Most beneficial place to buy?

[Trauma.au 10]

Will BIS get more of our cash if we buy at BI Store? Or is it the same no matter where?

[dunedain 48]

They'll get more money if you buy from BIS' own store obviously. Steam for instance takes a 30% cut on everything sold through their store.

[DShKM 18]

You'll probably want to buy the game from the BI Store if you want them to have a max profit. That's probably what I'll be doing.

[Trauma.au 10]

Steam get their cut regardless of where you buy, I'm just wondering about what other costs may come into play with other stores.

[dunedain 48]

Steam get their cut regardless of where you buy

Citation needed. As far as I know even free games can use Steamworks features...

As far as your question goes it is very obvious digital copies bought straight from BIS' store are the ones they profit the most from.

Every digital stores take their cut on the copies their sell. The least profitable sold copies for BIS are the boxed retail ones because they involve the most intermediaries.

Edited March 1, 2013 by dunedain

[Trauma.au 10]

I can't imagine Steam would allow their services keys to be sold elsewhere without them getting a cut. You're essentially buying a steam product regardless of where it comes from.

[dunedain 48]

It's just smart business... It gets people to use their services, who then buy games/dlcs on their store.

[vivoune 1]

I can't imagine Steam would allow their services keys to be sold elsewhere without them getting a cut. You're essentially buying a steam product regardless of where it comes from.

This. Wherever you buy, you're buying a Steam key, so supposedly, it doesn't matter.

[dunedain 48]

Except digital stores get their keys directly from BIS, not Steam which just registers the keys on their servers. Just think of it as any DRM.

Many games have their keys reedemable on Steam without requiring it. Supreme Commander and its expansion Forged Alliance could be redeemed on Steam after a while.

[Trauma.au 10]

Except digital stores get their keys directly from BIS, not Steam which just registers the keys on their servers. Just think of it as any DRM.

Many games have their keys reedemable on Steam without requiring it. Supreme Commander and its expansion Forged Alliance could be redeemed on Steam after a while.

This implies that BIS can independently create valid Steam keys, this makes no sense to me. I don't know how all this distribution stuff works exactly (hence this thread) but if digital stores do get the keys from BIS then BIS must have first gotten them from Steam, at a cost.

[sqb-sma 66]

This implies that BIS can independently create valid Steam keys, this makes no sense to me. I don't know how all this distribution stuff works exactly (hence this thread) but if digital stores do get the keys from BIS then BIS must have first gotten them from Steam, at a cost.

I believe steam acts like a retailer, they get payed for increasing the publicity of Arma and having an easy to use store system so that the game can be bought, and the way they get payed is by taking a larger cut of the purchase.

That is if this all works the same as hotel management...

[dunedain 48]

This implies that BIS can independently create valid Steam keys, this makes no sense to me. I don't know how all this distribution stuff works exactly (hence this thread) but if digital stores do get the keys from BIS then BIS must have first gotten them from Steam, at a cost.

The problem with your reasoning is that you think of Steam as a publisher while it really is mostly a digital retailer like there are many and then a DRM and Service provider. BIS being an independant studio are their own publisher, they are the one who sell their keys to Steam. They work together with Valve so their keys are on Steam data base, but the game really don't need to be Steamworks for this to be the case. I bought many games which weren't Steamworks that I could redeem on Steam if I wanted. That's all up to the publishers/indies. The more client Steam gets and the more games they have on their account, the better it is for Valve.

The only cut Steam takes is from the sales from their own store. Notch mentioned it was 30% a while ago. It could be more for ArmaIII, that I can't know.

Edited March 1, 2013 by dunedain

[dm 9]

This implies that BIS can independently create valid Steam keys, this makes no sense to me. I don't know how all this distribution stuff works exactly (hence this thread) but if digital stores do get the keys from BIS then BIS must have first gotten them from Steam, at a cost.

No, this is wrong, because this:

Except digital stores get their keys directly from BIS, not Steam which just registers the keys on their servers.

Do you not remember the recent rage over Steam not being able to provide keys for Arma 2 during the massive DayZ boost?

BI generates valid CD keys

BI provides those valid keys to their distributors (up until A3 that included the BI Store, Steam, Morphicon, 505 Games, Atari, etc etc etc)

Those distributors "activate" those keys within their systems.

Simples.

To answer your question: buying from store.bistudio.com gives the most money to BI.

[Nicholas 5]

Buying directly from the BI Store will give Bohemia Interactive the most money.

Information about how CD keys and Steam CEG works.

Custom Executable Generation

Custom Executable Generation creates a unique build of your game for each user, making it difficult for any one user to share the game with any other user. Each individual copy of a CEG-protected game is only playable by the Steam account authorized to access it. CEG is transparent, and does not impose limits on users. It lets users access their content from any hardware, and allows unlimited hardware configuration changes without the content becoming unplayable. In fact, no changes are made to a user's computer for CEG to work. Instead, CEG works in tandem with Steam authentication, enabling content access based on user accounts, not arbitrary hardware-based "rights-management" restrictions.

How It works

The Steamworks CEG system generates a custom binary for each customer. When you link your application with the Steamworks CEG, we provide you with several tools that you use to generate metadata about your executable file. This metadata is stored on the Steam 3 DRMS Server. When a user installs your game, the DRMS server collects information from the customer's computer that uniquely identifies it. The collected information is used in combination with the metadata regarding your executable file to generate a custom binary, that checks that it is running on the user's computer. If the user changes the configuration of their computer such that the CEG checks would fail to identify the computer, the CEG system will automatically generate a new executable file for the user, and update their game installation. These checks occur whenever your game is run, regardless of whether the computer is connected to the Internet or not. In addition to examining the user's computer, the CEG system will detect tampering with the executable file, and will conceal its workings from reverse engineering.

Legacy CD keys

Steam has the ability to issue a game specific CD key to each user if needed. You provide Valve with a list of keys, each time a user buys the game a key is taken from the list and delivered to the users machine. The CD key can be placed in the registry or in a file on disk. If you need to use this capability, email your Steam Technical Account Manager.

[Trauma.au 10]

The problem with your reasoning is that you think of Steam as a publisher while it really is mostly a digital retailer like there are many and then a DRM and Service provider. BIS being an independant studio are their own publisher, they are the one who sell their keys to Steam. They work together with Valve so their keys are on Steam data base, but the game really don't need to be Steamworks for this to be the case. I bought many games which weren't Steamworks that I could redeem on Steam if I wanted. That's all up to the publishers/indies. The more client Steam gets and the more games they have on their account, the better it is for Valve.

The only cut Steam takes is from the sales from their own store. Notch mentioned it was 30% a while ago. It could be more for ArmaIII, that I can't know.

No I don't think of them as a publisher, I don't know how you came to that conclusion at all. Steamworks is irrelevant, if it's on Steam then Valve are getting payed. They are not a charity.

[dunedain 48]

No I don't think of them as a publisher, I don't know how you came to that conclusion at all. Steamworks is irrelevant, if it's on Steam then Valve are getting payed. They are not a charity.

I came to that conclusion reading your arguments because to my knowledge it's always been the publishers who create and distribute keys to the different shops and you seem to think the only key provider in the case of ArmaIII will be Steam. Giving them the role of a publisher. But BIS are the only ones who can create keys. Valve provide the tools to register said keys on their database that will still be owned by BIS until they sell these keys to whatever digital retailer, including Steam itself.

Steam make money through their own store and want as many people as possible to adopt their services developers, publishers and gamers regardless. So no, they definitely don't do this for charity. They made a fortune doing this...

No offence but I often feel like pissing into the wind on these forums. :p

Edited March 1, 2013 by dunedain

[nomofica 1]

BI generates the keys, and Valve adds them to their system. That's how it works.

However, there will still be fees charged by Valve for using their service. Think of it as a "courier" fee for delivering a product rather than taking a cut of the profit of the sale of the game. BI will definitely see a greater profit per unit sold through their own store, but they will be charged fees for using the Steam service as a method of delivery. Steam is, for the sake of this argument, acting as a FedEx.

[PieFlavor 10]

they are not allowed to disclose how much they earn if you buy it from their store as opposed to buying directly from steam, but the mere fact that they give you the option to buy it from BI store means they earn different amounts depending on the option you choose.

I'd go for BI store if you truly wanted to support them more

[vegeta897 13]

No I don't think of them as a publisher, I don't know how you came to that conclusion at all. Steamworks is irrelevant, if it's on Steam then Valve are getting payed. They are not a charity.

I don't know why you think either they are getting payed the standard Steam purchase percentage or they aren't getting paid at all. Buying from the BIS store gives less of a percentage to Steam.

And like somebody else already said, even if they got no money from BIS Store purchases, they'd still be making bank with all the people who are purchasing the game from Steam, and plus all the people simply using Steam.

Why do you think they made TF2 and Dota 2 free to play? They're not just getting money from in-game accessories. They're getting people to use Steam, and this in itself is a huge money-maker.

[Trauma.au 10]

I don't know why you think either they are getting payed the standard Steam purchase percentage or they aren't getting paid at all. Buying from the BIS store gives less of a percentage to Steam.

And like somebody else already said, even if they got no money from BIS Store purchases, they'd still be making bank with all the people who are purchasing the game from Steam, and plus all the people simply using Steam.

Why do you think they made TF2 and Dota 2 free to play? They're not just getting money from in-game accessories. They're getting people to use Steam, and this in itself is a huge money-maker.

I never once said that I think they get the same percentage from store to store. It's the reason I made this thread at all, I want to know where the best place is to by from BIS point of view, it's easy to assume BI store is it but I wanted a definitive answer as I would prefer to buy from steam itself but will go elsewhere if it will help BIS more. Only a BIS employee can answer this thread.

As for the other stuff, I don't know the order of the steps for keys and payment etc. but I simply don't believe that Steam are allowing their service to be used for free in some instances, and I don't buy the argument that it's for advertisement, to lure people onto Steam. They own this market, the made this market, Steam sells itself.

[nomofica 1]

Nobody said that Steam is letting BI use their service 100% free of charge for copies purchased from the BI store. Please read previous reply where I compared Steam to that of FedEx in this scenario, and for the love of all things wonderful in this world, stop arguing about something so silly.

[vegeta897 13]

I never once said that I think they get the same percentage from store to store. It's the reason I made this thread at all, I want to know where the best place is to by from BIS point of view, it's easy to assume BI store is it but I wanted a definitive answer as I would prefer to buy from steam itself but will go elsewhere if it will help BIS more. Only a BIS employee can answer this thread.

I guess things could have been misinterpreted, but the first 2 replies to your thread that both said more money would go to BIS if you bought from them. You replied to this saying steam gets their cut regardless. But the 2 replies did not say that Steam didn't get a cut, they only said BIS would get more money.

As for whether or not the BIS store gives less money to Steam than buying from Steam, I think that's pretty obvious isn't it? The Supporter edition exists to give the most money to BIS, and it's available only on the BIS store. It wouldn't make sense if Steam got an even bigger percentage off of this package than the others available on Steam.

If this is a thread that only a BIS employee can answer, perhaps it would be better to email or @tweet them. You have to expect that people are going to discuss things in your thread if you post it in a public forum.

I simply don't believe that Steam are allowing their service to be used for free in some instances, and I don't buy the argument that it's for advertisement, to lure people onto Steam. They own this market, the made this market, Steam sells itself.

It's simple fact, friend. You can register a Steam account and play many games without ever paying a cent, including Valve's own TF2 and Dota 2, the latter which is still in development and Valve is pouring a huge amount of resources into. That angle is all about advertisement, getting people to use Steam. Even people who already have an account are more likely to notice some sale or promotion in the Steam store if they're logging in more often to play some free game.

[dsi24 12]

I never once said that I think they get the same percentage from store to store. It's the reason I made this thread at all, I want to know where the best place is to by from BIS point of view, it's easy to assume BI store is it but I wanted a definitive answer as I would prefer to buy from steam itself but will go elsewhere if it will help BIS more. Only a BIS employee can answer this thread.

As for the other stuff, I don't know the order of the steps for keys and payment etc. but I simply don't believe that Steam are allowing their service to be used for free in some instances, and I don't buy the argument that it's for advertisement, to lure people onto Steam. They own this market, the made this market, Steam sells itself.

All Valve does is take a cut of revenue off games/DLC sold directly on Steam, that, Steam Wallet, and their own games are where all of their revenue comes from. They still have competitors and the ease and cheapness of using Steam (both user and developer end) is how they stay ahead of people like EA. All buying a key from the BI Store does is give BIS money and you a Steam key, Valve's cut from this is getting another user on Steam, as well as keeping up the community goodwill that results from not locking down game availability (See: EA and Origin exclusive titles)

There's even publishers like Ubisoft who use Steam to install their own service, uPlay, through their games. This is mutually beneficial for Valve and Ubisoft, but Valve comes out ahead because Steam is still the first point of contact.