10 ms·

Steam gets all my gaming budget, as I really try to stick to Linux. If it ain't on steam, I don't play it, and they don't get my money.

• andrewmcwatters 3y ago
  It’s sad to me that you and many others have this opinion, which is fine, but Valve takes a significant tax from small companies while gamers, a cheap demographic, complain about the price of games. Games don’t need to be on Steam to be good.
  • acomjean 3y ago
    The issue kinda is on Linux we’re playing windows games. There is significant work done by valve on that proton compatability layer, so a lot of people on Linux want to support that. Without that us Linux users have a lot harder time gaming. There are some other launchers for epic games and gog (heroic game launcher I’ve used). It worked for me for a the couple games I tried (gloomhaven and disco elysium) but I’m using the proton wine I which I think was put out there by valve/steam.
    • FloatArtifact 3y ago
      Isn't 30% the standard besides epic store?
    • kristofferg 3y ago
      This I agree with. If the game developer can produce a Linux binary I am happy to buy on other stores (I prefer GOG). They usually do _not_ and I don’t want to spend time to wrap and configure windows apps to run on Linux. You can consider the 30% steam fee outsourcing the multi-platform “porting”.
      • theshrike79 3y ago
        Many gamedevs actually stopped building a specific Linux binary because the Proton compatibility version was so much faster and required almost zero effort from them =)
        • zirgs 3y ago
          If 1% of your users generate 30% of your bug reports it makes sense to outsource the job to valve.
          • xethos 3y ago
            ~6% of users, 38% of bug reports, and: > says that very few of those bugs were specific to Linux, being clear that "This 5.8% of players found 38% of all the bugs that affected everyone." You're welcome. [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/qeqn3b/despite_having_just_58_sales_over_38_of_bug/ https://old.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/qeqn3b/despite_hav...
            • kristofferg 3y ago
              That is super interesting. Thanks for sharing! :) Turns out releasing a Linux version can probably, for small studios, substitute and/or support a QA team.
          • account42 3y ago
            Not if most of those reported bugs alos affect the remaining users but were not reported.
    • happymellon 3y ago
      I would never support Epic as Sweeney is openly hostile towards Linux.
      • throwaway2990 3y ago
        He’s openly hostile to gamers. If anyone thinks he does what he does for gamers and companies you would be a fool. He’s only trying to steal market share to line his own pockets. He can’t even compete with a quality product. Epic game store is probably the worst store to exist.
        • samspenc 3y ago
          I'm honestly curious about Epic and where they are heading these days. They no longer need to compete in this market since they had their breakout with Fortnite and most of their revenue comes from there anyway. I understand their work on Unreal Engine (UE) since Fortnite is built on top of UE, but I don't understand the rest of their ecosystem and why Epic game store even exists.
          • throwaway2990 3y ago
            Neither do I. I thought they were doing good work on UE. I don’t understand the popularity of fortnite but people love it and play it and it earns them a ton of money. But the store seems to exist because they don’t want to use steam or anything else cos they won’t want to lose the 30% cut on game sales or in-game micro transactions. Yet they happily pay Sony and MS… And if they created their store and opened it up to others and says oh yeah our fees are less. It would be fine. Gamers have choice. Developers have choice. But buying games already on steam, or paying to get exclusives is bad. Especially when Tim lies so much. They should compete by having a better product, service, experience. But they lie cheat and steal to grow.
            • zirgs 3y ago
              They happily pay SONY and Microsoft, because there's no alternative. Don't like it - build your own console then.
    • 29athrowaway 3y ago
      Among the most played games, many of them run natively on Linux. https://www.protondb.com/explore https://www.protondb.com/explore Some games on the list are kind of old, sure. But they're the most played nevertheless. And from the ones that are not native, many of them run well on Proton.
      • dizhn 3y ago
        > Among the most played games, many of them run natively on Linux. Those are the games they would try to get working first. I am not saying this as a counterpoint but a different reading of the same thing.
    • johnnyanmac 3y ago
      Is this what they want to support? To each their own, but I feel like relying on Wine to play linux games is like relying on an emulator to play your favorite legacy games. Or even mobile games for existing games. It's a nice option, but I'd always strive for native support where possible, because who knows what happens to emulators overtime (and yes, I know Wine Is Not an Emulator. Similar principles in relying on a middleman tool).
      • zirgs 3y ago
        It's easier to run some older games in a console emulator than run their native windows versions these days.
      • ric2b 3y ago
        > It's a nice option, but I'd always strive for native support where possible If you figure out how to make that happen, let us know.
    • nottorp 3y ago
      Well, outside gaming we're increasingly running javascript not anything native. Perhaps it's time to think of Windows as another VM... Vernor Vinge extrapolated this to layers upon layers of emulation if humanity evolves (survives?) a couple more hundred thousand years.
  • doix 3y ago
    I won't buy a non-native Linux game that's not on steam. The steam Linux stuff "just works", I don't need to mess around with wine/wintricks/proton or different wrappers like lutris. If the developers have a native Linux version that I can buy directly from their site, I might do that as well to show my support (but still buy it on steam since it's just too convenient).
    • badsectoracula 3y ago
      I am on Linux and i vastly prefer DRM-free stores as i keep my own offline backups of games (and other software) i buy. As a result i have almost 1000 games from GOG, Zoom Platform and other non-Steam places. In my experience 99% of the games work out of the box with wine-staging, DXVK and VKD3D-Proton (which works with wine-staging just fine). No need to mess around with anything, just install wine-string, install DXVK and VKD3D-Proton and you are ready to run pretty much everything with "wine installername.exe" or "wine gamebinary.exe". I never had to use winetricks, lutris or anything of the sort. I also play games on Steam and even got a Steam Deck (on which i also play games i got outside from Steam), so it isn't like i am Valve-free, but you certainly do not have to tie yourself on Steam if you are gaming on Linux nor your experience will be any worse.
      • andrewmcwatters 3y ago
        Yeah, I also buy direct from developers or from DRM-free digital distribution before I buy from Steam, and I’ve had similarly good experiences.
      • dleslie 3y ago
        > In my experience 99% of the games work out of the box with wine-staging, DXVK and VKD3D-Proton (which works with wine-staging just fine). No need to mess around with anything, just install wine-string, install DXVK and VKD3D-Proton and you are ready to run pretty much everything with "wine installername.exe" or "wine gamebinary.exe". That sounds like a fair bit of domain-specific knowledge driven steps that could quickly got awry and lead a novice deep into frustration. Compared to... Clicking the Play button in the Steam launcher, ideally from your Steam Deck. It's miles apart.
  • peatmoss 3y ago
    And yet the developers do not have to pay the tax to use Valve’s roads. But if those developers choose to do so, they may get my business, which they otherwise were not likely to.
  • throwaway2990 3y ago
    If it isn’t on steam I’m not buying it. I’m not dealing with multiple launchers or stores. Especially from hostile companies like epic. The game companies need the reform. Not valve.
  • Sakos 3y ago
    They take a cut like any other storefront while also doing far more for me than any normal retailer ever has. I fail to see the problem unless you're just fundamentally against all forms of capitalism. Also, what do you mean gamers complain about the price of games? Console, sure, with the new standard MSRP. But what does that have to do with Steam? Games are cheaper than they've ever been. One of the arguably best RPGs of recent times launched at 60 Euros with no microtransactions. What exactly are you expecting? Do you want Valve to be a charity?
  • jakebasile 3y ago
    No, but they need to be on steam for me to buy them.
  • maccard 3y ago
    > but Valve takes a significant tax from small companies If you want, you can stick a static page onlinr and hook up stripe, and sell steam keys yourself. Valve offers a service; a marketplace, discovery, and a merchant system. Youre more than welcome to handle that yourself and see whether that "significant tax" is worth it.
  • Jach 3y ago
    I do tend to think 30% is rather excessive but it's still standard across multiple things.. and I remember this talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stxVBJem3Rs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stxVBJem3Rs years ago from an indie guy, just a minor remark around the 27 minute point on how when you factor in the cost of doing everything steam does for you on your own, it suddenly isn't such a terrible cost. I have quibbles with that suggesting an all-or-nothing environment when that isn't the case, but the deal only gets even sweeter if you can take advantage of more of steam's offerings besides just being a place to host and sell your game. On the consumer side too, steam makes things pretty frictionless. I can't say literally all of my budget on games is through steam, but it's over 95%. I was also happy that their steam deck I got recently, in addition to helping the linux ecosystem in theory, is actually not a piece of junk like the librem phone I finally got delivered this year and so helps it in reality too. (Though in the librem case that was expected even at pre-order time.)
• Daz1 3y ago
  How does it feel to rent your games from Valve?
  • smoldesu 3y ago
    Pretty good, considering they fund my piracy avenue (DXVK/WINE) either way.
  • Shawnecy 3y ago
    It's not a rental.
    • casenmgreen 3y ago
      I quit Steam, some years ago. I found their customer support appalling. I lost everything, including the games I used to have on CD but which had migrated to Steam. To quote Akbar : "it's a trap!"
      • samspenc 3y ago
        Not to be pedantic, but I think you meant Admiral Ackbar (extra c), not Akbar.
        • tchaffee 3y ago
          To be pedantic I think you meant "To be pedantic...".
          • teaearlgraycold 3y ago
            Got'em
      • chottocharaii 3y ago
        Why not just leave your account inactive?
  • deaddodo 3y ago
• marcus_holmes 3y ago
  Gog also supports Linux, only it ships native binaries that you can install without renting.
  • zirgs 3y ago
    So does steam if game developers choose it. Lots of games on steam are DRM free.
    • deely3 3y ago
      Wait, you can easily and officially run these game without internet and without Steam client installed? Could you point me to these DRM free Steam games? I have the impression that games from Steam doesnt work without actually Steam.
      • zirgs 3y ago
        As I said - it depends on the developer. Integrating Steam DRM is completely optional. Here's a list of some of those games: https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games For those games Steam acts as a download/update manager and nothing more. You can run them even without the Steam client.
        • deely3 3y ago
          Thank you, I had no idea.
  • yetihehe 3y ago
    While I like GOG, I must say that they don't support linux, they merely sometimes make it possible to download binaries which may work on linux if you do everything yourself.
    • tommica 3y ago
      Thank God for lutris
• firen777 3y ago
  Even if it's not on steam, you can still try the "Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library." option and run it through Proton.
• kmlx 3y ago
  > If it ain't on steam, I don't play it, and they don't get my money. i’m exactly the same, but with nintendo, sony and xbox :)