4 ms·
Steam is only good relative to its competitors. From a technical perspective, it's a dumpster fire that hasn't notably evolved in twenty years, full of broken,
by kibwen 4y ago
Steam is only good relative to its competitors. From a technical perspective, it's a dumpster fire that hasn't notably evolved in twenty years, full of broken, abandoned, and half-implemented features (off the top of my head: search, profiles, group chat, voice chat, the phone app, broadcasting, the community tab, the in-game overlay, big picture mode, and any context where it ever feels like rendering a website in its own janky, slow, insecure fork of some 2008-era browser engine all fall into one these categories).
Fortunately, it mostly works to launch games, which is all it needs to do. Valve's own legendary internal dysfunction is perhaps a reason why it hasn't been enshittified as thoroughly as other launchers. (And I say this as someone who is happy that Valve puts any thought at all into gaming on Linux, and intends to buy a Steam Deck someday.)
- eertami 4y agoThe new and rearchitected Steam client (currently in public beta) is an improvement over the old client for me. It feels like a pretty good evolution, bringing performance and new features. It's pretty clear they have spent a lot of time and effort on this release, without enshittifying it.
- kibwen 4y agoI haven't heard of the new client, I'll happily eat my words if they manage to fix any of the things that I've been grousing about for years.
- the_snooze 4y agoThe updated Big Picture mode is great. I'm able to do practically all my Steam-related interactions with just a controller, without needing to get my keyboard/mouse.
- dbspin 4y agoInteresting... I've never heard that about Valve being a dysfunctional company. They have the higher revenue per employee than Google or Microsoft. Staff seem highly motivated and self directed, and - with the notable exception of the Tilt 5 conflict over the future being VR vs AR (which was settled incredibly amicably) - they seem notably free of internal dysfunction. For a company in the games industry in particular, they seems astonishingly well run.
- kibwen 4y agoValve's dysfunction doesn't manifest as drama (which is how dysfunction manifests in other gaming companies, e.g. Activision-Blizzard), but rather as interminable deadlock. Fortunately for Valve, they reaped the first-mover advantage with Steam (and literally invented loot crates, a decade before Fortnite) and can freely sit on their laurels while Steam prints an infinite pile of money.
- MichaelZuo 4y agoThat may be but they're sitting on their laurels more productively, in terms of revenue and profit per employee, then either Microsoft or Google or Meta.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dbspin 4y agoValve Index, Steamdeck, continual dominance of PC gaming both in long tale and new releases. I see enormous creative and financial success, and apparently an engaging and productive place to work. What deadlock? Game releases? That hasn't been their focus for a long time - yet when they do release a new game, like Halflife Alex, its usually critically lauded and commercially successful. Meanwhile much of the PC gaming space is suffering from enormous problems - early broken releases, bad ports, stutter struggle etc. Valve seem like a rare bright light of ethical business and technological innovation.
- 4y ago
- bee_rider 4y agoI sort of wonder if they are even a game company anymore. I mean we could model them as a totally dysfunctional game company they happens to have a platform. Or as a basically prudent platform company that happens to release a game once a decade or so. They should get rid of their web browser, that’s the sort of market where they can’t keep up.