Steam

222 readers

8 users here now

A community for news and discussion about the steam video game digital distribution service

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Over 5,000 games released on Steam this year didn't make enough money to recover the $100 fee to put a game on Valve's store, research estimates (www.gamesradar.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by cm0002@lemmy.zip to c/steam@programming.dev

10 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Don't bother sitting down because you'll just stand up when you hear this: a ton of games were released on Steam this year. Valve's store has seen nearly 13,000 game launches since January 1, 2025, according to Steam data hound Gamalytic, and a majority of those games went straight under the couch to be forgotten for the rest of time like lost batteries.

Gamalytic regularly updates its data but these particular milestones and thresholds were recently flagged on social media by Artur Smiarowski, creator of turn-based roguelike RPG Soulash and its markedly more popular sequel Soulash 2. As of today, Steam has seen an estimated 12,732 games released in 2025.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I would love to try making a game. Even games that I love to play still have a few minor things here and there that I wish were different. If I made the game myself, I could just change it myself and make it as close to perfect as I'm humanly able. Engines like Godot and similar make it so easy to do these days.

But the competition is extremely fierce. There are so many games on Steam that the chances of "making it" and being the next Hades or similar are just not that good. I'm clearly not the only one with a dream like this. That and the fact that making a game is a ton of work. Graphics, audio, gameplay, balancing, marketing, social media🤮, etc.

If I'm in the position someday where I don't need to turn a profit from it, then I may do it anyway, but I really feel bad for all the people who are trying to pursue their dream and yet may never make it there. We're in a golden age for the players, but for the creators, it's very difficult, to say the least.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 3 points 4 weeks ago

The best thing I ever done in relation to my gamedev dream/career was to make sure I don't ever get into a situation, where my livelygood depends on the art/games I make. That's a recipe for disapointment.

It doesn't matter if it's only working in gamedev instead of general software development, because that's where you get way less money for basically the same code-monkey crunching Jira tickets job, only there's now a bunch of exec exploiting your passion and underpaying you, or if it's more bold attempt to save up money and be able to afford to make a game on my own, because then you have to sell it, and that sucks if your livelyhood is on the line.

The best course of action I could come up with is to just go work to a generic corporate in software development/cybersecurity, get a part time job (which will get you basically the same money as fulltime in a gamedev company), and use the free time for my own personal gamedev projects that I don't have to tie in any way to my income. Finding a comunity of similarly minded students or art collectives also helps.

I've mostly given up on larger projects, because that exactly a ton more work, and now focus on a short gamejams here and there (usually two to three days, a week or two max). Being extremely limited by time means that the project usually fits into my short attention span, I can experiment with the obscurest of game designs, and you get to meet cool people, especially when the gamejam is onsite. So, if you're at all interrested in trying out gamedev, I highly recommend looking into those - it will take a weekend of your time, and if it doesn't work or isn't fun for you, then you won't loose much.