• cybermass@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    I love how this article takes shots at steam despite valve being THE company holding the bar up in the gaming space.

    I could list examples but I honestly don’t even think I need to

    • bean@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Yeah… it’s also a new law in California is it not? Kill shot? Hahahaha. Right. Who wrote this headline xD

      • PunchingWood@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        It’s like every clickbait gaming website whenever a new MMO game drops and they call it the WoW-killer for the umpteenth time in the past 15 years.

        • Zahille7@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Flashbacks from the advertising for The Outer Worlds, and IGN calling it the “Bethesda-killer”

          • PunchingWood@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Lol that comparison was also going through my head. I remember it being a fun game though, more than any Bethesda games from the past decade or so, but frankly that bar wasn’t really high either.

    • RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      Valve is holding up the bar not because valve is great but because everyone else is so shit. I’ve had a ton of issues with steam throughout the years and it’s just… nothing else is better. I was actually excited for the epic store launch and it’s… Well, not the worst, because being the worst is a challenge some places take seriously, but certainly not a good steam replacement especially for low data people.

      Steam may not let me control the updates to steam, but it won’t force refresh my library causing ping spikes all the time as an intended feature.

    • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      This isn’t about what steam currently is. It’s about what it will inevitably become.

      I fucked up going with Steam. Should have just pirated everything Single player.

      • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 month ago

        You didn’t fuck up. You can always still pirate. Wait it out and see what happens, the moment it goes to shit put on your pirate hat and don’t give a fuck.

    • GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      valve being THE company holding the bar up in the gaming space.

      I think you mean holding a monopoly in the gaming space.

      • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
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        1 month ago

        I think you don’t know what that word means.

        Heck, even if you want to blatantly ignore every other platform and site you can buy games from, which there are plenty, Valve gives devs a supply of Steam keys they can sell anywhere they want, they don’t even get a cut from those despite providing the bandwidth to distribute the files.

      • turtletracks@lemmy.zip
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        1 month ago

        A monopoly on what? PC game storefeonts? Itch.io, gog, epic, gamepass, some are better than others, but steam isn’t anti-competition

      • cybermass@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        The reason they hold most of the market share is not because of bad business practices it’s because the opposite. People use their service cause it’s the best.

        The gov only considers a large business a monopoly if it’s doing anti competitive practices to maintain or grow it’s market share. That description in no way fits steam or valve.

        • GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          The reason they hold most of the market share is not because of bad business practices it’s because the opposite. People use their service cause it’s the best.

          I have physical copies of PC games that require a Steam Account.

          • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
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            1 month ago

            Which is why you don’t have physical copies of those games - you bought a steam key, exactly like you could have done digitally from humblebundle of greenmangaming or myriad of other stores, this one just had it printed on a piece of paper instead of sending you an email.

            A Steam key Valve didn’t get a cut from, btw.

    • Grimy@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Lmao, he is colluding with the rest, not holding up the bar.

      There is nothing rhat differentiates Steam from Microsoft or Nintendo. The only difference between Gaben and Bezos is that valve has a really good advertising team that’s managed to convince everyone he “isn’t your average billionaire”.

      They charge 30% because they have a soft monopoly, it’s basically robbery and it is affecting the indie scene and the quality and amount of games we receive.

      Gaben has 6 mega yatchs and a number of submarines. The yatchs alone are worth around 1 billion and cost an estimated 75 to 100 million per year just to maintain.

      Now I sit and wait for the Gaben simp squad to come compare him to Jesus and tell me how “he has the only good monopoly”. Both of these things literally happened last time.

      Downvote me you bootlickers.

      • Glide@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        No one thinks Gaben is the second coming. His platform just, actually doesn’t suck, and genuinely functions as a service to its users. It’s a low bar, sure, but it’s a good one. Comparing it to Microsoft axeing any studio that produces something worth talking about while they force more datascraping malware and adware into Windows is just dishonest.

        Your comment reads more like you get off on being controversial than having actual insightful thoughts and the comparisons in what these three companies you listed are actually doing.

        • Grimy@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Ya well if it’s such a fucking low bar, it’s probably because they aren’t holding it up which is my point.

          They do the absolute minimum, yet receive mountains of praise. Call me when he brings down the cut to something reasonable like 5% or just let’s dev choose what price they sell their games for on other platforms ffs.

          Indie companies are closing left and right, these mega stores and their soft monopoly is having a net negative impact on the industry.

          Stop defending billionaires. If steam was fair, he wouldn’t be able to afford a billion dollars worth of fancy boats.

      • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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        1 month ago

        I’m guessing you don’t remember what the market was like for indie games before Steam. Valve’s platform has done a lot of work to expose small game developers, and made it economically viable to work on and publish games independently. Before this it was very difficult for small titles without the advertising budget of a AAA publisher to get any attention at all, let alone actual sales. There’s nothing else like Steam for small studios trying to find buyers for their games, and Valve does deserve credit for that because it’s improved the video game market overall to have more people making more games and able to earn a living doing it.

        The other major effort that Valve has made is Linux compatibility. Even before their work on Proton, Valve released native Linux versions of their games (they were one of very few publishers to do so at the time). I’ve been gaming on Linux since 2006, and Wine was great but rarely easy or complete. Proton has made things so straightforward that people have forgotten just how difficult it was before.

        Credit where it’s due. No other major publisher has contributed to the gaming community the way Valve has, except maybe id Software when they just handed the entire Quake 3 Arena source code to the open source community in 2005 which spawned countless new open source game projects.

        Downvote me you bootlickers.

        No, you’ll enjoy the attention too much.

        • Grimy@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Indie games came about because of multiple factors, steam only being one of them but they did help a lot. That being said, they are currently having a detrimental effect and I think Gaben has been more than properly rewarded.

          It’s not the early 2000s, steam is bringing in massive amounts of cash and I’m tired of seeing an other indie company go under because Gaben wants another boat in the 9 figure range.

          The government will never do anything if we aren’t vocal about it and the community is doing the opposite.

            • Grimy@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              This is an article that was floating on lemmy a few months ago.

              https://www.wired.com/story/death-occurs-in-the-dark-indie-video-game-devs-are-struggling-to-stay-afloat/

              25% more of the profit can go a long way, if Steam were to only take 5% for example. And it’s not only about bankruptcy, it’s budget for more features, dealing with bugs and potential sequels. The quality is affected as well and Steam, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony don’t deserve all that money instead of the devs, just for being the middle men.

              • wia@lemmy.ca
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                1 month ago

                I’ll bite. I hate billionaires. Let’s check this out.

                Things that hurt indie devs in this article:

                • Lack of available talent
                • Burnout
                • Lack of upfront funding (before a game is ever released)
                • Generally bad economy post COVID
                • Actual predatory exclusive tactics from epic or gamepad
                • The nebulous idea that the entire industry and fans need a culture change

                Things not cited in this article as a problem:

                • Steam in any capacity. Directly or implied
                • Grimy@lemmy.world
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                  1 month ago

                  Lack of funding is mentioned every paragraph?

                  belt-tightening can often mean simply shutting down.

                  Sheffield says it’s hard not to feel guilty when other studios go under, even as his own struggles. “We’re all kind of fighting for a tiny slice of the same pie,”

                  “When an indie doesn’t get funding for its game, you just quietly never see their work again,”

                  The industry is struggling because steam and the other stores keep them on the brink, they have no leeway. I don’t know how steams greed could be seen as unrelated.

        • Grimy@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          You know what’s funny, I used to get this same kind of attitude when I’d bash Elon Musk when he was popular a few years ago.

          It’s even worst when the billionaire is being defended by his own con victims.