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Comment on Modder behind the 'Swiss army knife of PC gaming' deletes their 20 year-old Steam account with anti-Valve manifesto: 'By the end of my bitter dealings with Valve… there was zero hope'

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Godort@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

It is very reasonable. No one forced Valve to build their business model this way, and they are one of the most profitable companies per employee, ever.

Literally every software company built their business model this way. Go open a support case with any software vendor complaining that their product won’t run on Windows 98 and see how many help you out beyond “Buy a computer from this millennium”

It would not be onerous for them to continue supporting a couple of old versions of Windows, they would just have to hire a few more people to do it.

You are failing to understand just how much has changed since Windows 98. It’s a completely different environment that requires specialized knowledge to develop for. They can’t just dust off some old source code and re-release the client the entire back-end has changed. It would be a massive undertaking that would appease about 12 people total.

Gabe would still be a billionaire. Sure, but I would argue that there are a lot of better things that Valve could be doing with those resources than supporting Windows 98

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SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

The entire back-end has changed.

Literally. People miss the fact that Steam is still a 32-bit app just to support older games. The rest of the world has moved onto 64-bit operating systems and applications. It’s shocking they still support 32-bit in 2025.

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- Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The steam client has nothing to do with the games it launches.
  
  Process.Start() works on 32 bit or 64 bit processes…
  
  They are on 32 bit because they don’t need to upgrade to 64 bit and it’s likely too complex to upgrade.
  
  Visual Studio, which actually benefits from 64 bit, just recently upgraded because these massive software stacks are difficult to update.
  
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  - SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    They keep a bunch of 32-bit libraries for backwards compatibility with older games that they launch. You can find numerous discussions about this in the Steam forums as well as on sites like Hackernews.
    
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    Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    You just proved my point.
    
    Runtime environment != the steam client.
    
    Starting a 32 bit process (ie, process.start()) means nothing to the 32 bit steam client.
    
    They can upgrade the steam client to 64 bit without affecting the launched games. that’s the point I was making.
    
    They just haven’t.
    
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masterspace@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

Literally every software company built their business model this way. Go open a support case with any software vendor complaining that their product won’t run on Windows 98 and see how many help you out beyond “Buy a computer from this millennium”

No, they didn’t. I can install the software I bought back in the day on the computers I bought it for, using the license key provided.

You are failing to understand just how much has changed since Windows 98. It’s a completely different environment that requires specialized knowledge to develop for. They can’t just dust off some old source code and re-release the client. The entire back-end has changed. It would be a massive undertaking that would appease about 12 people total.

Lol, I’m a software developer that started by writing legacy windows software, I know exactly how much (little) has changed.

Sure, but I would argue that there are a lot of better things that Valve could be doing with those resources than supporting Windows 98

I don’t care. They have the resources to support it.

Either strip the DRM out and pay whatever you have to to the publishers to do that, or keep supporting the systems you sold your software for.

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- sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  Lol, I’m a software developer that started by writing legacy windows software, I know exactly how much (little) has changed.
  
  Oh, so this whole situation is to a significant degree, your fault.
  
  =P
  
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- SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  
  GoG also famously uses a model where GoG does not care what OS you’re using.
  
  I could have sworn their model was keeping old games updated to work functionally on newer hardware.
  
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  - masterspace@lemmy.ca ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Yes, and thats literally completely irrelevant.
    
    The fact that their games are DRM free means that doesn’t matter one iota. If you buy a game from them on a set of hardware you’ll be able to play it on that hardware forever, regardless of whether their desktop client changes.
    
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    SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    But if they keep it updated for modern systems that means as time goes on the files they are offering to install… won’t work on old hardware because they’ve been updated to the modern era.
    
    Sure if you grab a file from them snd never get a newer, more maintained version, it will play on exactly the hardware and software you had when you bought it… But if you lost the install file somehow and went to grab a new copy five years later the updated ones may no longer run on your old hardware
    
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