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Valve makes almost $50 million per employee, raking in more cash per person than Google, Amazon, or Microsoft — gaming giant's 350 employees on track to generate $17 billion this year (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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[–] 7 points 11 months ago (17 children)

Mono=one poly=seller... and last I checked Steam is not the only seller of video games. They aren't even the only seller of digital video games. They aren't even the only seller of digital video games for SteamOS.

They are the largest because they do what's right by their customers and employees. As a 'for instance', I bought Portal 2 for the PS3 many years ago. I no longer have my PS3 but I can still play Portal 2 (as well as Portal which was just thrown in for me) on any PC.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago* (10 children)

    Technically Steam is not a monopoly, but the way people commonly use the term these days is as simple as "majority market share".

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  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago (9 children)

    Treat customers right and you get rewarded. They are the majority market shareholder because they have earned it, not through deceptive business practices but through being a great company.

    If they were a monopoly they wouldn't allow other game catalogs on their systems, yet I have GOG and Epic on my Steam Deck. In fact, there isn't even a requirement for me to have Steam on my Steam Deck. Just because a company is the market leader doesn't mean they got there through unethical means.

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  • [–] -5 points 11 months ago (8 children)

    You are equating "monopoly" with "abusive monopoly."

    Google got its monopoly in internet search by being better than the competition. It's still a monopoly, even though it mostly plays by the rules.

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    No, Google pays off other browsers to use Google as the default search engine, among many other actual monopolistic practices. Steam does none of that and simply provides a product.

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  • [–] -3 points 11 months ago

    Paying people to promote your stuff is not an abuse of monopoly position, because Duckduckgo is perfectly capable of doing the same thing.

    Abuse of monopoly position would be leaning on search results to promote Chrome or Android (for example). And they have been caught doing some anti-competitive shit.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    You are equating “monopoly” with “abusive monopoly.”

    No, I'm not. I'm saying they aren't a monopoly by the simple fact that they aren't the only providers of the service they sell. And while they are currently in a position to use their power to make themselves a monopoly, they are not doing that and instead are playing fair with their competition.

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  • [–] -2 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    I refer you to the other comment subthread where I mentioned textbook examples of monopolies which had 80-odd percent market share, you asked me if Steam had that, I said yes, and then you went quiet.

    Don't bring up points that you were already challenged on and had no reply to - it's lying, because you already know it's wrong.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    The gaming market is much larger than PC gaming.

    And Steam does not have an 80% market share on PC gaming, so who's lying?

    And finally, who the fuck do you think you are that I owe you a response?

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  • [–] -1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    You're right, the 80% figure I read was from a small poll, it seems 75% is the more accurate figure.

    That's honesty. You don't "owe me a reply" but replying selectively is dishonest. It's pretending you haven't heard any contrary information, when you have.

    Now given the 75 is quite close to 80, I think calling Steam a monopoly in the market of pc video game distribution is quite fair, don't you? The honest thing to do would be to change your mind in the light of what you didn't know before.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    I was going to just downvote and move on, but you seem unable to properly understand that a lack of a reply can mean different things, and you just assume that the person not replying to you agrees with you and is just too afraid to say so. Let me be clear... you are moving the goalposts and I see no point in having a discussion with someone who is not just dishonest in the conversation, but insists that it's others who are acting dishonestly.

    Steam does not have a monopoly on gaming. If you want to narrow that down to PC gaming then you're changing the subject, but even then, they do not have a monopoly on PC gaming because they are not the only sellers. They don't even have a monopoly on Linux gaming because they have put their resources there into open source projects which others have also benefited from, which is how I'm able to play Rocket League (yet another wildly successful game not available on Steam) on my Linux computer. Bringing other 'classic monopolies' into the conversation makes no difference on the discussion we're having. And those other monopolies were not taken down because they were monopolies, they were taken down due to their anti-competitive practices - something that Valve has actively and successfully tried to avoid.

    And no, I don't think that because you feel that one number is 'quite close' to another number that they should be equal. I think that's just another sign of you being dishonest and moving the goalposts and then assuming that you've made a valid point.

    And finally, respond to this or not, I don't care, but I said, multiple times, all that I need to say on this subject and to you.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    you seem unable to properly understand that a lack of a reply can mean different things, and you just assume that the person not replying to you agrees with you and is just too afraid to say so.

    If you say "the earth is flat", then someone replies with evidence of how the earth is not flat, then in another thread, you say again, "the earth is flat" without ever replying to the evidence, that is dishonest. If contrary evidence won't get you to change your tune, what is the point in talking to you?

    Steam does not have a monopoly on gaming. If you want to narrow that down to PC gaming then you’re changing the subject, You were the one who insisted this conversation be about gaming in general. The person you replied to did not specify the market, and was clear the moment the discrepancy arose what I and everyone else was talking about.

    but even then, they do not have a monopoly on PC gaming because they are not the only sellers.

    You have already been shown that monopoly does not literally mean "the only seller" but instead means "the dominant seller". By this point it's downright weird that you keep insisting this is the meaning without even admitting that the counter-examples in textbook usage exist.

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    Ah OK, so the classic monopolies in American History (Standard Oil - controlled 90% of its market; American Tobacco - controlled 80% of its market) were not monopolies.

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    And Steam controls 80%-90% of the video game market?

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    steam has a 75% marketshare of PC games distribution in the US. the 2nd biggest player, epic games, has a market share estimated from 3% to 7,5%. i can’t find data for steam’s market share outside the US, but i’d expect it to be even higher.

    if google can be considered to have a monopoly on web browsers with 73% of the marketshare, even as alternatives (like safari, 13%) exist, i don’t see why steam wouldn’t count as well.

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