GeneralEmergency comments on Valve "played capitalism so well they broke it" and now Steam can never be replaced, former Epic dev says: "I don't think this is fixable"

[–] GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world -2 points 1 week ago (9 children)

If someone tried to recreate Steam today. The G*mers would throw a fit.

How do I know?

Because that's what Uplay and Origin were.

Attempts to recreate Steam as a forced online launcher for physical products

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[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 5 points 1 week ago (5 children)

The problem there was I already had steam as a launcher. I didn't need more and theirs were only their own games, so I would never use it when steam has all the publishers. If they had sold a drm free download I'd have gladly bought it directly from them. It's the same problem the cable networks can't understand. Just stay in your lane make the fucking content and publish it to the streaming platforms that host it all. You don't need your own platform with practically no content even Disney is failing to pull that off.

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[–] GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world 1 point 1 week ago (4 children)

theirs were only their own games

Just like when Steam launched.

steam has all the publishers

Only after doing deals with publishers for them to use Steam as DRM for physical releases. Building up Steam's user base and killing the physical market.

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[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 point 1 week ago (3 children)

Steam launched years before the others and had a lot of friction as well. I didn't actually buy into it until like 2010/2011. Epic, Uplay, and origin were too late to the game to break in and pull the anti-competitive shit they did. Steam gives it's customers what they want, the others just try to put themselves in the way to enrich their shareholders, then cry when no one wants to use their shitty product.

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[–] GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

anti-competitive shit they did.

Again. The exact same thing Steam did.

enrich their shareholders

Because Valve has never done anything like that cough microtransactions, loot boxes, child gambling, selling unfinished games, gutting quality control to collect money from allowing companies to simply pay to get on Steam cough

Whereas the other platforms did?

Anti-competitive stuff.

Like Uplay and Origin moving their games off the third party service onto a first party service (As we've established the same thing Steam did)

Or Epic's timed exclusives.

Unlike Steam's actual exclusive deals they stuck with publishers to force Steam as DRM. Also preventing it being sold on other online distribution services (because there was a lot back in the day, even IGN had one).

Or their current practice of not allowing publishers to sell a game cheaper on another platform.

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[–] blartcap_@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 point 6 days ago

Unlike Steam's actual exclusive deals they stuck with publishers to force Steam as DRM. Also preventing it being sold on other online distribution services (because there was a lot back in the day, even IGN had one).

This didn't happen.

Or their current practice of not allowing publishers to sell a game cheaper on another platform.

Standard retail policy, and this only applies if they're distributing Steam keys from those other storefronts.

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[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 point 1 week ago

Again. The exact same thing Steam did.

But steam got in on the ground floor, by the time the others got into the game it was too late because steam offered enough QOL stuff to blow them out of the water. There was no competition. No one wants to install 15 fucking launchers just because every company wants to take on steam. If anyone wants to get in now with a launcher and compete with steam they have to fill a niche that steam isn't. Like GOGs DRM free games. Or just sell from their own site without the launcher BS. Sure they won't get the massive advertising bonus or other QOL benefits that comes with being on steams storefront but it's an option if they're so worried that they won't get their money's worth being on there.

Unlike Steam’s actual exclusive deals they stuck with publishers to force Steam as DRM. Also preventing it being sold on other online distribution services (because there was a lot back in the day, even IGN had one).

You can buy steam keys for games elsewhere. I've gotten tons of games off Humble bundles for example.

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[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Epic walk in and make a copy of Steam as it was in the late 2000s then wonder why nobody praises them for their amazing retail service. It's as if someone showed up to a car show with a straight clone of the original Volkswagen Beetle, 1930s tech and all, and wondered why nobody liked their car. It's literally patterned on the most widely sold car in the world!

Of course Epic are purely MBA-driven and only consider that people should purchase games as quickly as possible as often as possible. They don't see any value in anything besides maximally efficient value extraction by means of a streamlined purchasing workflow.

Valve, meanwhile, turned Steam from a glorified auto-updater into a marketplace when they saw demand for one, then kept reacting to customer requests because they realize that happy customers are returning customers. (Also, they actually give a shit about their platform beyond how much money it makes them.)

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[–] GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world 1 point 1 week ago (1 child)

they actually give a shit about their platform beyond how much money it makes them

They have repeatedly gutted quality control and dropped the barrier to entry, so much over the years. That all it takes to get a game on Steam is to pay them.

It doesn't even need to be finished.

They also fought for years to prevent refunds, and are part of the group fighting against "Stop killing games".

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[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 1 point 1 week ago

I'm not saying they are saints. There's definitely room for improvement; their excellent reputation mainly stems from the fact that everyone else makes no effort at all to deliver anything worthwhile. Hit-and-miss looks damn attractive next to miss-every-single-time.

Valve do give the impression of actually putting thought into what people want from their platform even if they don't always get it right and even if they're not consistently on the side of the gamers.

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