Human17 Posted March 10, 2025 Report Posted March 10, 2025 Hi everybody! I just came across and bought this game today. I used to be a big Minecraft fan and this game seems like Minecraft on steroids. So far so good - just trying to figure out if they went overboard or not quite with the complexity. But the visuals, music and systems are pretty great so far! One thing that I'm surprised about is that this game is not on Steam. Why is that? I feel like it's really limiting its player-base, exposure & reach because of this. It's also not really mentioned on many "what's the best 2025 Minecraft-like game" articles, which was a big surprise, since after a couple of hours of gameplay, it feels like it should be in the top 3. Thanks!
Broccoli Clock Posted March 10, 2025 Report Posted March 10, 2025 The "other block game" isn't on Steam either .. .. does that limit that game's player base? In short, I believe part of it is money, and understandable too, it's a decent % that Steam asks for. The flip side is that there isn't the level of support that Steam offers to all it's games.
Human17 Posted March 10, 2025 Author Report Posted March 10, 2025 Fair enough - I guess that makes sense. I was that surprised that I haven't heard of it, so figured it must be not well known. Or maybe I've just been living under a rock!
Broccoli Clock Posted March 10, 2025 Report Posted March 10, 2025 4 minutes ago, Human17 said: Fair enough - I guess that makes sense. I was that surprised that I haven't heard of it, so figured it must be not well known. Or maybe I've just been living under a rock! It's certainly gaining traction, quite a few streamers I watch (who tend to play survival crafting games) have picked it up and that's what motivated me to do so, and there definitely is an uptick in awareness. The recent update has brought with it quite a few new eyes, too. Thing is, fast unexpected growth of popularity can be as dangerous to a game as having nobody play it. 3 1 1
RetroTekGuy Posted March 10, 2025 Report Posted March 10, 2025 This way the developers get all the proceeds for their work. If they were actively developing the game on Steam, Valve would take a ridiculous cut. On here at least they have total control. A game like Vintage Story with the developers and community it has wouldn't benefit from Steam exposure. Steam is a very loud peanut gallery.
Broccoli Clock Posted March 10, 2025 Report Posted March 10, 2025 11 minutes ago, RetroTekGuy said: A game like Vintage Story with the developers and community it has wouldn't benefit from Steam exposure. Steam is a very loud peanut gallery. I think that would need some citation, to be fair, considering a single instance of VS appearing on the Steam popup (the one that informs you of recent deals/releases) would introduce the game to possibly tens of millions of people. Far more than this website, or some streamers on YT, could do (unless it's one of the top line "influencers"). There are justifiable reasons for not publishing your game on the Steam platform, but the idea that it wouldn't benefit the game's exposure from being on it isn't a viewpoint I share. 1
LadyWYT Posted March 10, 2025 Report Posted March 10, 2025 I would also assume too that it's also because Vintage Story is still very early access and quite a ways from completion. Once the game is complete, or nearly so, then it may see a Steam release, or it may not. Personally I think the game is doing fine as it is. One hazard of growing too fast is the strain on infrastructure for things like multiplayer. It takes time to develop infrastructure, and if the current can't handle a huge influx of new players, the new players may get frustrated with the growing pains and leave before new infrastructure can be acquired. 1
Thorfinn Posted March 10, 2025 Report Posted March 10, 2025 Truth, @LadyWYT Did you see Tyron's mention that his provider contacted him to work through how to more economically run ModDB? It was doing something crazy, like 4 TB a day, or something astounding like that. Considering that only some of the biggest mods weigh in over a meg (From Golden Combs is only 175kb!), that's a whole lotta downloads.
LadyWYT Posted March 10, 2025 Report Posted March 10, 2025 22 minutes ago, Thorfinn said: Truth, @LadyWYT Did you see Tyron's mention that his provider contacted him to work through how to more economically run ModDB? It was doing something crazy, like 4 TB a day, or something astounding like that. Considering that only some of the biggest mods weigh in over a meg (From Golden Combs is only 175kb!), that's a whole lotta downloads. I seem to recall that being mentioned, along with the 300% increase in game sales with the launch of 1.20. Or something to that effect. In any case, the server host was already having issues at the time, but the big influx of new players also helped melt the infrastructure that was there. 1
Maelstrom Posted March 10, 2025 Report Posted March 10, 2025 (edited) It's literally the first question on this page Frequently Asked Questions - Vintage Story Why is the game not on Steam? We are fully aware that Steam will offer a lot of additional exposure and likely a large increase in sales. There's several reasons we are not goi... Up until about a year ago or so, Tyron posted sales in the past 24 hours on the homepage somewhere. Projecting the 24 hour sales rate to a monthly number it was about 1,000 copies a month at that time. Edited March 10, 2025 by Maelstrom 1
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