Korval.3751

Releasing on Steam means releasing on a new audience, not killing the old one. Meaning there is zero chance of "losing whales". Exactly. The account credentials aren't tied to Steam, they're tied to the game's launcher (e.g. that's how people log into the game). I hadn't played SWTOR in years (I believe 3 years since I last played). I was able to install from Steam, launch the game, and log into my account from the existing SWOTR launcher. No fuss, no mess. Easy. Simple. Requiring existing players to create new accounts if they launch and play from Steam literally makes no sense. It's not a valid point. :)

How is it not a good sign? Are you implying that an MMO that appears on Steam is in a financial struggle? You know that is not true. How does the math work out that Anet loses money from new customers? That's money they would not have otherwise made in the first place. Because a pretty big % of the current playerbase would use steam instead. 90% of Guild Wars players are probably steam users as well as most PC players are.And with steam now awarding steam points for purchases made on steam, I don't think a lot of people would go out of their way to make the purchases through the standalone client to support arena net.If it was such a guarenteed success, then ask yourself why it haven't been on steam already since 2012. And why Blizzard and so many others release their games outside of steam.If games can attract a large enough playerbase outside steam, they will always do it, as yes, 30% is a large chunk to give up. 70 cents off a dollar is still more than 100% of nothing. and it certainly isnt ncsoft, they have MANY other games on steam.wildstar got a few $$ from me..secret world...warframe...swtor...aion..EVE..the list goes on and onPrecisely. The math behind Arenanet losing money from something they don't have is flawed reasoning. I don't subscribe to GW2 so there's no guarantee that I'll keep buying gems in the store when LWS content releases. The main point of putting the game on Steam is to take advantage of the platform's powerful marketing and social tools. Is it worth 30% per transaction? With an active monthly user base of over 100 million, absolutely. The numbers alone will more than make-up for it. And your right about the other games you mentioned. All of them have a thriving user base. A lot of thanks goes to Steam.

Why would they do that? Steam would launch the same GW2 launcher players use now. Everyone would log into the same game from the same launcher.

How does the math work out that Anet loses money from new customers? That's money they would not have otherwise made in the first place. Because a pretty big % of the current playerbase would use steam instead. 90% of Guild Wars players are probably steam users as well as most PC players are.That makes no sense and no cents. I purchase gems every time new LWS content comes out, but there's no guarantee that I'll keep doing it. Arenanet shouldn't take for granted that I'll continue to do so. GW2 is a F2P game that primarily operates on what I like to call "commercialized charity." So yes, right now, they make 100% from expansion and gem purchases. But that comes at the cost of not opening up the game to the booming Steam audience. If I were to transition to making purchases through Steam, Arenanet would still make 70% from me. However, given that Steam has an active monthly user base of over 100 million, even if they lose 30% from each of my transitions, Steam's sheer numbers would more than make up for it. Mathematically speaking Arenanet would simply make more money despite Valve taking a 30% cut.

How is it not a good sign? Are you implying that an MMO that appears on Steam is in a financial struggle? You know that is not true. How does the math work out that Anet loses money from new customers? That's money they would not have otherwise made in the first place. Adding GW2 to Steam increases its market presence beyond what GW2 has now. The argument I've read from some in this thread saying that there would be an increase in "freeloaders" is foolish. Yes, a Free-2-Play game would attract freebie players, but it would also see a percentage of those turn to purchasing the expansion pack and gems. Even now, the game is like that. Most players play without spending a dime, but a sizeable percentage buy gems. The same will happen with players from Steam. Also, Steam is a much better platform today then it was in 2012 when GW2 launched. It benefits Arenanet to take advantage of Steam's powerful engine to find and retain new customers. A good game is a good game, and GW2 is a great game. It is a solid MMO. All it needs is exposure, and Steam has one of the best built-in marketing engines. It's like Google advertising, and gaming platform all rolled into one. GW2 benefits from constant promotion of its game through various tools like Discoveries, Curators, Intelligent Searches, Recommendations, and more, and Arenanet continues to take in residual income from people coming and going, in addition to their regulars. These make Steam a better platform to promote a game than Google and other marketing channels. I agree.

More than likely Arenanet would eliminate BLCs and make the items available either in game with currency or karma purchases, legandary recipes, or Gem store purchases. In any case, it would no longer be an RNG system. You know precisely what you're getting.

Another game doing very well on Steam is Warframe. Not so much in gameplay terms (since it is sci-fi) but in purchasing terms. It has a similar Free-2-Play model coupled with a Buy-To-Play with no subscription fees. Published by Digital Extremes (a smaller studio like Arenanet), it has built up a large following on Steam. It sits at a 91% Very Positive rating based on close to 370,000 Overall Reviews. Like GW2, Warframe offers cosmetic purchases.

That's a bit excessive. I'd rather not see that. Transferring between mastery trees would give unused MPs a purpose, but there should remain a finite number of them, so you'd have to be smart about how you spend them.

The "holy trinity" never existed in GW2 to begin with.

Ever since episode 1, "Whispers in the Dark," concept art is missing from the LWS page. Was this an oversight? I'd love adding those awesome and amazing concept art to my Windows wallpaper folder. Surely you have some concept art. Could you add them?

Steam's cross marketing engine is amazing. Sooner or later GW2 will be seen by most of its active users. That's 100+ million potential new players, and gem store purchasers.

This discussion has been merged.

Continuing from https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/107568/likelihood-of-gw2-coming-to-steam EA recently brought Star Wars: The Old Republic to Steam. Cartel Coins (SWTOR's version of Gems) and monthly subscriptions are in the Top Sellers. There's a huge market for MMOs on Steam.

They could come out swinging and add "Coming Soon to Steam" in the Cantha expansion trailer. Not only is the expansion building up hype among the existing player base, but now the entire 100 million monthly active user base on Steam can get excited too. It seems like whatever costs could be associated with being on Steam, the sheer numbers alone would easily make up for it.

I ask because GW2 is one of my favorite games and the only MMO I play today. Every time I play a new LWS, I buy $20-$50 worth of gems to say, "thank you, Arenanet." I'd love to see the game continue to thrive. I think bringing it to Steam would see more people playing. Steam's amazing search algorithm and recommendation engine helps people interested in games like GW2 find them. Perhaps GW2 could launch on Steam for the Cantha expansion! :) Okay, I'm ready for the flood of "anti" comments. <3