Last year, they all came crawlin' back to Steam, and this year was another strong one for Valve.

From the opinion piece:

Last year, I pointed out how many big publishers came crawlin’ back to Steam after trying their own things: EA, Activision, Microsoft. This year, for the first time ever, two Blizzard games released on Steam: Overwatch and Diablo 4.

    • derpgon@programming.devEnglish
      45·
      11 months ago

      Monopoly isn’t bad (or illegal) if it doesn’t exploit and/or abuse it’s market position, which Steam doesn’t.

      • Honytawk@lemmy.zipEnglish
        52·
        11 months ago

        Monopolies are always bad. They give too much power to the people who do not deserve it. Even if the one in charge looks benevolent.

        Tell me, what do you think would happen if Gabe died tomorrow?

      • darreninthenetEnglish
        21·
        11 months ago

        Also it depends what’s driving that attitude… if it’s an ethos from Gabe then great but he won’t be around forever… what happens when he dies/retires?

        Many companies have started with great ethics that went out of the window when the founders moved on, and Steam is in a fantastic position to enshitify if it wanted to.

        • derpgon@programming.devEnglish
          11·
          11 months ago

          That’s a lot or what-ifs. If a lot of companies enshittify, that doesn’t mean all do. Especially when Valve is not publicly traded (sure, “for now”). It has a lot of credibility, especially compared to other launchers (EA, Ubi, Bethesda, Battle.net). And while there is GOG which is a great launcher aswell especially by selling games without DRM, it’s one in a million.

          By your logic, we shouldn’t trust any company because they can all enshittify.

          • darreninthenetEnglish
            1·
            11 months ago

            If you replaced “company” with “monopoly” in your last sentence, I agree.

            • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              11 months ago

              Doesn’t even have to be a monopoly, I have zero loyalty to any business beyond the product they give me. Trust is for people, not for some nebulous corporate entity who wants my money.

      • Aux@lemmy.worldEnglish
        16·
        11 months ago

        But it does abuse its market position. By setting very high developer/publisher fees and forcing everyone to pay them. Don’t forget that from Steam perspective, developers and publisher are their consumers, not you. Their business is similar to supermarkets. Supermarkets don’t sell stuff to you, they provide selling and logistics services to produce manufacturers.

        • derpgon@programming.devEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          But those fees are counteracted by large user base, which is large due to the fact the platform is great and provides it’s users good features that aren’t elsewhere. A s large user base means large buying power, which directly translates to higher sales and thus higher profits.

          If a supermarket gives the customers a nice place to stay, and provides extra features others don’t, the extra cost for having your store in there (in Steam terms higher commissions, although I personally think it’s adequate, but I digress) is offset by having bigger profit overall.

          • Aux@lemmy.worldEnglish
            13·
            11 months ago

            That doesn’t mean Steam doesn’t abuse its power. Because they sure do.

      • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        11 months ago

        I’ve not been “swindled” into anything, I’ve never paid for shit twice and I get most of my games DRM free on GOG. I use Epic exclusively for their free games.

        I’m just sick of hearing Gabe’s personal blowjob brigade pretending that monopolies and capitalism don’t apply when it’s a product they personally enjoy.