Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Valve Uninterested In Sharing Steam Sales Info
With NPD refusing to divulge sales numbers to the public and digital sales being kept in a shroud of secrecy, finding any solid intel on how games are performing is becoming an increasingly difficult task. Don't look to Valve to save the day.
Valve's Steam platform, which offers over 1,700 PC games and dominates digital game sales on the platform, won't be opening its books any time soon.
“The idea of a chart is old," Steam head Jason Holtmant old MCV. "It came from people trying to aggregate disaggregated information. What we provide to partners is much more rapid and perfected information. If you look back at the way retail charts have been made, they have been proven to be telling an inaccurate story. They apparently had shown how the PC format was dying when it was actually thriving."
That's only a half truth. The reason retail charts tell an inaccurate story is because they didn't take digital sales into account. But that's beside the point for Holtman.
“The point is, it’s not super important for a publisher or developer to know how well everyone is doing. What’s important to know is exactly how your game is doing – why it’s climbing and why it’s falling. Your daily sales, your daily swing, your rewards for online campaign number three. That’s what we provide.”
They may not be integral to publishers and developers in Valve's mind, but charts provide a valuable insight for journalists and the general public. Without them, we have no idea which games are attracting gamers, if a project with big expectations has bombed, or if an under-marketed game is succeeding thanks to word of mouth. All information is good information in our eyes, and sales data can help shape the conversation. It's also worth mentioning that the video game industry is the only entertainment media that takes this redacted approach to sales. Music, box office, and book bestseller lists are readily available. We're not sure what everybody is afraid of.
What do you think about sales data being kept secret?
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
