Quote:
Originally Posted by Ink
It will *never* be profitable to charge a repeating fee of any kind to digitally access one-time purchase software[1].
|
Hmm...Steam claim to have 25 million active accounts. A $5 monthly fee (half of what World of Warcraft charges) could bring in an extra $1,200,000,000/year (assuming an 80% takeup rate) for virtually no extra expense - and you don't consider that profitable?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ink
The reason for this is a thing called elasticity of demand. People want new games, and if Steam won't give it to them for free, someone else will.
|
Steam isn't a free service now - they charge disproportionately high prices for games (often
exceeding retail) given that digital distribution has no physical costs (packaging, storage, transport, inventory management, etc).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ink
Steam charging the users to use the service would be like credit card companies charging users to use their cards; everyone would stop using them, and the company wouldn't make any money.
|
You seem to have missed the main crux of my previous post - if your Steam account is closed,
all the games you purchased from them stop working. That means Steam users aren't likely to be walking away, whatever changes Valve makes.