is on Steam, and I’m assuming the reason was for last ditch sales effort. The game was winding down and in order to squeeze every last possible sale, throw it on Steam. I would assume Steam takes some of the profit of whatever sales as well. This could be possibly the best time to add GuildWars2 to Steam. ANET is basically giving the game away in attempts to maximize their playerbase before the drop of the expansion. If they could get in on some of Steam’s playerbase, why not, right? They don’t have to include the expansion on Steam if they didn’t want to. They could just have the base game sold on Steam, and provide links on launcher to GuildWars’ website to purchase the expansion to their account.

Maybe there was something I missed, or this has already been addressed by ANET. I just don’t see any reason not to.

Thoughts?

Because they would need to pay steam and maybe they want to keep the money they make? They also would need to vet any and all updates through steam before release. The cost/benefit ratio is not worth it.

Yargesh.4965:

Because they would need to pay steam and maybe they want to keep the money they make? They also would need to vet any and all updates through steam before release. The cost/benefit ratio is not worth it.

The base game is down to $10 on sales to solely increase the playerbase before expansion drop. They’re not aiming to make money through the base game. They’re aiming to profit off the expansion.

Updates are done through GW2’s own launcher. Why would they need to forward updates through Steam?

UnitedChaos.8364:

Yargesh.4965:

Because they would need to pay steam and maybe they want to keep the money they make? They also would need to vet any and all updates through steam before release. The cost/benefit ratio is not worth it.

The base game is down to $10 on sales to solely increase the playerbase before expansion drop. They’re not aiming to make money through the base game. They’re aiming to profit off the expansion.

Updates are done through GW2’s own launcher. Why would they need to forward updates through Steam?

To go a long with that, Steam doesn’t have any vetting process for patches anyways. Developers/publishers can update the game on Steam any time they want, and Steam doesn’t have any kind of certification/vetting process. But yeah, the patching happens through GW2 launcher anyways, and wouldn’t happen through Steam.

steam demands royalites and a metric kitten of other fees for it’s cooperation

rapthorne.7345:

steam demands royalites and a metric kitten of other fees for it’s cooperation

Citation for that? Looking at the other MMOs, they seem to sell DLC packs or in game money similar to GEMs. So why wouldn’t Guild Wars 2 be any different? Steam could sell GW2 and GEM codes, and they’ll take their cut of the sales, which is probably not to far off on total revenue per card for Arenanet as compared to the store bought GEM cards.

eisberg.2379:

rapthorne.7345:

steam demands royalites and a metric kitten of other fees for it’s cooperation

Citation for that? Looking at the other MMOs, they seem to sell DLC packs or in game money similar to GEMs. So why wouldn’t Guild Wars 2 be any different? Steam could sell GW2 and GEM codes, and they’ll take their cut of the sales, which is probably not to far off on total revenue per card for Arenanet as compared to the store bought GEM cards.

Go look on the steam website for the developers FAQ, fees are specific to each title and a successful title like GW2 would probably end up giving a hefty percentage of sales revenue to valve.

Personally I’d love to see GW2 on steam for the massive boost in population it would give us, but if ANet are capable of standing on their own two feet, why would they want to involve valve and extra costs?

There’s also the matter of the development time it would take to set up the steam account links for ANet’s log in servers, etc etc.

In the end, it’s likely just too much time and hassle that ANet don’t need to bother with as they are already successful without needing to use a publisher service like steam

Maybe they are just intimidated by Lord Gaben’s Might and too afraid to. If they gave him a chance I’m sure they’d find that he’s a gentle god.

It’s very simple.

Money.

Going on steam will cost money, and even all cash shop items take a percentage.

Overwolf paid Guild Wars 2 directly to sponsor their software.

It’s always about the money.

Steam is a community , DRM and distribution service. And it has policies for games that have in-game currencies. They’ll have to give a cut of all the sales, and adapt the game so the currency can be purchaed with steam wallet currency.

Overwolf is merely an overlay with some APPs to help with the game experience.

They are completely different things.

ANet doesn’t need a DRM for a bunch of files they distribute for free, and they certainly don’t need anyone getting a cut of their gem sales.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Steam is a community , DRM and distribution service. And it has policies for games that have in-game currencies. They’ll have to give a cut of all the sales, and adapt the game so the currency can be purchased with steam wallet currency.

Overwolf is merely an overlay with some APPs to help with the game experience.

They are completely different things.

ANet doesn’t need a DRM for a bunch of files they distribute for free, and they certainly don’t need anyone getting a cut of their gem sales.

It is not so much as adapt the game to use Steam Wallet, more like they put a tag on the account that won’t allow them to buy GEMs in game with real money, they would have to go buy GEM codes from Steam and enter the code into the game. This is how it works in ESO.

Anet already give a cut of the GEM sales from GEM cards in retail, plus the costs of printing and distribution of those cards.

They wouldn’t even have to use Steam’s DRM at all. Steam would just provide the launcher to the customer, and the launcher would still download all the files needed from Anet just like how it works now for all of us, and even then the launcher can still be downloaded from the account page for Guild Wars 2 even for Steam users. Steam wouldn’t even need to be running in order to play the game.

Am I the only one that knows you can use Steam to launch non-steam games and use the overlay in them?

Lil Puppy.5216:

Am I the only one that knows you can use Steam to launch non-steam games and use the overlay in them?

Yea, I do it all the time. That’s why I brought this up.

For everyone else, yes, it’s about money. They could sell only the base game $10ish. Steam can basically have whatever they want out of that, and I’m sure ANET wouldn’t care. They’re trying to boost their playerbase to sell a (space to avoid censor)$50 expansion. Also, I’m assuming Gems are a huge source of income as well. Steam wouldn’t be able to profit off the expansion or Gems. Put it on steam, give them whatever % of $10 they want, and ANET still comes out on top with new players. Even if Steam took 50%, 50% of $10 is $5; and then ANET could still get that person to buy a (censored again…) $50 expansion and Gems.

UnitedChaos.8364:

Lil Puppy.5216:

Am I the only one that knows you can use Steam to launch non-steam games and use the overlay in them?

Yea, I do it all the time. That’s why I brought this up.

For everyone else, yes, it’s about money. They could sell only the base game $10ish. Steam can basically have whatever they want out of that, and I’m sure ANET wouldn’t care. They’re trying to boost their playerbase to sell a (space to avoid censor)$50 expansion. Also, I’m assuming Gems are a huge source of income as well. Steam wouldn’t be able to profit off the expansion or Gems. Put it on steam, give them whatever % of $10 they want, and ANET still comes out on top with new players. Even if Steam took 50%, 50% of $10 is $5; and then ANET could still get that person to buy a (censored again…) $50 expansion and Gems.

MMO’s put on steam almost always get pushed in to forcing steam users to only purchase the in game currency via the steam wallet, and having other purchase methods locked out if you’re on a steam account (TSW is an example of this happening, despite the game’s huge success)

I don’t know why you would want it on steam. Steam’s overlay it’s terrible compared to overwolf. I was launching gw2 with steam right up until I discovered overwolf, and there is no going back.

Overwolf overlay
+ doesn’t interrupt game
+ browser that doesn’t fail to load pages half the time
+ browser opens /wiki searches
+ TS/skype/ect are real voice options compared to steams’ always disconnecting voice chat, and all can be accessed without essentially leaving the game.
+ custom apps like world boss timers, and notepads to save builds

Steam overlay
+ tells time
- fails at everything overwolf does by comparison.

Even with a second monitor, I can’t see how steam would be better. I mean, stream is literally pointless with a second monitor other than for steam friends(and you can access steam friends through overwolf anyway)

And steam is not a financial win for anet either for reasons already listed…

It’s the cuts that make it unappealing. For GW2 to be on Steam, Steam would take a 30% cut of sales of the game through Steam (not outside), however, as far as I’m aware they can’t run a real money ingame store outside of that, that’d need to go through Steam as well, and that would also take a cut.

Taking a cut for sales of the game isn’t really that big of an issue since merely being on Steam usually gets you a ton of sales, even ‘older’ games like this.

However, the biggest point, is that Anet doesn’t really need to. The game is big enough on it’s own. It doesn’t need to use Steam for it’s popularity.