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Why doesn't Steam support Android? (feddit.org)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Steam revenue estimated 2024: $10.8B

Google Play Store gaming revenue 2024: ~$31B

Why doesn't Valve want a part of that? I mean they already have an Android app. Several, actually. I realize there's some amount of investment but surely the payoff is worth it, and they have the necessary funds and skills? I mean if F-Droid can do it with nothing but volunteers and grants...?

Certainly plenty of games won't lend themselves well to the mobile experience but also plenty of them do.

From a personal perspective: I don't really care a whole lot for mobile games but I do like Balatro and want to play it on my phone, but if I want to do that I have to buy another license, which I can't even do because I don't run Google Play Services.

Epic got in on this already. Where's Valve?

Edit: my reflections on this conversation:

Valve could distribute their own app like Epic but they'd also probably have to remove it from the Play Store because now a cross-platform game would give them an Android version, thus breaking Google's ToS. So would doing such a thing outweigh lost sales from the Google version, and would it impact customer satisfaction? I wonder how many people are actually purchasing PC games in the Steam Android app...?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I don't think they would get away with selling games in the app if games were playable on Android (demonstrating Android compatibility). I think they would have to do what Amazon kindle does and tell you to go buy your game somewhere else.

Edit: Here's the policy. You might be right but it looks like a grey area to me.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9858738?sjid=15164020873047119237-NC&visit_id=638803514547940454-2089146208&rd=1

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I don't think they would get away with selling games in the app if games were playable on Android

I'm saying they would need a separate app to purchase, install and play Android games.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Oh... I see!

I personally prefer the "also play PC games on Android" strategy so was looking at it from that angle.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Now that I'm thinking about it they'd probably have to de-list those cross-platform games from the Google app or make them unavailable, which would probably lead to a lot of confusion.