6 ms·

All of this is true, but Valve is one of the best companies I know and for now, I’ll happily give them money. It’s not about the fact that I’m actually going t

by Aeolun 1y ago

All of this is true, but Valve is one of the best companies I know and for now, I’ll happily give them money. It’s not about the fact that I’m actually going to use it. It’s about the fact that I want people to keep making things like this. It’s about the fact I want to reward them for not locking it down completely.

RamRodification 1y ago
I wish I had that kind of money. Making a purchase solely for such reasons is completely out of the question for me. And for most people I'd assume?
- pcdoodle 1y ago
  [dead]
- porridgeraisin 11mo ago
  There's also another way to interpret that. For me for example, I have the same PC for 5 years now, and before that I had the same one for 10 years. Basically, I run it till I really really can't. I can afford replacements more than once every 10 years, but I don't buy it simply cos it's not necessary. But in this situation if I had a similar fondness for valve, I might go ahead and buy it and cut short my not-for-affordability-reasons wait. I know a lot of people that behave this way with phone purchases.
- ikr678 11mo ago
  Ultimately every purchase you make is a vote in support of the company/org you are buying from. Why do you go to one grocery store vs another? One hairdresser vs another?
  - RamRodification 11mo ago
    Maybe I'm misinterpreting the blog and/or comment, but if I don't need groceries, and can list 20+ reasons why I don't need groceries, I'm not going to get groceries anyway just because I like the grocery store very very much.
cubefox 1y ago
You wouldn't like Valve so much if you explicitly saw the 30% Steam tax, I mean fee, declared every time you bought a PC game on Steam. Imagine if Microsoft did that. +30% for every Windows software. Like iOS. Then Steam games would be +60% rather than +30%.
- input_sh 1y ago
  You don't have to imagine anything, Microsoft also takes 30% of every purchase made via Microsoft Store.
  - kokada 1y ago
    Yes, AFAIK this is an industry standard, both Sony and Nintendo also takes a similar approach.
  - cubefox 1y ago
    Apparently they don't, this says 12% to 15%: https://www.techradar.com/pro/microsoft-just-dropped-its-store-fees-for-windows-developers https://www.techradar.com/pro/microsoft-just-dropped-its-sto... That's still higher than what seems reasonable for a simple store front, but they aren't as bad as Valve or Apple. Note that Valve is a relatively small company with only a few hundred employees, but with one of the most extreme revenue-per-employee ratios in the world, estimated at $19 million per employee: https://upptic.com/valve-structure-employment-numbers-revenue-revealed-in-lawsuit/ https://upptic.com/valve-structure-employment-numbers-revenu... That's orders of magnitude higher than companies like Apple, Elsevier or Nintendo. Steam is basically free money for Valve. Valve is extracting huge rents (around 6.5 billion yearly revenue) for negligible expenses (only 79 people working on Steam).
    - Yokolos 1y ago
      > That's still higher than what seems reasonable Based on what? Your arbitrary standards. I still don't understand what's wrong with 30% for everything Steam provides as a platform. It's perfectly acceptable. It's not making indie developers poorer. It helping to ensure Valve can focus on the things that matter to them and do things like invest in Steam Input, Proton, SteamOS, and Steam Deck/Machine/Controller/Frame/etc. And it's still significantly better than the times when your only option was brick and mortar, where you maybe got 10-30% as the developer. Every other digital storefront does far less and still takes 15-30%. Why is Valve the big boogey man and everybody else is free to charge whatever they want on developers while doing fuck all for anybody but themselves?
udev4096 1y ago
Valve is still evil, just like any for-profit tech corps. They have made a fortune in csgo gambling boxes
- bdangubic 1y ago
  there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of for-profit companies that are not “evil” - making money is not evil endeavor, you provide goods and services in exchange for money :)
  - udev4096 1y ago
    I highly doubt it. Maybe not at the surface level but if you dig, you'll always find the dirt on any for-profit endeavor
    - bdangubic 11mo ago
      dirt != evil
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- SubmarineClub 11mo ago
  I guess we have different definitions of ‘evil.’
  - udev4096 11mo ago
    Average HN user has happily chugged the sugar coated propaganda from valve, which paints them as a saint which they clearly aren't
    - blszczkwsk 11mo ago
      Valve has done good things, but I feel like the whole gambling drama went over people's heads for some reason
wayeq 11mo ago
first world.. solutions?

by Aeolun 1y ago

RamRodification 1y ago

I wish I had that kind of money. Making a purchase solely for such reasons is completely out of the question for me. And for most people I'd assume?

pcdoodle 1y ago
[dead]
porridgeraisin 11mo ago
There's also another way to interpret that. For me for example, I have the same PC for 5 years now, and before that I had the same one for 10 years. Basically, I run it till I really really can't. I can afford replacements more than once every 10 years, but I don't buy it simply cos it's not necessary. But in this situation if I had a similar fondness for valve, I might go ahead and buy it and cut short my not-for-affordability-reasons wait. I know a lot of people that behave this way with phone purchases.
ikr678 11mo ago
Ultimately every purchase you make is a vote in support of the company/org you are buying from. Why do you go to one grocery store vs another? One hairdresser vs another?
- RamRodification 11mo ago
  Maybe I'm misinterpreting the blog and/or comment, but if I don't need groceries, and can list 20+ reasons why I don't need groceries, I'm not going to get groceries anyway just because I like the grocery store very very much.

cubefox 1y ago

You wouldn't like Valve so much if you explicitly saw the 30% Steam tax, I mean fee, declared every time you bought a PC game on Steam. Imagine if Microsoft did that. +30% for every Windows software. Like iOS. Then Steam games would be +60% rather than +30%.

input_sh 1y ago
You don't have to imagine anything, Microsoft also takes 30% of every purchase made via Microsoft Store.
- kokada 1y ago
  Yes, AFAIK this is an industry standard, both Sony and Nintendo also takes a similar approach.
- cubefox 1y ago
  Apparently they don't, this says 12% to 15%: https://www.techradar.com/pro/microsoft-just-dropped-its-store-fees-for-windows-developers https://www.techradar.com/pro/microsoft-just-dropped-its-sto... That's still higher than what seems reasonable for a simple store front, but they aren't as bad as Valve or Apple. Note that Valve is a relatively small company with only a few hundred employees, but with one of the most extreme revenue-per-employee ratios in the world, estimated at $19 million per employee: https://upptic.com/valve-structure-employment-numbers-revenue-revealed-in-lawsuit/ https://upptic.com/valve-structure-employment-numbers-revenu... That's orders of magnitude higher than companies like Apple, Elsevier or Nintendo. Steam is basically free money for Valve. Valve is extracting huge rents (around 6.5 billion yearly revenue) for negligible expenses (only 79 people working on Steam).
  - Yokolos 1y ago
    > That's still higher than what seems reasonable Based on what? Your arbitrary standards. I still don't understand what's wrong with 30% for everything Steam provides as a platform. It's perfectly acceptable. It's not making indie developers poorer. It helping to ensure Valve can focus on the things that matter to them and do things like invest in Steam Input, Proton, SteamOS, and Steam Deck/Machine/Controller/Frame/etc. And it's still significantly better than the times when your only option was brick and mortar, where you maybe got 10-30% as the developer. Every other digital storefront does far less and still takes 15-30%. Why is Valve the big boogey man and everybody else is free to charge whatever they want on developers while doing fuck all for anybody but themselves?

udev4096 1y ago

Valve is still evil, just like any for-profit tech corps. They have made a fortune in csgo gambling boxes

bdangubic 1y ago
there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of for-profit companies that are not “evil” - making money is not evil endeavor, you provide goods and services in exchange for money :)
- udev4096 1y ago
  I highly doubt it. Maybe not at the surface level but if you dig, you'll always find the dirt on any for-profit endeavor
  - bdangubic 11mo ago
    dirt != evil
deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
SubmarineClub 11mo ago
I guess we have different definitions of ‘evil.’
- udev4096 11mo ago
  Average HN user has happily chugged the sugar coated propaganda from valve, which paints them as a saint which they clearly aren't
  - blszczkwsk 11mo ago
    Valve has done good things, but I feel like the whole gambling drama went over people's heads for some reason

wayeq 11mo ago

first world.. solutions?