Blender on steam: How this could benefit Gooseberry and more.

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

Hello Blenders.
Today I have joined the Blender cloud to support the Project.

After getting more and more interest on this, I am seeing with certain worry, how there are only 15 days left to complete the goal and the amount is not as good as desirable.

Then I remembered how in certain news of 2013, it was stated on various websites that Blender was going to be distributed through steam. I think Valve wanted the program to be used to build 3d stuff to mod games.
Later, I remembered a new in the Blender developer blog (the new from September’s 11, sorry, can not post link since I am noob user), where it is stated that 2 Blender developers will work with Valve for this goal (I think).

Well, the time passed, the news about this have been forgotten, and no new info on this matter has appeared. I don´t know if there has been any kind of problem and this has just been derelict, but I think that Steam could benefit hugely the popularity of Blender, cause it has a user base of 60 million of people.

Think about that.
Some of those 60 million of people could not have discovered blender yet.
If you put Blender on Steam, more people will discover Blender. If more people discover Blender, more people will know about the gooseberry Project, and more people will be interested to contribute.

Some of you could say that Steam is evil, but when is a matter of software, there are LOTS of examples of software that are distributed through Steam at the same time it mantains its current non-steam cliente. For example, you can use Game Maker, steam versión, or traditional versión, downloaded from the web. So, for some people will not change anything, while that for others, it will still benefy from staying showcased in such big market.

2

For open source software, it’s a bit trickier. Krita devs decided to go on Steam. GIMP devs are on the fence, but not likely to choose that road. For Blender, my understanding is that there needs to a be a person willing to manage Blender on Steam (not necessarily a small task). Such a person has not yet been found… not a volunteer, not at the BF, and not at Valve.

3

Wow. It is curious the case of Krita, which mantains the free version outside steam, and the paid versión on Steam. Just discovered that.
Well, my suggecstion was more on Blender still being distributed through Steam freely, but with the benefits of being showcased in that platform.

Now, I’m seeing that really, if they put it on Steam for an small account, say 10 dollars or so, and they MANTAIN the open versión outside Steam (well, exactly doing what Krita is doing), I wouldn’t mind, as many others, to buy the Steam version. This would become a good new method of getting funds for the foundation.

Anyways, which I strongly would recomend to them, is to try to get Blender on Steam, free or not, asap. Since 60 millions of people, are a lot of people.

4

If you are remotely interested about 3D you have discovered Blender. If this money problem is so hard for developers why don’t they just make Blender a commercial software with a price tag?

5

On the subject of Steam, it would be great if there was an option on Steam to donate to Blender.

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@Krice: Not exactly. It’s a rare thing, but the world is full of people with different situations. For example, Krita is well known in the world of 2D painting. Well, if you go to the krita steam page, already a new user has discovered the software and has rated it well, throught the rating system saying something like “Its the best thing I have tried…”. It clearly demonstrated to me that this user discovered Krita thanks to the Steam store. The same could happen with blender.

@Samus: This would be another option. Leave Blender on Steam for free, but with the donation system. People who is used to buy games on steam has it configured to use their debit cards, so make a donation would be as easy as pressing a button. (for lazy people, I mean)

7

I was pretty happy to be able to purchase Krita for $25 USD a couple days ago when it hit Early Access, even though the only thing that really bought me was automatic updates. I would gladly do the same for Blender. I don’t know what Krita plans to charge once they are out of Early Access but I think Blender would easily sell for more than $10. The Steam version of modo is selling for $150 and in many regards Blender is much more capable than it is.

While Steam makes a pretty nice distribution platform for reaching individuals I think the other smart thing Krita is doing is offering paid support. That makes it much more likely to be adopted by companies.