Why are indie games moving from smartphones to Steam? Is Steam a utopia for indies?

Until five or six years ago, indie games were mostly smartphone app games.
That has now largely migrated to Steam.

In this article, I would like to discuss the reasons why indie games are moving from smartphones to Steam and discuss the current situation of indie game titles on Steam from my perspective.

Now, this trend is not limited to Japan. When we asked indie game developers from various countries around the world, we found that a significant number of indie game developers are moving their game development from smartphones to Steam.

I think the biggest reason is the maturation of the smartphone app game market. Maturity means that the rules of the market have become solidified.
The smartphone game market is well-suited to attracting customers through advertising, and by calculating the advertising costs and revenue from game downloads, we need to continue advertising and updating and releasing games in order to make a profit. It has become commonplace to go.

Of course, it’s not impossible to make a profit without spending on advertising, but it’s less likely than it used to be.
Small and medium-sized game developers who can’t spend as much on advertising as the big players have to compete in the market under disadvantageous conditions from the beginning.
Of course, you have the option of partnering with a publisher, but not all games will be supported by publishers, and many titles will naturally have to be self-published.

In this article, I would like to discuss the reasons why indie games are moving from smartphones to Steam and discuss the current situation of indie game titles on Steam from my perspective.

Now, this trend is not limited to Japan. When we asked indie game developers from various countries around the world, we found that a significant number of indie game developers are moving their game development from smartphones to Steam.

I think the biggest reason is the maturation of the smartphone app game market. Maturity means that the rules of the market have become solidified.
The smartphone game market is well-suited to attracting customers through advertising, and by calculating the advertising costs and revenue from game downloads, we need to continue advertising and updating and releasing games in order to make a profit. It has become commonplace to go.

Of course, it’s not impossible to make a profit without spending on advertising, but it’s less likely than it used to be.
Small and medium-sized game developers who can’t spend as much on advertising as the big players have to compete in the market under disadvantageous conditions from the beginning.
Of course, you have the option of partnering with a publisher, but not all games will be supported by publishers, and many titles will naturally have to be self-published.

Additionally, many developers are particular about self-publishing.
For those who want to deliver a game with their own passion to fans in their own style, and for that purpose are working independently as an indie game developer, the current market for smartphone games where advertising is the main means of attracting customers. It will be difficult to fight.

The steadily growing PC gaming platform Steam has increased its presence as an attractive market for indie game developers.
In 2023, over 14,000 games will be released on Steam.

This is really rapid growth considering in 2013 there were around 400 books.
You can see how many game developers and publishers are now releasing their games on Steam.

If you think about it a little, there should be more users for smartphone games than for Steam games played on PC.

One of the reasons is the advertisement placed the day before.
Smartphone games are in an environment where advertising is essential to acquiring users, but Steam’s reputation on Steam is the most important mechanism, and in addition, it is important to get good exposure through sales on Steam. is required.
In other words, in order to attract customers on Steam, it is more important to understand how Steam works than advertising. This means there are opportunities for indie game developers with small budgets.

The second reason is that there is no need to include advertisements or payment elements within the game.
Smartphone games are downloaded and played for free, and sales increase when users see advertisements or purchase items within the game. This means that game developers need to cleverly incorporate advertising and payment elements into their games, which can be a pain and cause users to stop playing.

If the game is on Steam, which is mainly a one-time game, you can focus on developing high-quality games without thinking about such things, which does not inhibit the style of many indie game developers. is.

Additionally, indie game developers find Steam games attractive because they simply have a larger screen and are more expressive, and Steam games are relatively easy to port to Switch。

However, I don’t think Steam is the best platform for all indie game developers. There are still some advantages to smartphone app games.
In fact, some of the indie game developers I know have returned to developing smartphone app games from Steam.

Steam is a good platform, but it also has its challenges for indie game developers.
For example, the quality required for games on Steam, which is generally a one-time paid purchase, is not low. Even if it’s 100 yen, it’s not a free game, so it’s worth paying for.
This is not to say that low-quality smartphone games are good, but there are more core gamers on Steam than on smartphones, and because the screen is larger and richer, games with more content are often sought after.

Steam also has strong rival titles. Past masterpieces from world-famous game publishers such as Square Enix and Capcom are lined up in the store, and some titles can be purchased at surprisingly low prices.
In addition to those masterpieces, various titles from all over the world will be gathered. It’s the same as a smartphone, but when you pay money to buy a game, it’s really difficult to push aside classics and popular titles and get people to buy it.

The fact that advertising on Steam is not an effective method is also a disadvantage. With smartphones, you can attract users by advertising even for a small amount of money, but Steam has a structure that makes it difficult to do so. In some cases, you may not be able to attract customers at all and only sell a few books. If your game is not well-known and you only have a few games on Steam, you may be missing out on a chance to sell it big.

Indie game developers who tried Steam once and returned to smartphone game development probably felt these disadvantages and decided that their style was better suited to smartphones.

As you can see, Steam isn’t necessarily the best environment for indie game developers, but I’m glad that there are more options in addition to smartphones. There are probably many indie game developers who think Steam is a good fit.
Some people are constantly completing gaming projects that they couldn’t do on their smartphones.

It is only with the presence of Steam that the smartphone platform will continue to evolve.

I hope that many interesting indie games will be released on Steam in the future.