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Steam made an estimated $1.7 billion in September, an all-time new record (www.tweaktown.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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[–] 89 points 1 month ago (27 children)

I like Steam, but I am trying to shop at GOG more and more. No DRM has become a big selling feature for me. I remember the days when Google was one of the "cool" companies that made tech better. Now I am suspicious of all tech companies.

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  • [–] 31 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    I'd use GoG much more if they caught up on the Linux support side. Even their client doesn't work on Linux, and last time I downloaded cyberpunk through a third-party launcher, it took hours because they limit the speed of downloads through the API.

    When I still used windows, I'd use Steam to search for games and then buy them on Gog if they were available, but the convenience gap is just too large now :(

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Just use heroic for gog games. It isn't that big of an issue. You can launch games using proton through heroic without relying on steam.

    Or if you're really lazy, just add gog games to steam and then play them.

    Point is if you actually want to buy more from gog then there's nothing stopping you from doing that.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Long term that's possibly wise. Track record being what it is I think steam is broadly ok, but definitely less safe than something you can download and keep forever.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    I think as long as Gabe runs the show, it will be fine, but you know that there are venture capitalists and mega-corps all ready to maximize stakeholder value.

    At least with GoG, you can at least download your installers if it ever begins the enshittification slide. Steam will take everything with it should it start down that path.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago*

    The question is whether or not whoever or whatever Gabe puts into his place when he steps down will act like him.

    I see it as a serious likelihood he'll proof the company against venture capital and going public

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago*

    Gabe is only one step below a venture capitalist on the scale of evil. He only invested in Linux as a hedge against the windows store, and steam only has "good customer service" because they were legally forced to offer refunds.

    Gabe intentionally destroyed physical games on PC almost two decades ago. Now you have no guarantee of keeping your library and there's no used PC game market anymore, which raises prices for all of us. Go look at used console games, they're always cheaper than PC ports even when the ports are on sale.

    Gabe made gaming worse, not better. People moan about not owning things anymore yet praise this billionaire fuck who literally pioneered that concept. His actual good contributions to gaming were HL1 and HL2 but in the end he only ever cared about making money.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago (15 children)

    What I dislike about Steam is that Valve doesn't allow you to leave your account to somebody else upon your death.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Neither does GOG

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    So if I die and I leave my harddrive full of offline installers to my kid, GOG will come delete every installer?

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago

    You know, I keep hearing this but I don't know many GOG users who actually backup their installers or even update their backed up installers. It's great if you actually do, but I just don't know enough people who do.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (8 children)

    Can you just give them the passwords?

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago (7 children)

    Yeah you can.

    But Steam doesn't want it, according to a support rep:

    Unfortunately, Steam accounts and games are non-transferable. Steam Support can’t provide someone else with access to the account or merge its contents with another account. I regret to inform you that your Steam account cannot be transferred via a will.

    https://www.pcworld.com/article/2347640/steam-says-you-cant-leave-games-in-your-will-but-us-law-might-disagree.html

    This means you can leave your login details in your will, but Steam can block the account. Also, in case the login details in your will are not correct anymore or no login details were shared, Steam will not give access.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (6 children)

    eh, idk, I think people worrying about passing down their antique game collections to the younger generation are sorta like all the old people thinking their kids are gonna want their stamp collections or old timey 'country rose' antique dish sets. Even worse, because it's not like you can even re-sell those games to make a tiny profit at a flea market or whatever.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    What if a 30 year old dies and their 10 year old kid can't play the games anymore that they were playing by using family sharing?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (2 children)

    An outlier case, which doesn't justify changing the setup and introducing even bigger issues/abuses to solve.

    If accounts allowed transfers, I'd personally have no issue with doing something like:

    • Have my own personal "main" steam account
    • Use secondary accounts to buy games
    • Transfer any game I want to play longer term / figure I'll revisit over to my main account; sell the secondary account on Facebook Marketplace/similar sites to recoop funds for myself on a quarterly/annual basis (removing that potential revenue from steam)

    That sort of abuse would be far more common, than the outlier case you've listed for a young parent passing down games to a kid that's fairly close in age.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    Facebook requires a public obituary before an account is put into the RIP mode.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    I can just imagine the public obituaries including peoples steam gamer tags in order to meet this requirement. Rest in peace 69TIGOLBITTIESLOVER69.

    And/or the outrage as Steam starts doing Know-Your-Customer compliance things, requesting gamers submit ID so that the public obituaries can be matched to their accounts.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    I dunno, I inherited my grandparents' SNES and my uncle's PS1 and Sega Dreamcast. I probably played those consoles more than they ever did. Granted, those consoles weren't that old by the time I got them

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