7 ms·
> Apart from steam, I don't think I've heard anything but bad news from modern consoles. Gabe is in his mid 60s, I'm prepared that in the next decade or so the
by buran77 3mo ago
> Apart from steam, I don't think I've heard anything but bad news from modern consoles.
Gabe is in his mid 60s, I'm prepared that in the next decade or so there will be a change of guard at Valve and the slow train of enshittification will get moving.
P.S. There's been a lot of groupthink and bandwagoning for Valve, ignoring all the dirt under the rug. But at the end of the day, by comparison, they are the best behaving in the field.
- add-sub-mul-div 3mo agoThe company that gave up making games because there was more money to be had from inserting itself as a middleman into a previously open platform does not deserve any adoration.
- derideor 3mo agoThen don't buy it through steam. Just buy it through a third party like greenmangaming. Valve gets zero cut there.
- CamperBob2 3mo agoThe market demanded a middleman. Would you prefer an Epic or Microsoft monopoly?
- Forgeties79 3mo ago> The market demanded a middleman Says who?
- CamperBob2 3mo agoThe market. If you're an indy game developer, it turns out that just posting .exes on your website gets you a limited reach.
- Forgeties79 3mo agoI understand my question was a bit flippant but truly, this doesn’t answer it.
- johnnyanmac 3mo agoThe true answer here is that people went where the games went. And those AAA distributors preferred a middleman doing everything for them in exchange for getting a cut. From there, AA and indies went to the middleman because they more or less had to to compete. Whether or not you consider market capture the whims of the consumer or a natural consequence of capitalism is a more philosophical question to ask. On a more fundamental level, it seems like people will pick convenience over security and freedom every time the choice pops up. In the land of media, this comes down to choosing to put all your eggs in one basket in exchange for having less control over the products you bought. We've seen this across Netflix, Steam, and Spotify as the largest modern examples.
- Forgeties79 3mo agoIt is market capture, and you don’t get to just hand wave it away with how it’s only philosophical. It has real world ramifications, it is a real consequence that can put consumers under duress (distorting the market) and/or leave them with no viable alternatives (which a free market is allegedly supposed to prevent)
- johnnyanmac 3mo ago>It is market capture, and you don’t get to just hand wave it away with how it’s only philosophical. I don't get to declare it one way just because I think it's true either. If people truly want all their eggs in one basket, is it market capture if you are 100% upfront (which these companies aren't, but lets suppose), and people come into it anyway? I suppose my philosophy here comes down to "you can only protect people from themselves for so long before exploitation simply becomes business". Why try and spout freedom to those who actively seek someone or something to be controlled by? Why spout principles of ownership to those who will relinquish it every time for a "cheap" subscription? Now the real answer is another scary word to this community: regulation. It's been beyond time we had proper digital ownership laws. But we're a very long road away from that in the US.
- rvba 3mo agoThe results? By random googling I found that they have 200 million active users, who bought 16 billion in gross merchandising value? 18 thousands of games launched there per yer? Arguably if someone is in PC gaming, they at least know what Steam is?
- Forgeties79 3mo ago>the results? Would you say the market demanded Ticketmaster based on the results?
- rvba 3mo agoThat is actually a really good point. However Ticketmaster is a monopoly. There are (still) alternatives to Steam. But yes, it is getting into a monopoly, or oligopoly position.
- Ntrails 3mo agoThey still make and support games :)
- ecshafer 3mo agoCounter Strike and DOTA aren't games?
- Forgeties79 3mo agoDOTA 2 came out 13 years ago. Counter Strike is more valid
- swat535 3mo agoAlso Half-Life: Alyx!
- johnnyanmac 3mo agoOne day I will be able to afford the hardware to play that game.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- r053bud 3mo agoThis is categorically untrue. In addition to the games listed below, they are actively developing "Deadlock" which is a pretty rad game in my opinion.
- NamlchakKhandro 3mo agoWhat do you think it means to say "categorically untrue"?
- citizenpaul 3mo agoGabe is off forming a cult which I assume will consume his focus for the remainder of his life. I'm dead serious he is basically straight up copying Ron L Hubbards, cult on a boat playbook. (related but kinda mean, he is not really health conscious so he is not gonna live to be 90 or anything.) IDK what this means for the steam platform but I'm guessing it will mean change of some sort.
- Ferret7446 3mo agoGabe has been hands off managing Valve for precisely this reason, so that at least management wise nothing would change when he goes. He's been scuba diving and IIRC even discovered new species and doing marine biology. Very impressive as far as CEOs/presidents go.
- buran77 3mo ago> hands off managing Valve for precisely this reason Remember that this means he's not the "hands" but he's still very much the head. You'll only know what Valve really is without him when he's no longer around.