Steam, which is the most popular among many game platforms and has 120 million monthly active users (MAU), as reported by Backlinko, is also used by independent and small studios besides large publishers. There is only one question in the minds of many studios and individual developers: How can I publish my game on Steam?
It is not a very complex system, but we have gathered this process under one roof for you. As an extra, we talked about what kind of actions can benefit you after your game is published. Happy reading!
Beginning of the process
You have prepared your game; now, the only thing left is to publish this game on a platform and reach the end-user. You have various ways, but we will talk about Steam today.
First, you need the identity information of the legal entity that will provide the income and the documents about who it represents and who it is. Apart from these documents, you need your bank/account code, account number, and bank address to receive payment (some bank stuff). Bank information must belong to the legal entity I mentioned above.
Coming to the taxation part of the job, Steam will present you with a tax survey to determine the tax status and withholding rate. This survey, which has a validation process of 2 to 7 days, may differ from country to country.
When you come to the most crucial part of the job, Steam Direct Fee, you must send the $100 amount to Steam. You can do this through all channels that Steam accepts payment (except the Steam wallet). This fee is non-refundable, but it can be refunded when the product you publish reaches 1000 USD gross income with the store and micropayments.
Certain types of content are strictly not allowed to be published on Steam. As Steam reports, these are as follows:
- Hate speech that incites violence or discrimination against certain groups and views
- Adult content that goes beyond the age limit (the age limit of the published content needs to be paid attention to)
- Slander / insulting statements
- Stolen content
- Illegal content
- Viruses and malware
- Product-independent video content
- Non-interactive 360 VR videos
- Applications with blockchain technology that allow the exchange or production of NFT and cryptocurrencies
You can access all the rules and guidelines published by Steam by clicking here and have more detailed information.
Publishing process and key generation
You have registered with SteamWorks, uploaded your game, and edited your Steam page according to the video game marketing introduction we prepared. Now all that’s left is to sit back and start marketing to increase your sales.
By going to the content I mentioned above, you can find many more details about what you should pay attention to when entering descriptions for your Steam game, how to make image selections, and game marketing. Don’t forget to take a look!
What is this key generation process, I hear you say. Steam allows you to generate a certain number of keys and sell your game outside Steam. You can choose to do this by contracting with a distributor or managing the process independently through your own company. Here the choice is entirely up to you.
We said marketing, but being a game developer does not mean being a marketing expert. Some key points fall on the person here, but marketing is an entirely different line of business. If you have a budget, we recommend working with a marketer.
After the publication process
I won’t waste your time discussing the need to harness the power of social media to make your game a success. I assume you know that in today’s conditions, it is necessary to apply to social media regardless of the business line.
What ways should you use to grow your game outside of social media? We’ve put together a few techniques for you. The first of these is influencer marketing, which is a highly preferred method today.
Types of influencers and things to consider
Influencers are divided into two as macro and micro. While macro-influencers have between 100,000 and 1 million followers, this number is between 10,000 and 100,000 when micro-influencers are considered.
The choice of macro-influencers may seem logical based on the number of followers, but this is not precisely the case. An extensive network appeals to multiple audiences, while micro-influencers appeal to a small but niche audience.
So when you make your choice logically, it is possible to reach much faster growth with micro-influencers. The option is yours; do you want to appeal to a wide range of people and multiple audiences, or do you want to enter a specific and niche market?
Make your followers happy
To the question of what is the favorite thing of the players, I am sure many people will answer the raffles and free games. Who doesn’t love free things? I told you you could generate keys when you publish your game.
By allocating some of the keys you generate to these draws, you can avoid a significant marketing expense and promote your game through social media draws. By blending this technique with the other methods I mentioned in the influencer marketing title, you can reach a more broad and niche audience and increase your success rate.
In conclusion
The list of things you should pay attention to when you say Steam curators, publishers, MAU, ARPDAU, CPI, and KPI can be too long to explain even with thousands of pages of books. It is up to you (and a little bit of your budget) to improve yourself and achieve success in this field. There are dozens of advertising channels and options you can choose from. Options such as content marketing, influencer marketing, and social media marketing are all tools on the way to success.
Marketing, of course, is not a simple subject that can be explained in a small article. However, when you consider the above suggestions, your chances of success will definitely increase. Previously, we published a lot of content about marketing on our site. It is possible to access these contents through the Academy category or on the Mobidictum YouTube channel. Don’t forget to browse the content and improve your knowledge!
