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Valve releasing Source 2 for free - as in no royalty and no subscription

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by MaxieQ, Mar 5, 2015.

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  1. MaxieQ

    MaxieQ

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    There's only one caveat, you have to release your game on Steam along with wherever else you launch it.

    http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/03/04/source-2-is-actually-free-like-for-free/

    Valve’s sudden entry into the engine race, with an official announcement of Source 2, seems to have put them right up front alongside frenzied rivals Unity and Unreal. (Poor old Crytek, eh?) Meeting with studio founder Erik Johnson today, I learned that when they say Source 2 is “free”, they mean it. Unlike Unity’s (much lowered) subscription rates (for larger teams), and Epic’s revenue cut of successful projects, Valve won’t be asking for any money at all. Well, sort of… They just require that the game be launched on Steam, along with anywhere else you might want to sell it.
     
  2. Zeblote

    Zeblote

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    From that article:

    "At the moment, if you’re a lone developer or a small team, Unity 5 still looks like it might be the best deal. Free for lone devs, and only $1500 outright (or $75 a month) for teams, massive success won’t cost you any more like Epic’s deal."

    Why is everyone getting this wrong? Unity 5 is free for teams too...
     
  3. Myhijim

    Myhijim

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    So there goes 30% of the profit amiright?
    Sounds like sneaky advertising to me

    EDIT :

    It's the 'Personal' Edition branding, haven't you heard ;)

    EDIT 2 :
    Do they have to pay the greenlight fee? Technically the engine costs $100 ;)
     
  4. MaxieQ

    MaxieQ

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    You're going to have to pay that anyway if you publish on steam.

    But then again, we're talking about Valve here. There's no guarantee that they won't become bored with making an engine and move to something else when it's half-finished.
     
  5. Ryiah

    Ryiah

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    You're going to have that from distribution stores regardless, so think of it as not having to pay that extra 5% that Unreal would take in addition to the store's 30%. ;)

    They may have an advantage if it becomes the only engine to officially support development on Linux.
     
    darkhog likes this.
  6. HemiMG

    HemiMG

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    Does that mean that any game made with the Source 2 engine will automatically get approved on Steam? That puts Gog in a good position for continued growth as long as they maintain some level of QA as Steam moves closer and closer to the App Store in terms of signal to noise.
     
  7. CatsCranium

    CatsCranium

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    You are allowed to publish your game anywhere, just as long as it is also on Steam.
     
  8. pushingpandas

    pushingpandas

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    but source 2 sucks.
     
  9. darkhog

    darkhog

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    HUGE I must say.
     
  10. Ryiah

    Ryiah

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    Yes, it means we won't have to deal with it any longer. :p
     
    Kiwasi, Ostwind and HemiMG like this.
  11. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    Only if you team earns nothing.
     
  12. Deon-Cadme

    Deon-Cadme

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    That would make it the holy, golden path into Steam... for all the noise. Certainly, a game need to get approved in some way or we would see incredibly offensive games but then the question becomes... if the game doesn't get approved on Steam, can I still sell it somewhere else? o_O They must allow this or it would become a huge risk for a studio to make an experimental game but... that would mean all Source 2 games isn't available on Steam :confused:

    ... I think I will go back to bed...
     
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  13. HemiMG

    HemiMG

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    That's precisely why I assume any game made with it must end up on Steam. It seems like maybe Valve didn't think it all the way through? Or maybe they just want to open the floodgates to Steam. They are rumored to want to get rid of Greenlight.
     
    Deon-Cadme likes this.
  14. elmar1028

    elmar1028

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    Why?
     
  15. darkhog

    darkhog

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    Nothing means <100k.
     
    Kiwasi likes this.
  16. Deon-Cadme

    Deon-Cadme

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    We will know when someone have the Source 2 license but I have to admit that it currently sounds a bit confusing.

    It even get more strange when you consider monetization, nothing is free, their only way to earn money when other people use the engine is for their projects is by forcing them to release it on Steam. They get a cut from the sales and thus earn a bit of money on the engine but... only if the game is on Steam.

    It really feels like they didn't really give it as much thought as they should, like with Greenlight. I'm afraid that we might see more noise on the Steam store in the future.

    Btw, it is well known that Valve isn't happy with how Greenlight turned out. It will probably disappear or mutate into something very different in the future. It is already hidden on the front page, at least when I view it but maybe it is different in other regions?
     
  17. RichardKain

    RichardKain

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    At the moment, all of this is moot until we get more details about the engine itself. Valve has not come forward with anything resembling details, they've only announced it's existence so far.

    Still, I don't have any objection to having more viable options available to me.
     
  18. imaginaryhuman

    imaginaryhuman

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    Was reading about this elsewhere... steam will take 30%, so it's really a sort of non-exclusive publisher deal, and apparently if a game is on steam that's most likely where it'll be purchased from. But you can go to other platforms too. I guess if steam is NOT in your distribution plans, then it's not the best option. And if it is, you gotta suck up the 30%.
     
  19. tswalk

    tswalk

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    it's just an announcement without any meat or potatoes... will ignore until something real shows up.
     
  20. Tomnnn

    Tomnnn

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    $100,000 is nothing for a team unless that amount could somehow sustain every member on the team :p
     
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  21. RichardKain

    RichardKain

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    Yes, an individual can live off of $100,000 annually quite well, almost anywhere. Even expensive locations like California, Japan, Hawaii, or various parts of Europe could still be fine for an individual knocking down those kinds of numbers.

    But splitting $100,000 between a team of developers gets tight. Maybe a team of three could manage, if they were in an area where the cost of living was fairly low, but it would still be pushing it.

    Of course, this doesn't really apply to the comparison between Unity's license and whatever Source 2 ends up being. $150,000 is just an upward limit on how long you can use the free version of Unity. Past that point you just have to buy licenses for your team for a one-time fee.

    It will be nice to not have to worry about anything along those lines with Source 2, and that fact is a point in its favor. But before I started investigating it seriously I would have to know more about Source 2's platform compatibility support. A lot of the work I'm doing is focused on a broad spectrum of devices. That's going to be more important to me than license terms.
     
    Tomnnn likes this.
  22. darkhog

    darkhog

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    I hope Valve will open floodgates of Steam along with Source2 or at least do so for Source 2 devs - otherwise you can't comply really with license terms since Greenlight seems to be pretty random on games that got greenlit and you have to pay €90 to get through it (which many devs may not have).
     
  23. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

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    Already discussed here.

    --Eric
     
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