Do you really believe they have a monopoly?
>>72916280272 percent of devs should look up the definition of 'monopoly', they might be surprised
articulate your own thoughts you fucking fish
>>729162802you know you can just spin up a website and sell your "game" there right
Steam doesn't stop anyone from creating their own storefront, they don't even use underhanded incentive tactics. Steam is simply the most convenient and built the house all other storefronts are posted up outside.
Where did they get this number?
>>729162969>this nigger can vote in 2028Grim
>>729163041unironically thisif you can code a game, making a website for it should be a breeze
>>729162802Steam is a monopoly because everyone else is too fucking incompetent to make a good service
>>729162802the literal legal definition of a monopoly? nocolloquial usage about them just basically having no real competition? yes, everyone else is grossly incompetent in the market and steam wins by just not being retarded
It's a monopoly in the same way Apple is a monopoly for smartphones in the US
physical pc game>involve an entire production line all over the world getting plastic and flash memory/disc and then convince retailers to hold it in their storephysical console game>same as above plus beg whatever corpo to host itdigital console game>beg corpo to host itdigital pc game>literally just make a website for it where you can download it
>>72916280272% of devs are retarded>Do you really believe they have a monopoly?No, there's plenty of options out there, the fact they can't hold a candle to Steam is a different issue
>>729162802When not being on Steam dooms your PC game to financial failure 99% of the time simply because no one uses anything else, and when publishers will drop your indie game like a hot potato the moment it can't be on Steam, yes it does. Even GOG, arguably the 2nd "best" option, has a userbase of likely no more than 20-30k. For most developers, Steam is literally the definition of "too big to ignore".
>>729163206This. The fact that all those game devs have actual voting rights is beyond astounding. Grim indeed.
>>729162802>my game does bad>could it be my bad skills and lack of talent?>no, it must be steam's fault >:(simpsons_director_guy_meme_thing.png
No one can explain why anyone should be more concerned with Valve's fake monopoly on PC than with Microsoft's, Sony's, and Nintendo's very real monopolies on their respective platforms.
Yeah, a Monopoly elected by consumers. Make a better product or fill a different niche and they will come. youtube had a "Monopoly" on video until Twitch came up with streaming and Tiktok with short content.
>>729163693It sucks that I can't publish a game for PS5 without going through Sony or their store. We need alternatives.
>>729162802Which devs? The AAA sloppers making AI slop?
>>729163495them having a monopoly has nothing to do with that though
>>729162802Let's say that Steam has a monopoly on PC gaming. What now?
>league of legends>world warcraft>minecraft>fortiniteHow the fuck these games are sucessiful if they are not on Steam?????????? VALVE, DO SOMETHING! GABE SAVE MEEEEEEEEEE
Reminder that the entire psyop against Steam is purely so they can attempt a Microsoft or Oracle hostile takeover of the company so they can do mass censorship.
>>729163925its bad mkay, they should shoot themselves in the foot like all other storefronts
>72% of devs...>...that publish to EGS
>>729163751This. Only a government can grant a monopoly, steam just has a product that customers like.
>>72916280272 percent of devs are faggots and trannies
>>729163925>it's a natural monopoly>they are not harming the competition>it's only partial since Epic Games and Xbox Store and GOG have a big chunk of the marketLiterally nothing to be done
>>729163458GOG sold my credit card info to scammers.
>>729162802Valve does have a monopoly on PC gaming but it's not because they're greedy it's because their "competitors" are useless.
ONCE IT BECOME NORMALIZED THAT THEY ARE A TERRIBLE COMPANY, THEY WILL BE DESTROYED BUT AI WILL COME AND DESTROY IT ALL, TURNING EVERY GAME INTO A COMPLETELY FREETHOUGHT GAME
>>729163693because they want more control over the consumer and their habits. That's literally all it is because their shit games keep flopping.
>>729164493They are now trying to stop gamers from buying GPUs so you have to use their dying cloud services.
>>729163751>Tiktok came up with short content You must be at least 18 to post here.
>>729162802They have, and it's gay. I live in fear everyday that Goldberg won't work to Crack the steam drm
>>729162802ONLY CUSTOMERS MATTER, if this were not true every game dev would be on epic.
>>729164713gabe won against piracy by ignoring it
I always check GOG first. Steam is always secondary.
>>729164878then we got piracy back because he allowed games with malicious software denuvo onto the storefront
>Steam has a monopoly because customers prefer it's platform and won't play our game if it's not on steamsounds like a personal problem.
>>729163751Youtube's monopoly is still strong because every alternative as an actual video hosting site always lacks the 20+ years of legacy YT has even if it is good.The only way YT ever gets completely dethroned would be if they either go scorched earth and delete all old content from the site, or someone makes an alternative that scoops all of it into it.
>>729164669>muh vineI'm talking about sucessiful companies in the same business supplying different niches.>>729164998Anon, you are understimating the alternatives I named.
>>729162802this is based on that opt out class action meaning 72 percent of game devs just haven't made a definitive legal statement rejecting they are a monopoly
>>729162802They do have a monopoly on not being fucking retarded.When you look at steam and say "we should make this, but with a much worse community, and a shitton of DRM", you already lost the game before you even began.
>>729162802>buy [thing] on amazon>amazon supposedly has monopoly on [thing] nowAntisteamers this is your mindset
>monopoly>99% of Windows 10 and 11 users have Microsoft Store and Xbox app installed out of boxok
>>729162802How they don't brick my pc having other shit up unlike Riot actively banning you for having other mandatory shitty ass kernel level anticheat on
>>729162802I, who represents 100% of all gamers, think that developers can suck our cocks.This constant crying about not getting to fuck consumers with cacti is getting tiresome.
>>729162802>According to polls at Unreal forumSteam is just so good towards the customers. If steam ended up enshittifying itself the market will correct themselves anyway. This isn't like Apple's appstore where Apple could enshittify itself and there's nowhere else you could go other than suck it up.
>>729164998Well actually youtube's monopoly is strong because they effectively control discovery on the internet and intentionally crush any competitors and have personally acted as a cancer that more or less completely destroyed people's ability to make videos anyone actually wants to watch.Nobody wants to watch a 20 minute Ad Optimized video that's almost entirely filler.Just show the actual shit you want to show and get it over with.
>>729162802It's easier than ever to sell games yourself. You can do it on your own website, you can go through GOG, or Itch.io, or Epic, or the PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo stores. Even if you're not a particularly large company. Or, you could put it on Google Play or the Apple App Store, if it'll run on phones. You have a million options and none of them have really serious negative implications. Steam is just so much better that there are a lot of people who don't bother to use anything else. They're not locked into an ecosystem. Certainly not as much as they are on consoles. You can't buy a game from the Xbox store and play it on PlayStation, or any permutation of the three, just the proprietary store for the console. And that's not even because the hardware's so specialized that the code won't run properly on another console. There's essentially no difficulty in porting anymore. The PS4 and Xbox One were essentially identical under the hood, and that remained true of the PS5 and Xbox Series. The Switch and Switch 2 are the exception because they're relatively underpowered, and ARM-based on top of that.Steam isn't a constructed monopoly. Valve has never done anything to obstruct competitors from entering the market or gaining market share. They've never made anything but their own games strictly exclusive to Steam. And even then, They've ported everything since Half Life 2, except Alien Swarm and Dota 2, to consoles, with no Steam integration necessary. They might not even keep Deadlock Steam exclusive, for all I know.
>>729162802Half my game collections is GoG titles i get monthly for free with amazon prime.Some suck but some are absolute bangers.Isnt that half the reason to have a prime account?Either way no valve does not have a monopoly just because the other tech companies fucking suck and make it a point to piss their entire customer base right the fuck off regularly.EPIC, paid for exclusives. STOP DOING THAT AWFUL SHIT. Also fix your broen store and youd compete.GoG, GET SOME FUCIN LINUX SUPPORT YOU DIPSHITS. otherwise theyre doing fine.Itch.io No complaints I use them when appropriate.Steam gets most of my usage though, but i have 2 steamdecks for my daughters and use Bazzite myself. Steam is simply conveineint for the customer and me, my wife and our friends can easliy play together using their services.Im not interested in holding valve accountable for EPIC and Microsoft being total fuck ups.
>>729162802Doesn't matter if they have a monopoly. Monopoly is perfectly legal and good so long as you are not engaging in anticompetitive business practices.
do musicians cry about spotify as much as game devs cry about steam?
>>729165395Spotify actually killed music sales, no?
>>729162802i don't give a fuck either way, (((modern "devs"))) are retarded tranny faggots who should be drawn and quartered, fuck them
>>729165395Sort of yeah, but that's because Spotify will actually steal your shit make money off of it and will try to sue you out of your ownership of it.They are a cartoonishly evil company, and honestly not even the best option for internet radio.
Steam's "monopoly" comes from offering a superior service than their competitors. Nobody has to use it unless they want to. If Steam bought up all the other game store internet platforms, that would be a monopologogySteam is still an invasive DRM system at heart, but it's not a monopology
>>729165449no idea, I have never bothered to check whether indie musicians blamed it for their lack of success but I bet that's the case
>>729163252>Steam is a monopoly because everyone else is too fucking incompetent to make a good servicehow hard to make an online store? just look at steam and copy its features then add something that sets it apart from steam that people want.
>>729165395I've heard a lot of complaints about how the money from Spotify is tiny, less even than youtube viewsI still use it though. a couple $ a month for infinite music, music recommendations, audiobooks, and podcasts with no ads? worth it IMO
>>729163351>everyone else is grossly incompetent in the marketGOG is damn near objectively superior to Steam, but people stick with Steam because they've already invested in Steam and because most people already use Steam so it's got a reputation of being the normal, expected, and standard thing.
>>729165497I use Tidal because I made a nigerian account to have a subscription for dirt cheap, I don't even know why since it isn't expensive at all in the first placeIn what way does Spotify steal music?
>>729165726GOG is great, but most game devs/publishers don't want to put their stuff on a site that doesn't allow DRM
>>729162802It's actually insane how much valve's competitors have fumbled when there's barely any actual upfront costs to competing. They don't have to set up factories or set up distribution deals with retail outlets or ship discs worldwide. All they need is a not shit website and a server (aws et. al make this optional) and they're good to go.
>>729165726>GOG is damn near objectively superior to Steammaybe it's just me but I always have issues with their launcher, very often downloads and cloud syncs fail. I know you could avoid the launcher completely but if we're talking about what most people want a good launcher is paramount, your average normie is never ever gonna install all of his games manually
>>729165785>In what way does Spotify steal music?I guess the best analog I could point to is that they're sort of like nicalis, except instead of scamming artists out of the rights to their shit with faulty contracts spotify uses way more legal resources than most artists have to weasel their way into getting a judge to declare them owners of particular songs so they can take all the money people get from playing it rather than having to pay any royalties at all.
>>729165726GOG beats steam deals every day
>>729165670excellent business 101 insight you fucking mouth breathing retard
>>729162802Yeah same as Christianity has monopoly on religion.They just provide the best service.
>>729165726>GOG is damn near objectively superior to SteamNot even remotely.I stopped buying shit from them because their service fucking sucks, and unless you buy the scam that having an installer TOTALLY makes you not legally held to licensing bullshit (it doesn't and you should be VERY aware of this if you're even considering giving them your billing address) there's basically no reason to do business with them in particular.Especially since Steam DRM is easy to bypass by design and totally optional.
>>729166025Christianity will have a robed man dunk your baby in a cold fountain of water to save its eternal soul for FREEother religions just can't compete
>>729165962damn that's beyond scummy, thanks for the explanation
>>729165992is the mba daddy paid for telling you that the prudent course of action is to let your competitor eat your lunch every day for two decades?
>>729166156I'm gonna split a milkshake with you faggot
>>729166150Honestly the whole music industry is like, this cartoonishly evil.The reason they started playing Michael Jackson on the radio again is because they finally harassed his estate into selling the rights to sony, apparently.
What would PC gaming look like if Steam never existed?>>729166361>MJ calls out the insane corruption and exploitation in the music industry>suddenly every media source says he's a violent pedo>millions of dollars put into investigations, the FBI and CIA get involved, and they STILL can't find anything curious...
>>729166129>because their service fucking sucksThe service of downloading games and updates? It does it better than Steam does. Let's say I wish to play the launch version of Armored Core 6 on Steam. What's that? I fucking can't? I am not allowed to? Great fucking "service". If it was GOG I'd be able to though. As it stands I've got to pirate the game to play it on the launch version. So much for Steam's supposed service.
>>729162802what about gaming operating systems? do they believe microsoft has a monopoly? what are they going to do with it?
>>729166462This entirely fictitious problem that nobody has isn't a problem, you're on the internet to whine about it, and it's trivial to launch Steam in Offline mode if you don't want to update shit and can use SteamCMD to freeze updates for shit.
>>729166462anon...
>>729165726Dude you can't even double click the contents of your library and launch an installer without going through a minimum of three tabs. It fails at the most basic shit.
>>729166461>What would PC gaming look like if Steam never existed?You are Number 3423 in the FREE queue to download your game. Premium members can download without the wait!
>>729166557you never see complaints that sony has a monopoly with the playstation store on playstations or that microsoft has a monopoly with their store on xboxs
>>729163252The phrase you want is market leader.
>>729166658>anon...Anon. That's something only some devs allow for some games. Try doing it with Armored Core 6.
>>729166658nta but this is entirely dependent on the devs, plenty of games on Steam have no options to rollback to previous versions.
>>729162802>72 PERCENT OF /V/ THINKS OP IS A FAGGOT>THE OTHER 28 THINKS OP HAS AIDS
>>729166731Yes that's the point I made in my post that Google actually engages in anticompetitive behavior the defining characteristic of being a monopoly.Hell, youtube isn't really even successful either. Nobody likes the absolute fucking trash they shill to everyone and only likes that the website incidentally can still be used as a video hosting repository.
>>729166758these articles are just business attacks in order to take over the market, to enrich themselves and only themselves, probably bought by microsoft to begin with
>>729162802Functionally yeah, you either publish your shit on steam or a good 80% of pc gamers won't even know it exist or will outright boycott it.
>>729166557>I hate the monopoly the PS Store has on my PS consoleDo you know how stupid you sound?
>doesn't force game publishers to sign exclusivity agreements >some of Valve's own games are available on other platforms>allows other operating systems to be installed on their hardware >have never acquired a competing distribution platformIn what way are they monopolistic?
>>729162802Free market won't be so free anymore
>>729164292>Only a government can grant a monopolyI missed the part where Nvidia and AMD bought all the gpu chip manufacturers because of the government huh.
>>729162802EGS is the one who does exclusivity deals with devs like how a monopoly wouldNot Steam's fault that customers just prefer a better service, God forbid the goys can think for themselves instead of eating their slop like they should
>>729167150Boycotting games that aren't on Steam is the same thing as Android jeets boycotting open source apps that are exclusively on the F-Droid store
>>729167315>Not Steam's fault that customers just prefer a better serviceSteam & EGS offer the same service regardless of how much you whine about the lack of forums no one uses outside of 3rd worlders and brown people to farm wallet currency from reactions
>>729167275Who do you think made Facebook and Nvidia?
>>729167430HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
>>729162802I mean... kinda? Though it's at least to some part because of incompetence of everyone else:GoG: was popular, but they shat the bed by wasting money on LGBTs, period leave and whateverUbisoft: only had their own franchises going for them, which certainly weren't enough to make a dent in STeamEA: see UbisoftEpic: biggest competitor, still couldn't make a difference worth noticing. Giving away free games is nice, but "stealing" exclusivity by throwing money around made a lot of people refuse to use them. Had they not played that game, and kept it up with the free games, they might've stood a chance. Oh, but they'd need to improve their fuckign store; it's dreadful.
>>729167467name one difference
>>729167430Is this the best shill Timmy can buy? Lol
>>729167517>take my joke of an existence seriouslyHAHAHAHAH
>>729167526name one difference that's not a social media feature no one uses
>>729167430So you don't deny that EGS is the one who makes deals with devs like how a monopoly would unlike Steam? Glad to see not even the shills can deny the projections
>>729167430too little to late, if I've been using a service for 15 years with no issues why would I switch to a newer one that is exactly the same at best (aside for lacking features that I'm supposed not to care about) with no incentive?
>>729167150This is what a lot of steam bootlickers ignore, intentionally. When confronted they'll claim it's actually the customers who choose steam and how they are not like other bajillionaire companies that they care about you or some other embarrassing lie
>>729167595I accept your concession
>>729167693You accept my cock in your ass
>>729162802*72% of devs don't know what a monopoly is.
>>729167693You accept a great many things.
>>729167637>makes deals with devs like how a monopoly would unlike SteamLoaded question fallacy, try again
>>729167630>No one uses user reviews>No one does a refundFucking retard lolHow about a shopping cart that doesn't suck
>>729167659Or you're just completely irrational and don't realize that people DID choose steam because they have a relatively short list of issues people could have with them>Not booting AI slop off the store like asset flip crap>Allowing Denuvo>Not putting out a Source 2 Base SDK
>>729167693Pull down those pants then boy we're going dry on that ass
>>729167658Because EGS takes a lower fee from developers.If you say you don't care about developers then start pirating and delete your Steamtroon acount
>>729167790>Truth is fallacy nowTry again shill, you still didn't deny that EGS does exclusivity deals btw
>>729167875I don't give a shit about the devs. I buy a product to get a product.
>>729167826>DenuvoDenuvo is done btw, someone made an AI that can crack it now
>>729162802microsoft has a larger monopoly, and steam is helping to break it with protonthey're also helping to break the x86 monopoly with that thing they announced for the steam frame
I'm not concerned about the lack of choice when the king is virtuous. In fact, I prefer it this way.
>>729167150that's not what a monopoly is, retard
>>729167929Never denied that. You can be a monopoly without exclusivity agreements and you can also be a small business and do exclusivity.>>729167946>I don't give a shit about the devs.Then delete your Steamtroon account and start pirating
>>729167968Yeah no, I don't want to have to crack shit I paid for, I got over that when I still played PC games off of CD roms.Thankfully the only company that both makes decent games and uses Denuvo is SEGA, and I can live without them.
>>729163458You literally cannot remedy your issue with Steam without forcing them to shut down.
>>729168109>Doing exclusivity deals is not a monopoly goyim, steam is the evil oneBraindead shill you can't simply claim to be le small company when you buy the rights of publishing in your platform only , that's literally what a monopoly doesIn fact Steam is the smaller company compared to EGS
>>729162802>72% of game devs are retardedno wonder this industry is failing>>729162991SPBP>>729163206If you're shitposting, kill yourselfIf you're genuine, ___kill yourself faggot___
>>729168358Try to articulate your argument without the low iq retard babble
>>729167875devs still get money from me on steam, just less than on EGS, but saying that I might as well pirate it is just silly. Is buying during sales also a bad practice then?Also last game I got was Arcane Trigger and I couldn't get it on Epic even if I wanted to
>>729168158>Yeah no, I don't want to have to crack shit I paid forthe point is that you can pirate that stuff now. why bother cracking it if you already bought it lol
>>729168109Do you know how to read?
>>729162802Not technically no, but there should be a new term to describe what happens in the digital space where first to market is virtually impossible to unseat.Like if a gas station chain opened that sold cheaper gas you'd go there. But a new digital game distributor opening? You'd need to go through the arduous process of creating an account, attaching payment info, having more bloat on your computer, can't transfer my previous games over, less community to interact with, etcThat's a barrier to entry most people just don't want to deal with, and why these giant tech companies feel like they can get away with anything.
>>729162802Yet these same devs had no problem letting sweet baby and black rock have a monopoly on their buttholes when it came to creativity and art design
>>729163458How did Notch do it? How did starsector do it?How does vintage story do it? How did league of legends and HoN do it?
>>729168471There aren't enough good games coming out for me to justify piracy either>But what about 30+ year old...Downloading abandonware isn't piracy and if IP laws weren't retarded it'd already be legal.
>>729168043If I "accidentally" push you off a cliff it's technically not a murder either, retard. But everyone not retarded knows I did that intentionally.
>>729168460Yes just pirate if you don't give a shit about developers. Giving money to them via those scummy middlemen is arguably worse for the industry than pirating
>>729168442>Retorts to buzzwordsYou lost shill go fellate Timmy tiny dickIn fact here's some numbers for you Steam has roughly 350 workers in totalEGS has over 5000Who's the small indie company again?
>>729167875I'm not paying on steam to support whatever or whoever made the game, I'm paying for the convenience of having everything in a quick to navigate library
>>729166727>make galaxy boot up on your library screen>right click the game you want to install>click install???
>>729165726I had to stop using their galaxy client because it crashed every fucking time.
>>729164910my bank blocks gog transactions what fucking country are they in
>>729168610cool retarded strawman non-argument, literal fucking retard
How does a storefront become a "monopoly"
>Minecraft, the best selling game on earth, isn't on Steam>Fortnite and Roblox, the biggest games for kids, are not on Steam>Call of Duty sales peaked with Modern Warfare 2019 and Warzone, despite not being on Steam, until years after they became irrelevant>most of Blizzard games are exclusive to Battle.net>EA games managed to stay popular despite not being on Steam for almost a decade>Tarkov was huge success without Steam release, which happened only just recentlyclearly Steam is a monopoly
>>729168631that's ridicolous, if that was true there wouldn't be devs putting their games on Steam and nowhere else.I buy games on GOG too but they take the same cut iirc
Wait a minute. Isn't paying for exclusivity monopolistic behavior?
>>729162802>Caring about what game ''devs'' thinkWe literally don't need a single new game. There are enough good games for you to play until you croak. So I genuinely hope every ''dev'' goes fucking bankrupt.
>>729168864ask amazon
A monopoly is anti-competitive and actively goes out of its way to shut down and sabotage any potential competitor.Steam is not anti-competitive, they just win because everybody else is retarded.
>>729168940Yes. Epig Gays tried to strongarm their way into market share. Doesn't take a degrees in market analytics to figure out where that got them.
>>729168762Literally, unironically, not a single person on this planet was retarded enough to install galaxy
>>729168940Yes but the EGS shills will yell to the seven winds how steam is the evil monopoly cause Timmy lost to them despite being a way,WAY bigger company who tried to strongarm the competition with moneyLike you know,how a monopoly would
>>729168949Amazon is a shipping company retard
>>729169102I was, it was bad
>>729162802They should offer a better option or stop crying about it>>729163751This
>>729162802so? why is it Valve's problem that others can't keep up?
I think gog would be more popular if it were easier to get onto and easier to push updates to. It still wouldn't match Steam because we already lost the war of wanting to archive shit in the mainstream. So many normalfags don't back up their own games, don't pirate anything, don't save images off of xitter, don't download their music, don't have any other storage than what is in their device and the cloud, etc. But I do think it would be a sizable increase, because PC gamers aren't completely cucked and the SKG ECI is a good demonstration of that. People that value drm-free games (and downloading them from an open source web browser, not forcing you to run a launcher) don't want to buy a shittier copy of a game from gog when you can buy the steam version and crack it. And people can't buy games from gog if they don't release on gog. So we need to ensure that gog gets updates like steam does, and gog needs to drop the gatekeeping. They already let shit games on their store that people complain about. The same people complain about Japanese games in general, even if they're good. None of the good old games have gone anywhere and you can still easily search for the games you actually want to buy. They should just open the gates, or at least lower the barrier for publishers that have already gotten a game on gog. And let them publish updates easier. Maybe even make it easier to download old versions, since I only learned gog supported that in the past year while steam's support for that most people have known about it from the same word of mouth for ages. Maybe make it clear to buyers that delisted games can still be redownloaded in case some people don't know that. Most games on itch are drm-free but delisted games are sometimes removed from your library so I generally don't buy games there if I can help it. Galaxy Linux support would be good too, since I've seen launcherfags complain. Make it easier for normies to add their games on SteamOS handhelds even.
>>729169198Holy shit pigs have opposable thumbs nowadays? Science!
>>729162802Sure, but that´s neither a bad thing nor they fault, they suffer from success purely because they are consumer friendly in a market on which everyone else is constantly trying to fuck consumers over. Steam is basically doing nothing while the other ones are all being pieces of shit and plain simply anyone against that is just against players. Plain and simple. Seriously, who would side with the guys trying to charge you more or sell payed monthly services? fuck those guys.
These Epic Gays shills must be paid right? No way someone would be braindead enough to defend Timmy for free
>>729162802they don't have a monopoly and if they did it would be a good thing.
>>729169335you don't really need opposable tumbs to install a piece of software
>>729162802no there are a ton of shitty pc platforms you can play games on
>>729169489How did they work through the issues with mouse operation?
>>72916296972 percent of devs are regarded DEI hire faggots
Reminder OP's image comes from a study funded by Rokka whose entire buisness model is advertising your games through them instead of steam.
>>729165670MBAbrahs love the idea of Minimum Viable Product, and after they find it they continue to cut costs and increase prices.Thus, enshitification.So, creating a quality product at a reasonable price is so far outside their mental frame as to be inconceivable. For a cast study: Epic's attempt at a store.
>>729169753thank you for posting this. i was feverishly searching the archives for this exact information.
>>729166913What did AC6 do since launch that one would want to rollback?I haven't kept up with it since learning that it basically forces builds for bosses.
>>729169610they are basically built for left and right clicking
>>729163049This. Imagine if EA or Activation owned the biggest game storefront. Devs would have to pay 1000 dollar year yearly licenses to keep the game on it, with probably the 30% or more of a cut with addition to them owning the rights to your game. We are lucky that steam exists, same with gog.The only thing Steam needs to do is make affiliate links so indie devs can give them to youtubers but they would probably bitch about that too. I find it crazy that steam does not have this. Devs need to market their game, if they don't they won't get sales. Marketing a game is easy all you have to do is get small youtubers, around a dozen of them to make videos about your game, hopefully will snowball into it becoming a community. We live in the best time if you want to market a nothing product.That is why lethal company, Voices of the Void, and PEAK did so well because you have streamers playing the game, viewers buy the game, profit.
>>729169987>What did AC6 do since launch that one would want to rollback?Severely nerfed the most fun bosses.
>>729169017>Steam is not a monopoly bro. They just win because everyone else is bad.
>>729162802I'm a Steamy, I worship at the altar of Gaben, but even I'll admit that Valve has a monopoly on PC gaming.However, it's a natural monopoly, and there's nothing that can be done about that except be a better service, which nobody will.
>steam is a monopoly>is also the only storefront supporting linux which is actively fighting microsoft's OS monopoly
>>729170125EA did have a store front and it was called origins. it sucked
>>729170295they are laughing at us!https://store.steampowered.com/app/2929170/NEW_MONOPOLY/
>>729170295Yeah, a monopoly is a thing and a crime, specifically, not because one business is "too successful".
>>729170409Shut the fuck up.
>>729170295>person offering games at a price>neucrotic limbed leprosy-riddled indian offers you dogshit on a stick>wtf why is no one buying the dogshit on a stick? that person over there HAS A MONOPOLY!fuck you, nigger-brained golem bitchI'm not going to install epig gays just to buy Spongebob for $18
>>729170295Steam has first mover advantage, definitely, but its alternatives are largely just Publisher Launcher/Stores that provide none of the side benefits.There's GOG and Itch.io, but one primarily is older games that the publishers don't care about leaving without DRM (and GOG has compromised on the DRM-free thing before) and Itch is mostly small indie games.Its the Netflix problem. All the companies saw the money the first successful service was making, and jumped in without thinking about how they can't actually compete with their smaller library and worse service, which saw a bloat of such services. Though Steam managed to avoid having its library of offerings crippled because of it.
>>729163049they do force price parity, which IS a bit underhanded, it basically eliminates a major vector of competition
You don't understand, I, as a small indie dev, am entitled to a storefront that will give me visibility and handle all my bandwidth and transaction fees!
>>729170587as much as I hate the faggots at cd project red GOG is usually cheaper than steam
>>729170587Steam doesnt force price parity unless its steam keys iirc.
>>729170295Is this the best shill Timmy can buy?Far as I know Steam is not the one buying publishing rights for their platform, like a monopoly
>>729170587Should this be illegal? I mean you can't even sell in your own website for cheaper because steam wants to be anti competitive. Why steam does this other than pure malice? Fuck you GabeN piece of shit. Don't you have enough yachts for you to jerk your micropenis inside?
you're all entitled to leak your finished game online for free pirating and let people torrent your game and hope a real company buys you out.If you have the brains, drive, and technical experience to make a compelling or well-received game then you're clearly able to command decent living somewhere else if not for your likely crippling autism.
>>729162802A defacto monopoly isn't the same as an actual monopoly
>>729170769>making sure your customers get the best deal is LE BAD actually
>>729170380>I'm a Steamy>monopoly on PC gaming>>>>>>>>natural monopolyYou know the rules: denounce vishnu.
>>729170886???How is preventing customers a second option at another website for cheaper is good for customers?Why would I want less options?
>>729170769>Why steam does this saaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR
I used to kinda agree with you retards about the Epic stuff. Yeah it's very barebones - both the app and the web store. But then I realized... that's a feature not a bug. Their audience is not neckbeards, it's the Fortnite crowd. It's dads and their children. They have made it simple for them, and these people will never complain because they are not that balls deep into this stuff. They will buy 5-10 games in their entire lives, and won't ever care what the store looks like as long as it's simple and straightforward.Oh and Steam does have a monopoly. You're retarded if you don't think so. Less so now with Epic but still
>>729162802Oh no...anyways.jpg
>>729162802Just make your own store bro
>>729170769You're allowed to sell your game cheaper if you want, you just can't sell Steam copies of it cheaper outside steam. Not that crazy really
>>729163372So it's big but not a monopoly. Cool.
>>729170652>>729170727I rechecked because I saw it a year agoIndeed they only force this for steam keys, which I find it completely acceptable desu, but it also seems like there is informal pressure from their side to keep price parity. Check page 63 for more infohttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1bwajZMNAof74mSNRMcTAVlF8m0fplHkA/view
>>729162802>Other stores can't make a launcher that is able to open and launch games quickly and consistently>"THIS ISN'T HECKING FAIR!!!! THIS IS A MONOPOLY!"
>>729170937Because its a copy of a steam game, as in a cd key. If I bought a steam game for 10$ more than someone else who also bought it at the same time I would be pissed.
>>729167275so make a new GPU chip manufacturer and refuse to sell to Nvidia or AMD. >But I don't have the money for that!Get investors, like any normal business.You communist faggots are all the same, your economic literacy is at a preschool level.
We can also agree that 102% with a 2% margin of error of anons think that OP is a cocksucking faggot, with the coincidental ceartainty that he will pull out data out of his ass and claim for it to be legit.
>>729162802>TheGamer>Actually its just paraphrasing a paper by gameindustry.biz>Which is just paraphrasing a """study""" done by Rokky>The survey consists of 306 major studios with most of them being "senior managers"To quote another anon>Rokky, a company whose main selling point is "Expand sales of your PC game beyond Steam. Sell game keys to 200+ global storefronts simultaneously with Rokky. Enjoy revenue increases of up to 100%." conducts a survey that results in a whitepaper that states that expanding your sales beyond Steam is beneficial for you.lol, lmaohttps://arch.b4k.dev/v/thread/724949836/#724950097The shillening has gone off the deep end
>>729163458not being on steam isn't the kiss of death for a gameits being EGS exclusive that kills games
>>729171438you can't say that word
I find really funny how the EGS shills try to spin how their practices are not actually trying to strongarm the competition and Steam is the evil one
>>729162802Who is this 72 percent?Devs have no problem selling on other platforms and take the bite with Steam where they get the most sales in the first place. People would rather put their eggs in one basket and devs have no sway in that. Until they become public, I have no problem with Valve having this de facto "monopoly." Ubishit and EA sucks ass, and everyone hated EGS for holding games hostage for a year. GoG is great for me, but not enough mainstream devs open their doors to them and they don't have a forum on their client (they do have a dedicated website for it)HOWEVER I do approve of their actions of keeping Multiplayer lobbies available for some antiquated games, real MVPs unlike the petulant SKGroids that spammed the catalog earlier.I think GoG would also be a good spot for hosting Red Light games now that Valve got the call to remove porn titles.
>>729168864the store that is objectively worse in every way cries the better store is a "monopoly" after they tried and failed to beat them using actual monopoly tactics
>>729162802Is steam maliciously undercutting, buying out smaller launchers, or otherwise pulling up the ladder in any way? As far as i know, the only litigous/malicious launcher trying to change what other people are allowed to do is Epic
>>729171561same thing
>>729162969Most of these devs are subhuman retards, trying to get them to understand what a monopoly is useless.
>>729171576>red vs blue american politicsdid it ever cross your mind someone who hates steam would also hate epic?
>>72916280290 percent of gamers think most developers are shit at their jobs and should be fired and blacklisted from making games.
>>729162802What's stopping them from making a site and selling their game on it
>>729171567
>>729162802i just checked, yeah they have it
>>729171768Do you have any idea how expensive and difficult that is
>>729171251Source on the informal pressure? Not 'a troon said so,' actual verifiable documentation. Not that it would matter.
>>729165096And you are underestimating how much of youtube anchored its users to it.Alternatives you named are single use niches, like short form content or streaming. There are a ton of proper youtube alternatives that work well for video hosting, but no one is going to move to them and no one is going to shill them (unless paid, which is a red flag) unless they somehow manage to lose the anchor or bring it with them.
>>729171903Why would I ask if I knew
>>729162802And 95% of gamers think that this a a good thing
>>729171903Get investors. Or make a good game and invest those profits into it, like Valve did. GOG managed. There's no excuse.
>>729171701EGS has no actual defenders, they are all paid shills
>>729171903Compared to most areas of technology, e-commerce is actually pretty easy. You aren't developing lasers to etch smaller transistors into silicon or anything buddy.
>>729168801Polandit's CDR Projekt Red
>>729171903isn't starsector literally one guy making a game sold exclusively through his own website?
>>729172036there is no EGS shill"EGS shill" is nothing but disingenuous steam fag cope and (You) know it
>>729172132you took this picture from under the bed didn't you
>>729162969The actual "devs" who said it was a monopoly in that survey were all publishers/execs anyways.
>>729172132i'm just going to say what we're all thinking. BUILT.
>>729171919how about the fucking link in the post you miserable moron
>>729165726their launcher is not very good>just don't use itThat's fine for older games but games with somewhat frequent updates its annoying to manually download.
>>729172132Saars do not redeem the Izzat
>>729166960Yes you can, you just need to use the steam terminal to manually download an older version and then play offline. It sucks but is the best way for most games that need a specific version for mods or something.
>>729172132How much does Timmy pays you to suck his dick?
>>729162802>Everyone else uses the shittiest business practices possible and fails>Steam mostly respects its customers and the publishers well enoughIT'S NOT FAAAAIIIR
>>729172398Still not using steam
>>729167875Why should I care if the devs get a bigger cut? It doesn't affect the price. If I wanted to actually support the devs I would buy from them directly if that is an option or use GOG.
>>729162802https://rokky.com/pc-game-distribution-report-2025I just want to remind everyone the company that commissioned said report in OP has an entire business model predicated on selling third party Steam keys. >>729172132>there is no EGS shill
>>729172537Why should we care?
>>729171903Plenty of indie devs have this option in addition to steam. Can't be that difficult unless you have zero idea how to make a website.
>>729172741They're devs, not programmersHuge skill difference
>>729172342That is "a troon said so." So you know, a lie from an Epic catspaw.
>>729172678okay I will use steam but only to play old gamesstill not buying games though kys
>>729167875That's their problem. I won't use a worse launcher with fewer features and Chinese malware so people I don't know can make more moolah.
>>729172821Just ask an AI to do it
>>729172304FOR
>>729172132>t. egsjeetsaaaaaaar
>>729166025Carlos you motherfucker. You sneaky bastard.
>>729170409egsjeets seething at this trvthnvke
>>729173097maam please redeem steam store best monopoly drm store everNONONONO MAAAM DO NOT PIRATE MAAM WHY DID YOU PIRATE WHY DID YOU PIRATE ARE YOU MAAAAD?
>steam giving people a large selection of games and good quality service is bad because uhhh they use a industry standard rate and are big???>epic games GOOD despite forcing developers into exclusivity and trapping their games on a low quality platform because uh... um... the CEO said steam bad and he goodLmao
>>729165670yes, pay for exclusives, it's how consoles do it
>>729168864well you see, when tencent timmy chewed on enough remotes for the microplastics to accumulate in his peanut brain, the word "monopoly" appeared to him inna fever dream
>>729173386>epic epic epic epic epic epic epic epic meds
>>729173352i give not the slightest shit about piratefags, i wouldn't even pirate any game made within the past 20 years, any game that's good enough to be played is good enough to receive my money, via steam, simple as, seetye and cope and prostrate yourself in front of the jagganath, sukdeep dikshit
>>729173445>timmy timmy timmy timmy timmymeds
>>729173473Almost like they're behind all this bitching over steam that blew up in recent years.
>>729173570most subtle steam shill
>>729173619keep seething, instead of making your shitty chinese spyware-laden shithole store usable, tencent timmy
>Nobody called Steam a monopoly or bitched about the 30% cut until Timmy Tencent sperged out >NOOOOOO STOP NOTICING!!!!
>>729173813>nobody complained about steam before epic, certainly not /v/ old fags>NOOOO STOP LOOKING AT /V/ ARCHIVES! STOP NOTICING!
>>729173668Piratechads can't stop winning
>waahh monopoly>makes shitty competitor>pay for exclusive shit like Samurai Showdown>store doesn't support arcade stick and other controllers>just add it on steam as a Non-steam game and use your controllers from there lmao>waaahh monopoly
>>729170295You know what's funny?Timmy Tencent is employing actual anti-competitive practices by paying developers to not release on Steam. He doesn't pay for exclusivity, mind you, since he has no problem with the Microsoft store, gamepass, or anything that isn't Steam. He pays developers to not release on Steam specifically.I suspect he was trying to bait Gabe into a lolsuit by doing that.
>>729162802Is this based on that lawsuit that you have to OPT OUT of?
>>729171119Why is this such a wild concept for >>729170769 to grasp?
>>729162802There's the Timmy Tencent's shop that gives out free games constantly and yet people flood to Steam of their own free will, I wonder why that is?
>>729163751ThisAll these journalists, crybabies, and "devs" aren't mad that steam has a monopoly. They are mad they're not given everything they want for free. They are mad that a widely loved business does not bow down to their ideological demands.
>>729176310but steam bans anime games and lewd stuff that exploits women
>>729162802Better question: Does any other company have anything else that remotely comes close to the features, the community, the ease-of-use as Steam does?No? Then have them make one. Introduce some competition. Secondly, is Valve a publicly traded company? No? Then monopoly laws don't apply. Fuck off.
>>729162802give it up tim. you're never going to get anyone to switch
>>729162802yeah, but I don't think that's a bad thing.
>>729171902>no fortnite monopolyboardCHADS STAY winning
>>729177426Undefeated since 1935
>>729162802It dosnt have a monopoly, its most popular since its the only community/story on the web.Epic games store fails since it dosnt even offer user review, something that should exist in every online store, yet alone forums or modding.Stores that do have a monopoly are play store, apple store etc, as they literally control the app distribution, steam controls fuck all, its just the most popular on a single platform.
>>729177846>Epic games store fails since it dosnt even offer user review, something that should exist in every online store, yet alone forums or modding.Epic could easily topple Steam, but they are so busy gooning to publishers and developers that they can't think two steps ahead. It's honestly infuriating. Such a simple solution... completely disregarded.
>>729165726Try to use mods in Darkest Dungeon.
>>729165992You say that but that kind of business is exactly why China is relevant.
>>729179428Well no, China is "relevant" because it's parasitically attached to all of the world's manufacturing.The thing with game distribution on PC is because of both legal and moral failings companies literally cannot fucking control themselves to not actively be shitbags to their own customers.
>>729166462If you don't know about the steam console(not that one) and how to downgrade versions then that's on you. Honestly, anyone who cannot operate DOS shouldn't be allowed on the internet.
>>729167150The only storefront actively being boycott is Epic because nobody wants another moneybags middle manager faggot worming their way into yet another perfectly fine industry to destroy it. People don't even boycott the dogshit that is uplay, at best they just think it sucks and don't bother.
>>729163751even in the arena of selling videogames you've got>GOG for people who complain about steam DRM>itch.io for people who like pretentious indie crap and/or want to buy more directly from the devs>dlsite for japanese gamesto say nothing of games like Starsector or Vintage Story which just sell through their own sites and while they're not billionaires they're hardly broke.
>>729181004>dlsitebuying from them keeps getting harder thanks to (((certain people)))
