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>>
I'm uneducated. What does valve do to prevent competitors?
>>
>inb4 the roblox pic
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>>723447437
they explode computers and malware non-steam games
>>
>>723447324
>try to make a service that is easier than pirating
>it succeeds
>no one else ever does anything similar
>end up with perhaps the best current way to download and play pc games
>people want you to stop your service because they could never hope to compete against it
that is how valve got their monopoly on pc gaming, by actually making a good service, something NO OTHER COMPANY has beem able to do for whatever reason
>>
>>723447437
nothing.
unironically nothing.
they just sit and provide services and basically ignore bullshit
>abusable loopholes in their DRM?
dont care, piracy is a service problem
>new update is fucked up?
dont care, version control exists if the devs want to have it, so you can just roll back to the old version
>mods?
they have workshop, and allow for things to be constructed with backwards compatibility if the game is built for it.
otherwise they don't give a shit, do what you want.
>>
>>723447437
They make something people actually want to use and doesn't treat users like shit. It's pure evil.
>>
>>723447324
>steam hits new player milestone as it rapidly continues to grow
>crickets
>clickbait toxic positivity article comes out saying the switch 2 will eventually sell more than pc handhelds
>tendies try to shove it down everyone's throat
Why are steamies such bad fanboys?
>>
>>723447907
this, why should i use someone else's launcher that's 20x worse
>>
>>723447324
>Most popular games on earth like Minecraft, Roblox, Genshin, League of Legends, and Fortnite aren't on Steam
Yep, it's not a monopoly.
You can keep crying about it though.
>>
>>723447324
well yeah, by definition is not a monopoly since it has competition that it doesn't do anything about.
Its just all of them aside GOG are run by retards in a greedy fucked up fashion, and whine about Valve mogging them because they want to be that and be #1.

Basically, they're personafags.
>>
>>723447907
Valve's biggest advantage was being way ahead of the curve and setting up shop almost a quarter of a century ago. Most of their storefront/launcher competition didn't start taking PC gaming even halfway seriously until the mid-late 2010s at the earliest, and when they did finally start, they were still going in half-assed and trying their damnedest to purposely ignore the more than decade of precedent available for them to study.
>>
>>723447324
I'm sorry can someone explain to me when the mainstream masses got into steam? Why are and can the numbers be so big when most normalfags don't even know what a computer is unless it's a mac?
>>
>>723449923
There is at least some arguments for the Publisher specific stores for not bothering with a lot of what Steam offers since they are basically hyper focused. Epic though were absolute retards of the highest order for not using what Steam does and offers as a framework for their own platform. Not even being able to offer basic store functionality like a shopping cart for so long is also just straight confusing.
>>
>>723449930
Gaming as a hobby/product got bigger and entered public consciousness via marketing. PC releases generally mean Steam. Once someone gets Steam for a single game they are exposed to it as a marketplace meaning they are likely to use it more going forward.
>>
>>723448690
this. any whinging about steam being a "monopoly" because it has more users than other platforms is dumb because the reason we dont use other platforms is because they literally could care less about you as a user. steam at least pretends to give a fuck, and the support is always helpful no matter what. ive never had a bad time with steam support. xbox support? dont even get me started. playstation support? nonexistant. i havent used epic games but i cant imagine their support is any better.

and like other anons said, there ARE alternatives, and most of them have the same games as steam, i bought almost every bethesda game on gog a while back. theres nothing stopping you other than the fact you know they have inferior service to steam. May as well make a law declaring companies must offer poor service to their customers if you want steams dominance to wane.
>>
>>723450196
It will never fail to make me laugh that, without exaggeration, Epic Games Store LITERALLY copied the Paddy's Dollars scheme from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia with their free games.
https://youtu.be/YAKOWcs8w54
>>
>>723447324
>being successful because your competition are all objectively shit and retarded is the definition of a monopoly
saaar please do the needful and do not redeem the steam card
>>
>>723449609
they're too busy actually playing videogames
people with no games to play have all the time in the world to fanboy on forums, hence why sony and nintendo have to many
all the xbots already committed seppuku or just play on pc
>>
>>723449930
when half life 2 released
>>
>>723450405
Epic brought console exclusivity bullshit to PC so people hated it. And people just use it as a Fortnite launcher anyway
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>>723447437
>>723447634
>>723448629
>>723448690
Well, no. Their practices regarding PMFN are decidedly anti-competitive, and will hopefully end soon.

Big tech platforms are also a sector that's heavily vulnerable to natural monopolies, what with high entry costs, good marginal profits, basically nonexistent marginal costs, and increasing marginal utility thanks to networking effects and industry entrenchment. Valve has certainly benefited from this dynamic, as have other huge tech companies. Fortunately valve sucks a lot less than most tech monopolists since private ownership means they don't face the same pressures from shareholders to enshittify their services to ensure line goes up perpetually. If valve were publicly traded I bet they'd be all-in on some dumbfuck AI initiative and wouldn't have supported linux nearly as hard.

I like Valve, but I can certainly see why someone would call them a monopoly.
>>
>>723447437
Nothing, and massive games like League of Legends or Genshit show that you don't need to be on steam to be successful.
>>
>>723451306
>allegations from some fraudulent lawsuit that went nowhere
Great.
>I like Valve, but
Wow, you must be very neutral on this issue.
>>
>>723447437
>>723447324
To NOT be a monopoly means to have a strong competitor. Turns out their biggest competitor is pirates, and Steam acknowledges this, and tries to do better than them.
So why is this "bad" or why does it make other video game stores (like epic) feel like it's unfair? Because if Epic want to compete against Steam, they must first do better than the pirates, and providing good service is just something Epic simply would rather not do.
>>
>>723451306
>(((allegedly)))
why did itagaki have to die instead of faggot kike sweeney, fuck this gay earth
>>
being a private company really pisses people off huh?
>>
>>723451546
>people
jews
>>
>>723451408
Their biggest competitor is xbox game pass, the best value deal in gaming.
>>
>>723451325
steam is the best shit
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>>723451397
>some fraudulent lawsuit that went nowhere
What? It's a class action suit currently in litigation.
>Wow, you must be very neutral on this issue.
Sorry for having a remotely nuanced opinion on 4chan, I know that's heavily frowned upon here. I'll be sure to accompany all future posts with a meme wherein the thing I'm criticizing is depicted as a soijak to avoid upsetting you.

>>723451439
Again, class action suit by multiple publishers.
>>
>>723451306
That isn't price fixing though.
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>>723447324
Not for me.
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>>723447437
Nothing.
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>>723450405
Why the fuck do you need to talk to support in the first place? How hard could it possibly be to figure out how to use a game launcher?
>>
>>723452057
a baseless class action allegation is still nothing more than a baseless allegation, you lost, seethe and cope
if your dumb niggers had spent half as much time and effort in making your shitty platform better as you do in pursuing frivolous lawfare against steam, then you would have better numbers, but instead you are dumb chink niggers, fuck off forever, i hope trump jails all of you for being retarded niggers serving a chinese foreign entity
>>
>>723447324
industry
>there's no money in this
gabe
>aiight more for me
industry
>oy vey we deserve a position in this market
>>
>>723451306
That's just trying to screw the user and I'm glad Valve puts a stop to it. The stores and launchers themselves need to compete, not console cancer type bullshit over taking games or content hostage. And people can argue about valve taking the industry standard 30% all day, but they send out tons of keys that they take no cut from to create a thriving key market where devs get more money and the buyer gets games cheaper.
>>
>>723449930
Streamers and vtuberfags.
>>
>>723450405
>i havent used epic games but i cant imagine their support is any better.
When games on Epic Game Store have issues, players went to steam forums to ask for help.
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>>723447437
Valve has an unfair advantage because they don't give half their money to isreal via ((shareholders)).
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>>723447324
Nothing wrong with monopolies timmy. The law doesn't forbid them as long as they stick to >>723447437.
Not their fault that the competition keeps fucking up.
>>
>>723447437
Exist without publicly traded oversight
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>>723452057
>Cohen Milstein
>Honorable Judge Jamal N. Whitehead
>"publishers must charge higher prices than they would otherwise"
Excellent bait anon, you would've gotten more bites if the majority of this board were still white and literate
>>
>>723451306
wholly DQed
what steam doesn't allow is selling KEYS THAT ARE REDEEMED FOR A STEAM COPY for a lower price than what is being sold through steam
>>
>>723447324
Tim, I hope your understand that Steam isn't biggest threat to Epic Store anymore. It's Roblox.
>>
Bros, help me understand. When Epic buys exclusives, it's anti-monopoly, right? But when Steam just exists, it's monopoly, right?
>>
>>723452459
the whole
>muh 30%
shit is beyond retarded because everyone who parrots it has no idea how much of a cut the brick and mortar retail stores took, there's a reason why steam can afford to do the sales they do
>>
>>723452147
Yeah I think that's the wrong categorization, fixing needs coordination between buyer and seller. It'd fall more under exclusionary conduct for the purpose of monopolistic maintenance. In the end, it's anti-competitive.

>>723452241
cool melty

>>723452459
This is some pretty insane fanboyism. In a free market, a competitor would be able to undercut steam by taking a smaller cut and passing on the savings. Valve is exploiting their position of market dominance to forbid this form of competition. It takes quite a lot of mental gymnastics to argue lower end prices for customers will somehow "screw the user". Valve's services ARE superior; they probably COULD easily compete with other platforms even if buying games on steam cost 5$ more than elsewhere. But that's a question for a free marketplace to answer, which Valve is apparently not allowing to happen.
>but they send out tons of keys that they take no cut from to create a thriving key market where devs get more money and the buyer gets games cheaper.
Yes, keys mean that valve's effective cut is lower than 30%. There are significant restrictions, namely that devs must make requests for keys that valve must approve, and the game must be sold for the same price on steam as it is on key sites (albeit with some delay, which I can't find specifics on). This is largely thanks to PC being more difficult to lock down as a truly closed market like iOS, android, and consoles are. Although valve are definitely dominant, they're not actually the only game in town.

>>723452818
That's also true, but not what the lawsuit is about. (Eventual) price parity for key sales is stated in valve's developer docs, and totally legal. It's THEIR keys after all. This is about the game's regular non-sale non-key price, which (according to plaintiffs) valve reps have exerted control over via informal communications. Probably because they realize it would look bad to have it in writing.
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>>723452818
Valve lied
People died
This is straight from the lawsuit btw
>>
>>723453801
>In the end, it's anti-competitive.
It isn't though. No one is forcing the publisher to sell on Steam. If they want to offer a lower price elsewhere then they can go sell exclusively on that other platform. Or the publisher can lower the price on Steam to match the other platform.
>>
>>723453880
>We don't want to rip off customers that use our platform
Oh no how terrible.
>>
>>723453976
That's cope.
If they didn't want to rip off customers they'd lower the 30% fee to match other stores' lower fee not force games sold on all platforms to cost more.
>>
I'm a Linux gamer and Steam is the only video game storefront that actively supports me.
>>
>>723451306
nobody is forcing the devs to sign the contract, just publish on other storefronts
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>>723447437
Like everyone said, nothing. Its just that steam is that great of a service compared to its competitors. Remember that BF6 is sold both on steam and on EA own platform but it was so shit they actually recommended people to refund their purchases and just get it on steam because they had issues giving out licences.

Gog is second to steam because they offer the no drm guarantee and mantain old games with community patches to run on modern systems
>>
Eh it's good so far but the fat fuck could kick the bucket any time now. If his heirs sell valve we are in for a glorious shitfest. I'm glad some alternatives are around. Even if they are shitty
>>
What exactly is the argument against Steam having a monopoly?

>OH, we should let Epic Games have their fair share (by installing CCP kernel level backdoors into customer computers)
>OH, we should let Rockstar provide a piss poor customer experience and the most janky implementation of integrated services
>OH, we should let EA host their own online games store that frequently removes its OWN games from the store once they become "deprecated"
>OH, we should let Ubisoft take the reigns with their shitty Bangladeshi coded exclusive stores that only work on the latest version of Microshaft Wongblows Niggernet Exploder 9

>and ALL of them WILL be hosting sales for PRIDE MONTH (-2% off!*) (*From a markup price)
>>
>>723453801
>lawsuit
>jamal n. whitehead
jej retard
>>
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>>723447324
Just use both Steam and GOG. :)
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>>723454024
Tip, use Heroic to play games from Epic and GOG on Linux.
https://heroicgameslauncher.com/
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>>723452057
>The Honorable Jamal N. Whitehead
>>
>>723447324
>Epic Games
>GOG
>Riot launcher
>EA app
>Xbox Store
It's a fairly competitive market. Steam just offers the best service by far.
>>
>>723447437
They make devs sell games at the same price as their store, base price can't be lower than the Steam version on other platforms, if you want your game on Steam (with few exceptions such as sales).
This mostly applies to big publishers since it's hard to enforce this on every single developer.

That's about it, the rest is seething by actual monopolistic companies like Tencent (who owns Epic), EA and Microsoft.
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>>723453801
>your platform blows
>valve doesn't blow
>um axually wow ur fanboying pretty hard
Tim it's time to go to bed, lawyers get stuffed in lockers outside the courtroom
>>
>>723454008
>muh 30%
There we go, the real heart of the argument. In your own words, explain what the developers get out of the 30 cut they fork over to valve, and if it stays the same the entirety of the game's life cycle.
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>MFW this objectively shitty thread is filled with dumb butt hurt Steamies!

>>723452879
Yeah, it's just another "it's okay for X to do THIS whereas it's not okay for Y to do THAT".

Steamies don't even deserve to be members of the PC Gaming master race because they're just as bad as Nintendies and Snoys!

If you don't pirate games, then there's something wrong with you!
>>
>>723454373
I do, but that still isn't the same as supporting Linux gaming. I claim the free Epic games every week.
>>
>>723454306
This, I buy games on steam and pirate their GOG installers as back up. Best of both world.
>>
>>723454008
>force games sold on all platforms to cost more
The specific hypothetical example from Valve you are referencing is literally them asking for the game to cost less, not more.
>>
>>723454440
>pirate games
I stopped doing that when I grew up and got a job. I'm fine paying for the convenience.
>>
>>723454228
GOG and Zoom are great, but CDProjektRed is a public company now.
With very few exceptions the rest are shit.
Valve is an anomaly in this industry and a ton of business people hate it.
>>
>>723447437
Leftoids screech about them being a monopoly because they're a highly successful company, and they hate that on principle. Whether or not they're actually doing anything underhanded is irrelevant to them. Success must be punished and everyone dragged down to the same shitty level.
>>
>>723454386
>GOG
>competitive
they're at the point where they're begging for donations, turns out a DRM-free model isn't a good idea if your aim is to be a profitable business
>>
>>723454440
>Just pirated Dying Light The Beast and have been doing nothing but play free mods for the past year
Steam is a good service regardless, to the point not even the console focused Japanese could ignore it anymore.

I get to play my autistic spreadsheet sims , my RTS games, my small doujin titles and my console focused Japanese titles all on the same (best) platform, all thanks to the obese salesman.

Feels good meng
>>
>>723448690
>doesn't treat users like shit
>Taxes games
>>723447437
The users are dumb drones
>>
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>>723454806
>Steam is a good service regardless, to the point not even the console focused Japanese could ignore it anymore.
Hard to ignore steam when their own countrymen is killing them themselves.
>>
>>723454604
GOG has the dubious benefit of promoting piracy, which means it is supported by third party investments simply to undercut steam. So long as GOG as a legal entity itself is marginally in the green, it can keep afloat with all parties satisfied. But if big jew decides to make it "a real store" to compete with steam, then we all will get to enjoy the joys of publicly traded nonsense.
>>
>>723454814
>Taxes games
Fuck are you on about?
>>
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>>723454929
>LoveR uncensored next month
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>>723454929
The game?
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>>723455103
Merry Bunny Garden
>>
>>723452736
guess EA is now monopoly too, huh
>>
>>723453801
>keys mean that valve's effective cut is lower than 30%. There are significant restrictions, namely that devs must make requests for keys that valve must approve, and the game must be sold for the same price on steam as it is on key sites
Valve's cut is 0% and games are all sold for significantly cheaper than on steam. It's why humble bundle and fanatical can often sell you a bundle of 8 games for a fraction of the cost of even one of those games on sale on steam. Valve freely facilitates that.
>>
What's with "you cannot lower the price than steam" ? Pretty sure if dev/publisher using Valve-generated keys, no ?
>>
>>723448629
>piracy is a service problem
I never understood what people meant by this. What is the solution to the "service" problem? Did the Dreamcast have a service problem?
>>
>>723455234
retarded pajeets WOULD struggle to understand.
plenty of stuff on steam is easily pirated.
valve doesnt care, and people buy from them anyways because their services are great.
its not hard, poo
try looking it up
>>
>>723455234
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/Valves-Gabe-Newell-Says-Piracy-Is-a-Service-Problem/

>"We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem," he said. "If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."
>>
>>723455234
It means you are either too expensive or too slow or too restrictive with your product delivery. If pirates can beat you "for free", then you suck at your job as a platform.
>>
>>723454814
>Taxes
>treat users like shit
Do you know what those "taxes" fund? Every game on Steam gets to make use of their own built in community hub, discussion forums, news posts, automatic updates, profile elements, social features, multiplayer servers, mod management, etc. It's the kind of infrastructure that you're supposed to get when you "tax" things. Taxes aren't inherently a bad thing if they're used to fund things appropriately.
>>
>>723454981
I think such an attempt by CDProjektRed will be met by terrible management and self immolation much like Epic, EA and Microsoft.

>>723455153
Valve isn't owned by an external multinational company unlike EA after the deal.
They still have shareholders that don't manage the company, the 3 that bought them and that are going to use them to clean their debt and then discard like a used rag.
>>
>>723454806
>my small doujin titles
so much this, I admit there is a lot of crap but you wouldnt be able to easily see and play some of those indies japanese games that are worth to play
>>
>>723455304
Tbh, pricing can be part of service problem too. Take Dying Light The Beast price, is awfully expensive. I just pirate it instead
>>
>>723454228
Gay ben is basically entirely hands of at this point and has been for a while. I doubt much of anything is going to change.
>>
>>723447324
Steam is a monopoly but it doesn't matter because the US is controlled by corporations.
>>723447907
>something NO OTHER COMPANY has beem able to do for whatever reason
Perfect example of the cult following that enables such monopolies. GOG is objectively the better service but it is passed over for an objectively inferior service because it had a head start on the competition so it amassed a following back when it was the best and as better things come out people continue to choose the popular thing over the good thing.
>>
>>723455234
If your potential customer has to jump through more hoops to legally acquire your product than they would if they just pirated then the incentive is for them to pirate instead of buying. Make it easy and affordable for them to buy legit and they most likely will, since legit means it should come with some amount of support etc. This is why people don't like extra layers of DRM in general since it disincentives buying legit as you are treated like a pirate either way so might as well get it for free then.
>>
>>723455234
He means, provide "value and convenience to costumers" or they will continue to use alternatives.
Every other service was a headache.
>Did the Dreamcast have a service problem?
A slow trickle of games, a pretty bad controller and bad marketing.
>>
>>723447324
>isnt publicly traded and is ergo therefore immune to certain influences
geez I wonder why and which people are so upset about steam being popular
>>
>>723447324
Gabe win again who can stop him and end his reign
>>
>>723455234
It means what you offer to the cutomer is worse than piracy.
>>
>>723455432
Acceptable price point has always been a factor in it. That is part of the reason the big publishers used to cry about Steam sales since it made it much easier for consumers to just wait for a sale instead of buying at launch.
>>
>>723447324
Just make a better service?
>>
>>723453904
>>723454165
Antitrust law looks at economic realities, not just formal freedom. Being technically allowed to leave holds little meaning if leaving steam isn't economically viable. And that's the crux of the entire issue, that valve is exploiting their position of market dominance to undermine potential avenues of competition; avenues that, if allowed, would exert downward pressure on prices. "They're allowed to leave and go elsewhere" has never been a sufficient defense in an antitrust case.

>>723454393
cute selfie, hope your reading comprehension improves when you enter elementary school.

>>723455185
I'm aware that valve takes no cut on key sales, that's why I said their overall *effective* cut (aka averaging key and non-key sales) is lower than 30%.
>>
>>723455559
gog doesnt have a workshop, gog doesnt let me chat with my friends, gog has the letter g which stands for gay.
>>
>>723455234
Take the current Unity vulnerability fiasco. Once the security risk hole was found, lots of devs instantly put out patches to fix that whole from their games on Steam. Even if you didn't have the affected games installed on your computer, once you install those games through Steam, you can be assure those security risks are already patched. Compared to piracy, you'd be lucky if the uploaders care enough to upload a new copy with the security risk patched, and even then you usually have to uninstall and reinstall the game.
>>
>>723451714
*was
>>
>>723455234
It's an assertion that piracy as a way to save money is less prelevant than piracy as a way to prevent a headache. Dreamcast and PSP were pirated to hell and back, but so did PS2 and the entire shareware publishing scheme. Kids and cheapskates will resort to piracy for financial reasons, but for a lot of people it's about getting it quickly and efficiently (whether it's a sign of technical ineptitude or not is up to you). Quicker internet certainly helps.
Though I expect money-saving side of piracy to kick in harder due to 70$ fuller price titles. There is a not much "the industry" can do to convince the customer that he isn't just paying more for the same shit (if not less, due to the absolute state of PC ports). Basically anime piracy, though the repercussions are gonna hit way harder, since anime relies on merch and not bluray sales.
>>
>>723455721
>And that's the crux of the entire issue, that valve is exploiting their position of market dominance to undermine potential avenues of competition
Except they're not nor is there anything to suggest that they desire it.
Even muh 30% cut isn't true and just timmy whining about the competition not being shit.
>>
>>723455721
So your argument is that selling on Steam is so necessary to make money that they must sell there, but at the same time they can afford to sell it elsewhere for cheaper because selling only on Steam is unnecessary? And they cannot simply drop the Steam price to match the other store because? Or vice versa?
>>
>>723455283
What services are you getting from Valve that makes you want to pay them for games you could get for free? Achievements and upvotes?

>>723455304
>>723455317
By those terms, the mere existence of copyright is an incentive for piracy.
>>
>>723455927
holy shit who let this retarded indian who can't even read the thread in?
SAAAR shit less read more
>>
>>723455392
I usually used these recaps to catch something inetresting
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z7jEdLZOJ4
>>
>>723455927
>What services are you getting from Valve that makes you want to pay them for games you could get for free?
One click installs
>>
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>>723447324
A toast to Valve Corp. and a pox on Timmy and games that refuse to release on Steam like Minecraft and Vintage Story, may your games be pirated for refusing to cater to my Store of choice!
>>
>>723455927
>What services are you getting from Valve that makes you want to pay them for games you could get for free?
Patching and ease of freeing up storage. I'm not gonna buy enough drives to store a thousand games that I also have to update manually.
>>
>>723455234
It means that a company would have to be retarded to not have a greater presence at the point of sale than pirates, especially in the digital age, where advertisement can coincide with a purchasing opportunity.
Even just a minor placebo hurdle to piracy that isn't present in a legitimate purchase will steer nearly your entire audience away from piracy.
At that point piracy is a net positive for a company that provides a good product, a good service and a good track record, because it is essentially free marketing provided to people who would have never purchased their product.
This is why Denuvo is mostly used by companies for whom free marketing would be a bad thing and no one else.
>>
>>723455871
>Except they're not nor is there anything to suggest that they desire it.
Well that's what the whole comment chain is about. It's about one very specific behavior Valve is supposedly engaged in, which is currently being decided in court. See >>723452057 and >>723453880

>So your argument is that selling on Steam is so necessary to make money that they must sell there
It's extremely important, and that importance gives Valve a lot of leverage. Modern American antitrust law was created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a response to companies abusing that kind of leverage to further entrench themselves and hinder competitors.
>but at the same time they can afford to sell it elsewhere for cheaper because selling only on Steam is unnecessary? And they cannot simply drop the Steam price to match the other store because?
They could afford to sell it elsewhere for cheaper because the other storefront is taking a smaller cut than Valve. That's how markets work normally. Valve is exploiting their market position and stopping devs/pubs from selling their games at a lower base price than on steam.
>>
>>723456451
Forgot to quote >>723455907
>>
>>723455857
>It's an assertion that piracy as a way to save money is less prelevant than piracy as a way to prevent a headache.

I don't see how getting pirated games on console is less of a headache than getting a copy from a store, unless you make it about the price. At that point it's not a service issue though.

>>723455774
>malware in games
>>723456057
>One click installs

Most people's solution to these kinds of "service problems" is to get a console. Methinks there's more to the story.
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>>723456167
This. I support people who support me.
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>>723451306
>>723452057
you are such a massive fucking retard (though thats expected for a sweenycuck)
you literally do not understand anything about PMFN or how they work, nor does the person who wrote this

he will lose. You will lose.
>>
>>723456312
Your lack of storage space is a service problem?

>>723456408
I didn't realize software pirates were such prolific unpaid marketers.
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>>723456531
A console can't play these
>>
>Artifact spammer is mia
nintendr*nes actually lost, lmao. others have tried to recreate what Valve offers and they all failed miserably by the dozen. until Steam proves to be a bad service, it will stay at the top. simple as. you wouldn't get the benefit of their backend, all the services they provide, nor the effeort they're putting in to shoving off the enshittification perpetuated by the rest of the industry. stop making these dumbass threads, faggots, and play videogames.
>>
>>723456729
It's not about piracy or supporting the scene, it's about "sticking it to Valve".
>>
>>723456451
>one very specific behavior Valve is supposedly engaged in
Yes "supposedly"
>>
>>723447324
Roblox alone gets more concurrent players than all of steam
>>
>>723456729
>Your lack of storage space is a service problem?
It is an incentive to use steam, as the automatic patches, multiplayer and one click installs are a way better service than what the pirates offer.
>>
>>723456838
you haven't clocked the plumetting numbers
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>>723447324
>meanwhile consoles are shrinking and becoming irrelevant, except maybe nintendo, for now
>b-b-but PS5 sold we-
profits, anon, check their profits.
>>
>>723456451
None of your rambling falls into anything relating to anti-trust. The closest thing you can come up with is the price matching, which is not price fixing or collusion or anti-competitor. That there is a legal case is also largely meaningless in and of itself since those can be launched for almost any reason regardless of merit.
>>
>>723456531
A console is far worse and treats you like shit.
>>
>>723456874
>>723456874
>profits, anon, check their profits.
yup.
>sony sells more
>sony makes less
this is a massive red flag for the company, snoys on here would like to pretend they won by posting sales figures
Nintendo is doubling their profits despite bringing in less

This literally proves sony is wasting money and is a less efficient model. Blame DEI hires or woke consultant groups, blame mismanagement, blame bad games, blame whatever you want but at the end of the day this is not going to survive as a business if theyre losing that much money, they will go the way of SEGA
SEGA failed despite having sonic, one of the biggest and most iconic characters at the time under their belt. It can happen.
>>
>less than 1% market share
>monopoly
??????
>>
>>723456451
>stopping devs/pubs from selling their games at a lower base price than on steam.
Not even, FEAR was like 10 bucks on GOG and 50 bucks on Steam for like 12 years.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/21090/discussions/0/2605804632892895980/
>>
i think the funniest thing that ever happened is that movie/TV piracy was almost solved by netflix and the companies got greedier and splintered into 100 services so it's coming back
>>
>>723456838
I'm neither 10 nor a pedo so I don't care
>>
>>723457056
This, mihomo has more players per day than steam's total users combined.
>>
>>723457118
Ok? What does you not caring have to do with OP's argument of steam being a monopoly
Roblox alone has more players than steams entire platform, steam can't be a monopoly by pure numbers alone
>>
>>723457115
I know people who went back to cable TV because of that.
Everyone wanted a piece of that pie, so now they share crumbs!
>>
>>723456874
>except maybe nintendo, for now
Even nintendo. They had two hardware lines, sold 100 million more units of hardware and half a billion more units of software 15 years ago. The only reason they make more money now is they cheap out and screw their remaining consumers far harder.
Consoles are all on track for obsolescence over the past decade and a half while inversely PC has grown massively in that same time.
>>
>>723450196
why would epic care? tim sweeney very publicly stated pc was full of pirates and epic would stop creating pc games while instead focusing on consoles. sweeney abandoned pc and was very nearly responsible for killing it until gabe newell brought developers back, including sweeney who hilariously tried to muscle in on gabe's market share
>>
>>723457115
Even if the individual networks hadn't gone full pants on head retarded about it the regional licensing would still have caused is the problem in the end. HBO was probably the biggest retard when it came to all of that though and probably could have made more money in the long run by partnering with Netflix for outside of US hosting/distribution.
>>
>>723457115
During my free Netflix trial, I wanted to watch an old movie but I didn't exactly have the time back then. When I found sometime, that movie is no longer on Netflix. When I heard gamepass having the same issue with games leaving their catalog after a time, I knew the streaming/renting sub model is pure bullshit.
>>
>>723456531
Console piracy is a different beast to PC piracy, but if you just want to boil it down MUH DREAMCAST THO then sure it's about money. In an inhuman game theory sort of way, customer is incentivized to only ever pirate. That is why people put in effort to circumvent copy protection or fiddle with hardware just to get shit for free. When that effort is negligible (read: service of a pirate is no different that service of a store), piracy outweighs purchase due to the money question. Sometimes it is primarily money, like Adobe products or anime discs.
But we do not live in the year '89 where console games and PC games were fundamentally different, and where digital downloads simply did not exist. Now publishers must put in extra effort to incentivize the customer. Prepurchase and retailer-specific bonuses did not work out, and now they bank on convenience.
Valve did the right things at the right time, and got so far ahead that is suicidal to compete with them. And what incentive does the customer have NOT to deal with Valve? And steam only got better (excluding steam sales maybe) while the others were just starting out, that's like trying to dethrone WoW in the year 2006.
>>
>>723451408
Riot Games is competing against them just fine though, business-wise. Sounds like an epic problem.
>>
>>723457260
>why would epic care?
You aren't wrong, but at the same time if their intent was to actually make money then they should have. Steam survived the earliest days of digital marketplaces and grew into what it is now. Copying them takes out all the usual guesswork involved with trying to develop and deploy that sort of marketplace. Realistically I think they probably just bit off more than they could chew without really thinking about the long run.
>>
>>723451306
All EA and Ubisoft had to do to avoid that clause and sell cheaper is not sell on Steam anymore. And they tried, and failed, cause nobody wants to put up with their dogshit platforms
>>
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If i buy a Valve game do they take 30% of the cut and give it to themselves or do they not "take" the cut at all?
>>
They aren't. GOG and Epic Store exists. GOG is way better then steam even.
>>
>>723457251
true, I just meant for now theyre still relevant and the handheld-console thing is more likely to survive the next decade instead of regular consoles
its why xbox shifted to be a home entertainment box

Their greed could fuck them, probably will, but they'll live longer than playstations brand unless they also start doing the switch thing because people arent valuing a $1000+ box to play 3-5 games at 30FPS. more people seem to enjoy portable games, with the option of setting it up as a console easily, which is why the switch did so well
mario also just sells well to parents for their kids, theyre doing the disney thing for now

sony and MS I give 1, maybe 2 generations more before they give it up... heck I can see there being no PS6, just a not-switch. Nintendo could ride this out for another 3 gens as is.

truth is its not just PC winning, people are seemingly playing less games in general, instead favouring just one or two live service games.
I also predict a AAA crash coming soon, with indies surviving. Too few good games, too expensive, too bland.
>>
>>723457050
thats kind of disgusting
>3x sales
>0.5x profit
so basically 6 times worse business efficiency.
>>
Monopolies are bad... because...
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>>723457413
Same energy.
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>>723456729
>I didn't realize software pirates were such prolific unpaid marketers.
They still talk about a game and can peruse vastly more media than someone who is limited by needing to pay extortionate prices for something that has no intrinsic value. They use their unpaid time to sift through everything and signal boost good things.
A pirated game is like a free sample of a product, except that with no physical object to consider, the free sample can be arbitrarily large.
>>723457115
It was always going to go badly for on-demand streaming. Netflix was never profitable and most of its early mover advantage was a lack of regulations and publishers deciding that they could just also put their stuff on Netflix for extra profit and marketing.
It was always going to go to shit, because the publishing conglomerates and longterm, international copyright that underpin the media industries are shit.
>>
>>723457645
Because they charge the consumer far far more then they should and can have as shitty customer service as they want.
>>
>>723457291
That's all fine, but if Steam did such a great job solving the service problem, then why is piracy still rampant?

>>723457905
>A pirated game is like a free sample of a product
lmao that's a pretty big sample.
>extortionate prices
Sounds like a pricing problem.
>for something that has no intrinsic value
Video games having no intrinsic value is admittedly a based take, but it's not the one I keep hearing for piracy.
>>
>>723458186
it used to be much worse

there comes a point where you just can't get some pirates to buy anything. it's why the "piracy = lost sales" shit never made sense.
>>
>>723447324
Gog exists. Epic games exists. Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft's shitware exist. It is not a monopoly. Thank Tim Sweeny.
>>
>>723447324
Steam is a bad example of a monopoly. While they definitely run the market (a monopoly, not denying that), they do it with respect. They don't gouge us consumers or treat us like shit. They're a GOOD monopoly. Mainly because they're a private company and not beholden to shareholders, so they're able to put their profits back into the company and not be legally obligated to constantly push for higher profits to appease faggots that invested in them. So, I don't give a fuck.
>>
>>723458186
>That's all fine, but if Steam did such a great job solving the service problem, then why is piracy still rampant?
Because pirates will always exist, but being able to single out pirates as the actual problem impacting your sales so much that your product becomes unprofitable specifically because of them is not usually an issue, but saying that piracy is a service problem is more palatable to companies/shareholders than saying that pirates are not a problem, but rather that their company is just shit and they need to change in way that isn't just blaming the scapegoat.
>lmao that's a pretty big sample.
Sales and used games also cut into how many games are effectively sold at full price. The economics of selling something that can be replicated at negligible cost and sold for a ludicrous markup are weird and often counterintuitive.
>Sounds like a pricing problem.
The pricing problem gating the ability to try out infinite media is that there is a price at all, it is extortionate, because being able to demand a price for it is literally based on extortion.
>Video games having no intrinsic value is admittedly a based take, but it's not the one I keep hearing for piracy.
You'll hear a lot of takes, because there isn't really any argument that needs to be made in favor of piracy, it just exists and is neutral.
>>
>>723458454
I agree with you there. It's hard to call it a lost sale when just paying the $60 for a PS2 game would be much easier and less costly than risking a $300 brick and learning a bunch of steps in order to maybe get the game for free after hours of work.
>>
>>723458186
>why piracy
Money still exists. Even that original gaben quote used "almost always (a service problem)" to keep some wiggle room. There are still children with no disposable income and ruskies that want to play more than CS and people who are willing to spend time to not spend money. This is a fundamental "problem of evil" equivalent of software, that can be engaged with in different ways.
But let's put it the opposite way: if PC piracy is so rampant and simple (if you are not a retard), then how is steam even around at all? If you just want to play singleplayer games, and don't care about patches and updates, then steam can offer you no "service" to offset the monetary cost. Well turns out customers aren't actually perfectly rational actors in a game theory abstraction, but real human beans. Turns out that people are more than willing to pay, because it's only fair to exchange money for goods and services. Whether it "feels like good deal" is a much more important question (see also: video streaming services not covering show production costs at all), but the bottom line is that humans don't actually mind paying for shit. What a shocker.
>>
>>723451306
PMFN is bad when Steam pro-actively guards themselves against other platforms low-balling them or adding content Steam isn't allowed to have?

So, it's okay when other platforms do just that to fuck over Steam? That makes absolutely no sense.

I thought retards couldn't do those capchas.
>>
>>723447324
most of the playerbase are third worlders who only play cs or dota
>>
>>723458635
That is not the definition of a monopoly. Steam is far from thensole supplier of games as goods or services. Being big =/= monopoly.
>>
>>723458186
Most piracy is consoles, three guesses why and the first two don't count.
>>
>>723452230
refund requests happen.
(attempted) account hijackings happen.
Those are the reasons i contacted steam support
>>
>>723458635
Being the market leader, which they aren't even depending on what metric you use, is not the same thing as a monopoly.
>>
>>723453801
>This is some pretty insane fanboyism. In a free market, a competitor would be able to undercut steam by taking a smaller cut and passing on the savings.
Epic takes a smaller cut, yet the games they sell aren't cheaper, how curious
>>
>>723458752
>Sales and used games also cut into how many games are effectively sold at full price.
I don't think they do, actually, nor do I think piracy does this despite the fact that I oppose it. By the time a game goes on sale, most people who would pay full price for it have done so already.
>The economics of selling something that can be replicated at negligible cost and sold for a ludicrous markup are weird and often counterintuitive.
I agree with this.
>being able to demand a price for it is literally based on extortion.
It's not extortion just because it's not given away for free. Overpriced perhaps, but you're missing the tort part.
>it just exists and is neutral.
Nah, I hear plenty of proud pirates who claim they're doing some sort of consumer activism by way of piracy. They don't think it's a neutral gesture and I agree with them.
>>
>>723447324
Perhaps it's the only service which actually measures the number of players/releases that information.

Retard.

Also best service by fucking miles. Epic client is such dogshit.
>>
>>723457050
>Sony shifts all development to the most expensive country on earth while shutting down all European and Japanese Devs.
>Suddenly surprised they barely manage to break even
>>
>>723447437
Region locking.
>>
>>723458635

Valve started the lootbox gambling shit that has underage kids addicted to knife skins

nothing good about them at the end of the day desu
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>boot up epic games launcher to see if they actually implemented reviews
>it's somehow worse than google store reviews
incredible
>>723459530
i was gambling on "lootboxes" on maplestory and mabinogi as a teenager long before steam even shat out their tf2 crates
>>
>>723457050
>sony made 290 yen, not even 2 american dollars in profit
its so joever...
>>
>>723458186
>That's all fine, but if Steam did such a great job solving the service problem, then why is piracy still rampant?
Steam does not remove cheapskates, poorfags, and children with no parents wallet. But they does give alternate option for people who have no other option but to turn to piracy.
For example, lots of 3rd world nation made it very difficult to signup for paypal or Visa/mastercard. Steam solves the problem by selling steam wallet card to local retailer so that they can buy it with their local currency. They also give developer an option for regional pricing which help the slightly less poor poorfag in 3rd world country to be able to afford the games because 60$ in Seattle is basically 600$ in bumfuck nowhere, Vietnam. The increase in price from free to the whatever funny currency they have is often justified because often times downloading from steam is significantly a lot faster than torrenting it from some shady website with 3rd world internet speed.
Yes, I am speaking from experience.
Good morning sar.
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>>723447437
nothing, they're just popular
steam let me add over 300 games to my account using keys picked up at 90% off from keysites
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>>723459698

great, i guess that does exempt valve then
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>>723459307
>I don't think they do, actually, nor do I think piracy does this despite the fact that I oppose it. By the time a game goes on sale, most people who would pay full price for it have done so already.
That's kind of the point. They are weighing the benefits of never getting a portion of that money per sale versus selling more of the game, whether that's piracy, used games or sales effectively doesn't matter. They are more or less already forced into doing this just by virtue of not matching the price of an older game to inflation.
>It's not extortion just because it's not given away for free. Overpriced perhaps, but you're missing the tort part.
'You will either pay us for downloading this thing, or we will treat you, an individual, like a large publisher with limited liability in the court of law, because your copying of the game can technically be interpreted as publishing".
They have already given away the game for free by publishing it to the public, any money they get for it beyond voluntary donation is extortion.
>>
>>723449609
because pc gaming annihilates the idea of brand loyalty
play how you want on whatever you want
>>
>>723459530
>free cosmetic drops in free games you can sell for actual money to people who choose to waste theirs
>aieeee how could gay ben do this think of the chillins!
I could not possibly give less of a shit.
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>>723459757
That explains alot. Thanks.
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>>723447324
Fake monopoly or fake competition like microsoft vs apple or nvidia vs amd.
>>
>>723455234
>What is the solution
Steam.
>>
>>723447324
More people had ps2s and gaming PCs
That seems like a low ass number is gaming dying or something
>>723447437
Shit on all the other storefronts
I tried them all their all terrible
>>
>>723460468
5 years ago Steam had some 20 million users.
If anything it's mobile phones that keep limiting the growth.
>>
>>723447324
Its not tho, I just recently boughted rhe HOMM series on sale on GoG intentionally instead of on Steam
>>
>>723451306
They did that because fags like (You) kept using VPNs to avoid buying the games at Western marker prices and paying your fucking taxes/VAT
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>>723456983
>The closest thing you can come up with is the price matching
Huh, where did you pull price matching from? You're the first person who's mentioned that. From the context you're using it in I don't think you know what price matching actually means, it's completely unrelated.
That type of exclusionary conduct to stifle competition is absolutely an antitrust violation.

>>723459253
You do realize that's the entire point of the lawsuit... right?

>>723457075
Your own link says that the publisher wasn't actually selling FEAR 1 standalone on steam, they were only selling the bundle.
>>
>steam just works
>every other online store is pure dogshit
Maybe if other companies didn't make such garbage platforms, people would be inclined to actually go to them. Why bother when steam is gonna have everything and it's not dogshit?
>>
End users don't want to use a dozen platforms and they don't benefit from being forced to
the more a user has to invest in a platform the more polarized the market around it will be
and that's why attempts to forcefully diversify markets that have voluntary monopolies are met with hostility
>>
>steam is a monopoly because all major devs sell their games there
alright
is nintendo a monopoly because they control which games are sold on nintendo?
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>>723447324
That's a lot of bots!
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>>723464495
Yes. It's a general purpose computing device that is artificially restricted. It's like Ford cars only being able to run on Ford gas.
>>
>>723464636
>general purpose computing device that is artificially restricted
Does that mean apple is a monopoly?
>>
>>723464701
Yes? That is why the keep losing in court and are now forced to let you install 3rd party apps and use other app stores than their own.
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every monopoly argument falls apart when you realize retard nigger game devs are almost always selling steam keys in bulk at discount (for unreleased games even) to retailers like GMG and gamebillet. but guess what, they sell keys for epic to those same retailers, its just that nobody wants to own games on dogshit platforms! very often the best deal is from somewhere other than steam directly.

keep seething, tim sneedney. I won't install it.
>>
>>723464802
Interesting. I the Epic Games Store a monopoly because you can get certain games only there?
>>
steam is a monopoly because they are so far ahead of any possible competitor in terms of institutional culture that it's not even close. a major privately owned company controlled by an autist with genuine ideological principles is exceptional in general, let alone the context of pc games distribution.
>>
>>723465091
You can't be a monopoly when you have 0% marketshare.
>>
>>723465014
Regional pricing actually make games on steam cheaper for me compare to key seller sites. I end up buying on steam all the time, especially during sales.
>>
>>723465303
>a major privately owned company controlled by an autist with genuine ideological principles is exceptional in general
epic games is privately owned dingus.
>>
>>723465708
Privately owned by China you mean.
>>
Steam can't ever be a monopoly due to the fundamental properties of the platform
Roblox, Fortnite, League and Minecraft prove this
They've even refused to fight piracy and are even the source of it due to their paper thin DRM and are actively supporting an operating system that further reduces their control to the point where spyware anti cheat makers are throwing shit fits and are deliberately bricking Linux support
Consoles though are all monopolies by default, everything has to go through the respective corporation
>>
>>723460468
>is gaming dying
duh, retard
>>
>>723459698
to be frank and in all honesty, dfo not only started "lootboxes"/"gacha" before both of those two, but it was also p2w gacha, it's also bigger than those two and tf2 and wow and literally every pc mmo game put together, and it isn't even close
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>>723447437
Control access to 90% of the PC userbase.
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>>723457260
sweeney is the biggest fuckingbretard in gaming history, gabe was right that piracy was a service issue, and he very publicly exclaimed as much
if retard timmy had instead realized that gabe was right instead of going "NUH UH, IDORT" and fuckingnoff to consoles, then HE and epic could have been gabe and steam if not on parity with them
but instead he decides to have to eat crow and then show up a day late and a dollar short with no other alternative than to pick up his game (challenge mode: impossible) or seethe impotently and wastefully
>>
>>723447437
Gaben comes to your house and personally beats the shit out of you with a baseball bat
>>
>>723447437
They are private so they can focus on customers
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>>723456167
i'm fine with minecraft and any other game not releasing on steam ever, in fact i think there are a large number of games that just shouldn't ever do it, steam isn't a platform for anything and everything and i highly doubt they want to be either
what i don't like is retard sweeney moneyhatting console-tier exclusivity deals as a pathetic attempt to "get a leg up" over steam when he could have instead spent that money on making epig gays store and unstraight troongine not so fucking garbage shit tier
>>
>>723468840
Now post Mihomo's
>>
>>723447437
It's not an active, artificial monopoly. The correct term is either "natural monopoly" or "majority of market share".
Steam just happens to be the most popular choice and somehow they're not abusing it.
Gaben's tactic is just doing his job and seeing the competition shoot itself in the foot.
>>
>>723463002
I honestly hope you are just trolling and not this genuinely retarded.
>>
Shut the fuck up, David.
>>
>>723447437
not being complete morons and releasing their platform before the flood
>>
>>723451306
>do you agree to a 30% tax?
>yes
>WTFFFF THEY'RE TAXING MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
>>
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the funny thing is theres not a single thing that steam does that couldnt be copied or cloned. its all a college programmers weekend project. hosting files? easy. hosting servers? trivial, 2 guys figured this out for doom 1. 25 years ago. forums? get fucked. mod respository? you fucking for real?

not a single element of steam is difficult. or hard. or impressive. not a single fucking thing. yet some how, for some reason, timmy of epic games whose worth MORE THEN GABE cant hire some fucking weekend warrior coders to make a working cart for their online store? nope? cant be fucking done?

creating a clone of steam would take a weekend for anyone with a competent team. anyone could do it for 100 grand and have 90 grand spare.

so go ahead. weve been fucking waiting. make something thats literally just a clone of steam but "less shit". any fuckin day now
>>
Other digital storefronts were starting up around the same time as Valve started up Steam. The problem those other digital storefronts had which ended up with them all dying off was how they approached the sales transaction in entirely different, worse way. Like, you had other publishers selling a temporary pass to download the game files off an FTP server. When your paid window expired? That was that. It was on the customer to keep back-up of the game installation files, and to keep your serial/CD key copied down someplace. If you didn't do that? Oh well, you gotta buy it again...or just pirate it >for free.
Gaben instead offered the persistent library, perpetual download. The Steam Library just werkz. The Steam Library would end up becoming THE service that set Steam on to the path of dominance. People don't want to leave behind their Steam Library. People will impulse buy and make a backlog on their Steam Library they may never tackle. All those other digital stores were temporary, fly-by-night shit.
>>
>>723451306
>why aren't you buying overpriced games in other platforms!?
>but muh 30%
not my fucking problem i buy where's cheaper for me not for you
>>
>>723447324
>Steam is NOT a monopoly
Correct.
>>
>>723470739
Whats you damn point?? even if someone or some company makes something SIMILAR to Steam, nobody is gonna give a flying fuck cause their entiiiire PC library and ecosystem is already tied to Steam.
Might as well ask someone to go and make payment processors to rival Visa and Mastercard too.
Once something is set in stone with gazillions of customers, it's over. Even if small fish come to play, the big whale already won
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>>723469952
>somehow they're not abusing it
They are abusing the hell out of it to kneecap Japanese games the same way Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are. Any game that can't release on Steam is basically doomed to financial failure because they control the PC market. However they control that market is irrelevant, because their position means they effectively what lives and dies on PC, and they are very obviously deciding that Japanese-style bishoujo anime games should not exist. So-called "natural monopolies" should be given the same treatment that "artificial" monopolies get because they lead to the same outcomes. Steam's rejection policies should be put under harsher scrutiny because of their effective monopoly.
>>
>one of EA's biggest games ever doesn't even fucking work on their own platform
>somehow it's Steam's fault
>>
>>723471292
I need to start thanking Jesus, Buddha and the prophet Muhammad on a daily basis that im not some fucking retarded moron who plays multiplayer cancerous games.
*spits on your BF6 and CODs*
>>
>>723471186
>Whats you damn point?? even if someone or some company makes something SIMILAR to Steam, nobody is gonna give a flying fuck cause their entiiiire PC library and ecosystem is already tied to Steam.
someone already did create a rival to steam. i literally mentioned it. epic games. tim sweeney. fair enough i checked again and tims only got "just half" the networth of gabe, 5.x billion to gabes 11 billion.

but consider the following. epic games has just 4000 games. its best, most popular game, is free to play. tim makes half as much as gabe does and he doesnt even sell a proper game, he sells fucking skins. and his fucking shopfront doesnt even fucking work. people CAN compete, it CAN be done, but it turns out the secret ingrediant gabe has and tim doesnt is "dont be a fucking colossus tier retard". these big ass companies worth literal billions could ABSOLUTEY pump out some shit steam adjacent copy and relegate their money maker into a storefront and make it fucking work. we know this because ITS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, ITS WHAT TIM IS DOING. and yet they are such fuck ups they STILL put their shit onto steam because somehow steam can figure out a fucking feature like A SHOPPING CART FOR YOUR DIGITAL STOREFRONT.
>>
>>723471186
dont try anythng in life because somebody else is doing it better than you or will do it better than you in the future
>>
>>723447437
They provide a good, convenient service for their customers. Very antisemitic, I know.
>>
>>723471618
>procces to buy fifa for the 3460 time
>>
>>723471186
The only reason Steam has this hold on the market is because every other company was retarded and treated PC as an afterthought for decades, and when they finally decided it was worth a passing glance, you didn't get well thought out competitors, you got lazy shit like Origin that's only selling point was "you can't play Mass Effect 3 on PC if you don't buy it through OUR storefront."
No useful features, no discounts for cutting out the middleman, nothing.
Epic Store actually had a chance to carve a niche in the market, given how Tim was going on and on about how the lower cut they were taking from each sale would be passed onto gamers, and then they promptly showed that to be horseshit by having the first major exclusive title to their store, Borderlands 3, launching at the usual full price, not to mention how many other games had previously advertised that they would launch on Steam quietly replace the Steam logo with the Epic one when the checks from Timmy cleared. So now Tim's launching a storefront that doesn't offer any actual benefits over the one he's been calling the great Satan for three months while being an inferior product.
>>
>>723447324
I bought a bunch of games on GOG yesterday, will buy more in the future. I also have a bunch of games I didn't pay for on Epic. There's also Itch.io for some niche stuff. Other platforms are garbage.
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>>723471287
You are retarded.
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>>723471287
>Kneecap Japanese games by selling uncensored porn
>What is DMM and DLsite
kys you fucking retard
https://store.steampowered.com/app/758090/Monobeno/
>>
>>723455559
In what way is gog better?
> drm shit
That's dev choice to begin with
>>
>>723472382
>Valve is the great satan anti competitor
Here's the list of companies that own Tims company
>Tencent
>Disney
>Sony
These corps are so desperate to compete against Valve that now they're making up ideological moral bullshit.
Reminds me of the Nintendo of America pushing for censorship and the ESRB to shut down Sega competing with them by having edgier games.
>>
>>723474043
*push
I'm not a pajeet I swear
>>
>>723447324
>more affordable high-performance hardware
>implying
>>
>>723469952
Majority market share is not a monopoly
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>>723447437
not much, just steam sales so people buy a bunch of games at 80% off most of which they'll never finish
valve will get jewed sooner or later though
>>
>>723451640
yes, jews are still people
there is literally nothing wrong with being jewish
>>
>>723452057
Your opinion isn't nuanced. It's fucking retarded and predicated on accepting a century of objectively terrible unconstitutional judisprecedence. Eat shit.
>>
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>>723447324
This is the mindset of a multi-billionaire.
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>>723474409
>t.ovendodger
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>>723473771
>2018
Meanwhile, even censored versions of already PG Japanese games regularly get banned from there nowadays. It's gotten to the point that actual Japanese game devs are commenting on it, and they clearly don't view DMM/DLSite as a viable replacement for Steam and its install base.
>>
>>723447437
They force Epic to have the world's shittiest client, so despite giving away hundreds of free games people never actually buy games from them
>>
>>723474559
>Provides a good service after the major publishers didn't and even abandoned the platform
>NOOOOOOOOOO YOU CAN'T JUST MAKE MONEY BY GIVING OUT GOOD DEALS AND COMPETING YOU HAVE TO FUCK OVER THE CONSUMER 24/7 AND JOIN THE ESA CARTEL
>>
>>723455559
gog was alright until they tried to force that galaxy bullshit. I want to download games with the old application and not yet another launcher
>>
>>723451306
You retards who do not understand anti-trust and anti-competitiveness are so fucking funny. You might want to look up how Apple ecosystem works in comparison to Steam you absolute buffoon.
>>
>>723449930
>I'm sorry can someone explain to me when the mainstream masses got into steam?
When CompUSA and Besy Buy and Circuit City started closing stores, there was literally no place to buy games. Selection at the remaining stores became anemic and no better than adjacent retailers like Barnes & Noble and Target. That happened a few years after Steam debuted. I was able to buy physical VTMB and I think Civ4 from stores, but those were the last ones.
>>
>>723447324
how can it have 41.6 million when there are only 10 million people in the world?
>>
>>723457050
>Negative sales
Do these companies really?
>>
>>723474956
Blame Visa/Mastercard
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aAbrEDNa2NmgntrKtij0RuxKneiFcTJisGyfMUv2nnM/edit?gid=975765620#gid=975765620
>>
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>>723447437
Make an actual decent client. That alone filters 99% of the competition.
>>
>>723475249
>I was able to buy physical VTMB and I think Civ4 from stores
Lucky you, I only found absolute bargain trash like Stalin vs Martians and Empire Earth 3.
Conflict: Global Terror if I was lucky.
>>
>>723454008
>muh 30%
If there was a store that took a 70% cut I'd buy all my games there because I fucking hate developers.
>>
>>723454008
>other stores'
you're not being slick timmy
your store is fucking bankrupt and bleeding money for a reason
>>
I don't believe steam is a monopoly but what is the 'solution' that people who believe that want? Do you want Valve to be forced to assist other stores? Force devs to release on other stores? Prevent new account from being made forcing competition elsewhere? I genuinely can't imagine a solution that doesn't sound absurdly retarded.
>>
>>723476403
The answer is always making Valve into publicly traded company so Tencent can buy them and effectively gain monopoly over PC gaming.
>>
>>723447324
monopolies aren't a bad thing when the monopolist is benevolent and taking good care of its customers. same thing can be said about dictators.
>>
>>723447437
That's not the definition of monopoly.
>>
>>723454008
Egs loses money, if they didn't have other revenue sources they would go bankrupt. Gog does too, and I think their cut is nowhere near as low as egs.
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>>723476709
Democracy is always superior chud
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>>723455197
Yes, that only really applies to steam keys as it's taking advantage of Valve's services.
>>723452890
For real. The entire reason that games used to be so fucking expensive back in the day ($100 games, when you adjust for inflation) is because retailers took a massive cut. A fucking colossal cut.
>>
>>723475672
Are you really that stupid? You think that if someone created a better client (how do you even do that?) peopel would leave Steam? They will just say goodbye to their 500 games stuck in there?
>>
>>723476403
No normal people have an issue with steam in its current state, its malicious actors who actively want to see steam destroyed.
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>>723476863
This does make me wonder at what point will the ditch the store entirely? Fortnite isn't dead by any means but it is in that era of the normie zeitgeist where it isn't 'the game' anymore. It's still getting at least a million players a day but compared to a year ago when they were seeing double that it makes me wonder when they'll start trying to conserve.
>>
>>723477836
They would just use both? Normies have 500 different streaming services to watch all their slop on, you don't think they could handle 2 computer game clients?
>>
>>723477836
I used both GoG and Steam back in the day when I wasn't done with GoG problems. Nothing stops you from using multiple stores.
Also I bought games which weren't on any big launcher at all, like Starsector, War in the Pacific, Rule the Waves, RTW2, War Thunder (before it was on Steam) as well as Escape from Tarkov.
>>
>>723447437
>What does valve do to prevent competitors?
being too consumer friendly, oy vey...
>>
>>723447437
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
>>
steam as it stands is simply unbeatable
they offer excellent service and the only improvement you can really make on it is offline installers
hell if you care you can turn steam games into offline games and it'll take you less time than using an actual installer
steam is so good that it manages to win with the pirates since that's where most pirated games come from nowadays
the only way anyone is mounting a challenge to it is after self inflicted enshittification
>>
>>723447437
They're a private company so they can't let investors ruin them so other companies(that the investors also put money into) can overtake them.
>>
>>723478303
People think when Gabe dies it'll go to shit, but I think his son will handle it fine enough. Usually in these situations its the grandkids who fuck it all up, see LOTR in the past 5 years.
>>
To compete with steam requires you not to treat your customers like retarded goy cattle, which is something nobody except Valve is willing to do, all the competition starts by thinking of you as retarded cow that owes them milk
>>
steam may be a monopoly but this isn't a serious or meaningful market in any way
>oh noooo they have a monopoly on digital children's toys
who cares
>>
>>723477962
It's not about handling. It's the cost sunk fallacy. You already spent so much on Steam and you have so much there, so even if you needed to pay little more or have little worse service, you would still stay, and this is why they have what people call monopoly.
>>
just a simple reminder that the record companies took 30% of profits back in the day.
and they were globally reviled for being greedy.
>>
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>Steam is a monopoly
>Look inside
>Half a dozen other successful storefronts, including epics, exist just fine and make a profit
You guys have no idea what the fuck you are even saying, just typing random words on your keyboard until you get a reaction.
>>
>>723479250
Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Apple, and Google all take 30% too. Back in the day people still bought cassettes and CDs anyway just like they buy games now without caring (and even then they all went to rip off artists themselves on Napster when they were able to). Consumers want to consume, they don't care about anything else as long as they get the product.
>>
>>723479417
that's /v/ in general though
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>>723478557
Microsoft got the monopoly with shady dealings, employee abuse, morally questionable software ethics, using overhanded anti competitive tactics and pandering as hard as they could to be the Governments lapdog while fucking over most ofvthe software community and businesses at the time.

Valve got the monopoly by providing a good service.
>>
>>723479423
The 30% is still 10 times better than dealing with retailers
>>
>>723479417
epic profits are from fortnite alone. Epic failed really really bad and all those free games didn't help them to create a consume base. They could had a chance if they didn't try to bring console faggotry to pc with "exclusivity".
>>
>>723479417
Because the entirety of this monopoly concerntrolling is made up of one autist and pajeet farms hired by Timmy himself
>>
>>723479813
>What is Unreal Engine?
>>
>>723479841
i thought we were talking about games
>>
>>723479813
The issue wasn't even exclusivity
The issue is that they paid in development games already announced on Steam, to be Epic exclusive.

If they had funded games from the ground up to be exclusive to their platform (like Unreal Tournamment 4 which they cancelled) all of that backlash would have been avoided.
>>
>>723479813
Now explain itch and GOG.
>>
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>>723447437
valve isn't doing anything to hinder the success of their competitors. the competitors just refuse to provide a superior service because they don't care about the users.
>>
>>723479884
You said Epic profits exclusively from Fortnite
Not the case
End of fucking story
>>
>>723479962
gog is cool and itch is good. Steam is just more well know and almost everyone ends up there.
>>
>>723480076
>epic store
and i almost sure fortnite is still they biggest contributor.
>>
>>723459473
not really, you can still play your games in different regions
>>
>>723447324
It's incredible how many people leave steam open to collect data on you while they don't play anything.

37 million people 'online', and yet only a couple million actually PLAYING something, with a considerable amount of it literally free 2 play bots.

Absolutely pathetic that /r/pcmasterrace tries to brag.
>>
>>723454008
How come games on EGS aren't cheaper despite them supposedly taking a lower cut then, Einsten?
>>
Valve as a monopoly is bad in the same way an absolute monarchy is bad.

The current king (Gabe) is good, but once he dies, there is no guarantee about the next person who takes the throne.
>>
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>>723459698
surely the risk of unfair review bombing is worth it in exchange for having a review system that informs customers and accurately represents when a game is receiving quality continued support

No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk 2077 use their improved customer reviews as a badge of honor
>>
>>723480517
His son will do fine, the grandkids will probably fuck it up, but by then I will be dead, so not my problem.
>>
>>723480439
Steam asks from time to time for your permission to collect data. You would know if you had a pc.
>>
>>723480609
It's cute you think the hardware specs is collecting data. I'm talking about parsing your DNS cache for "anti cheat" measures. You are a fucking tool and I guarantee I have had my steam account longer than you, probably longer than you have been alive.
>>
>>723452057
I'll bite, even though I know it's a load of shit: it's already proven that publishers will choose not reduce prices even if the store cut is reduced (see: steam prices vs epic prices of the game game)
>>
>>723480492
steam will take down your game if you're offering a game at a lower baseline price somewhere else.
and the lower cut isn't a "supposedly" thing, devs are giving epic exclusives just because of this and it's public knowledge at this point that they take in less revenue share.
>>
>>723480439
pcs are used for a lot more than just playing games you bumbling retard
no one needs to minmax the 500mb of ram at most that it takes up
>>
>>723480832
take your meds
>>
>>723480153
Read your post again
You said Epic
>>
>>723481085
we are talking about store fronts here retard.
>>
>>723480965
>>723481000
>t. /r/pcmasterrace guzzling corporate dick
Keep treating steam has some epic social media platform, kid
>>
>>723481223
i don't need to pay to access multiplayer.
>>
>>723447324
why do you care op
>>
>>723481223
steam is the least corporate of all the big gaming companies by a mile
if you're a consolecuck you're a complete fucking peon with no control over anything
epic is on record for actively spying on your steam activity and they're 35% owned by tencent
>>
>>723481521
gaming platforms*
>>
>>723481184
Not what you replied to
>>723479417
>>
>>723480439
>>723481223
cope
>>
>>723481521
>steam is the least corporate of all the big gaming companies by a mile

The CEO literally rides around on a Mega Yahct you clown.
>>
>>723481994
ok, who fucking cares?

is that reflected in any way on steam's quality as a service or in any of Valve's games?

is TF2 or CS2 somehow worse because Gabe Newell rides a yatch?
>>
>>723482136
>is that reflected in any way on steam's quality as a service or in any of Valve's games?
>is TF2 or CS2 somehow worse because Gabe Newell rides a yatch?

Yeah all the lootboxes and microtransactions
>>
>>723481994
are you retard?
>>
>>723480936
What about games that released as Epic exclusives? What's your excuse there?
>>
>>723465675
same, VERY FEW third party sites sell on chilean pesos

but i occasionally buy games on gmg and nuuvem, they do regional pricing

also fanatical has great bundles, i buy em even if they dont have regional pricing
>>
>>723447437
Everybody else constantly shoots themselves in the feet.
That's why Steam is antisemetic
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>>723482181
which affects the gameplay of neither game

hell, fun fact, i made thousands back in the day on TF2 via trading

and i play CS2 weekly because of the drops which i then sell on the community market and use the money to buy more games

cant wait for the MvM update for TF2
>>
You could argue they have too much share of the pie but they don't engage in antitrust activity. They don't even force you to use steam on their own devices. It's just a skill issue for other storefronts
>>
>>723447324
=valve bootlickers ruined pc gaming
>>
>>723447324
why does steam constantly have monopoly articles written about it but nobody ever mentions something like google as being a monopoly for search engines? why has steam been so specifically targeted for years now?
>>
>>723482743
reminder you could be playing Lost Planet 2 right now if it wasnt for GFWL

https://store.steampowered.com/app/45750/Lost_Planet_2/
>>
>>723482764
video game websites and influencers are not gonna write about google
>>
>>723476403
Lower their take rate from 30% to 12% for all games.
>>
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Anyone who calls Steam a monopoly is a guaranteed Epic pajeet shill.
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>>723447437
Nothing, Steam isn't a monopoly since you don't have to install it to play League, Valorant, Minecraft, Fortnite, COD, Battlefield etc.
>>
>>723483172
Fuck off retard. Steam doesn't have venture capitalists and Fortnite to fund their quarterly losses.
>>
>>723483704
Gabe can just sell his Yahcts
>>
>>723483172
I agree. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo should lower their cut to 12% while we're at it.
>>
>>723447324
Correct. I have way more games on GoG.
>>
>>723471287
Killing jap porn games? Didn't know Gabe was based like that.
>>
>>723481994
>he's rich
so is everyone in charge of all the corporate entities that are involved in letting you post your drivel
any reason for this double standard?
>>
>>723484467
Yet you're claiming Valve is the "least corporate". But they're obviously not.
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>>723483172
games that were sold on epic games launcher only initially sold at the same price as everything else so why exactly do i give a fuck about what the publishers have to scrounge out as a %
i'd be more up in arms for it if it meant i had to pay 18% less, but it'll never be the case outside of some vaporware indie dev posturing
>>
>Valve starts doing online distribution at a time when only pirates were doing it
>somehow became a market-leader in PC game sales while competing against people who distributed games for free with no DRM
IDK I think it's just jealousy that makes people angry at Valve. They all wish they could've been the ones to do it, and to make matters worse they know that they could have been the ones to do it because Valve was not a huge company before Steam became the de facto PC marketplace for games. There were several other companies that could've been the ones to invest into an online marketplace, but they simply chose not to.
>>
>>723481994
What does that have to do with being corporate or not? Gaben is rich cause he owns Valve as a private company. The structure at Valve is very flat, and lacks the normal hierarchy of a big corporation.
>>
>>723480517
It will be time to abandon steam if they start talking about taking the company public.
>>
>>723484078
>having sex with kids? fine
>seeing porn? bad
you rats are really weird
>>
>>723447324
>more affordable high-performance hardware
?
>>
>>723485106
Steam was made to explicitly combat piracy
>>
>>723447324
>a monopoly due to all the competitors being absolute fucking retards
What the fuck is Valve supposed to even do besides going bankrupt from retarded decisions?
>>
>>723484907
they're a private company owned by one single man that doesn't chase endless growth like everyone else
are you struggling with your definition of "least" or "corporate"? or maybe you're struggling to separate corporations from people?
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its so funny reading people seethe about valve, the complaints boil down to
>they make too much money and all the other companies want that money instead (despite other companies not wanting to do anything to get it)
>they take 30% (the industry standard) of the sale price of a game!! (which is honestly not that much considering the ecosystem that cut is used to support)
>steam is TOO GOOD so publishers HAVE to sell there if they want to make money! (implying steam should be dogshit like everything else)
>the games on steam are unfairly priced because of the 30% gabe tax! they’d be cheaper if gabe tax was less! (proven time and time again publishers will take a tax cut for themselves and not for the customer)
>publishers arent allowed to sell steam keys for a lower price on another platform! this deadlocks them to steam! (why are you going to use steam’s service to advertise your game to the largest storefront and then direct people to your own so you get all the benefits of steam advertising and steam gets none of the benefits of your sales)
>>
>>723485895
>that doesn't chase endless growth
Of course they do. But as a private company they can do it in their own way
>>
>>723486994
valve doesn't exist just to make money like nintendo, sony or microsoft
they would've sold out long ago
no, they want to spread pc gaming and make it better
hence why they're experimenting with decks and steam machines and linux and they couldn't give less of a shit about piracy
>>
>>723487675
you make it sound too altruistic

i think a better way to put it is, they want to make money, but their strategy to do so is by providing a better service/products than everyone else
>>
>>723489158
well you cant spend money on developing, testing, and shipping new hardware and software if you don’t make any money
>>
>>723447437
Steam is a social media site
>>
>>723486776
>they take 30% (the industry standard) of the sale price of a game!! (which is honestly not that much considering the ecosystem that cut is used to support)

Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony provide you dedicated hardware, robust services, and bespoke software for that 30% cut. Valve takes most of it as profit and hardly makes any games.
>>
>>723456761
I can play these on a Steam Deck, how can any other PC handheld compete? Steam Deck is godly, I can't wait for the successor.
>>
>>723490520
that 30% goes down to 20% after a certain threshold
besides what perspective are you talking about? because you're sure as fuck not talking about the developers who are the ones affected by it
pc is the biggest market out of all the consoles and development is also the simplest hence why it's a birthplace for indies
>>
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>>723490520
strange, then why isn’t everyone using Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony’s storefronts if what they provide is so much better than steam but at the same cut? curious indeed>>723490520
>>
>>723447437
They make something that's reasonable
>>
>>723482329
For whatever reason people ignore that.
It's clear pretty much devs/publishers would rather just keep the extra 18% for themselves.
Like this isn't really a bad thing, sure I'm all for paying less but I'm not going to pretend I'll get it just because store A takes less then store B.
>>
>>723490520
Why are Microsoft and Sony even making dedicated hardware still, they don't care about gaming? If you were going to make an argument, you should have just mentioned Nintendo, and for your information, Valve is working multiple video game projects. You Xbots and Snoys are a complete joke.
>>
>>723483172
How does this solve the monopoly? If anything wouldn't this just strengthen it since all developers would want their game on the platform with the lowest platforming/distributing costs? Like why would I sell my game at Walmart or Target or Sony or wherever at 30~% when steam has a forced 12%?
>>
>>723451306
PMFN is just sane.
"yeah you can sell your game far cheaper on a competing platform"
Why would you allow yourself to be put in such a disadvantage when the others wont.
>>
>>723487675
>hence why they're experimenting with decks and steam machines
lol. This too is just aping Nintendo and they hope it goes viral so they make even more money
>>
>>723447437
Ironically, ease of use. Steam just werks.
>>
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>>723447324
Piracy is because services fucking suck. Steam's service is actually easy with plenty of sales all the time. Why can't other companies just make a decent service? Every time they try, they're complete shells missing the most basic of features and are pushed just for corposhit suits who know nothing other than to cut costs and go cheaper for bigger numbers
>>
>>723455732
I don't like gog with its retarded installers but steam workshop is absolutely atrocious and only separates the modding community. If you want to chat with friends everyone does it on discord, not steam.
>>
Pretty sure the definition of a monopoly is a private entity granted sole production or distribution of something by the government who use the state's power to enforce it.
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>>723479841
a shitty spyware malware and virusware delivery vector
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>>723491748
>making a handheld is aping nintendo
by that logic nintendo hasn't made anything original in 30 years
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>>723479841
While there isn't info on how much it makes today but it only made around 100 million a year from 2019-2021
No doubt it has increased but probably in the range of 200 to 300 million would be my guess, which is a lot but pails in comparison to even Fortnite now let alone a few years ago, keep in mind Epic gives around 100 million in grants each year and have just under 4000 employees so the money doesn't run that far at that scale.
>>
>>723486994
project harder, timmy tencent
just because YOU'RE a greedy fucking unscrupulous jew, it doesn't mean that gaben is
>>
>>723447324
valve wins by making a store that works with a program with an abundance of useful features that don't slow it to a crawl. The crazy controller configuration alone makes it worth using if you aren't allergic to controllers.
>>
>>723447437
The "we got there first" factor.
Everyone else in the industry is publicly owned would rather eat their firstborn instead of take a slight loss every now and then. Videogames is a joke as far as regulations and consumer protections though. PC Videogames are maybe the closest to a microcosm of a libertarian society.
>do whatever you want if you can do it, download or steal anything, mod what you like
At least you get the upside of private corporatism along with the downside. Hell the closest thing you have to government in videogames is agitators calling up credit card companies and whining
>>
>>723447907
>people want you to stop your service because they could never hope to compete against it
more like they are angry that they cant buy a share of valve.
they arent so much angry that they cant sell games. they can. they just dont get a piece of the pie that steam gets.



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