3 ms·

There are plenty of competing stores, all of which pales in comparison. I don't know what their secret sauce is, but for me personally what makes a difference a

There are plenty of competing stores, all of which pales in comparison. I don't know what their secret sauce is, but for me personally what makes a difference and why I keep preferring them is their dedication to Linux as a platform and a general feeling that they are not just driving me towards rent seeking. I know that last bit is slightly absurd, and I can't quite explain, but I think the fact that they are private means their priorities don't just exists as quarterly goals.

doix 2y ago
> but for me personally what makes a difference and why I keep preferring them is their dedication to Linux as a platform and a general feeling that they are not just driving me towards rent seeking For what it's worth, I have the exact same feelings. They provide so much value on-top of just being a store, and it does feel like they take the money and re-invest it into their ecosystem to make it better. They made gaming on Linux as easy as gaming on windows. They improved the controller situation in games. They do the whole remote-play stuff so you can play local-coop games online. They do the family sharing stuff. They do the steam link stuff. And they don't lock any of it down to their first party offerings. e.g. * They could have easily made steamlink only work with their set-top box, but they just made it an android app. * They could have limited the controller bindings and tech to only their controller, but they made it work for all controllers. * They could have forced you to use their VR headset with steam, but they let you use any headset. I can't think of any other company off the top of my head that has done something similar.
GuB-42 2y ago
Steam is actually made with their users in mind. So much that they managed to beat piracy. It is no easy feat, you can't beat piracy on price, and it is hard to beat in convenience when all you have to do is download a torrent and run an exe file. Piracy is like the final boss of software distribution platforms, but they beat it. To play a game, select it on the store, pay (with all sorts of payment options), download (from damn fast servers), and press play, that's all. The game sucks or crash, click a button and you are refunded, no need to be always online just for DRM check (eventually you'll need internet, but you have enough leeway so that it is rarely a problem), ads are very unobtrusive and maybe even desirable (suggesting games you may actually like or announcing sales), they don't usually force an update just before you want to play a game (a much too common occurrence), dark patterns kept to a minimum (or at least subtle enough), generally good software quality (in terms of bugs, broken UI/UX, etc...). You bought a game, it stays in your account, Steam has 20 years of history of not screwing you, and to play it, just install Steam on any PC (it it doesn't already have it), log in to your account, download and play, it is that easy. You can even share games (with some reasonable limitations). Others just have some annoyance here and there. Some always-on DRM, bugs, dubious UI choices, annoying ads, etc... Only Valve seems to understand the importance of not getting in the way between gamers and their games and do the appropriate amount of effort (which is a lot). Not even in the name of profit, because they understand that it is not worth it, if gamers are satisfied, profits will come. Remember, they have piracy as a competitor, and it is hard to compromise against such a powerful competitor.
tgsovlerkhgsel 2y ago
My guess is that the secret sauce is network effect. People have all their games in their steam libraries, so they want the next game in their steam library too. They perceive the Steam launcher as something positive that provides them convenience. The network effect also makes it hard for game companies not not be on Steam, allowing Valve to enforce some customer-friendly policies like refunds, further making the platform nice to use. Epic is trying to break through this by giving away endless free games. All other stores are generally forced upon the player through exclusives (you buy the game on Steam, but you still have to install their shitty launcher-store because the parent company owning the game wants some of the store-platform cake), breeding resentment and further cementing Steam's position. (GOG being an exception, but they don't have enough major/interesting games to get players to use them as their primary platform.)

doix 2y ago

> but for me personally what makes a difference and why I keep preferring them is their dedication to Linux as a platform and a general feeling that they are not just driving me towards rent seeking For what it's worth, I have the exact same feelings. They provide so much value on-top of just being a store, and it does feel like they take the money and re-invest it into their ecosystem to make it better. They made gaming on Linux as easy as gaming on windows. They improved the controller situation in games. They do the whole remote-play stuff so you can play local-coop games online. They do the family sharing stuff. They do the steam link stuff. And they don't lock any of it down to their first party offerings. e.g. * They could have easily made steamlink only work with their set-top box, but they just made it an android app. * They could have limited the controller bindings and tech to only their controller, but they made it work for all controllers. * They could have forced you to use their VR headset with steam, but they let you use any headset. I can't think of any other company off the top of my head that has done something similar.

GuB-42 2y ago

Steam is actually made with their users in mind. So much that they managed to beat piracy. It is no easy feat, you can't beat piracy on price, and it is hard to beat in convenience when all you have to do is download a torrent and run an exe file. Piracy is like the final boss of software distribution platforms, but they beat it. To play a game, select it on the store, pay (with all sorts of payment options), download (from damn fast servers), and press play, that's all. The game sucks or crash, click a button and you are refunded, no need to be always online just for DRM check (eventually you'll need internet, but you have enough leeway so that it is rarely a problem), ads are very unobtrusive and maybe even desirable (suggesting games you may actually like or announcing sales), they don't usually force an update just before you want to play a game (a much too common occurrence), dark patterns kept to a minimum (or at least subtle enough), generally good software quality (in terms of bugs, broken UI/UX, etc...). You bought a game, it stays in your account, Steam has 20 years of history of not screwing you, and to play it, just install Steam on any PC (it it doesn't already have it), log in to your account, download and play, it is that easy. You can even share games (with some reasonable limitations). Others just have some annoyance here and there. Some always-on DRM, bugs, dubious UI choices, annoying ads, etc... Only Valve seems to understand the importance of not getting in the way between gamers and their games and do the appropriate amount of effort (which is a lot). Not even in the name of profit, because they understand that it is not worth it, if gamers are satisfied, profits will come. Remember, they have piracy as a competitor, and it is hard to compromise against such a powerful competitor.

tgsovlerkhgsel 2y ago

My guess is that the secret sauce is network effect. People have all their games in their steam libraries, so they want the next game in their steam library too. They perceive the Steam launcher as something positive that provides them convenience. The network effect also makes it hard for game companies not not be on Steam, allowing Valve to enforce some customer-friendly policies like refunds, further making the platform nice to use. Epic is trying to break through this by giving away endless free games. All other stores are generally forced upon the player through exclusives (you buy the game on Steam, but you still have to install their shitty launcher-store because the parent company owning the game wants some of the store-platform cake), breeding resentment and further cementing Steam's position. (GOG being an exception, but they don't have enough major/interesting games to get players to use them as their primary platform.)