>>107731743
They were the first ones to make a gaming store, literally, that's it, theres nothing else.

literally just don't be an hyper anticonsumerist

>>107731743
Their customers are the users

They had a psychologist, Yanis Varoufakis, who did a great job at using neuromarketing on pc gamers. Dude created an apple-tier cult around this DRM.

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>>107731743
They are privately owned. You won't find them on the stock market. They aren't enslaved to private equity, so they can run the company as engineers, not finance bros.

>>107731764
Oy vey, think of the shareholders

>>107731806
That isn't really a secret. It is publicly known they are privately owned, like Costco.

>>107731743
Competent Engineering team, good customer support.

>>107731743
Think it has something to do with being good at communication and information.
My answer as to why gabe answers all emails is because when he was in need for good information to solve a problems quicker than solo combing documentations, he'd ask for help and appreciated those that took the time to get back to him

>>107731836
how do i translate this into a billion dollar opportunity?

>>107731843
I'd assume surround yourself with competent people.
Work on project + be a good communicator + in contact with competent people = you can filter out crap faster, get feedback that matters, find out about new cool stuff or solutions.
It's not all of it but I think at it's raw core it's something todo with good communications, information and reaching to conclutions.

>>107731819
I usually interpret "what's the secret of x" questions as "what's the not-so-obvious reason for x success". I don't think of it as a literal secret.

In this context, you'd first think of engineering decisions or certain choices. But the primal reason is the incentive structure: you don't have to answer to schmucks about missed short term revenue maximization.

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>>107731819
>It is publicly known they are privately owned, like Costco.
Clearly it isn't dumb fuck

>>107731804
>Yanis Varoufakis
And I though Yanis Varoufakis was an economist/finance minister of Greece..

>>107731743
>What is Steam's secret? Why is Steam so succesfull?
they do as little as possible, pivot as little as possible, and stay out of the news unless there's a specific offer they want to promote right the fuck now
doing as little as possible minimizes mistakes
not pivoting minimizes wasting resources on failed projects
staying out of the news reduces the number of schizos/drama baiters who get mad, performatively or not, at them

>>107732039
Later he was. He is into economics, he is the dude who thought about selling virtual hats to retards and taking commission on them selling hats to other retards.

>>107731743
Gaben's faith in PC gaming made them successful. They made Steam in the face of objection. Every company they went to with the idea told them that it was retarded and it would never work out. Provide a good service and the money will come.

>>107731743
They choose customer satisfaction over predatory practices which is more beneficial long term strategy. Being privately owned they so not need to prioritize short term gains to satisfy shareholders.

customer experience.

>posting pre-ozempic Gaben

>>107731764
What? They are the reason why prices increase
>>107731743
Fans who see Gaben as a Hero because he made them ONE favor once, manchildren and bug people

>>107732107
Hello Sweeney

>>107732050
at least these guys are gatekeeping retard’s liquidity out of productive markets and making the stocks I buy cheaper. same for the crypto nerds

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>>107731743
The competition is worse.
They're privately owned and run things their way.
The customer support is good.
Lots of inertia, people generally prefer if all their games are in one place and most people have a large Steam library already.

They're still not the "good guys" though, they pioneered the digital distribution of games as a business, along with all the negative implications this has had on the industry.
Not just DRM, but that it's okay to release a buggy game, because you can just patch it, and of course the whole concept of "early access".
And let's not forget the skins "economy" and they keep turning a blind eye to casinos where kids would pay real money to "win" skins.

>>107731743
>What is Steam's secret? Why is Steam so succesfull?
Ruining the best fps by introducing skins and awful unpredictable gun spread

1. Normie's are too stupid realize its digital licenses made to enforce US copyright

2. Social shit aspect where Normies turn it into another facebook

3. Indies can't sell their games aywhere else because its a monopoly. And no steam doesn't get to be a monopoly just because the US gov does endless shill campaigns on youtube and PR shilling.


I believe in the theory that steam was funded by the US gov, gaben being an ex Microsoft employee which Microsoft itself is filled with glowing radiation. No introduction needed to bill gates family and the CIA. Epstein stuff too coming out with old billy boy.

Steam was funded to enforce and consolidate US foreign policy on other countries most notable europe so US law can be present even when the US isn't jursidicting. Just another form of US control.

Imagine if steam was founded in Italy, Russia or Poland, some random european/eastern europe third party country. No US cuck copyright laws

>>107731764
They are anti consumer, they abide by US copyright law.

The only reason you Accept it is because you have Stockholm syndrome not because its a good platform.

Games can't be sold aywhere else because people have been locked into the zog steam ecosystem by the hundreds of millions.

Right now its payment processor and censorship of mild games with no nudity like horses, incest and hentai games. Next it will be your government ID signing in and your chat monitored.

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>>107731752
Lies, stop it. Gamespy, wirdtarget and others was the first, newfrag.

>>107732234
just host your own fucking website if you got denied by steam
it's that easy
you're not competing for shelf space

>>107732234
>>107732214
My solution?

If you live in the US or any country with copyright law protest it. Do not buy any product on steam anymore, pirate all your games until US law removes the DMCA and copyright laws.

If you live outside America/Europe with no copyright enforcement, support game devs by donation if you pirate or on GOG if its available and backup your installers.

So far enshittification has not begun, and won't while Gabe is still working. It's not that Steam is so great - they're just the very rare example of things working the way they were supposed to until the vampires got hold of everything.

This used to be fairly normal.

>>107732234
You are saying US copyright as a buzzword. Unless you can actually elaborate on what's wrong with it you have no point.

>>107732090
He failed at PC, never offered Refunds until 2012, DRM that no one wanted, refused to answer questions related to gambling, never finished many other games, etc. That’s not a person who likes PC, it’s a person who tries to gain profit.

>>107732281
What's wrong is you buy a product and you don't own it. This is a permarental service which is morally wrong. That is wrong. I will not use any service which abides and enforces if I live in said country.

You don't buy a car and then the company can come tow it from your garage.

You don't buy food at a restaraunt and then halfway through eating it the waiter comes and takes your food

You don't go to the hardware store to buy a shovel and then are prohibited from owning it after a couple years

If I don't own it, I don't buy it. Simple as.

>>107732309
>What's wrong is you buy a product and you don't own it.
Software is like that, if you buy a CD you own license nothing else. Always, all software. In Europe especially we have lawsuits that pretty much say you don't own software and Autodesk doesn't have to transfer it to other people.

They made a few tech demos and a few improved flash games

>>107732309
let me guess
you think steam should let you transfer your license?

Also I'm calling this now.

SteamOS and Linux is being developed as a tightly nit replacement for windows not to give users more privacy and freedom but to be used as a weapon and blackmail for men to go fight in war among other things by the US gov. It will be used so that you have no other option, and you real life details will be tied to your steam account, but it will be your government license. Linux will be used so that to play your games and access your 1000+ games you'll need to upload your license.

By 2030 every gamers PC will run steamOS because it will be just that good.

Microsoft is actually intentionally enshittifiying windows 11 with AI and bad optimization to destroy it on purpose.

You'll laugh at me but I'll be right

>>107732271
Awful things at Valve Corporation
1) Discrimination Hiring
2) No actual updates on all their games
3) Shut down of Artifact and CSGO
4) Currently in a lawsuit over favoring other developers while indie devs do not get the cut
5) Prices are altering each month, possibly breaking price laws in each county
6) Valve profit are more important and will always side with the Credit Card companies
7) Discriminatory on Japan
8) limited mods that doesn’t offer any benefits
9) The community that defending their corruption is good
10) Just awful Steam Client that spys on you and powered by Chrome

Steam is currently shit, stop being an asshole.

>>107732388
>Discrimination Hiring
>severe lack of diversity
lol o noes

>>107732363
No software is just not like that. I don't care what some Jewish law or license terms say. If you don't own it, I'm not buying it with my money.

It only exists solely because the US is Jewish

>>107732369
Yes and sell your games or at least your account enmasse for the valur if you decide to leave. But that would require changing and the complete removal of Jewish DMCA, only 25 years now, but never too late to destroy it.

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>open store
>vibecoded shovelware
>DEI slop
successful?

>>107732162
>They're still not the "good guys" though, they pioneered the digital distribution of games as a business, along with all the negative implications this has had on the industry

While physical media is generally a better option, this was inevitable anyway

You cal also place most the blame for this on Apple with iTunes normalizing just downloading media instead of going out and buying a disc

Music on Cd's died long before PC games on disc

>>107732407
>I don't care about facts
Cool story my dude

>>107731743
low moderation/nannying

>>107732388
They do discriminate against visual novels (aka kamige) so I hate Steam now. Everything else I don't care about.

>>107732382
you're fucking retarded jesus
linux has innately more protections than windows and the us government has an actual influence over it already
nothing valve does requires steamos and steamos by itself is and will continue to be a shit distro only good for systems meant to sit in big picture
this retardation could only come from someone too stupid to install a linux iso

>>107732414
They died at the same rate newfag, CDs were the only way to download games. That’s why CD players existed until Windows 8. GTFO of this tech board.

>>107732407
>Yes and sell your games or at least your account enmasse for the valur if you decide to leave
and you're too stupid to understand that that decision would lead to everyone pulling out of steam since you've decimated their long term revenue?
physical reselling is limited by the condition of the game and geographical location
digital isn't, now all the "second hand" games are being sold all over the world for pennies and no one buys new copies

you can heil hitler in any valve game with zero repercussions which demonstrates the sort of hands-off approach to moderation that users want

>>107732162
The competition is worse because they have locked in people to their ecosystem. Thank goodness I only bought 50 games mostly multiplayer which is why I still even have a steam account.

I feel bad for the people with 5k+ games.

Currently all my games are on the heroic launcher, with a custom script that extracts rars, gog game installers fitgirl installers, dodi installers from any folder directory it searches.

Then it imports them as custom games from the folder it extracts to in the heroic games folder.

Then it creates a .json and imports the custom artwork from steamgriddb

>>107732461
They will game ban you for "harassment" if you go beyond saying nigger in game

>>107732454
OK so why is it okay for physical then? Its morally wrong and Jewish. So again.

If I don't own it, I'm not buying it

>>107732479
>physical reselling is limited by the condition of the game and geographical location
>digital isn't, now all the "second hand" games are being sold all over the world for pennies and no one buys new copies
YOU CAN'T FUCKING READ

>>107732444
>CDs were the only way to download games

okay zoomer

>>107732489
just use goldberg or give your friends login and password you massive faggot
why would valve break the law for your sorry ass?

>>107732440
Linux is the only replacement that can be used efficiently as a massive botnet that the US gov is using, windows wont cut it. SteamOS is proprietary garbage. US law will be passed to make sure every online account requires a digital ID tied to social security but it will be a new digital ID system.

Normies they can't see the future when the high IQ genius speaks.

Porn bans in the US are just a taste of what's to come. Enlist or lose all your steam games, and be barred from working any job until you do. Digital ID act is coming.

>>107732503
replied to the wrong person?
i'm pointing out that in order to placate that retard valve would have to tell every developer on steam to kiss their long term revenue goodbye

>>107732503
Why would you buy gaymes you don't own and bend the knee to US copyright cucks. Fuck valve.

You're a wormy cocksucker.

>>107732524
windows is already a botnet retard, this IS what they'd fucking want
linux doesn't let you slip in kernel level spyware
you're retarded

They became #1 by providing a convenient service
They remain #1 because consumers don't want to download a dozen different clients all running in the background simultaneously and managing different purchases across all of them. Since most competitors try to make their stores and launchers exclusive or mandatory, they were rejected.
There's no use trying to compete or be anti-monopoly in this sector because the consumers themselves don't want it.

>>107731743
They set themselves up as the first good alternative for pirating and kept their formula instead of other companies like Noseflix who threw away their edge by greed. Also Valve doesn't have competent competition. The only alternative that slightly comes close to Steam is gog galaxy while bigger companies like epic, ea and ubicucks all have terrible clients that barely have the basics.

No what it really was is that valve was the first real platform that offered convient downloads and updates, but now they are enshittificafioning with censorship and overpriced hardware, less sales so they are losing favor. Not much, but very very slowly.

>>107732530
why would valve permanently rape everyone's long term revenue so that a few schizos that are banking on their downfall can rest easy?

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>censors your game

>>107732530
Why do you think Valve makes it so easy to pirate games and DLCs?

>>107732612
I'm not poor. I pay devs in xmr and email them if I like their game. If they don't respond oh well. Their loss if they can't make a cake wallet in 2 minutes. I have money

I dont use stores that have copyright or take a 30% but from devs. Its wrong morally. Vintage story did it right.

>>107732388
Discrimination is part of why they are so successful

>>107732652
List 10 games you bought with xmr

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>steamie bros

>>107732388
IDK how Valve can be blamed for puritan credit card processors.
Do people honestly and legitimately expect them to just cut themselves off from 95% of credit/debit card?

>>107732652
>I dont use stores that have copyright
so you pirate everything? or is your understanding of the law really this primitive?

>>107732537
If the monopoly isn't harming the consumer they are okay with it.

>>107732652
So this is just being petty about not giving valve money, not about "owning" a game
Because whether you pay some tranny with monero or pirate, it doesn't really make a difference
You still get a binary you can't do anything you want with
The only way you would truly "own" a game is if you had the source code and were the copyright holder of it
Go ahead and sell the copy of VS you "own"

>>107732692
I don't buy any product from a store that adheres to copyright.

If I don't own it I don't buy it.

BUT

If I like a game and I feel like I've played it for what its worth over 20 hours I will tip the dev the full price because its morally right. If they don't respond that's on them. I check my email frequently and daily. I await their responses.

>>107732721
you have no copyright to anything digital that you didn't make you moron
are you genuinely this retarded?

>>107731743
Half-Life 2 bundle and making the storefront useful for its intended demographic.

>>107732711
Its because you're going to not own the game anyways If you buy it on steam and attempt to back it up to say 2 drives and a server, thats copyright infringement and youll never be able to sell the game or truly try out the game, 2 hours is nothing. So why buy it on steam anyways.

Also a 30% cut is immoral too, should be less.

>>107732388
Valve's hiring is the most strict in the industry. They hire people with years of experience and talent, they aren't looking to baby you and train you on how to make games when you get there.

>>107732743
see >>107732598

>>107731743
In the late 00's PC gaming DRM got so fucking awful that consumers were willing to try literally anything else.
Digital PC game stores and account-based online downloaders were nothing new at the time, but until around 2010 or so they remained highly optional and most games weren't expected to launch on them especially not day one.
Then in 2009, Activision released Modern Warfare 2 as a Steam-exclusive on PC and suddenly everyone had Steam installed. By the time games like Skyrim and Deus Ex Human Revolution released a few years later in 2011 it was already seen as weird for games to not have Steam releases available.
There were still a few odd ones out, memorably Crysis 2 got unreleased from Steam in 2011 and EA went back to its own launcher Origin which itself was a rebrand of the even older EA Download Manager from 2007.
Today Steam remains successful because everyone already has a game library there so the users see no reason to move elsewhere.

>>107732747
A russian deadlock developer admitted to using AI for "inspiration"

>>107732726
I never said I owned it legally. I don't give two shits what Jewish law says in weimerica and neither does 80% of the rest of the world that isn't NATO goy affiliated.

I said if I don't own it, I'm not buying it. But I will tip a dev if I like their game a lot.

>>107732234
its so boring that you dont even get to debate people here anymore, instead youre stuck trying to argue against a read-only text file that some thirdie uses as their script

>>107732763
a crumb of evidence other than "trust me bro"

>>107732764
and conversely, valve doesn't give a shit about placating a niche of schizos that hate them to compensate for fucking over every developer that has a game on steam

>>107732461
No one wanted Nazi games

>>107732761
Valve cant legally let you sell games because it violates copyright law and EULA legally for games. All steam is is just a middleman with legal mumbo jargon paperwork to let you "buy" games(actually quasi permarental service that can be revoked at any time).

But if they could let you own and sell games, which US law would need to be changed. They could EASILY let you mass sell your account if its say 5+ years old and refund you all your money spent and they take the brunt of the cost. They are worth tens of billions. They can afford this

Until US law changes I won't buy on steam.

If I don't own it, I don't buy it.

>>107732502
This is correct because you are required to input the CD code. Something you fake gamers never knew unless you used one. When i said GTFO of my tech board, i mean GET THE FUCK OUT!

>>107732796
I want a holocaust simulator

Establishing a de juro monopoly and being the first one to get into their relevant market sector. Being a rent seeker making easy money primarily by charging a cut for people buying someone else's products and only having to host servers.

>>107732823
you don't understand it do you?
physical games are limited by their PHYSICAL FORM
they deteriorate, the disc needs to be always in and you're not going to send it across the world for free
a digital game with a fully transferable licence is literally PERFECT, it doesn't age and it can go to the other side of the world and back for fucking free
if valve made it possible to transfer them then NO ONE would buy new games again

>>107732537
This is completely wrong, it’s not better because they lack browser compatibility, don’t support android games and you are required to download their stupid Luncher for downloading the game instead of downloading through browser or alternatives. Steam is a flaw platform that allows creeps like you to play Nazi games or furys. Nothing about Steam is good, you only think that because you like the creepy stuff they allowed.

It’s never about launchers because you have to still download them on Steam, your augment doesn’t make sense.

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>>107732782
Russian interview with a valve employee currenty working on deadlock, casually admits to using AI and says a bunch of other dumb shit as well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl3F5IMLP_o

Proof of deadlock being vibecoded as well
https://game8.co/articles/latest/deadlock-dev-uses-chatgpt-to-help-with-matchmaking-code

>>107732907
1:05:00 is when he starts talking about valve

>>107732684
They’re a billion dollar company, itchio and GOG are taking action. EU is taking action. Valve bend the knee to them, they are weak. They are corrupt like the US government.

LMAO @ all the seething anti-shills itt. Valve is the GOAT, fuck off.

>>107732893
Wrong you can find any game on steam that's noteworthy on steamrip.com within 2 minutes for free, games are free yet strangely steam has not gone out business, funny. Silksong was available literally 5 minutes after it released on steam on steamrip gofile yet it grossed tens of millions of dollars.

piracy hasn't killed steam and saying ownership would kill steam is a pathetic excuse. It would actually make people more willing to use the platform.

Although, I think you should only be able to sell your games if your account is 5 years old and a minimum of 100 games, and its all or nothing.

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>>107732907
Oh how they have fallen
But they reality is that most games are gonna be made with AI these days just because it's the easy way out

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>>107732944
Valve only likes money, that’s the absolute truth. You can’t argue with this evidence since they never once give away free games like Epic.

>>107732971
They don't need to because everyone loves them, anti.

>>107732907
grim

>>107732907
Good
As demonstrated Valve can't make good video games so maybe chatgpt will do a better job

>>107732958
if piracy exists and is the same thing as having an infinitely legal transferable licence then why do you want to destroy the value of legal licences when you could just pirate?
the answer is that you damn well know that there is in fact a lot of difference

>>107732971
>never once give away free games
wrong i got Portal for free

>>107732884
Yeah, where you manage a working population to provide goods for the war front. You probably couldn’t make the base game this, it’d have to be a mod thoughsoeveralltobeit. attempt to enact the final solution as the head of the eastern camps with dwindling supplies and failing logistics

>>107732907
Just consume and be happy

>>107731752
Being first doesn't mean being successful

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>>107732907

Outsiders don't really grasp just how awful, greedy and evil Valve is but people who actually play their games know this
Redditors often say shit like "Atleast they're not as bad as nintendo" but they are actually equally as bad if not worse
Valve's timeline doesn't have a single positive thing on it

>>107733098
the other way around
people who play their games seethe endlessly and care more about their games than the actually impactful shit valve is doing like proton and linux development

>>107733098
they sue and fearmonger modders who threaten them by making a better product instead of hiring them like they used to in 2000
everyone knows this but zoomers are scared of downloading an executable and need a big green button instead

>>107733035
>I spent money on points to obtain the free game
No anon that wasn’t free, earned points is a lie. You didn’t get them free like Epic.

>>107731743
they're providing a service people want with no bullshit involved

>>107733133
this was way back in like 2019
everyone got it for free for a few days
no idea what the points you talk about even are

>>107732936
Itchio delisted games, gog gave away games which is stupid because the whole issue is the fact payment processors didn't want to process the payments for those games, not that they existed in the first place.
The EU is laughable because they are going trough the same puritan bullshit with age restrictions

>>107731743
>What is Steam's secret? Why is Steam so succesfull?
Not publicly traded

>>107733123
>a fork of wine is impactful
wait till they close it up, daft retard

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>censors your game

>>107733157
see, you have this retarded perspective because you're obsessed with 20 year old games
fuck off faggot, i'd rather not play tf2 ever again than have to use windows

>>107733168
you are a tasteless scrub with no future

>>107733133
>>107733151
2010 even
https://web.archive.org/web/20100515103659/http://store.steampowered.com/freeportal

>>107733177
you would rather have an operating system vibecoded by pajeets if it meant you can keep playing an old game
slave mentality

They design they ui for pc, not smartphone.
That's it.
No one else is doing that.

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The goyim will defend Valve just like zoomers defend discord
It's learned helplessness and tech illiteracy paired with generally low IQ and ignorance

>>107733187
>slave mentality
Says someone who willingly restricts himself, lol

>>107733152
What's sad is steam folded so quickly. They could've just shut the platform/store down for 24 hours everything except offline and made an announcement that they cant resume until payment processors revert their decisions and people rioted. This wasn't a legal thing by valve. They folded under zero legal pressure. imagine what they'll do when the US has digital ID in games, they already have it on porn and people use
Tor/vpns to get around it.

I don't tust valve.

>>107732898
People don't mind launchers. They mind multiple, different launchers to manage their growing libraries. They mind keeping track of where their games are and where new ones are coming out. Consumers don't benefit from storefront variety, especially when DRM is present. Would it be better without DRM? A pointless question, because everyone knows that won't go mainstream.

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>>107733187
You can't even run cracks on Loonix
>vibecoded
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-ai-tool-maintaining-linux-code/
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-talks-ai-rust-adoption-and-why-the-linux-kernel-is-the-only-thing-that-matters/
>pajeets
pic

>>107733203
how am i restricting yourself?
you're perpetually seething because valve is doing bigger things that will actually have an impact on computing as a whole

>>107733187
>vibecoded
Valve is vibecoding their next big game
Do you think steam and proton are somehow special?

>>107731743
counter strike

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>>107733215
lol
meanwhile microsoft has 20k pajeet employees in india alone and thousands more h1bs

>>107733215
oh and
>You can't even run cracks on Loonix
you haven't even tried dumbass
stop talking out of your ass

>>107733216
Same way every linux user is, sadly. it's an os of alternatives and scraps. Some people would eat from the floor just so have the comfort of darkness under the table...

>>107733225
>deadschlock coded by their B team

>>107733241
nice fanfic considering windows hasn't been good for 10 years

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>privately owned
How do you explain this?
Gayben's new fetish?

>>107733261
>sees a black man and a white woman in one frame
>immediately imagines them having sex

>>107733274
You are currently located in Israel.

>also
>white

>>107732454
>if people start acting morally right this businesses model wouldn't work
I understand, if a person doesn't act like a piece of shit he's simply stupid.