astano

I don't have any expertise on Steam numbers but FWIW the "community" (i.e. forum) aspects of Steam probably aren't the best way to measure sales.  The best source for Steam data that I'm aware of is Steam Charts, which tracks the number of players of a game at a given time/over the last 24 hours/last month/what have you.  Here are some numbers for games being specifically tossed around in this thread or that are broadly similar to CM:
 
Unity of Command - 43.1 average players at a time over the last 30 days; 358 all-time peak
 
Close Combat:  Gateway to Caen - 25.8; 240
 
Command:  Modern Air/Naval Operations - 15.7; 83
 
Flashpoint Campaigns - 12.0; 88
 
Graviteam Tactics - 10.9; 33
 
Theatre of War - 4.6; 26
 
This data is of pretty limited use to the discussion (if you can even call it that anymore) for a few reasons - most obviously, it shows people playing, not sales numbers - but it is the best that's out there unless publishers decide to release their own sales figures.  The best this can tell us is that (for example) at least 33 people bought Graviteam Tactics from Steam - without knowing more about GT's history (when and where it was first released, how many copies it sold there, its history on Steam), I don't think there's much that can be done with that tidbit alone.  It's also possibly a bit misleading because I believe that each of these titles were directly available from the publisher for a significant length of time before being on Steam, so I'd hypothesize that most of the core fans probably bought them early and directly rather than later through Steam (which means those purchases won't show up on Steam Charts, and while that's useful for determining how many new people might buy a CMSF re-release now it might not tell us how many people would buy CMBS if it launched tomorrow).  Along similar lines, we also have no idea if any of these titles ever got any of the exposure that appears to drive a lot of the sales on Steam and would drive most of the hypothetical additional sales from moving there - significant front page placement, daily, holiday, or flash sales, etc., and furthermore there's no way to know if a Steam launch (rather than re-release) would have garnered them such attention.  We could probably figure that out too, to a certain extent (there are sites that track Steam discount history), but I'm too lazy to do it.
 
And of course, we can make all the assumptions from this data we want and it doesn't really get us anywhere, not least of all because none of us are BFC and can't make these decisions for them.
 
As far as my two cents, I am agnostic about Steam for Steam's own sake, but I find it remarkable that I have never seen an ad for CM anywhere.  I stumbled across CMSF solely by chance looking for another type of game altogether, and I think it would be great if more people knew this sort of game was out there.  I think Steam would be a great way to do that but I trust BFC to make the decision that's right for them.

And if you were clearly winning right now we would be calling you a genius right now.  Heck we know you are but we'd be calling you that now.  I think your initial aggressive move was the right one based on the info you had at the time.  Fortune favours the bold.

5 posts, 5 posts, 11 posts, 14 posts, 18 posts.  Did someone just decide over at a community board that a bunch of folks should come over here and push steam again or what?