Plenty don't develop for any particular platform. You write your code in Unity3D, and then build for all the platforms it can (Android, IOS, etc) then you build your app for Steam where you make it run on all platforms (ie Windows, Mac and Linux) which is easy because it is almost just a button in Unity.
Then you hope that enough people buy your game to earn the development cost back. You don't develop just for one platform because it is unlikely that you will make enough money to get it back.
Is it limiting when a platform (Apple, Valve, Amazon, etc) owns the customer relationship? Seems like it would be difficult to apply conventional marketing techniques to learn about customers, if the platform provider owns the user's contact info.
Generally, you still have to do your own marketing. There's no great meritocratic system out there for discovering games (and pretty unlikely one can arise IMO - it's impossible to objectively class a game as good or bad).
"I think Gabe has mentioned this before many times, he'd like to get rid of Greenlight to leave developers open to place their game on steam.
Then, users would curate the titles through their own customized storefront. This would drive word of mouth and generate free adverting for the companies that really on the steam digital store.
So think of it as following your favorite youtube channel/ store front because it has niche titles that are in line with what you like. You wouldn't have to dig for titles if that's not your thing.
This way, the devs of said niche title appears directly to its audience and yet still leaves the choice to the end user if they want to dig into the onslaught of new releases.
I really hope Gabe follows through on this idea because it keeps options open and doesn't give you a force fed walled garden that Sony, EA or MS is so dead set on controlling and manipulating end-users/devs with."
Plenty don't develop for any particular platform. You write your code in Unity3D, and then build for all the platforms it can (Android, IOS, etc) then you build your app for Steam where you make it run on all platforms (ie Windows, Mac and Linux) which is easy because it is almost just a button in Unity.
Then you hope that enough people buy your game to earn the development cost back. You don't develop just for one platform because it is unlikely that you will make enough money to get it back.