Blue Archive Steam release is delayed

I can't stress this enough — having a desktop client is a must for any game. Not out of necessity, but to ensure resilience in the face of potential malicious decisions by people who run app stores. One thing that you definitely don't want to do, however, is to make the desktop client available exclusively through Steam or any other marketplace because it beats the whole purpose of creating a desktop client in the first place. Unfortunately, Blue Archive did exactly that.

A while ago Blue Archive developers announced a desktop client for the global server which is managed by Nexon (the developers) themselves. I haven't seen any information about it on the Japanese side, but it would be weird if they didn't get access to it eventually, considering that the Japanese server is significantly ahead of the global. However, unlike most live service games, it will be available exclusively through Steam. That means two main problems for the players. Firstly, they will need a Steam account in addition to a Nexon account or an equivalent way to bind the game profile. Secondly, they will need to deal with any potential limitations that Steam might impose, like region locking. Believe it or not, even a wholesome game like Blue Archive is blocked in some countries.

Despite the downsides of being available only through Steam, having subpar access to a desktop client is better than not having a desktop client at all, so I am quite excited about it. I have been eagerly following the release countdown, ready to dive in on day one, but alas… the day one is still an unknown number of days away. This silly decision has already come back to bite Nexon.

This is annoying for the players and a bad look for the company. In addition to that, there is nothing they can do about it because once you put your product in an app store, you give away a big part of control over it. This is why everyone is trying to sue Apple and force different legislations on it. I am truly grateful for everything Valve has done for gaming on Linux, but Steam is no different from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, it's a gatekeeping service.

This story is about a game, but it concerns any digital product. If you are running a company that you care about, please ensure you have as much control over its products as possible. It's ok to put a game on Steam as an option, but it must not be the only option. Nexon could easily launch the desktop client on time as planned by providing a download link on their website, but it appears that they are too foolish to do so.