AH3: Steam Edition?

[bustr]

This will be an approximate memory of Hitech's reason for not partnering with Steam. To be a Steam product offering member, they want more of his money from Aces High revenues than he is willing to part with for people to have the illusion of Aces High being cheap to play. Unless the person asking is a Steam shill and already knows how Steam prices for access to their gateway. Steam is not very friendly in terms of keeping your own profits. Unless the icing on the cake is exposure to eyeballs in the offering list and all the advertisements.

Can anyone find Hitech's response from about a year ago where he gave a very detailed explanation about Steam and it's real cost to the subscriber company?

The bottom line from Hitech: No interest.

[Badger85]

Thanks, bustr! I'd be interested in reading that post; like I mentioned, I searched and couldn't find it by my own Boolean efforts.

As to the points you mentioned, the only thing that gives me pause is that literally every current flight sim has found it advantageous to partner with Steam: WT, IL-2: BoS & BoM, DCS, RoF, XP10, and even FSX almost a decade after the original came out.

I should say, I guess, that I have no affiliation with Steam or will profit in any way from AH going on Steam. I really just want the Special Events (esp. FSO) community to survive in one form or another so that large-scale historical aerial battle reenactments can continue on to the next generation. That's my motivation.

[Ack-Ack]

Full disclosure: Though I had joined AH in 2012 and supported it for a couple of years, I have not been a member for over a year.

One of the significant things that prevents me from joining again is what I perceive to be a steep pricing model. One way of lowering prices for gaming companies, in my opinion, is to offer their product on Steam and get a tremendous boost in people trying the game.

Is there any chance AH3 will be on Steam with a new pricing structure? I did a cursory search for this in the forum and have not seen a discussion of this yet (though I'm sure it has been mentioned somewhere sometime).

What are your thoughts?

Lowering the price of AH and then putting it on Steam will hurt AH, despite the potential for added new players that Steam may bring.  Steam takes 30% of all transactions, so HTC would have to fork over 30% of each monthly paid subscription to Steam.

[captain1ma]

and besides some of those "free" games out there, aren't really free, because you have to buy stuff to upgrade.... in aces high, you get everything with a few exceptions and you have to EARN them not BUY them......as far as im concerned ACES HIGH is still the best Deal and the best game out there! oh and the "other" games. only 15 players at a time. try FSO with that!!

[Vudak]

I think they should consider letting a few planes be free to play. Then $15 unlocks the whole game. Maybe Spit V, 109F, P51B, La5.

[SirNuke]

the OP has a point IMO

Note that you can publish a game on steam while keeping a secondary login system. And don't underestimate how much people are willing to give on skins and pink tracers

[Ack-Ack]

People also don't factor in the increased development cost that would happen if AH is put on Steam.  HiTech will have to develop a Steam version of the game, and maintain that version along with the regular non-Steam version.

[ROC]

Why would you log in through Steam to get to this game and wreak havoc on a connection that is the tightest and most refined I have ever experienced?
You have to be right to get a kill, nearly everything else out there, just get close. 
This is not a mass appeal game, it's a niche game.  It changes slowly but the changes matter and are well thought out.
After years of playing games through steam I've finally ripped that garbage out of my system and won't play a game through that junk ever again.

[Wizz]

Why would you log in through Steam to get to this game and wreak havoc on a connection that is the tightest and most refined I have ever experienced?
You have to be right to get a kill, nearly everything else out there, just get close. 
This is not a mass appeal game, it's a niche game.  It changes slowly but the changes matter and are well thought out.
After years of playing games through steam I've finally ripped that garbage out of my system and won't play a game through that junk ever again.

Agreed its crap!

[captain1ma]

oh yah and my credit card was hacked through steam, if it wasn't for one particular game, I wouldn't use them at all!! lack of security from steam, hows that for a reason not to do it!!

[zack1234]

AH is the best flight sim out there.

I have bought a few and graphics are very nice but game is poo

[Wizz]

AH is the best flight sim out there.

I have bought a few and graphics are very nice but game is poo

Yep your not going to find another game in the world that offers so much.

[Gman]

As the always pleasant to read Bustr said, somebody asked Hitech in the past about Steam, and his answer was pretty straightforward and understandable, pretty much what AckAck said.  That said, other players have also asked HT if it was his plan to keep Aces High a "niche game with small numbers", and he very vehemently denied that, and made it plain that he was all for large scale expansion of numbers.  I have the thread linked someplace else, I'll find it later. 

So, IMO this represents a paradox of sorts - the one proven vehicle out there in the gaming world for expanding numbers/players is a no-go for completely understandable reasons, yet HTC doesn't necessarily wish to remain a small niche game.  What to do...

I wonder how Eagle Dynamics/DCS does it with Steam - they have their own in house sales vehicle/page, yet also have a presence on steam.  A sort of hybrid model if you will.  If Steam didn't enforce some sort of contract taking a slice of DCS sales on their own page, but only on Steam, IMO this would be a possible area to examine for HTC, a similar hybrid system.  Yes, supporting a Steam variant would equal more work, question is, would it be worth it.  I wonder what Warbirds sales are like on Steam?  I'd wager crap, but then, so is the product and support without Steam.  HTC would fare much better there IMO, especially with some FTP options like a couple GVs and maybe a very weak fighter/bomber.

[BuckShot]

So steam games have you login to the game from the steam site? If they are simply a skimming middleman, why the need to login to their site or have a separate version of the game?

I have never used it.

[Gman]

The are a skimming middleman in effect, but instead of having to produce game boxes or provide a streaming data service themselves, game companies can instead offset that cost and go through Steam - for a price.  Now that Steam is so popular and most gamers instantly check there before anywhere else, it's almost a "must use" deal for anything other than niche products.  Even indie games have the largest following on Steam IMO.

I remember back when I worked full time for an online gaming site, back in 2000 or so, when the Valve people first told us about the Steam concept and how nobody would buy boxed games in the future.  We laughed, thinking that nobody would fork over their 50$ to not get a hard CD copy and box of their game for their hard earned dollar.  Heh.  Didn't see that one coming obviously.  Same deal I guess for when Microsoft gaming first told us about their secret "XBox" project that would bring PC hardware into a gaming console - who would want to buy that instead of a PC?!

I still think HTC could increase numbers back to their peak levels and higher on their own.  IMO having a system that allowed free to play members into the arena, yet would prioritize sub clients over them, to fill up the open slots say to 800 or whatever the servers can take would be the best, cheapest option.  Give them a jeep, crappy tank, Storch, and maybe a very weak fighter/bomber.  Nothing would make new players want to pay to sub more than seeing the fun everyone else is having in all the planes/tanks/etc that they can't unlock - it'd be a far better hook than tic-tac-toe or sheep stealing, I'd bet it all on that. 

IMO this would work - I have no idea regarding the complications of implementing such a thing, I just believe that it's the most cost effective way to go, better than any ad campaign or Steam type venture.  Fill up the empty player slots with FTP - some of them will become paying clients, and eventually it'll get to the point where there will be enough paying members flying again to fill the arena, and then another split could happen or an even larger arena made.  This method also fixes a lot of complaint/issues as well, as the most common is "not enough players".  Well, having a ton of FTP targets will fix that in short order, and give sub paying members a lot more live players to interact with.  This interaction will also breed more subs from the FTP players, as they'll want to be in on what the sub players are up to and talking about, higher end fighters and bomber raids etc they'd be locked out of without a sub.