Any chance sequels to GSC could come to Steam?

[Karl de-Boorder]

So I recently got back in to sim racing after taking a break due to financial reasons (ie. I couldn't afford a proper wheel and my G27 bit the dust). While I'm now having a great experience with the games themselves, the actual content management is like being transported back to the 90s!

I know a few of the devs post here so I was curious to know why Reiza don't use Steam for their games. Has it been considered before? The key feature I would be looking for is a centralised location for downloads and steam workshop support for mods. It would make life much easier for folks like me who don't wish to be trawling through sites attempting to find updates to tracks or new mods. I know it's a lot to ask but I am genuinely curious if it has been considered in the past.

 

[Rupe Wilson]

Inside the sim now you have the GSC Sync this can be used to make sure you sim is up to date with any updates from Reiza,
and whilst there are a growing number of legal tracks, actual legal car mods are few and far between.

So for me the sim has its SYNC that brings it up to date with the new way of doing things outside of steam.

I think legality if content in mods is the issue here which can hinder forward progression of content be readily available through a single outlet like steam, if its possible at all.
copyright and other factors will also probably play a part.

We do have our own resource manager that is available to all to upload legal content and keep it up to date.
And as the devs do frequent this forum allot , its like there second home at times,
you could say RD is your one stop shop for GSC leagal content,
i know we have some of the best liveries.
check out ML2166's work and Jebus in the skins section here
and we have tracks also here check out Bryce Conyon
so you don't need to look far for good legal content.
As for the other illegal stuff well lets just say we don't want that here. And i don't even want to talk about it

 

[Karl de-Boorder]

That's good and all Rupe but integration to steam means 1-click and go. I can click subscribe to a mod and each time the game is launched everything is up to date. For me this means that if I fancied digging up Skyrim I'd click a button, make a coffee and be ready to go. Currently in racing sims it means visiting websites, opening rars and dragging to directories. If there is an issue with illegal content I'm sure the licence holder can flag it to a mod for deletion and prevent that account from uploading any further workshop content like they do in Dota 2.

 

[Jeffry in t Veld]

Also suggested this in the feedback thread, one of the reasons why Assetto Corsa is doing so well is because of the coverage it get's on Steam, people new to the sim racing genre will give it a try and will love it (or not), i did and now i play GSC as well! Don't forget Steam is much more useful for updating the game, but most of all is the coverage the game would be getting, at the moment, MP is pretty much dead in GSC, and if they don't do anything soon, i only see the hardcore fans buying the next game, and that won't pay the developer's bills.

And you don't have to add the Steam Workshop to the game, for some games it barely even works correctly, just keep the resources here so there is a better check on it all and for its steam community forum it will be getting, just post a sticky thread that they need to post over here for a quicker answer!

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Keep in mind that going the Steam route will cause the developers to loose lots of revenue as well as Valve takes a pretty large cut on the revenue. Large as in very extremely large.

If a game is already on a small margin such as GSC and Ftruck that are both insanely cheap for the content you are getting that Steam margin can just be too much especially if the game is not selling thousand or millions of copies.

Larger volumes don't automatically mean more revenue. Its a tippingpoint that you need to calculate and I doubt that a domestic Brazilian series will get a large following on Steam (of course I personally would like that to happen).

I give Reiza Studios a lot more chance with their upcoming Ayrton Senna game on Steam, that will become huge for sure!

 

[Karl de-Boorder]

I think they take about 30% if I remember correctly. But obviously that includes distribution, steamworks support and front page advertising on a platform that just passed 65 million accounts. It's the same platform that made some small devs more money on the PC in three days than they had taken so far on consoles, where they had been for 6 months. Hell it's the platform that managed to turn Euro Truck Sim in to a cult success story! Stranger things have happened.

Still that being said if it's working for Kunos Simulazioni and SMS why can't it work for them?

 

[Jeffry in t Veld]

Dont know if it's possible ,but maybe Reiza can try just release a demo only and see if they sell more of the game.

 

[Travis]

I give Reiza Studios a lot more chance with their upcoming Ayrton Senna game on Steam, that will become huge for sure!

What chance?

Jens: Are you involved with the Ayrton Senna sim? If you’re involved with these Reiza sims, can you tell us anything about platform, game-engine, release dates? The Reiza Studios web site says planned release date 2012 so we would love to have an update.

Niels: I can’t comment on that I’m afraid, other than saying you shouldn’t hold your breath.

From http://simhqmotorsports.com/niels-heusinkveld/

It appears that PD and Sony may have a lot more going on with the Senna institute that what has been seen in GT6.

 

[Karl de-Boorder]

Dont know if it's possible ,but many Reiza can try just release a demo only and see if they sell more of the game.

They could put it up on Greenlight with the demo. If they are going to do would make sense to get it orginised before the summer sale as it could be incredibly profitable for them. The guys who made Pixeljunk Eden just said on twitter even though their game has been on the PC for 2 years, they just made exactly the same amount of money as they did over those two years in a seven hour sale on steam... It was on sale for 70p!

 

[Paul Bennett]

The guys who made Pixeljunk Eden just said on twitter even though their game has been on the PC for 2 years, they just made exactly the same amount of money as they did over those two years in a seven hour sale on steam... It was on sale for 70p


Would be a good route to market for Rezia with large volume sales although at a smaller value. But with the numbers using Steam globally now it could payoff for them, indie developers won't survive long with out exposure.