Many people believe that too many games are being released monthly. Last year, Steam received a record 14,451 game uploads. With the mass layoff currently going on in the game industry, it is likely going to get worse. The reason is that many of the laid-off employees will try the indie route.
According to the independent Steam analytics site, SteamDB, a mammoth 1,438 games were released on Steam in February 2024. That set the record as the single-month highest since SteamDB started keeping track in 2006.
The previous single month’s highest number of game releases on the platform was achieved in October 2023 when 1,317 games were released. As of the time of writing, 3,160 games have already been released on the platform this year. That puts 2024 on track to hit another record game release year on Steam.
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The number of games released on Steam has continued to rise. In 2006, only 71 games were released on the platform. Fast-forward to 2023 and that number has swelled to over 14,000.
The only two years when the growth in the number of games released on Steam dipped was in 2010 when it fell to 276 from 379 the previous year and in 2019 when it fell to 8,121 from 8,895 the previous year.
Since July 2022, over 1,000 games have consistently been released monthly on Steam. The huge number of games released monthly makes it harder for indie games to be seen.
Therefore, any game developer considering the indie route should make provisions for a marketing budget, or finding their games would be akin to finding a needle in a haystack. At the time of writing, 86,524 games have been released on Steam since 2006.
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Although some of the games may have been delisted over the years, that figure gives you an idea of what you are up against as an indie game maker. Certainly, you need more than just luck to stand out of the pack.
More than 14,000 games now playable on Steam Deck
Steam Deck launched on February 25, 2022. Since then, Valve has been doing its best to optimize games for its handheld. According to SteamDB, 14,057 games (and rising) are now compatible with Steam Deck. Out of that number, 4,613 are marked as Verified while “9,444” are marked as “Playable”.
Games marked as “Verified” will work excellently on Deck right out of the box. However, when games are marked as “Playable”, it means the user may need to make manual tweaks to enjoy the game on the handheld.
Valve is reviewing its entire game catalog. The platform wants to introduce a four-rating system that will show how smooth every game’s experience would be for players on the Deck. Games can also be marked as “Unsupported”, meaning they don’t work on Deck, or “Unknown”, meaning the game’s performance on Deck is yet to be tested.
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Valve has created a Steam Deck Compatibility page where players can log in and see the status of their games and which of them is playable on Deck. The following boxes need to be ticked for a game to be Deck Verified:
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Input: “The title should have full controller support, use appropriate controller input icons, and automatically bring up the on-screen keyboard when needed”
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Display: “The game should support the default resolution of Steam Deck (1280×800 or 1280×720), have good default settings, and text should be legible.”
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Seamlessness: “The title shouldn’t display any compatibility warnings, and if there’s a launcher it should be navigable with a controller.”
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System Support: “If running through Proton, the game and all its middleware should be supported by Proton. This includes anti-cheat support.”
Do you think the mass layoffs in the video game industry will lead to a bloom in indie games? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
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