Subnostr

I wonder how a #nostr version of Steam would be.

I'd imagine it'd be something along the lines of what I'm making with nostr:npub17jl3ldd6305rnacvwvchx03snauqsg4nz8mruq0emj9thdpglr2sst825x , but the core UX and seller issue, more so for a Steam version, is how to handle up to hundreds of gigs of files per game and handle that bandwidth.

Perhaps there's no escaping for the end user needing to pay to download the game, and the dev having to pay for hosting (either renting a server or running their own).

Though thinking about it, to alleviate these pain points, a good system with a smooth UI/UX would have it where the potential store/platform would visually present cut percentages that need to go from a game sale to server rent, how much sales he needs to make, best suggestions, etc, based on the file size of his game, and it would get updated automatically as the package increases or decreases in size.

The server cost mentioned above would also calculate the potential total cost of a buyer downloading their game X times, where the developer/seller can set a limit of how many downloads, in terms of gigs, this user can do so for free (ex: consumed 50 gigs out of 1,000 remaining. Cost per gig to download is $0.05).

In terms of who owns games, that's a nostr user signature so no issue there.

So in essence, and technically speaking, in terms of sales, the developer is getting nearly 100% of the revenue from a game sale, but they're eating up the costs of hosting and managing their game.

In terms of who's hosting the platform for this Steam-like, they can put 0% regarding taking a cut, though that seems unrealistic if developers and gamers are expecting site maintenance and improvements, however, considering the above points where the dev is eating up the costs, I'd say the site/platform can take anywhere between 1% and up to 5% per sale.

Thoughts?

(I haven't even thought of online multiple game servers =P )

#gaming

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Discussion

Freakoverse 1y ago

That's the store. There are a lot of other things to consider in terms of being a competitor/alternative to Steam, both from the user/gamer end to the seller/developer end, where a lot of other competing products like GOG, ESG, Origin, UPlay, and so on could never reach where Steam is because Steam already has the biggest pie share in the market, dominate since the concept of a games client was a thing in the early days of PC gaming, and so they have a massive headstart with systems, designs, features, and continuously getting better with more improvements, systems, and features. No wonder no one can properly compete with them.

However, because of how #nostr works, if a competing platform were to rise up and have it built on nostr, then it would have the biggest chance to properly compete against it and get closer to feature/design/system parity, if not more, as the team developing it would have the global resources of every client and every developer working on their own clients on nostr, openly available and shared to them.

Turns out that open-source development on an open-source protocol was and is the only way to beat Steam, to beat mega-corporations.

By the way, I don't hate Steam/Valve, but if there's a chance to get something better, then I'm all for it.

#gaming