being consumer friendly has brought them more money than any exploitative behaviour ever could have. Getting rid of that would be like butchering a goose that makes golden eggs just so you can get some extra money from the meat.
Comment on Steam now warns about Early Access that have not been updated in months.
TheFunkyPickle@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
A great feature. I worry when Valve will stop being consumer friendly as they are the only company that still is.
reksas@sopuli.xyz 3 hours ago
Halosheep@lemm.ee 3 hours ago
Butchering that goose is the common tactic of satisfying shareholders temporarily.
Fortunately, their shareholders are still private and they don’t have to go to that level (yet)
Lesrid@lemm.ee 6 hours ago
What’s interesting to me about this and other features is that they all actually benefit Valve, as long as the EU/Australia require them to issue refunds upon request. Without refunds then these features are simply charity, but presently it’s good business.
tiramichu@lemm.ee 4 hours ago
The cause of enshittification is essentially the shareholder pressure for endless and exponential growth that comes from public ownership.
Valve is a privately held company, and as long as it remains that way it doesn’t have those perverse incentives.
Gabe will never allow Valve to go public as long as he is in control, but after he is gone who knows.
pivot_root@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Epic Games is also a private company… and they’re the posterchild for “fuck the consumer, we want a monopoly.”
It might have something to do with Epic being partly owned by Tencent and Disney, but it more likely comes down to the philosophies of their CEOs. Gabe came from a corporate shithole and runs with the diametrically-opposed view that good service = loyal customers = profit. Sweeney, not so much.
Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
I doubt Epic would give out the number of free games they do if they were public. Investors hate anything that takes more than a quarter to give returns.
earmuff@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
This might happen if GabeN dies, because it is mostly him and his mentality that leads to consumer friendly decisions inside VALVe
wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 hours ago
Everyone keeps labelling GabeN as the only one holding VALVe to standards, but by his own admission he’s more of the equivalent of a board member now, not deeply involved in the day to day anymore. I think the only ones that truly know his level of involvement would be people at VALVe.
What I’m getting at is that I have the same concerns about what will happen after he passes, but I don’t think he’s the only person standing in the way of VALVe going full corporate.
kamiheku@sopuli.xyz 4 hours ago
AeonFelis@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
He won’t die before releasing Half Life 3, which means he’s immortal.