There have already been more new games released on Steam in 2014 than there were in all of 2013. And it’s only May.
By itself, and on principle, this isn’t a problem. The more games available, the better.
But – and this ties directly into something I was talking about last week – it’s a massive problem when you consider the way Steam currently operates.
The Gamasutra report highlighting the numbers explains why this is a bad thing:
What this means is that, while in 2013 your new release might have shown up on the front page of Steam for a few days, you’re likely to see your game drop off the front page within 24 hours of you releasing it. (And notably, the front page of Steam now automatically defaults to “Top Sellers” instead of “New Releases.”)
This hurts developers (well, indie devs, which compromise most new releases anyway), but it also hurts gamers, since if you don’t log into Steam for a few days you’re likely to have missed most games “time in the sun” unless you start digging (and while it’s easy to say that’s easy, most people simply don’t do it).
I said it in my earlier rant, and I’ll say it again here: Steam’s store needs a redesign. Apple and Google have a far greater problem with a flood of new releases, but their approach to managing it – by highlighting a number of games across a number of categories, from new titles to genre showcases to quality, curated selections – is infinitely more successful.
More games have released on Steam so far in 2014 than all of last year [Gamasutra]
Comments
28 responses to “There Are Too Many New Games On Steam”
It is also giving me fatigue. I see too many new games, can’t choose, end up getting nothing.
I am worried we are about to hit the video game glut again, better get that burial site cleared of ET Cartridges…
Actually I feel that when I’m looking at my library. Look at the list too long gave up don’t wanna play anything. Thanks to the humble bundle and steam sales :/
I am about to put a game up myself. Just an early release alpha as it is currently no more than a Kotaku comment.
I’m gonna buy it. Just so I can complain about how different it is to what I originally hoped it would be like.
Ideally our finished game will look very similar to what you are now reading. Imaging a MMO world so realistic and engaging that you can get completely lost in it. In fact it is possible you have already bought it and are playing it right now..
Welcome to Comment Simulator 2017 Super edition.
Wait… no crafting system?
What kind of game is this???
Crafting is unlocked once you become the Mayor.
Will it support the Oculus Rift?
It does. Even if you can’t remember buying an Oculus Rift, we recommend slapping your forehead with your palm once daily* in case you have become fully immersed in our fully immersive debut experience.
* when you think a day has past.
No matter what you do, I’m going to complain about it. When something’s broken, I’m going to bitch about it and demand my money back. When you patch it, I’m going to claim you’ve made it unplayable and demand my money back. When you don’t respond to any of my abuse and insult laden posts on Steam or in your forums, or when I demand features, and the shit doesn’t fall into my hands, I’m going to complain vociferously about how this was a scam and you’re only in it to deprive consumers of their money. Because I am an asshole and I am an all too common environmental hazard that you’ll encounter when you release a game today. I seem to be everywhere. But I’ll still play it 16 hours a day, you know, because it’s ‘shit’.
Hi,
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Looking around my pad for a hat so I can take it off to you, sir. 🙂
When we hand out a few limited Flaming Toupee’s to non-employees I’ll keep you in mind 😉
Totalbiscuit more or less said the exact same thing back in March.
I quite like the ammount of games on steam. It can be a burden to find certain things but occasionally those unexpected gems pop up. I can’t afford AAA titles these days and many of the single player games wont even last me a week.
It’s even harder to spot new games you want now that they made the decision to change the default tab to “Top Sellers”.
Yes the whole one left click to manual go to the “New Releases” tab is such a pain…
I have no idea who made THAT boneheaded decision, but it’s added an extra irritation to my life, so I need to find a witch-doctor to curse them with, like… I don’t know. May every tea-towel they own for the rest of their life always leave little bits of linty fluff on every dish they dry.
There Are Too Many Articles About New Games On Steam On Kotaku! 😛
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/05/this-week-in-games-way-way-too-many-steam-games/
There should be a new one every week til the narrative sticks and someone fixes it. 🙂
Agreed! To many games being released that 3/4th of them go un-noticed. They really need to update the layout/design.
How many of those games are ports of mobile games? I noticed alot more of those in the last 2 years. I guess the interesting graph would be the distribution of sale against release. How many games get 1Mil+ or 100K+. I’m suspecting that instead of a gradual tail forming due to the new releases, we’re seeing a rapid decline in sales then a steady baseline of many games receiving <5000 sales (pulling numbers out of my ass here, but these stats maybe more meaningful)
Also Is this graph counting early access as a release ? Nowadays, I'm seeing lot of games that are released fully at a stage that 5-6 years ago would be a late beta at most. Alot of games are relying on adding content via updates or DLC onto a barely finished product (under the guise of sandbox or procedural generated universe or roguelike)
Not sure whether this is good or not? I guess we're reach an equilibrium eventually….
It’s the floods of DLC that I find distracting. Yes, you can check a box to filter it out, but I want a checkbox to filter out all the DLC for games that I don’t have. DLC for game I have = interesting, for game I don’t have = uninteresting (usually).
That railroad sim game is the long-time culprit here, but the recent pen & paper RPG game that came out a few days seems to be trying hard to overtake it.
The change to default to top sellers is also sort of annoying – it’s frequently dominated by sales titles, which get their own section to make their pitch.
“Wah! It’s too hard for us indies to get on Steam so we can get our magical payday that we SO TOTALLY DESERVE for being plucky indie creators!”
***
“Wah! We’re being drowned in all those other indies who are stealing all of our richly-deserved magical Steam payday that we SO TOTALLY DESERVE for being plucky indie creators… but like… not those other guys who are the same thing.”
****
No sympathy. None whatsofuckingever. Bleeding heart assholes who complained about Greenlight being ‘too hard’ and still ‘unfair’ because it’s ‘just a popularity contest’… NO SHIT.
That’s how curating content WORKS.
if you paid attention to the actual games coming out, most of them are games from a few years ago that never made it through Steam’s quality control. Now that there is no quality control, publishers are lugging their shitty, half-baked, rotten games onto steam to see if they can trick someone into buying them.
watch this for clarification: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLNh5HPbQPo
Not saying it’s a factor, but those guys are only exacerbating the problem that is Steam turning itself into the new Desura.
I refuse to buy anything from steam again until they allow me to remove games with certain tags from appearing in the store.
I simply don’t care about things that don’t matter. Get off this stupid story.