• misk@sopuli.xyzOP
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    2 days ago

    I am surprised that steam is even lacking on this.

    This is an „underdog” feature - if you own the market like Steam does it could only ever harm sales on their platform. Some people don’t seem to be bothered by the grip Valve has on the market however. Not like Microsoft wouldn’t do that either if they were in the same position because both are ultimately out there to make as much money as possible.

    • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      Steam has the grip it has because nobody else is even trying to compete with them on like terms. Steam doesn’t engage in anti-competitive behavior and even shares their technology with competitors freely. They are successful because they continue to give consumers and sellers what they want, as opposed to engaging in unethical behavior like Microsoft, Epic, and major publishers do.

      • misk@sopuli.xyzOP
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        23 hours ago

        Are you saying that if there was another store that you could move all your games to, with 10% cut, 10% discount for you and 10% discount for the developer you wouldn’t use it because Steam is so good? Take a look at your games library and imagine 20% of what you paid not going to Valve. Do they really provide good value for that money?

        • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          Publishers have their own storefronts and… surprise, not a single one charges 30%, 20%, or even 10% less due to avoiding the Steam tax.

          And yes, I frequently am willing to pay slightly more to keep things in Steam. It means easier Steam Deck access, family sharing, Steam Link, and other benefits that I would miss out on via other platforms, even if they were cheaper (which we established was not the case).

          • misk@sopuli.xyzOP
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            23 hours ago

            For me that comes up to a couple hundred euros, definitely not seeing where that goes.

            Someone said here that Valve doesn’t chase profit at all cost because they’re a private company. We’re talking about pioneers of enshittification though, look what they’ve done to CS, Team Fortress 2 or Dota 2. They turned both into casinos for children, breaking cohesion and balance, just to chase the profits. Do you think those people run Steam ethically or with your interest in mind? Other companies would be crucified for anything similar but Valve gets away somehow.

            • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
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              23 hours ago

              None of those are games for children. Nor are they similar to casinos. Are you trying to argue that selling cosmetics in games is inherently unethical?

              • misk@sopuli.xyzOP
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                23 hours ago

                Selling cosmetics via loot boxes is gambling. They market their video games to children (all rated 13+). Way to twist what I’ve said lol. Goodbye, I’m blocking all Valve shills for sanity lately.

                  • misk@sopuli.xyzOP
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                    13 hours ago

                    I’m against all gambling, especially targeting kids. So yeah, we can get rid of gumball machines. Bad attempt at whataboutism because I’m no hypocrite.

    • malwieder@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      Valve isn’t publicly traded, and while that doesn’t make them 100 % trustworthy, I’d certainly give them the benefit of the doubt over Microsoft. They make a shit ton of money, but they aren’t obligated to squeeze every last penny out of their customers.

      Sure, it would be nice to have 1-click installers for other launchers within Steam and then automatically list games of other launchers in the Steam library, but I don’t even think Valve is the primary blocker here.

      Steam had the ability to add external shortcuts as long as I can remember, tools like Steam ROM Manager make use of that already.

      Tim Sweeney for example always likes to cry to the press how bad monopolies are with Steam and their 30 % cut and whatnot, he doesn’t seem to grasp that part of the reason almost nobody uses Epic Games Launcher is that it quite frankly sucks. Where is your multi-platform launcher? Ah, need Heroic to do the heavy lifting for you. They could offer an official Flatpak on the Steam Deck, easily installed from the Discover store, that uses Proton for games compatibility, is usable with a controller and adds itself to Steam (and when installing games, adds them to Steam as well).

      I’m not that bothered by Valve having that kind of “grip on the market” because in my opinion they are also by far the best so I’d rather they own the biggest piece of the cake than anyone else.

      • misk@sopuli.xyzOP
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        1 day ago

        It continues to amaze me how Valve fanboys are the only group here that is completely incapable of critique of their platform of choice, will defend it by trying to convince others that a commercial entity can be benevolent and it happens to be this one.