Why aren't more pr0n games sold on Steam?

[Doorknob22]

Ever since starting to play and support pr0n games I was under the assumption that while Patreon and

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are tolerant towards adult content, Steam only allows mild nudies but I was surprised today to find some hardcore titles on Steam with visible penetration and fetishes and everything.

This made me wonder why aren't more developers selling their pr0n games on Steam? Is there any catch I'm not aware of? I briefly went over their guidelines and saw they demands $100 upfront just for setting up a shop, but is that the main reason for not selling there?

 

[Lerd0]

Hard to get approved....Steam takes an higher cut......u have to compete with a lot of porn shovelware...
....and i'll leave the rest to Droid Productions .....

 

[Droid Productions]

It's not hard to get approved, but it does dox you extremely thoroughly (Steam runs enough cash through the system that they're subject to bank-account level Know Your Customer checks).

Steam takes 30%, which is indeed higher than Patreon. I wouldn't see Steam as an opponent to Patreon, though: I have stam users who became patreons and patreons who rejected a free key to buy the game on Steam (so they could leave a 'real' review - key reviews don't count).

Steam is a huge market, and the number of people who use it who've never seen any of your content is mind-blowing. It's also much *quieter*. Which is freaky. On F95 I get 10 people commenting the thread for each new patreon. On Steam I get 100 new buyers for each comment in the forum, and something like 1:20 review to purchase ratio.

Shovelware is a non-issue, Steam's better than most places (including Apple/Google/F95) in terms of surfacing quality content. Shit content gets drowned, good content floats.

I'd totally recommend using steam: the big counter against it is your contract prohibits you treating Steam customers as second-class citizens. From Valve's POV this makes perfect sense; they don't want to provide keys so you can shit on valve's customers. It does mean you need to start charging (previously free locations) like itch.io and gamejolt customers.

 

[Doorknob22]

The big counter against it is your contract prohibits you treating Steam customers as second-class citizens.

Can you please elaborate what did you mean by that?

 

[Lerd0]

shovelware is a non-issue, Steam's better than most places (including Apple/Google/F95) in terms of surfacing quality content. Shit content gets drowned, good content floats.

Thanks for explaining it better than i could....
...but disagree with this point....
....cheap puzzle games and asset flip hentai games sell a lot....

 

[Droid Productions]

Can you please elaborate what did you mean by that?

It's a little complex, because stuff like subscription isn't directly counted. The big one is don't sell your game at storefront A for X and at Steam for X+.

What Steam doesn't want is someone going "I was an idiot for buying on Steam when I could have gotten it for free here". That hurts Steam's brand.

 

[Droid Productions]

....cheap puzzle games and asset flip hentai games sell a lot....

There's a huge captive audience out there... if people like/wishlist/buy stuff, steam will surface that. This isn't the system being broken, it is the system working.

But steam also isn't F95; the things they like/dislike are different. 2D does better there than here, renpy gets less love, as does pure DAZ. They're just different sub-audiences. I was surprised LoM did as well as it did (review wise, as well as financially) on Steam, because it's very much a game born out of F95; I started developing it here, my early play-testers were here, my first supporters were all here, and until Act III I don't think anyone outside F95 knew of the game.

 

[Lerd0]

There's a huge captive audience out there... if people like/wishlist/buy stuff, steam will surface that. This isn't the system being broken, it is the system working.

But steam also isn't F95; the things they like/dislike are different. 2D does better there than here, renpy gets less love, as does pure DAZ. They're just different sub-audiences. I was surprised LoM did as well as it did (review wise, as well as financially) on Steam, because it's very much a game born out of F95; I started developing it here, my early play-testers were here, my first supporters were all here, and until Act III I don't think anyone outside F95 knew of the game.

Didn't say it was broken......my english is giving me problems again...
....and why are u surprised that ur game did well......it's really good.
...and like u said good content floats.

 

[Droid Productions]

....and why are u surprised that ur game did well......it's really good.

Thx

I was surprised because a casual google search would find it for free here. And because it's DAZ 3D, which isn't loved on Steam. And because I didn't really expect my writing to be enjoyed as much 'in the real world'; I guess I assumed that porn-gamers had lower expectations than 'normie' gamers.

 

[Doorknob22]

It's a little complex, because stuff like subscription isn't directly counted. The big one is don't sell your game at storefront A for X and at Steam for X+.

What Steam doesn't want is someone going "I was an idiot for buying on Steam when I could have gotten it for free here". That hurts Steam's brand.

Thanks for the detailed answer!

 

[rk-47]

Mostly hentai puzzle trash, easy to make and easy to throw out there for 2 or 3 quid
some are okay and made well but theres not many rpgm/renpy/UE games

 

[standbygames]

Because many games use assets that they don't own (not judging, 95%+ of games wouldn't be able to be made if that wasn't the case as it'd be way too expensive for the lone devs that make porn games). Koikatu and other illusion assets. Daz3d/render pirated models/backgrounds/skins etc. I doubt many of these games have paid commercial license for every single daz3d/3d asset they use, the total costs would be insane and unreasonable for solo devs. There's a much higher chance in getting in hot water over that selling the game directly on steam than putting it on patreon or w/e. So it's just way safer to stick with patreon and what not.

Probably only the fully handdrawn games and maybe the richest 3d rendering ones that can actually pay for every single asset could safely go up on steam. For those few ones, I see no reason they shouldn't give it a try.

 

[Doorknob22]

Because many games use assets that they don't own (koitaku and other illusion games, daz3d pirated models/backgrounds/skins etc I doubt many of these games have paid for every single daz3d asset they use, the total costs would be insane) and there's a much higher chance in getting in hot water over that selling the game directly on steam than putting it on patreon or w/e.

Do you think anyone knows or going to check if you paid for each and every one of your DAZ based rendered figures in your renders?

 

[Lerd0]

Do you think anyone knows or going to check if you paid for each and every one of your rendered figures in your renders?

If u talking about DAZ....then no.
...but if someone did it would be an amazing shitstorm....

 

[Doorknob22]

If u talking about DAZ....then no.
...but if someone did it would be an amazing shitstorm....

Yeah, I meant Daz assets. Fixed my message.

 

[Bizef]

it does dox you extremely thoroughly (Steam runs enough cash through the system that they're subject to bank-account level Know Your Customer checks).

Could you elaborate ? How do they dox you and how to avoid that ?

 

[Doorknob22]

Could you elaborate ? How do they dox you and how to avoid that ?

Also: for non English speakers, can you briefly explain what "dox" means?

 

[Lerd0]

Also: for non English speakers, can you briefly explain what "dox" means?

 

[Crimson Delight Games]

It's not hard to get approved, but it does dox you extremely thoroughly (Steam runs enough cash through the system that they're subject to bank-account level Know Your Customer checks).

How is this any different than Patreon? Patreon asks for your real name and address, and will suspend your account if they find out you've bamboozled them. You also have to fill out tax forms if you're not a US citizen... and can probably be charged for fraud if you purposefully lie on them. Obviously they don't show any of this info to supporters/patrons, but it's still required if you want to set up shop. Or am I just missing something really obvious here?

 

[moskis22]

IMO steam was very picky with porn content in the past, and there are several websites that had already filled the gap