[zeroname]

I have never seen any of these on "my" Steam. It's not part of my shopping experience in any way.

I know they exist because Jim Sterling sometimes makes funny videos about them, but I can't fathom how they make a significant impact on "genuine" developers.

[giobox]

You only need to read their blogs to see how it’s hurting the “good” indie developers. Heck just use steam - the discoverability of good indie software has suffered hugely as Steam dramatically lowered the cost of entry to the platform. It’s now incredibly hard to stand out. The numbers speak for themselves, with steam going from adding several hundred games a year to their catalogue to nearly 8000 last year. The growth curve is accelerating too - there was “only” 4000 or so games added in 2016.

Having some small but achievable degree of barrier to entry was a huge help in keeping the store free of trash software.

[zeroname]

> You only need to read their blogs to see how it’s hurting the “good” indie developers.

I don't think so. The odds are that if they failed with sales on their indie game, instead of admitting that there a thousand developers just as good as them who are fighting for a slice of the pie, they'd rather blame the platform.

Again, I have never been presented any of these asset flips on Steam. I do see hundreds of games that appear to be well-made every week and I don't even have the time to take a closer look at even a fraction of them, much less buy and play them.