Steam revenue estimated 2024: $10.8B
Google Play Store gaming revenue 2024: ~$31B
Why doesn’t Valve want a part of that? I mean they already have an Android app. Several, actually. I realize there’s some amount of investment but surely the payoff is worth it, and they have the necessary funds and skills? I mean if F-Droid can do it with nothing but volunteers and grants…?
Certainly plenty of games won’t lend themselves well to the mobile experience but also plenty of them do.
From a personal perspective: I don’t really care a whole lot for mobile games but I do like Balatro and want to play it on my phone, but if I want to do that I have to buy another license, which I can’t even do because I don’t run Google Play Services.
Epic got in on this already. Where’s Valve?
Edit: my reflections on this conversation:
Valve could distribute their own app like Epic but they’d also probably have to remove it from the Play Store because now a cross-platform game would give them an Android version, thus breaking Google’s ToS. So would doing such a thing outweigh lost sales from the Google version, and would it impact customer satisfaction? I wonder how many people are actually purchasing PC games in the Steam Android app…?
The mobile and PC gaming markets are very different, both in terms of monetisation and what games people expect to play.
If Valve wanted to get into the mobile games industry they’d basically be starting from scratch, and I don’t think it’s a market they’re particularly interested in.
You’re also assuming that buying a game on PC steam will also give you a license to play that game on android, which isn’t a given. I think many games have completely different monetisation models on mobile vs pc, so sharing between platforms like that wouldn’t make sense.
You’re also assuming that buying a game on PC steam will also give you a license to play that game on android, which isn’t a given.
It wasn’t an assumption it was hypothetical.
Valve didn’t expand Steam into Linux to gain market share in a new market, Valve did it because it is a hedge in case Windows becomes toxic to Steam. There is now a fallback position if Steam is locked out of Windows, and I expect Valve to continue to build in this position.
As for Android, there isn’t a successful second app store that isn’t tied to hardware; even Amazon quit Android. I don’t think Valve sees Android expansion as commercialy viable.
(A few days ago I skimmed a super cool post about Steam’s relationship with Linux that says what you’re saying and now I want to give it a thorough read but I can’t find it
. If anyone remembers and has a link to it I’d be super happy 
)Do you mean this article? https://thelibre.news/on-the-history-of-valve-and-linux/
Yes yes that’s it! I’m happy now ~ thanks!
Valve didn’t expand Steam into Linux to gain market share in a new market
…I didn’t say anything about Linux?
there isn’t a successful second app store that isn’t tied to hardware
That doesn’t mean there couldn’t be.
even Amazon quit Android
Well everything I’ve read about Amazon indicates that it was atrocious for everyone so that’s unsurprising.
Bro why are you being so argumentative? Person gave you a well thought out response, wasn’t even a tone to him but you fire back like he just insulted a core belief
F-Droid?
F-Droid’s market share is a rounding error compared to Google’s. Just because another app store exists doesn’t mean there is significant competition between app stores.
That’s not what you said though. You said there is no successful second app store and that’s demonstrably untrue. Just because it isn’t widely used doesn’t mean it can’t be.
For a company like Valve, they are going to need greater adoption than what F-Droid has to be viable.
And I didn’t say that a successful app store was impossible, just improbable enough that it doesn’t justify investing in Android and that previous failures show how hard this is. Valve is still a for profit company and will make decisions to make money.
That’s also not what they said. They said there’s no successful second app store that isn’t tied to hardware, which is true. F-Droid exists, but by no metric would it be considered seriously by anyone as a successful competitor to Google. And if there is somebody who thinks that, then you should give me their number, I have this investment idea that is guaranteed to give double or even triple returns, all I need is a seed investment of, say, $20k.
Valve is in the business of selling PC games. Moving into a new market wouldn’t be trivial, and Google has put up a lot of barriers to make it especially difficult for a third-party app store to challenge their monopoly.
Valve is in the business of selling PC games.
They support games for Windows, Mac and Linux. And I’m sure they would support them for PS, Nintendo and Xbox if they weren’t created with explicit intention of not allowing that sort of thing. Android is the only market they could feasibly enter and choose not to.
Moving into a new market wouldn’t be trivial
No but it also wouldn’t be that difficult for a company with Valve’s resources, and would be extremely lucrative.
Google has put up a lot of barriers to make it especially difficult for a third-party app store to challenge their monopoly.
Such as?
Paragraph 4.5 of Google Play’s Developer Distribution Agreement is a rather large barrier. I’ll paste it here:
4.5 You may not use Google Play to distribute or make available any Product that has a purpose that facilitates the distribution of software applications and games for use on Android devices outside of Google Play.
I’d wager the majority of Android users have never downloaded an application other than from the Google Play Store. Even among those who would try, a large amount of them would probably get scared off by the “unverified sources” popup Android gives you if you try to install an app in another manner.
That’s like saying Amazon has a “barrier” to online sales because they refuse to allow Target to sell products on their site for free. They’re competing services, why would they allow that?
I’d wager the majority of Android users have never downloaded an application other than from the Google Play Store.
Developers most often distribute software outside of official repos in Windows and MacOS, and they do so successfully.
It’s not that hard, you just follow the prompts on the screen.
I think you’re overestimating the tech savvyness of the average person :P
The average user already uses Windows and/or MacOS, and I would argue those installation procedures are far more complicated.
The average person has never had to install Windows or MacOS, they buy a computer with it pre-installed. And they buy phones with Google Play pre-installed.
We’re not talking about installing an operating system. I’m not suggesting Steam create their own OS (although they’re also doing that). We’re talking about installing an app.
They support games for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Those are all PC platforms. And Mac support is mostly dead after what Apple did.
It’s a pain to get other app stores to get uptake on Android since Google refuses to let other app stores be distributed via Google Play. So if Steam starts to distribute games for Android, the Steam app would be thrown out from Google Play.
It’s the same reason why the F-droids user base is so small and will never reach the main public. As soon as your app store needs to be installed via a third party web site, you have lost.
Sure, but Steam can leverage their already-massive 132M userbase, just like Epic has (only much bigger). Put an announcement on the Steam store and client pages. Show a pop-up when someone opens the website from an Android device, etc. I mean certainly they wouldn’t achieve the same level of success as Google who has their store installed on literally every Android device, but even a tiny fraction of their revenue would be an enormous boon to Steam.
So if Steam starts to distribute games for Android, the Steam app would be thrown out from Google Play.
That’s not how that works. They only throw it out if you use the app in the app store to distribute other apps. They don’t ban the entire company from distributing any software.
They don’t ban the entire company from distributing any software.
They can do whatever, it’s their store.
Keep in mind that Epic Games v. Google has made Google add features to allow alternative app stores on Android… which automatically removes the monopoly argument and lets Google ban anyone they want from the Google Play store.
They can do whatever, it’s their store.
No. They can’t.
which…lets Google ban anyone they want from the Google Play store
No it didn’t.
Read the case, the whole thing started because Google banned Epic from the Play store, and the only reason for it to become a case, was the monopolistic position. That’s gone now, they’re free to refuse service to whoever they want, whenever they want, for no reason at all… and if you don’t agree, go sue them, they’ll show you the precedent followed by the door.
I’m very familiar with the case.
and the only reason for it to become a case, was the monopolistic position.
The reason it became a case is because Epic violated the ToS (intentionally).
That’s gone now, they’re free to refuse service to whoever they want, whenever they want, for no reason at all…
…what is gone, exactly? You think this settlement suddenly made them no longer a monopoly? That’s not how that works. Further, companies that are not monopolies ALSO have to comply with their own ToS, so I’m honestly very confused about what you’re trying to say here.
what is gone, exactly?
By adding support for alternate stores, the monopoly argument is gone: everyone can build their own store now. Meaning, everyone with a store can kick out anyone else, and tell them to just build their own.
comply with their own ToS
…which they can change at any moment, but don’t really need to; most ToS include clauses about refusing service without having to explain why. If you ever agree to a ToS, better make sure they’re even supposed to notify you if they ever decide to cut you off.
