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Yeah I rarely ever “like” a company but Valve has done so much it’s honestly amazing. The 30% they take is soooo worth it for developers who don’t have natural

Yeah I rarely ever “like” a company but Valve has done so much it’s honestly amazing. The 30% they take is soooo worth it for developers who don’t have natural Linux support.

smallpipe 5y ago
Reaching a single digit percentage larger user count in exchange for 30% of your revenue is questionable accounting
- burnished 5y ago
  Anecdote: some one else's account of this was that it was really helpful because the Linux portion of the community (while much smaller than other segments) provided consistently high quality feedback/bug reports.
  - hn8788 5y ago
    That was just one company though. Other devs have said it isn't worth supporting Linux because the majority of the bug reports they get are distro specific edge cases.
  - zinekeller 5y ago
    That anecdote is in part due to the fact that the engine that was used was already Linux-friendly and was already ironed-out, so it made sense that more agnostic bugs are reported, whereas other developers resent (native) Linux support due to distros not even fully following LSB or outdated libraries, which in Windows has at least the concept of side-by-side libraries.
- gravypod 5y ago
  Valve does quite a bit more than just proton. 0. They manage the most popular games store in the western world. 1. They provide a community forum for your users. 2. Host downloads of games (sometimes 100s of GBs). They distribute the content all across the world and handle region specific laws about what can be sold, etc. They host content at edge so downloads are super fast. 3. Process refund requests. 4. Have one of the better VR abstraction layers for game devs. 5. Provide networking and social integration (chat, anti-cheat, friends, etc). 6. They allow you to generate steam keys (at no cost to you) and sell them on your own website. 7. They process payments (PayPal charges ~3% for this, Stripe is 2.9%) 8. Achievements, time tracking, etc. These are useful for game devs who iterate on their formula (most use achievements to see what percent of a user base does X). That's what I can think off the top of my head benefits the game developers. The list of things that benefits the users is also pretty big (steam sales). I don't think any company is good or bad but Valve's offer to game devs is a pretty decent one. > Anecdote: some one else's account of this was that it was really helpful because the Linux portion of the community (while much smaller than other segments) provided consistently high quality feedback/bug reports.
  - burnafter185 5y ago
    They've also got a network of servers to help reduce latency in P2P games, which is actually pretty impressive to me. I don't know how effective it is, but as a GAMER any solution to latency is a great boon.
  - DeathArrow 5y ago
    >0. They manage the most popular games store in the western world. I do not like the app store model. I rather buy from the developer.
    - I_Byte 5y ago
      From my point of view the store model simply is more convenient for consumers and worth the extra price. I know that I stopped pirating games, music and movies when I started using Steam, Spotify and Netflix.
      - bnegreve 5y ago
        > I know that I stopped pirating games, music and movies when I started using Steam, Spotify and Netflix. But is it a causal relation? You probably have a steadier income now than you had back then.
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
        quickthrowman 5y ago
        I still pirate most movies and some TV shows because the selection on streaming services is bad, particularly for movies. I don’t pirate many new movies, it’s almost all back catalogue stuff. I don’t pirate games and music because Steam and Spotify (or Apple/Amazon music) are a better experience than piracy.
        Knufferlbert 5y ago
        Don't know about I_Byte, though I could have written what he has written. I can now actually afford games (in the quantity I consume them) now, so that question is fair. But thankfully the video landscape fractured, now you better have NowTv, Netflix, Prime and Disney+ and you still can't watch all. I've started pirating again after 10 years or so of complete abstinence. So I think it's causal (if you have money)
- thioordc 5y ago
  Yes but that’s not what I said! If you make a game that doesn’t have native support I will not buy it. 70% is much bette than 0%! I’m sure if they had the choice between no fees or 30% fees and Linux support they would take the zero but they don’t.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- milesvp 5y ago
  I saw an RPG maker who’s been making games for over 20 years on GDC recently. He talks about steam’s 30% cut. His basic takeaway, is that he used to need to employ an entire fulltime employee to handle all the things that steam now does for him. For him, the steam tax pays for itself for support and distribution alone.
  - yvdriess 5y ago
    Jeff Vogel, his talks are all very much worth watching.
bartwe 5y ago
In that case i'd like a refund as we ship a native linux version ourself
- thioordc 5y ago
  Maybe I wasn’t clear but if you dont have native support then it’s really worth the 30%! If a game does it’s more debatable. I also always try to buy the DRM free version if it’s available!

Yeah I rarely ever “like” a company but Valve has done so much it’s honestly amazing. The 30% they take is soooo worth it for developers who don’t have natural Linux support.

smallpipe 5y ago

Reaching a single digit percentage larger user count in exchange for 30% of your revenue is questionable accounting

burnished 5y ago
Anecdote: some one else's account of this was that it was really helpful because the Linux portion of the community (while much smaller than other segments) provided consistently high quality feedback/bug reports.
- hn8788 5y ago
  That was just one company though. Other devs have said it isn't worth supporting Linux because the majority of the bug reports they get are distro specific edge cases.
- zinekeller 5y ago
  That anecdote is in part due to the fact that the engine that was used was already Linux-friendly and was already ironed-out, so it made sense that more agnostic bugs are reported, whereas other developers resent (native) Linux support due to distros not even fully following LSB or outdated libraries, which in Windows has at least the concept of side-by-side libraries.
gravypod 5y ago
Valve does quite a bit more than just proton. 0. They manage the most popular games store in the western world. 1. They provide a community forum for your users. 2. Host downloads of games (sometimes 100s of GBs). They distribute the content all across the world and handle region specific laws about what can be sold, etc. They host content at edge so downloads are super fast. 3. Process refund requests. 4. Have one of the better VR abstraction layers for game devs. 5. Provide networking and social integration (chat, anti-cheat, friends, etc). 6. They allow you to generate steam keys (at no cost to you) and sell them on your own website. 7. They process payments (PayPal charges ~3% for this, Stripe is 2.9%) 8. Achievements, time tracking, etc. These are useful for game devs who iterate on their formula (most use achievements to see what percent of a user base does X). That's what I can think off the top of my head benefits the game developers. The list of things that benefits the users is also pretty big (steam sales). I don't think any company is good or bad but Valve's offer to game devs is a pretty decent one. > Anecdote: some one else's account of this was that it was really helpful because the Linux portion of the community (while much smaller than other segments) provided consistently high quality feedback/bug reports.
- burnafter185 5y ago
  They've also got a network of servers to help reduce latency in P2P games, which is actually pretty impressive to me. I don't know how effective it is, but as a GAMER any solution to latency is a great boon.
- DeathArrow 5y ago
  >0. They manage the most popular games store in the western world. I do not like the app store model. I rather buy from the developer.
  - I_Byte 5y ago
    From my point of view the store model simply is more convenient for consumers and worth the extra price. I know that I stopped pirating games, music and movies when I started using Steam, Spotify and Netflix.
    - bnegreve 5y ago
      > I know that I stopped pirating games, music and movies when I started using Steam, Spotify and Netflix. But is it a causal relation? You probably have a steadier income now than you had back then.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - quickthrowman 5y ago
        I still pirate most movies and some TV shows because the selection on streaming services is bad, particularly for movies. I don’t pirate many new movies, it’s almost all back catalogue stuff. I don’t pirate games and music because Steam and Spotify (or Apple/Amazon music) are a better experience than piracy.
      - Knufferlbert 5y ago
        Don't know about I_Byte, though I could have written what he has written. I can now actually afford games (in the quantity I consume them) now, so that question is fair. But thankfully the video landscape fractured, now you better have NowTv, Netflix, Prime and Disney+ and you still can't watch all. I've started pirating again after 10 years or so of complete abstinence. So I think it's causal (if you have money)
thioordc 5y ago
Yes but that’s not what I said! If you make a game that doesn’t have native support I will not buy it. 70% is much bette than 0%! I’m sure if they had the choice between no fees or 30% fees and Linux support they would take the zero but they don’t.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
milesvp 5y ago
I saw an RPG maker who’s been making games for over 20 years on GDC recently. He talks about steam’s 30% cut. His basic takeaway, is that he used to need to employ an entire fulltime employee to handle all the things that steam now does for him. For him, the steam tax pays for itself for support and distribution alone.
- yvdriess 5y ago
  Jeff Vogel, his talks are all very much worth watching.

bartwe 5y ago

In that case i'd like a refund as we ship a native linux version ourself

thioordc 5y ago
Maybe I wasn’t clear but if you dont have native support then it’s really worth the 30%! If a game does it’s more debatable. I also always try to buy the DRM free version if it’s available!