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Yes to the first. Steam is a platform like any other, and it has demonstrated that it no longer cares after its users have dedicated themselves to the platform

Yes to the first. Steam is a platform like any other, and it has demonstrated that it no longer cares after its users have dedicated themselves to the platform by having gigantic collections. It's a lock in like any other, and Steam benefits, they've been able to not give a single damn about anything for years. They're able to buy studios and cancel projects at will because what's going to happen? You're going to stop buying on Steam? Yeah right. The only real exception to this are the devs working on Proton.

dangus 3y ago
I think you need some examples. Valve hasn’t behaved in the way you described at all. Buying studios and canceling their projects? What are you even talking about? Valve’s console allows other competing game stores to run on it out of the box. It even and directly supports installing Windows. Any other console manufacturers doing that? I would argue that anyone who wants to stop buying on Steam has almost no friction to doing so compared to other platforms. All you have to do is buy all your games from somewhere else from now on. You don’t have to replace any Valve hardware you own because their hardware is the most open and well-supported on the market. I’m just struggling to figure out how Valve “no longer cares.”
- Firmwarrior 3y ago
  yeah, this is a weird thread I actually hate Steam. I despise Steam. But I have to go to bat for them here and say that they don't seem any worse today than they ever have been, and every time I get dragged into opening their shitty app to buy a game that isn't available elsewhere, the app is at least a little better than it was last time I used it. The only things about them that are particularly user-hostile and make me hate them are: 1. DRM - The DRM isn't particularly onerous but it is there. All your dozens or hundreds of games get locked together into one account, and even if you own two or three computers, you can only play a game on one of them at a time. This made it very difficult for me to maintain a VR gaming station at my house, since my nephews playing VR upstairs meant that I couldn't play DotA 2 downstairs unless I started a second account. 2. Customer Service - Their customer service isn't as nonexistent as some companies', but it's pretty thin on the ground So far as I can tell, they seem to go out of their way not to enshittify anything in any way ever.
  - DoItToMe81 3y ago
    Steam DRM has not had its security measures updated since 2010. It's trivial to crack. Although, I agree that it should not exist.
    - ElevenLathe 3y ago
      Ironically this is probably also because of their effective monopoly on games distribution. If they had to compete with other distributors, they would probably try to implement toothier default DRM to attract publishers.
      - Firmwarrior 3y ago
        I think they said publicly that they were able to show with data that SteamWorks' mild DRM by itself was enough to severely curtail piracy, and that's why other companies have been chilling out on the highly invasive DRM on Steam
Jochim 3y ago
What studios/projects have they cancelled? The only two I can think of are that they stopped making Steam Controllers and Steam Link became a software solution in the form of "Remote Play" and "Remote Play Together". Over the last few years they've released the Steam Deck and Valve Index, supporting them with pretty decent software. The Steam Deck UI improvements have made their way over to "Big Picture Mode" and similar UI changes for the PC client are currently available in the public beta. > You're going to stop buying on Steam? Yeah right. Frankly, It's annoying when I can't buy on Steam. Epic spent tens of millions on exclusivity deals to force me to choose between their shitty client or hoping it gets released on Steam in a year or two. The only result is that I have less regard for both Epic and those developers.

dangus 3y ago

I think you need some examples. Valve hasn’t behaved in the way you described at all. Buying studios and canceling their projects? What are you even talking about? Valve’s console allows other competing game stores to run on it out of the box. It even and directly supports installing Windows. Any other console manufacturers doing that? I would argue that anyone who wants to stop buying on Steam has almost no friction to doing so compared to other platforms. All you have to do is buy all your games from somewhere else from now on. You don’t have to replace any Valve hardware you own because their hardware is the most open and well-supported on the market. I’m just struggling to figure out how Valve “no longer cares.”

Firmwarrior 3y ago
yeah, this is a weird thread I actually hate Steam. I despise Steam. But I have to go to bat for them here and say that they don't seem any worse today than they ever have been, and every time I get dragged into opening their shitty app to buy a game that isn't available elsewhere, the app is at least a little better than it was last time I used it. The only things about them that are particularly user-hostile and make me hate them are: 1. DRM - The DRM isn't particularly onerous but it is there. All your dozens or hundreds of games get locked together into one account, and even if you own two or three computers, you can only play a game on one of them at a time. This made it very difficult for me to maintain a VR gaming station at my house, since my nephews playing VR upstairs meant that I couldn't play DotA 2 downstairs unless I started a second account. 2. Customer Service - Their customer service isn't as nonexistent as some companies', but it's pretty thin on the ground So far as I can tell, they seem to go out of their way not to enshittify anything in any way ever.
- DoItToMe81 3y ago
  Steam DRM has not had its security measures updated since 2010. It's trivial to crack. Although, I agree that it should not exist.
  - ElevenLathe 3y ago
    Ironically this is probably also because of their effective monopoly on games distribution. If they had to compete with other distributors, they would probably try to implement toothier default DRM to attract publishers.
    - Firmwarrior 3y ago
      I think they said publicly that they were able to show with data that SteamWorks' mild DRM by itself was enough to severely curtail piracy, and that's why other companies have been chilling out on the highly invasive DRM on Steam

Jochim 3y ago

What studios/projects have they cancelled? The only two I can think of are that they stopped making Steam Controllers and Steam Link became a software solution in the form of "Remote Play" and "Remote Play Together". Over the last few years they've released the Steam Deck and Valve Index, supporting them with pretty decent software. The Steam Deck UI improvements have made their way over to "Big Picture Mode" and similar UI changes for the PC client are currently available in the public beta. > You're going to stop buying on Steam? Yeah right. Frankly, It's annoying when I can't buy on Steam. Epic spent tens of millions on exclusivity deals to force me to choose between their shitty client or hoping it gets released on Steam in a year or two. The only result is that I have less regard for both Epic and those developers.