Steam as a platform for Visual Novels

Off-Topic
#10

I’m pretty sure most of the complaining about VNs on Steam has everything to do H-content. There was that whole situation/“scandal” thing with If My Heart Had Wings; from what I’ve heard, the whole selling point of Nekopara is the H, so removing it makes it seem kinda stupid; and I’m sure tons of people won’t want to buy an “all-ages” version of Grisaia. People who want H are going to complain when they can’t have H.

But Steam has a very good reason to refuse all sexual content: they want everyone to be able to buy their games. And it works 100% perfectly with stuff like planetarian because, like @LinkThinks said, it just makes everything so darn easy and convenient to buy and store the games. And as @Aspirety, it makes it so darn easy and convenient for companies to sell to as large an audience as possible.

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#11

I think steam is a great way to sell visual novels and bring it out for the PC games market to see. Steam in particular has a great way of letting you talk and share things with people interested in the same game with its community hub and discussions/reviews board for every individual game. The social aspects and convenience of steam I think are its strong points. Not having H-scenes in steam sold visual novels isn’t too much of a drama, fans usually find a way around it through modding/patching. Though with this much of publicity you can expect any amount of negativity from people of all corners of gaming (:kudshock: when I see someone review vote down Planetarian on Steam).

Without Steam’s discussions board I probably wouldn’t have found Kazamatsuri.org

6 Likes
#12

Well, Steam pretty much just makes things easier for publishers to release their things, since it’s pretty well known and most people do have a steam account.

I, myself think it’s okay to have all ages VNs on there and I wouldnt mind having 18+ ones there too, if it makes it easier, but well, steam is kinda not that okay with it, which makes me tend to go more with the non steam releases, like I did for nekopara and I will probably also do for Grisaia.

tl;dr It’s nice to have Steam, since it’s a well known plattform for all kinds of games including Visual Novels.

#13

I have no problem with Steam getting VN’s in fact I’m a fan of it for a couple of reasons. First off it solves a very critical distribution problem. Thinking from a company standpoint the problem with trying to market a VN in the west is how do you get it the most exposure to the most people. Steam is the perfect solution for that problem the VNs get on Steam and all of a sudden a ton of gamers who may have never even heard of VNs have them right in front of their face when they open the steam store. (I personally know this works because a friend of mine called me yesterday and griped about the amount of “weeb” games that have been popping up on Steam.)

And I really don’t mind that Steam only allows All Ages versions since that’s normally the versions I go for anyway so it works out for me but I do understand that some people would have a problem with it.But I think as long as their are alternatives the increased exposure which leads to increased sales numbers which hopefully leads to an increased number of VN’s getting moved over will offset that.

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#14

I love it! It’a a great idea. I’ve been using steam for years and never had a single problem. I think it’s great because if VNs get put on steam, I can actually buy them instead of pirating them because they’re easily accessable. I bought planetarian on steam and was SO HAPPY because it happened to be on sale! Plus having them on Steam means they might gain more popularity in the West and I’d really like to see VNs get more popular over here!

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#15

I am very certain that I would never even have heard of VNs if not for Steam, even though I have been a gamer albeit not a hardcore one for around 20 years, mainly playing strategy or RPGs. VNs were simply not on my radar at all until I tried one just because it was free on Steam - and that led to Clannad on the PC and Steins;Gate on PS3. And speaking of PS3 / PS4 there isn’t even a category of the PSN store for VNs so the few that are on that platform are hard to just stumble across. If you don’t frequent particular stores or fansites or follow news & review gamer sites it’s easy for those like me to be utterly oblivious to the genre.

I now know there are a few UK sources that do sell the hard copies although they seem to be very pricey compared to digital download. I surely wouldn’t even bother trying to get hard to find games on import then patch for English or through “less than strictly legal” means. I can live without the expurgated adult scenes.

So I am a VN fan thanks to Steam and I’m sure I’m not the only one…

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#16

Wait do people have any problems on Steam that isn’t about the H content? o.O

Well in any case they make VNs so accessible in my place, and in such a good price too. I can’t complain about it at all.

#17

Internet reliant drm, clunky must-install software, no quality control, bad customer support, annoying Steam Guard logins, you lose all your games if your account gets compromised or banned, and they have an insane monopoly on the market.

1 Like
#18

Now that is a major pain but it’s not just a Steam issue. I’ve bought hard copy of PC games (Atari games most notably!) where it has to connect to the internet for DRM and it’s been royally buggered up with large numbers of legit players prevented from using the game because of technical issues.

#19

If it wasn’t for Steam I’d probably still be playing torrented copies, honestly. It’s made VNs accessible.

3 Likes
#20

lets see I can order from a place like amiami, wait a long time for it to come and spend more money, Or less money with a platform that has sales that go crazy low and you instantly have access to it when you buy it.

I do like having physical copies of games, but it costs more for basically just a box with maybe a small book. All of the games I bought physical and imported I have to buy on steam anyways again, due to the steam releases. so basically it is steam or nothing. There just aren’t that many other places.

Almost all the drm free things I get nowadays are from humble bundle, but part of it is the devs don’t want drm free because it makes it easier to just give it away.

I would still be buying vns just not as many due to price and ease of access. I think patches are odd because you just get them for free, and buy a bunch of stuff you can’t even understand… and if the game is old it might be tricky to find for a fair price, unlike going to steam store and waiting for a sale. Steam is better than the old method for sure, for both parties (buyer and seller)

oh yeah the drm sucks for steam compared to the cd version; because playing little busters with the cd in your drive is much better lol. :deino:

#21

Sometimes I would like to buy a material edition instead of a digital edition but for the others I don’t dislike steam (usually you can apply a patch for the H content).
Also thanks to steam much more people know about the visual novels (even if there are the ones that only want H-games).

#22

I personally don’t prefer having the games on steam, but what can I do? the benefits of steam is you can install whenever and wherever without having to worry about re-downloading files, but some games do have censored due to steam… I see both pros and cons, but my personal preference is to not have it through steam. It is also lighter on the system.

#23

[quote=“Pepe, post:1, topic:821”]
too much of a hassle.
[/quote] I don’t get this part at all. Steam is easy to use and it isn’t a hassle at all. Finding a patch, installing the game from PC and then finding out something is screwy (happened many times) is a hassle. You can get it legally too and support the company.

I can get not getting the full content issue, but I would want to support the company too. If anything there should be a patch for people when can verify they are 18+ (like credit card purchases).

#24

Two years later, and only now do I realize I worded that wrongly :yahaha:

What I meant to say was that this friend of mine thought that buying it outside of steam (in nekopara’s case, through denpasoft) was too much of a hassle. Thus he decided to pirate it instead

#25

As horrible and non-existent as Steam’s quality control and flood of games are, visual novels were a huge benefactor of Steam allowing almost anything onto their storefront. In fact, one of the Steam employees said that they wanted to be surprised by what good came out of it. VNs just sell on Steam and we’ve all won (unless you despise the loss of H content vehemently) and there are titles that would have never been created or licensed if it wasn’t for Steam.

However, on top of the list from @Takafumi that explains a lot of the problems I have with Steam, Steam has also had (at least) one very bad security hack where I can’t trust them with a valid credit card anymore. I buy everything from Steam with cards.

DRM and all, the accessibility is very nice but sometimes it is better to buy the product at a different (DRM-free) storefront.

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#26

I would like to, but apart from Amazon (which also has its areas of concern) here in the UK I know of nowhere else to source stuff. I really don’t want to buy imported games at extra expense then have to faff with a patch and tricking the PC into thinking it’s Japanese!

I only know of RiceDigital who offer physical copy / special exclusive issues here but they don’t offer VNs on the PC platform, just consoles and at a premium and have a very limited range. Internet searches don’t turn up anything helpful. The only other option is the pre-owned market.

Edited to add: I expect getting stuff direct from the USA is also a headache here.

#27

There is no big business that doesn’t have areas of concern, but my opinion was clearly from a US perspective and it must be far different for other countries. If Steam is a huge help for other people then that’s wonderful - I just try to stay away from the customer support, not use the service for anything but gaming, and deal with the DRM. If it is a game/title/experience that I really want, I try to get it off Steam.

I have no clue how MG, JAST, and SP handle digital distribution in other countries either. My only true insight into this is GOG but they really only carry certain English VNs at this time (Hatoful Boyfriend, To The Moon, VA-11 Hall-A…).

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#28

I personally come from the perspective of a non-gamer (in a sense that I don’t play much games outside of VNs) in the Philippines, and I think my appreciation of it largely comes from the accessibility. Seeing how there’s only very few anime and manga here that I can access legally, Steam VNs are somehow available here, at a relatively affordable price too (with that said, LB! will still likely cost an arm and a leg for me). It also adds that I can transact without having to set up a Paypal account, and Stem cards are fairly available, at least in the Metro.

In hindsight, I can see some problems with Steam, but it was never a big deal for me. With that said, I don’t play games that much, so that could be a big factor to my thoughts on it. :yahaha:

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#29

Thank you for sharing! (and same with BotanRugbyBall of course)!

I admit that it was harder to see how wonderful this Steam VN explosion must be when you have the conveniences of the US and can get almost anything, and it’s so easy to see the problems because Steam is so large and present. I haven’t bought anything from RiceDigital but it’s not cheap here, and Kickstarter shipping and customs are not a good time for all to be had.

In all truthfulness, VNs are a big reason I use Steam and hopefully the overall price of LB! isn’t that bad for you or anyone else. There was a time when I didn’t have a credit card either so it was doing by cards or doing it with my parents’ credit card which would have been pretty weird for most VNs. :yahaha:

No matter how much I try to avoid parts of Steam or say I use a different way of paying for things now, there certainly are big positives that I should be more grateful for.