Rose

@Rose@lemmy.zip

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⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam is basically a PC gaming monopoly, so why isn’t anyone mad?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
As I said, we don’t know the terms of their publishing contract, if any, so that would be a baseless assumption to make. I could also flip your argument and say they might not even want to sell on Steam, but feel forced to because of its monopoly power. It’s one of the points of the class action lawsuit.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam is basically a PC gaming monopoly, so why isn’t anyone mad?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
I’m glad we at least have moved on from people outright denying Valve does this to defending Valve doing this.

Why did the dev have to increase the price elsewhere to “match the price”, instead of matching the price to $7 on Steam?

You’d have to ask the dev, but obviously Valve takes 30%, while the dev would get 100% on its own store. If there’s a publisher involved, and publisher contracts often cover specific platforms, the dev would get much less than 70% on Steam.

Comparing Steam to traditional stores is incorrect. Even Valve’s own argument in the same Wolfire case was that monopoly power requires a market share of 75%, which Steam exceeds.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam is basically a PC gaming monopoly, so why isn’t anyone mad?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
They would be more if more people used GOG, but even so, I’m not sure I agree with your premise, because what do most people do when they want a game that’s on Steam and on GOG and even has achievements on both?
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam is basically a PC gaming monopoly, so why isn’t anyone mad?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
How explicit does Valve need to be for you to agree that they make the point clear? In one quote further in this thread, they say “we’d just choose to stop selling [the game]”, in another, on p. 161, they say “we’ll be ready to release [once you match the price]”, prompting the dev to raise the price from $7 to $14 elsewhere. It’s highly anticompetitive because it prevents other platforms from competing on price. Great discounts are instrumental as well, as noted by OP’s very article.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam is basically a PC gaming monopoly, so why isn’t anyone mad?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Their tactics including not only threats to delist but also threats to reduce visibility does not make it any better. If those numerous examples aren’t crystal clear about the former, here’s another quote from Valve (page 18 here):

“We basically see any selling of the game on PC, Steam key or not, as a part of the same shared PC market—so even if you weren’t using Steam keys, we’d just choose to stop selling a game if it was always running discounts of 75% off on one store but 50% off on ours . . . .”

When you say “undercutting the sale”, I don’t know what you mean. They are talking about developers setting lower prices outside Steam, which Valve obviously sees as a disadvantage to Steam. Your DLC example also does not make sense and I don’t see that on the list. For a few of the quotes on the list, the type of parity is marked as content, but the overwhelming majority are related to price parity.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam is basically a PC gaming monopoly, so why isn’t anyone mad?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Did you look at the page I pointed to? It’s done irrespective of Steam key use. Look at the “Type of Product” column.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam is basically a PC gaming monopoly, so why isn’t anyone mad?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Funny because they absolutely use those tactics even to this day. Among other things, they go around and tell developers not to set lower prices or discounts elsewhere if they want to be on Steam (see page 160 here).
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam is basically a PC gaming monopoly, so why isn’t anyone mad?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
GOG’s market share being around 1% compared to Steam’s 80% only proves the point that no amount of great features or love by gamers is enough to challenge the monopoly.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
The “30% is the industry standard” claim is not even true anymore. Epic currently takes 0% to expand its catalog, though from what I remember, it estimated that it needs to take 7% or so to be profitable. Microsoft takes 12%. Itch allows to adjust. GOG’s fee varies from deal to deal. Ubisoft (and EA) no longer sell third-party games, so they’re out of scope here.

The only way I’ve seen people try to counter this is by referring to the mobile and console store fees, but going by the Epic v. Google lawsuit where the jury was asked to define the market and defined it as Android, there’s just no way that argument would hold water. Still, console manufacturers produce at a loss, so they need to make up for that. In the mobile market, Google is already changing its fee to be 20% or less.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
GOG’s fee is flexible, as are publisher contracts, which have no relevance to the discussion, as it’s in addition to store fees and involves major investments. Google is changing its fee to 20%. Epic’s is currently 0%. Microsoft Store’s is 12%, itch’s is adjustable. In the PC market, Valve is pretty much the main outlier at this point.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jeff Kaplan is sick of hearing you demonize games you weren't going to play anyway: 'Shut the f**k up. No one cares. We don't need to hear that you weren't into it'⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
Well, good luck with that. I have my watch history disabled on YouTube and I watch no such content, but YouTube still pushes the likes of Asmongold on me. Imagine what it’s like for people whose history tells YouTube they like content related to gaming. Say you hear about Dustborn and you search for it on YouTube to check out what it’s about. What do you see?
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨For No Reason in Particular Here's a Bunch of Games Where You Kill Nazis⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Is the author a tankie or something? What’s wrong with Company of Heroes 2? I enjoyed it, and the main complaints I saw were from Russians unhappy with the game taking a shot at the Soviets and bringing up things like Order 227. Even so, the game didn’t even portray the Soviets as the bad guys.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ARC Raiders purposefully puts jerks in the same lobby as each other⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Same here. I play strictly solo and it feels like about 70% or more of my encounters are with friendly people. Occasionally, people stab in the back or I get shot and killed on sight, then next game do the latter to someone else to mentally make up for the losses, but that’s not too common.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Resident Evil Requiem - 3rd Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Resorting to the damsel in distress trope in 2025. 🤦 But hey, it’s Capcom.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨An unsettling indie game about horses keeps getting banned from stores⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Isn’t that part of the discussion? That Valve can just arbitrarily reject a game. Before the payment processors stepped in for example, which was also before the “ban” of Horses, Steam had games that had the four-letter r word in their description and Valve didn’t care despite being contacted by Collective Shout. One could argue they’re lying, but as someone who’s worked with most major publishers, I can believe them, because Valve is almost impossible to reach. In my experience, and based on what I’ve been hearing, most of the time they simply don’t reply to press requests.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨An unsettling indie game about horses keeps getting banned from stores⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
GOG’s market share is around 0.5 to 1%. Steam’s is above 75%. So by comparison, GOG is tiny.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨An unsettling indie game about horses keeps getting banned from stores⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Steam is the one with monopoly power, and the Horses developer has said that publishes didn’t event wasn’t to publish the game if it cannot be on Steam. This argument isn’t applicable to Epic, let alone Humble, which ended up reinstating the game within the day.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve responds as indie horror studio accuses Steam of 'censorship' for banning its game about nude human 'Horses' (Update)⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Not merely as sexual, but as “sexual conduct”. Valve already hosts a huge number of games depicting full nudity and sex, and before the payment processors complained, that included games with r*pe in their description.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam Hardware [new Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and VR headset Steam Frame, coming in 2026]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Technically no PR. Their MO has been to let others do the work. Their games come from hired modders, with many skins made by the community. Their localizations are from the community. The game devs and publishers have to moderate their own spaces on Steam. The players do product promotions by using the social network of Steam. Valve is practically unreachable for the press, and their actual press releases are the rawest I’ve seen: infrequent, featuring no images and little information. Their press account is run by Kaci Aitchinson, the local Fox News host who was originally hired to present The International for Dota 2, but ended up doing a bit of everything, like many at Valve.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Arc Raiders review - a smartly designed extraction shooter marred by one inexcusable decision⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
I usually avoid PvP games and I didn’t like ARC Raiders at first, but it has grown on me.

Unless you use the starter kit, you’ll always have at least one safe pocket slot, allowing you to bring back at least one item (or a stack) even if you get knocked out. Moreover, so often my stash is full even after multiple expansions, so the game encourages using those resources to craft weapons, which again makes it less of a problem if you get knocked out.

Later quests are not easily completed, but you can focus on completing the daily tasks for battle pass progression. There will be simple tasks like having to open containers or doing damage to the ARC robots, so you can just go out with the stater kit and do those, not worrying about losing your loot. With that mentality, at least sometimes (though often in my case playing solo), you’ll extract and get a lot of loot on top of your XP and tasks progression.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Counter Strike 2 update wipes nearly $2 billion off skin market value by making fancy knives and gloves easier to get [Eurogamer]⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
I’d say a link stored in a network that is decentralized and independent of one central entity has more inherent value than a record of money in a bank. Link rot is a thing, but so is the Web Archive and its alternatives. It’s just that there have to be people who value that record in the same way the value money, but that’s not how it is. Nevertheless, it’s something compared to having absolutely nothing after Valve shuts down.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Counter Strike 2 update wipes nearly $2 billion off skin market value by making fancy knives and gloves easier to get [Eurogamer]⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
In one instance, you’d have indisputable proof of ownership, but only your word in the other. The former is not that different from money, which is not even paper these days but a record in a database.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Counter Strike 2 update wipes nearly $2 billion off skin market value by making fancy knives and gloves easier to get [Eurogamer]⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
AWS going down wouldn’t erase the NFT out of existence. Valve closing down would certainly remove every Steam market item.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Counter Strike 2 update wipes nearly $2 billion off skin market value by making fancy knives and gloves easier to get [Eurogamer]⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
NFTs are at least independent and won’t disappear if one corporation goes down. Other than that, they’re one and the same, and it’s insane that the same gamers who worship Valve are often the first to bash NFTs.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft support for Windows 10 officially ends today, but a third of Steam players still use it | VGC⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Fair, but I believe it’s too early to think about that, as we still have a whole year of ESU. By then, who knows if Microsoft decides to offer another year for free if many people remain on it? Moreover, depending on one’s reasons to stick to 10, they may upgrade their hardware or change their mind about 11 by then.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft support for Windows 10 officially ends today, but a third of Steam players still use it | VGC⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
True, but I assume most people here wouldn’t need to be on an Enterprise version of Windows, unless it’s for work.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft support for Windows 10 officially ends today, but a third of Steam players still use it | VGC⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Here.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Battlefield 6 hits EA’s highest ever concurrent player count on Steam, beating Apex Legends | VGC⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
That doesn’t say much though, as many of the other games on the list came to Steam after months and years of being available on Origin, so the highest concurrent player numbers were probably seen on those platforms. A newly released game always attracts more players than an older one.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft support for Windows 10 officially ends today, but a third of Steam players still use it | VGC⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
No need to turn to piracy when there are free ways to do the same.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft reportedly cancelled an Assassin’s Creed game partly due to ‘political concerns’ | VGC⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
The only games I can think of where you fight back against racists as a Black person are Mafia 3 and Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry. It’s wild that there isn’t more after so many years of video games. It makes the news of the cancelation incredibly sad.