-3
Steam is a ticking time bomb
(www.spacebar.news)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
-3 points (0.0% liked)
Technology
33582 readers
232 users here now
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.
Rules:
1: All Lemmy rules apply
2: Do not post low effort posts
3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff
4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.
5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)
6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist
7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Who is trying to game on a mac? Their hardware blows for gaming.
Apple has never wanted to play ball with the gaming community either, look no further than the lawsuits Epic is waging on them over the app store. Apple loves their closed ecosystem, and giving Valve any room for a foothold is counter to their strategy. There is no incentive for apple to court getting steam on their machines, and with such a small player base valve has no incentive either.
When it comes to enshittification Valve is a shining beacon resisting the tide of trends. No paying for online play. Free cloud saves. An open ecosystem with marketing methods that give everyone a chance in the spotlight, regardless of AAA status. No exclusivity for games (Epic can fucking suck it for bringing that bullshit to PC). Instead of squashing competition with shit business practices like Epic and Apple they encourage competition! They purposefully made SteamOS open source so that other companies can easily release portable PC gaming products!! They created controller compatibility when Microsoft wouldn’t, notably for playstation controllers while still releasing their own Steam controller. They created one of the first and only digital goods return policies, and frequently accept returns beyond the time limit. No one else in this industry is doing things like that. Epic wants to break in with subversive tactics while Valve is continuously improving the landscape for gamers, developers, and hardware makers. As long as Gabe Newell is alive we are in safe hands.
That said, who knows what happens when he dies? Everything is still just a license, so check out GOG for DRM free goods while you can. Buy things on other stores when they’re cheap so you have a distributed library. Maybe the ticking time bomb is there, but for the moment Valve is the last gaming company that isnt trying to fuck us on a daily basis, and I will continue to support that as long as that remains true.
Valve doesn't need to pay for exclusivity because it already dominates the market. There are many games that are effectively Steam exclusives because they are not available through other methods on PC. Half-Life 2 received a lot of criticism at launch for requiring Steam.
SteamOS is open source, but you need a license to use the Steam brand, and Valve doesn't allow that. One company tried to make a handheld console with SteamOS, but it can't be legally bundled with the hardware: https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/10/24033161/ayaneo-next-lite-steam-deck-competitor-steamos
Yes, that's the point of the article. If you need one specific person to stay alive for something to continue functioning well, you don't have a business, you have the British monarchy.
I am not aware of any stream agreement with game developers that prevents them from releasing their game using any other method. Your argument about streams “” monopoly “” is 100% due to market forces working as advertised. They offer a service that no other company either can or will match. And that is not the fault of steam and was not achieved by illegal means. There’s dissent even need to be a launcher at all! Game companies can just sell us the game alone without a launcher. What other companies want is market dominance, not a fair market place. Because the fair market place gave steam the current win
Whether or not the exclusivity deal is between the publisher and the store or just the publisher doesn’t make a difference for the consumer. There’s no functional difference between Counter Strike 2 requiring Steam and Fortnite requiring the Epic launcher except that gamers are used to Steam.
Yes there is. Because it gives the games companies the ability to sell however they like. What to make the game sellable privately? No problem. What to sell an apple version, go for it.
So what part of the open market covers preventing the consumers from being able to choose which launcher they prefer, if any? Valve didn’t do that. EGS did. You should blame the competitors for failing to meet market standards
When you are upset at Valve for not doing for apple what they did for Linux, who you are really mad at is Apple for having terrible… everything, and game developers who don’t want to put the needed effort in for such a modest return.
You are upset at everyone BUT Valve. Or at least you should be.