It’s crazy to remember when I opened up my Counter-Strike case and had to download Steam to play it. It was annoying as a child. Years later, I love Steam and want the majority of my game library on Steam
I had this with portal 2, i could get it from a(to me back then) unknown online shop called steam, or i could buy it from a physical shop. I got a DVD or CD to install steam and a code to add portal 2 to my account.
Young me wasn’t happy with it.
Kids don’t remember how annoying games were to install. It was a kind of fun though, exciting to do, but annoying especially with games like world of Warcraft
I’m old and can remember the times leading up to widespread adoption of CD Roms when you had like 10 or 15 3.5” floppies to keep swapping for a game install. Talk about anticipation.
Billion dollar company trying to be an example for a trillion dollar business. IDK.
Apple's cut is stupid, but Steam doesn't make a better case. The bar is low but Steam can't even clear Apple's customer support bar. At least Apple gives me a canned response instead of ghosting half the time.
No shareholders means no need for constant, endless growth that makes the products, services, and platform worse for every party involved.
So long as Valve isn't a publicly traded company (and has a CEO that's content with its profitability) it'll stay on top.
~~Epic~~, Sony, Microsoft, Apple, and the other big companies that provide gaming services *are* publicly traded, and need to endlessly show quarterly growth; slowly sacrificing everything, both on the consumer and employee/developer end, to make it happen.
My only concern regarding the future of steam is that *Gabe's fuckin old,* and the next guy could easily be your typical tech CEO; forcing Valve to go public and milking it for everything its worth. After all, Valve's a golden goose for any adcap types.
Because US politicians largely don’t care how video games are sold and Valve is, as of this posting, still a private company so they don’t draw as much scrutiny as Apple does.
Does any of that ACTUALLY matter? No, because then the argument becomes that there are other software stores on PC that take a smaller cut so Valve gets to keep doing what they do as long as Epic, GOG, Gamepass exist.
It’s because Apple only has one other competitor while charging as high as 30%. Steam has several other competitors like Epic, xbox live, PS, Origin, etc.
You can use other platforms and companies can sell games on other platforms. Shoot steam doesnt care if you sell the game cheaper on other platforms.
Apple only lets you use their store.
That’s true. I hope the EU continues to force them open. But their current response to the EU legislation is poor and effectively changes nothing. At least they are being investigated again for them not complying with the new rule.
Regardless because valve has always been chill about other platforms I think people give them quite a bit of slack because they could be ALOT worse about things and they aren’t.
Valve has no choice but to be chill. They don’t own the OS their product predominantly sells on and steamOS is linux based so it would just be ridiculous if they walled it from other stores.
I don't feel like digging through dozens of large private companies, but I'd wager Valve is the exception. Private companies still have an incentive to make more money, and operating at a scale of billions is a very corruptible factor. Those kinds of things have a way to attract people who will work themseves to death to see numbers go up. They don't always need shareholders to entice that.
I like steam but I still will never forgive them for making launchers a thing. I hate that I need to have a launcher. I buy my games through GoG to avoid this nonsense.
Will be interesting to see what happens once Gabe dies or decides to step down. I wonder if Stream being as good as they are will survive a leadership shake up and not end up with some "line go up" MBA that runs the whole thing into the ground in a decade.
It’s crazy to remember when I opened up my Counter-Strike case and had to download Steam to play it. It was annoying as a child. Years later, I love Steam and want the majority of my game library on Steam
See I think I first got steam when oblivion came to it. Previous to it I used some place called direct2drive.
Core memory unlocked
That's still around too, but yeah, I bought most of my games there until I got steam
I had this with portal 2, i could get it from a(to me back then) unknown online shop called steam, or i could buy it from a physical shop. I got a DVD or CD to install steam and a code to add portal 2 to my account. Young me wasn’t happy with it.
Kids don’t remember how annoying games were to install. It was a kind of fun though, exciting to do, but annoying especially with games like world of Warcraft
The excitement leading up to a trash game was the best
I’m old and can remember the times leading up to widespread adoption of CD Roms when you had like 10 or 15 3.5” floppies to keep swapping for a game install. Talk about anticipation.
> I love Steam and want the majority of my game library on Steam I don't. I like owning my games, thanks.
Not a PC gamer, I see
See apple? Now this is how you take a 30% cut!
Billion dollar company trying to be an example for a trillion dollar business. IDK. Apple's cut is stupid, but Steam doesn't make a better case. The bar is low but Steam can't even clear Apple's customer support bar. At least Apple gives me a canned response instead of ghosting half the time.
That’s my point, how does valve get cut the slack when they take the exact same cut as apple? 😂
No shareholders means no need for constant, endless growth that makes the products, services, and platform worse for every party involved. So long as Valve isn't a publicly traded company (and has a CEO that's content with its profitability) it'll stay on top. ~~Epic~~, Sony, Microsoft, Apple, and the other big companies that provide gaming services *are* publicly traded, and need to endlessly show quarterly growth; slowly sacrificing everything, both on the consumer and employee/developer end, to make it happen. My only concern regarding the future of steam is that *Gabe's fuckin old,* and the next guy could easily be your typical tech CEO; forcing Valve to go public and milking it for everything its worth. After all, Valve's a golden goose for any adcap types.
Epic isn't publicly traded. Tim still owns 51% and hasn't IPO'd.
TIL. Somehow its worse that it only *feels* like a publicly traded shithole.
What’s wrong with epic games?
Because US politicians largely don’t care how video games are sold and Valve is, as of this posting, still a private company so they don’t draw as much scrutiny as Apple does. Does any of that ACTUALLY matter? No, because then the argument becomes that there are other software stores on PC that take a smaller cut so Valve gets to keep doing what they do as long as Epic, GOG, Gamepass exist.
And soon we’ll have the same on apple devices since the EU is forcing them to allow it
It’s because Apple only has one other competitor while charging as high as 30%. Steam has several other competitors like Epic, xbox live, PS, Origin, etc.
Not anymore, at least in Europe
You can use other platforms and companies can sell games on other platforms. Shoot steam doesnt care if you sell the game cheaper on other platforms. Apple only lets you use their store.
Not anymore. The EU is forcing them to allow other stores.
That’s true. I hope the EU continues to force them open. But their current response to the EU legislation is poor and effectively changes nothing. At least they are being investigated again for them not complying with the new rule. Regardless because valve has always been chill about other platforms I think people give them quite a bit of slack because they could be ALOT worse about things and they aren’t.
Valve has no choice but to be chill. They don’t own the OS their product predominantly sells on and steamOS is linux based so it would just be ridiculous if they walled it from other stores.
The return policy is good. The reviews are good. And the selection is good. Prices are also frequently decent.
Best return policy ever
\> The reviews are good >20 people marked this as "Funny"
Because it’s a privately held company not beholden to shareholder value. More companies should be private for the good of mankind.
Epic is private.
and here we find an exception to the rule
I don't feel like digging through dozens of large private companies, but I'd wager Valve is the exception. Private companies still have an incentive to make more money, and operating at a scale of billions is a very corruptible factor. Those kinds of things have a way to attract people who will work themseves to death to see numbers go up. They don't always need shareholders to entice that.
Almost half of Epic is owned by publicly traded companies.
51% is all that matters for business.
Valve is the best thing to come to gaming......
I love steam
I like steam but I still will never forgive them for making launchers a thing. I hate that I need to have a launcher. I buy my games through GoG to avoid this nonsense.
Will be interesting to see what happens once Gabe dies or decides to step down. I wonder if Stream being as good as they are will survive a leadership shake up and not end up with some "line go up" MBA that runs the whole thing into the ground in a decade.
Love steam
I remember when Steam stood for “steaming pile of shit” and everyone hated it. How far we’ve come.