Nothing stops them and yet they mostly don’t. There is no good way for a dev to put a game before your eyes, so they have to have some kind of store to do it.
Skv@lemmy.world 1 month ago
All launchers mustdie and devs need to go back to selling their games directly.
Nalivai@lemmy.world 1 month ago
ClamDrinker@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Exactly, this is the clear sign that Steam is providing actual value to both developers and players. The PC ecosystem has always had the guaranteed threat of an open platform, so you could cut out any middleman. Which is why it’s such a hostile platform to predatory middlemen. The fact this isn’t being done to Steam demonstrates them as an example of a (relatively) good middleman.
Best example of Steam being left out and still succeeding on PC - Minecraft launched in a time when Steam was already around and just said “nah, we’re good” (citing the 30% cut and concerns over monopoly status) and just went it’s own way. There are still plenty of games being created on PC without Steam in the mix, itch.io, self publishing. Steam just makes it a lot easier so many people legitimately want to use them, others don’t and can do so. And that’s how it should be!
architect@thelemmy.club 1 month ago
Yea but in the end sure he didn’t fund steam he just became another shitty billionaire with way way worse opinions. Cool. That’s not winning… at all…
ClamDrinker@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I agree, though this was in the time when he wasn’t really crazy. But two things can be true at the same time, and I wasn’t trying to make a point in that direction. I could’ve picked other examples of developers that kept a level head, they would just be much less known.
Skv@lemmy.world 1 month ago
…yes there is - fucking socials. Make a cool trailer, that they do anyway, and use interns to spam it to gaming groups and just tag the hell out of it.
architect@thelemmy.club 1 month ago
LOL SPOKEN LIKE SOMEONE WHO HAS NO IDEA!
You get no fucking reach on socials now. None. It’s all pay to play! I’m speaking fully from experience i do this full time!
Nalivai@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Shit like that could work 10 years ago, not anymore. Not that it worked reliably 10 years ago. You essentially want people to spend all the money and time making a game, and then gamble on the algorythm and that Zukerberg will allow anyone to see your shit. And if you lose the gamble, enjoy your 7 buyers and no shot to get anything in the future.
No wonder nobody actually does that, and people publish on Steam where there are oodles of mechanisms to connect people with money who want a game and people with a game who want money.Skv@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Or pay MORE to Steam to promote your upcoming game? Please.
carrylex@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Cool, now tell me how you update the game without every game shipping it’s own crappy updater/launcher?
TheDirtyBubble@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
The update could occur in game like it did before launchers were common. When you would enter the online/multi-player portion of the game it would inform you to update your game in order to use the online services. The game would then download and install the update with the game open then it would restart.
If you’re saying that all games would ship with a launcher because that’s the norm then I agree completely lol.
Skv@lemmy.world 1 month ago
And literally all, say, MMOs come with their little custom updater/version check/file integrity things anyway, but they don’t run in the background.
Skv@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Say it with me now - P-A-T-C-H-E-S, like they do via launchers anyway…
chunes@lemmy.world 1 month ago
By adding a new version to your download page.
SuDmit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Exactly the same as any software capable of self-update: it connects to servers, checks for updates, downloads and installs them.
HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I lost access to my googe account and with it my Steam account with 400+ games on it.
Tried to get it back through support but they won’t allow it because I can’t tell them the credit card details that were apparently used to buy a game once.
I have never owned a credit card so I have no idea what they’re on about and they kindly told me to get fucked.
7101334@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Maybe a friend bought you a card at some point?
Or you used your parents’ card if you were younger?
For 400+ games I imagine you already thought of those possibilities though
TachyonTele@piefed.social 1 month ago
That’ll be the same problem in steam.
But i agree with you.
Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Do you know any of the payment methods you used?
snooggums@piefed.world 1 month ago
Maybe it was a debit card?
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I lost access to my PSN account because they want me to do third-party verification with an authorization app that I apparently had linked to it like a decade ago, but don’t know what it was.
Their alternative verification is to verify purchase histories on my PSN account, which is hard to do when the whole problem is I can’t access my PSN account.
HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
The authorization app is exactly what got me: Lost my phone and can’t log back into anything now.