Comment on Steam :: Introducing Steam Families
PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 8 months agowithout being forced to. We have digital refunds
Small nitpick, but it’s funny that you specifically listed their refunds first. They were forced into that. Some may remember how comically awful Steam’s customer support used to be. It was genuinely horrible, with resolution turnaround times measured in days and weeks instead of minutes or hours. There was no instant messaging or ticketing system available; You had to email a sketchy email address, then wait days or weeks for them to finally respond. And chances were good that the response would basically boil down to “lul git fuckd loser, sux 2 b u”
Europe started pushing for them to be more customer friendly, because their refunds in particular were breaching some local European laws. In order to keep operating in Europe, they revamped their refund process entirely and recommitted to better customer service going forwards. But they only started the entire refund revamp in 2015 because they were going to be pushed out of European markets if they failed to comply.
Kedly@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I brought it up because until Steam did it NO digital game marketplace had refunds. Whether or not they got sued, Steam led the way
Drigo@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
And its also frecking 10 years ago now they added refunds. It’s like people like using “thet got sued to add it” as some sorta “gotcha” that steam is bad, I don’t get some people
Kedly@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I’m starting to think these people think we use steam because we have to, and not because its a legitimately amazing games catalogue/storefront. It makes the “Steam is a monopoly” and “What happens when GabeN dies and Steam goes down the drain” comments make sense
Spedwell@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You have to have never seriously engaged with the details of the Valve monopoly if you think that’s what we are upset about.
We know Steam is an amazing storefront—I buy my agames there because it’s the best experience for the cost. But Steam charges a premium. And despite taking smaller cuts, competing platforms like Epic cannot actual pass those cost savings to consumers because Valve is strongarming game publishers into fixing prices.
You have your head in the sand if you think Valve’s 30% fee is a fair market price for what they do.