Valve runs its massive PC gaming ecosystem with only about 350 employees
Ars' leak analysis shows a large "Games" department and a very well-paid "Admin" team.
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I'm reading, Steam takes 30% cut, offer practically nothing but a download system, store front and crappy forum instances per game. Largely unchanged since 2012 Basically, they're just taking the money and running, almost pure rent.
Feel free to start a competitive game store. There's a reason why gog, origin or epic hardly make a dent on Valves bottom line.
Gog has its niche. Others didn't even try. "Look at exclusives" from Epic doesn't even look like trying
Even within its niche gog Galaxy still lacks a lot of features steam has, like communities, mod support, Linux support, and a few others.
Honestly, I'd be home with that if they had Linux support. They don't, so I mostly buy from Steam. Apparently Heroic now gets a kickback (probably small) from GOG for sales, but that's a pretty lazy "Linux support" if you ask me.
I literally didn't make a Steam account until they had a Linux client, and now I've spend a ton of money there. It's not hard to get my money, you just need to not be outright hostile to me. That's why I have never and probably will never buy from Epic.
I tried heroic on my steam deck and it's okay but I wouldn't use it over Steam's UI which says a lot.
Yup, I install through Heroic but launch through Steam on my Steam Deck, for controller support alone, it's not worth going through Heroic directly. On desktop, I'll play directly through Heroic though.
The cost of freedom is still far more valuable than that to some, and that's its niche.
Yeah, the solution is obvious, break the Valve monopoly into 40 smaller companies and put Gaben in prison.
"And here is my hard drive dedicated to game launchers and storefronts."
We could run just the game and nothing else.
Valve created a fantastic entertainment product that people voluntarily choose to use. Why would you want to turn something people already love into something completely different? Counterproductive - especially when direct distribution is essentially free and universally accessible.
At this point steam is plain rent, coasting on their monopolistic platform power not any particular technical merit. It would be fine if valve spent this money on their userbase, but they don't. All their other products are run for profit as well.
Stream created and maintains a platform that gamers and developers want to use but more importantly, they've built up a reputation that people believe in and trust.
Gamers and developers are so eager to use steam because in all the years they've been operating, they still support and expand upon family sharing, have a fantastic refund policy (for consumers), don't employ aggressive exclusivity deals, don't limit download speeds behind paywalls, and provide a great review and recommendation system.
They've become successful due to this reputation, why should we punish them for that?
They're an http download website that takes a 30% cut on the hard work of artists.
That is already reprehensible, but not illegal.
They also dominate their market and their competition is laughable.
Now that is a properly punishable crime.
Developers can and almost always do close to offer their games on multiple platforms and can even choose self hosted direct distribution of they do choose. Customers can choose to purchase their games on steam, itch, epic, Microsoft, or any of the many places they're often hosted simultaneously. Steam is more often than not the choice people choose to use of their own free will because they perceive it as being the superior service.
Why do you believe excellence should be punished?
They also offer the Steam multiplayer backend, workshop, and Steam's social system which is becoming enticing again given Discord's latest behaviour.
GOG's gimmick is no DRM, Itch.io has the cheapest self-publishing costs, and Epic has... well I'm not sure really, but the other two have their place, but it's no coincidence Steam is the biggest.
Epic does sales where they release free games periodically. It's great for people who like cloud gaming like Geforce Now.
I claim the free games and occasionally play a few through Heroic, but I have never and probably will never spend a dime there because everything there is a net negative:
Pretty much the only reasons imo to use it are Fortnite and free games, and I don't need an account to claim and play free games. So since I don't play Fortnite and have forbidden my kids to play it, EGS has nothing to offer for me.
Thor from Pirate Software has a great video breaking down how Steam works and the lawsuit that claims they are ripping off consumers. It's very educational.
Of course, there is no requirement to use Steam. Game makes can publish their game themselves without a platform at all, which very few do. If you say they actually need a platform, there is the value they are getting for that 30%. If they weren't getting anything of value, then they could do it themselves and benefit instead, which most do not.
Wanted to link this video, but you did it first.
Also, as mentioned in video, gamers prefer steam because developers there can't disable or remove comments or not refund on basis of "sucks to be you" like EA and Ubisoft do.
Thor simping for a company like he thinks they'll pay him, absolute cringe.
Thor
You certainly did call him out exactly as he is. An obvious industry shill "we can't make non-live service games anymore because licensing boohoo"