What exactly is the problem with the launcher? It works fine.
No, it’s a fucking monopoly 30% extortion fee.
Like honestly, have you ever even contemplated running business in your life?
What do you think you pay 30% of REVENUE for? Go ahead and list of out expenses for any normal business that chew up 30% of revenue. We’ll wait to see how comparable they are to the glory that is Steam’s two decade old launcher.
deathmetal27@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
masterspace@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
How many people did it take to make Baldur’s Gate?
Do you think it took Valve 30% of that number to maintain steam during that time?
nednobbins@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
That’s a completely irrelevant number.
I have no idea how many devs worked on BG3 and that number has 0 impact on my enjoyment of the game. Given the number of hours I spent playing BG3, the price made it one of the cheapest forms of entertainment available.
And, as a developer, I really don’t care how much companies pay to marketing vendors. Developer pay is generally negotiated when you’re hired. I haven’t worked in B2C but, as I understand it, they usually pay bonuses on sales volume rather than profits.
masterspace@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Whoosh.
You seem to have completely missed the point that Valve does not deserve 1/3 of all gaming revenue for running an automated digital store.
And, as a developer, I really don’t care how much companies pay to marketing vendors. Developer pay is generally negotiated when you’re hired. I haven’t worked in B2C but, as I understand it, they usually pay bonuses on sales volume rather than profits.
Honestly what are you even trying to say here? That because you write B2B software on a salaried basis, that that means that an indie game dev doesn’t care whether or not Valve takes 30% of all of their revenue?
Like no shit sherlock, thats a matter of you being a salaried employee. If you owned your own company you would very much care about a middle making taking 1/3 off the top.
deathmetal27@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If Larian has no problem, why do you?
masterspace@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
So you’re not going to answer the question?
nednobbins@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
You seem to be operating under some notion that particular work deserves a particular amount of pay. That’s backwards. People pay for what they get, not for what the seller’s cost of goods.
We know that Larian is doing very well financially. Their devs are happy and well paid.
masterspace@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
You seem to be operating with no knowledge of how capitalism is supposed to work. I’m the long run competition amongst consumer options forces companies to drive prices down to ~ costs + a reasonable margin.
Where that doesn’t happen is in cases of monopolies, monopsonies, oligopolies, and generally in areas where there is a lack of competition.
Like in the case of Valve’s effective PC gaming monopoly and gamer’s dumbass insistence on defending it.
So the fuck what? You think every developer is? You think Larian wouldn’t appreciate 30% of all of their sales money not going straight to Valve for doing jack shit?
nednobbins@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I haven’t studied “capitalism” but my Masters degree is in Financial Engineering. Since you seem to care about formal economics, how do you propose solving Akelof’s Market for Lemons?
Valve solves the information asymmetry. That’s a net gain for both buyers and sellers. But you’ve studied economics, so you probably know that already.
So let’s skip to the meat of the question. How do you propose determining the intrinsic value of resolved information asymmetry.
masterspace@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Lmfao, you’re literally trying to pull a Goodwill Hunting? Bruh we’ve seen this movie.
How about you explain precisely what information is asymmetric and what they’re solving?