• duffman@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      Not sure which part of that was sarcasm or if it was the whole thing.

      Monopolies are bad, but it’s hard to classify steam as a monopoly. There are a lot of store fronts out there.

      • Kedly@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        The fact that we should buy games on other platforms because steam has a “Monopoly” was the sarcasm. In a vacuum monopolies are bad, but steam is the powerhouse it is because all other options are crap, multiple store faces that you have to log into are actually annoying and not really adding anything to the average consumers life, AND Steam does more for the consumer than we could reasonably expect ANY company this far into our late stage of capitalism would do. Steams current position on the gaming market is incredibly unique and not part of the normal monopolistic paradigm, and as soon as steam enshitifies, it will lose a lot of its position

        • HerrBeter@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          9 months ago

          Best would be if we’d own our games and stuff outside the stores, then we’d have the option to choose where we go and maybe stay.

          • Kedly@lemm.eeEnglish
            0·
            9 months ago

            Well GOG already exists, and functionally so does piracy. I have zero worry about my games because even IF steam heel turns when GabeN dies, I’ll just redownload my whole library and start pirating if not fully switching to GOG. Functionally the PC gaming sphere is not at risk in any way because of Valves position as PC gamers by nature are more web aware than other demographics. In fact, with the Steam Deck, Valve may actually be bringing more of the casual gaming sphere into the PC gaming market

      • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        Monopolies aren’t necessarily bad. They’re usually more efficient due to economies of scale. They can abuse their monopoly, but that’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a little nationalisation.

  • lanolinoil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    So true – It’s totally because Gabe rules as King and they don’t have ‘investors’ – One day they’ll sell or he’ll die and it will be turned over to the wolves just like everything else.

    It’s telling how they have no real competition other than cash fire ad fueled investor snake oil a la epic ea ubisoft w/e – Is GOG still cool/unruined by short term anti user greed?

    • Wanderer@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      Gabe should get a boy to shadow him like in the olden days. Then when Gabe moves on or dies their is an heir ready to go.

    • GoodEye8@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      My wet dream is that when Gabe passes Valve is turned into a cooperative. It wouldn’t guarantee that Valve wouldn’t turn into a bad company, but it would mean the people at Valve want Valve to be shitty and I just don’t see that happening.

    • Wrench@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      It’s telling how they have no real competition other than cash fire ad fueled investor snake oil

      Especially since Valve has never been aggressive or territorial.

      You want to compete with us? OK, good luck. Competition can be good. You’re buying up exclusives and preventing games from selling through our store? Well, that’s shitty, but we’re not interested in joining an exclusivity war. Our product speaks for itself, and we’re just going to keep doing our thing.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      GOG is trucking along. They haven’t pulled any crap on my limited library with them. I only have around 25 games over there. Compared to the 140 I have on steam, mostly bought, and the 250 I have been given on Epic for free, none bought over there.

    • yamanii@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      it really is a miracle how GOG hasn’t been corrupted yet, it almost did with the online Hitman game, but fan pressure was strong enough for it to be removed.

        • yamanii@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          9 months ago

          The current trilogy, they are effectively online games since you can’t earn any rewards or unlocks while playing offline, so people over there protested on the forums.

      • sphfaar@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        We have already seen with the release of cyberpunk how everything was manipulated by the major shareholders, all the fake development updates such as the Gold phase when the game was still far from being considered finished.

        And they’ll remove that DRM-free stuff on GOG as soon as their store has more users

    • GoodEye8@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      Valve keeps improving regardless of the competition, but I think the idea was that Valve could do nothing for the next decade and probably still have the best storefront.

      • Vahtos@programming.devEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        Even still, compare all of the features steam has and the tools they provide to developers for the platform vs. their competition.

        • ditty@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          9 months ago

          Also features like in-home streaming/Remote Play and local file transfers make using my Steam Deck even better, for example

    • rtxn@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      And DXVK. And VKD3D. And contributions to upstream Wine. And Gamescope. And the best handheld console thus far. And going against common industry practices by supporting the right to repair said console.

  • SorteKanin@feddit.dkEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    It’s called “being privately owned” or “not having to suck up to shareholders”

    • Jackiedoodle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      Yup hit the nail on the head. Not only can he make decisions that are risky that don’t pay off he is also 100 percent legally in his right to make decisions that lose the company money. If he feels it pushes the industry in the right direction.

    • Vilian@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      epic are also private, the difference is that Gabe aren’t a dubmass CEO, now epic…

      • frezik@midwest.socialEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        That’s the facet people miss. Being privately owned gives you the opportunity to make better decisions. Doesn’t mean they’ll actually happen.

    • Wrench@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      Costco is a public company, and their CEO just pushes back whenever investors ask why they don’t increase the membership fee or prices on staple goods.

      His answer is consistently “because we don’t need to”

      There’s definitely room for companies to have responsible growth. It’s just that most execs don’t care enough and just want a giant payday in the form of short term gains so they can do it again at another company.

      • nomous@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        It seems like no publicly traded C-suite cares about a brand anymore. Even though building a loyal userbase and delivering a consistent good product is essentially a long-term cash machine, they all just want the short-term growth and quarterly profit.

        • Tinidril@midwest.socialEnglish
          0·
          9 months ago

          I’ve given up on brands. It used to be that brand meant something, but most of the solid brands have been bought out and turned to crap for a quick buck now.

    • runjun@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      I say this every time this comes up but if valve changes CEOs or talks about going public then run.

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      Valve also has a very unique organizational structure where engineers manage themselves and pretty much all decisions are handled by horizontal committees.